Travelling Trio

England – Some other experiences

• By Denise
• February 22, 2016
• No Comments

Our six weeks in the UK flew by quickly and we were exceptionally lucky with the weather as we experienced just five wet days overall and the temperatures were actually balmy(ish).  As we were travelling in the Autumn the landscape was a myriad of colours – something that reminded me a little of Lake Hayes and Arrowtown during our autumns in New Zealand.  Since our time in the UK though I know they have had awful weather so we thank our lucky stars that we were travelling when we were.

I mentioned in an earlier post that we had secured a house-sitting job and this was fantastic for us because not only did it mean zero accommodation costs it meant we could self-cater and have our own space for a while. Our assignment lasted for two weeks looking after a five acre property in Chippenham, Great Somerford (about 45mins from Bath and about two hours from London) caring for the owner’s precious animals including three fish tanks with multitudes of goldfish, two Guinea pigs, one rabbit, 45 hens and chicks, a gecko and two cats. We loved this opportunity and the two cats just wouldn’t leave Carter alone – they were like putty in his hands…lovely to see.

Carter with his new mates – Leo and Charlie!!

We met our neighbours who very kindly supplied some science and math papers for Carter to use and apparently our other neighbours just across the road is visited at weekends by none other than the Princes William and Harry. Of course we did think we might drop by to say hello but this didn’t eventuate. Haha.

If you are thinking of travelling to the UK and want to keep your accommodation costs to a minimum I would check out www.trustedhousesitters.com before you travel as you will be surprised how many assignments are available in England. We have found this site to be wonderfully managed and very up to date.

Over the two weeks housesitting we witnessed the All Blacks win the Rugby World Cup and I started reading the Clifton Chronicles and managed to read all five of them so I am now anxiously awaiting the release of the next book (due in February I think). A few trips into the city of Bath and going to the Roman Baths was quite the adventure and a must for anyone passing through. The cobbled streets, old buildings and huge Bath Abbey all help to give this city its historical vibe and was a city we quickly fell in love with. Marlborough and Malmesbury were another couple of small towns well worth visiting. As it turned out there were to be a lot of cities and places we found on our travels that we grew to love!!

Roman Baths – Bath

More of the Roman Baths – Bath

Malmesbury Abbey

England is so rich in its history it is quite awe-inspiring especially as we have nothing like this in New Zealand. The ruins of castles, abbeys, cathedrals and the like are vast and interesting when you get to know their particular story.

Alnwick Castle – 700 years old

If you haven’t tried geo-caching then you must look it up on the Internet as it is a fun way to make a long journey enjoyable. Get the app and you can become your very own treasure hunter. We stayed with the parents of some friends in a small town west of London called Thatcham and Graeme and Viv were very much into the geo-caching. We had a wonderful two days relaxing with them and were able to find a few geo-caches that Graeme himself had hidden as well as some others.

I met Jo about 25 years ago while in Austria on a skiing holiday and after all this time we managed to catch up (thanks to Facebook) and were lucky enough to be able to stay with Jo and her husband Richard in Droitwich which is just out of Worcester. It was so cool catching up on old friends and you know, not having seen Jo for those 25 years did not matter at all – she had not changed one bit!!! We are hoping to see them again in Philadelphia, USA when we are there in March/April. While we were in Worcester we went to the home of the original Cadbury factory and had a blast. So much chocolate and sprinkles and popping candy – it was heaven and I just loved it… Not as much as Carter though!!

Dave rowing on the Severn River in Worcester

It was a highlight for Dave to get a chance to go rowing down the Worcester river. Both Jo and Richard and their kids row so it was easy for them to borrow the rowing skiff for Dave to have a wee go. He loved it and said that even though he hadn’t been in a boat for years and years it was just like ‘riding a bike’ and he hadn’t forgotten.

It was then off to Salisbury Cathedral to see one of the four remaining original Magna Carta. This was on show for a short period of time and was still in really good shape considering it was nearly a thousand years old!!! As one of the founding documents for the basis of our legal system it was quite relevant and exciting for me to see this.

Salisbury Cathedral – took 38 years to build and completed in 1258

Inside Salisbury Cathedral

The Magna Carta – 1215

Salisbury Cathedral – Oldest working modern clock in the world – AD1386

More travels took us to the town of Rugby to see the Webb Ellis Museum where Carter got to read stories of the first rugby games and to see memorabilia from that time too. Quite funny to see him squirm at the old style rugby boots the men were wearing and seeing just how they used to make the old leather rugby balls – funny thing is that I remember quite clearly playing rugby at school with these leather balls.

Carter inside the Webb Ellis Museum

Not finished with the excitement as we were able to catch up with some dear friends who have moved back to the south west of England after living in Rangiora for many years. Owen and Georgie are now living in a small country town of Seavington St. Michael in Somerset and have just finished renovating their home. They are settling back into the English way of life and Owen is very busy with his indoor bowls, rotary and many other things. They spoiled us by taking us to a country pub where we had a typical Sunday Roast lunch with Yorkshire puddings and all the trappings…This brought back memories for me again of my time in England all those years ago.  We hope they decide to visit NZ again so we can remind them of what they are missing 😉

Stonehenge from a distance (not such a good photo)

We only managed a ‘drive by’ of Stonehenge as we were pushed for time and we also missed out the south coast of England which was a shame as I would have loved to have seen Cornwall again and places such as Newquay and St Ives but we are not able to see and do everything 🙁 and perhaps we just have to leave some things for a future visit…

Anyways back to London for a couple of days staying in the Earls Court Youth Hostel in a private room. We were able to self-cater and of course had our room to ourselves which was fabulous. Our stays in the youth hostels in the UK have been superb and we would recommend all to give this type of accommodation a go – especially if you want to make your money go further. One of our stays included an old castle now turned into a Youth Hostel – great experience especially when we woke in the morning to a mist surrounding the hills – quite an eerie experience….

Natural History Museum

We were close to the Natural History Museum and Museum of Science and Technology which were both incredibly interesting. Dave and Carter preferred the latter but I was equally impressed with both.

Simulator at the Science Museum – London

Carter enjoying his ice-skating at night in London

Afterward Carter got to have a go on the outdoor ice rink – unfortunately he fell over a couple of times and got wet but overall had a great time.

The next day we took the Open Bus Tour taking us to all the big spots of London such as Big Ben, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Leicester Square, Buckingham Palace and so many others. Riding on an open top double decker bus was awesome as we got a great view of everything and the ticket we had been given also allowed us a boat ride down the Thames to Greenwich to see the Cutty Sark and many other important historical sites. Thankfully the London weather played its part and we didn’t get wet! (Big Big thank you to Carolyn and Phil for the tickets).

Big Ben

Tower Bridge at night

Our last day in England before heading to Malta was spent in Leicester Square and then a long time in Harrods taking in all that it has to offer. An artist outside Harrods was making an impression on Carter because when we went into Harrods he was there with some clay like substance moulding it into shape. When we came out this is what we saw. An amazing creation. These people are incredible.

Artist’s work outside Harrods! Incredible detail…

There are so many more experiences I could have included in this blog but I have to limit it at some point so in a nutshell, we have had a most exciting, interesting, historically educational and busy time in the UK – oops forgot to include ‘expensive’. It is now time to relax in some warmer weather and take in the sights of Malta. We are not sure how we ended up deciding on Malta for our next destination but we are very happy to be going there.