December UK Adventure

London Parliament Buildings

Finally I have got around to posting my thoughts about our UK trip. We spent almost the entire month of August in the UK. We were expecting the weather to be cold and miserable, we were pleasantly surprised. We only had a half day of rain and one morning where we passed the ducks walking on top of the pond behind Trevor’s house in Staines. The rest of the time it was cool but we got out and about and explored every day.

We spent almost two weeks in and around London where we stayed with Ruths brother, Trevor, and his wife, Collette. They were wonderful hosts,giving us the run of their house. While they went off to work, most days we stayed snuggled up in bed rising around 8:00 and heading off to to explore London on the train. We found it was cheaper for a day pass if we waited until after the morning rush. The day pass gave us access to the trains and tube. While there we soaked up the history and atmosphere of being in London. We did so many interesting things that it would be impossible and unfare to fit them all onto here. I have a load of photos on my Flickr page.

Ruth with our hosts Collette and Trevor

Another day another train.

We had purchased an 8 day Britrail pass before we left Singapore so we decided to take a trip on the trains up through Wales and on through Scotland then back down through England. Eight days wasn’t really enough but it was a good taste. The first night on our trip we stopped in Cardiff. We enjoyed this stop. Like so many places we stayed, one night was not really enough. After exploring the central area around Cardiff Castle and Cardiff Arms Park we caried on to Swansea and then up through the valleys to on a long scenic trip. Next time we will stop over and explore some of the many beautiful little villages through this part of Wales. We spent the night in Shrewsbury. Here we stayed in a pub, The Cromwell, it was a Coach house in the 16th century. The doors were made for short people and even Ruth had to duck .

One of the Many Famous Places we had Dreamed of Visiting.

Castles and Knights in Armour featured throughout our holiday

The next day we journeyed on to Carlisle. Here we found Carlisle Castle fascinating. Mary Queen Of Scots was held in captivity in this castle. It was an interesting opportunity to explore the inside of a well maintained Keep. Our evening meal in Carlisle wastaken in a very pleasant Local offering two meals for the price of one. Although the meals were not cheap in comparison to Singapore prices, they were most satisfying. We did enjoy the cheap NZ wine available in the Bars. We would enjoy the cooked breakfast each morning and walk or travel throughout the day finding a good place for an evening meal usually a pub meal. We seldom had to worry about a meal in the middle of the day. Being winter we found we were often surprised at how early it got dark.

Not Quite Carlisle but Windsor is the Oldest Working Castle.

From Carlisle we took the train to Edinburgh in Scotland. Here we stayed for an extra night. We got a great deal on a room in a hotel across the road from the train station through Last minute.com in the station. We also bought a visitors pass which was great value for money because everything is so close in Edinburgh. This meant we spent our extra day exploring some of the interesting history here. We chose not to pay extra to visit the castle but we did walk around the carpark on the outside. Edinburgh has an old part and a new part. The new part is 300 years old? We were in awe of the old part with all of its narrow walk ways and alleys. We enjoyed exploring these and got feel for what it might have been like inside John Knox’s House. We also did a tour of the Vaults under the South Bridge. People once lived their working lives in these dark and dingy conditions.

Edinburgh Castle was Intimidating at Night.

We made the decision to head back down through England and from Edinburgh we took the train to York. In York we stayed in another old but recently renovated Hotel but walked down the road to The Guy Fawkes Hotel. This was the hotel where Guy Fawkes was born. We walked around the wall and enjoyed the views fron its many battlements. There were a number of medievel lanes in the Shambles area of town. We also found the Viking museum really interesting. It was set up to challenge all of our sense even reinventing the smells.
We carried on down to Stratford on Avon. To check out where Shakspeare was born. This was interesting, we did go through the house where Shakespeare was born. It was interesting to explore the town and soak up mor ancient history dating much further back than our own New Zealand history.

From here it was down to Portsmouth where we spent our most memorable night in a dingy hotel room. It happened to be our cheapest night, the pub had character but the people were a little strange. It was almost like we were an imposition. We were on the train early and went to Brighton to wander along the pier. Then on to Dover, we had considered staying in Dover but after a brief walk through town we decided we probably needed to head back to Trevors and do some last mintue shopping for Christmas before we headed to Ireland. So we travelled back to Staines to end our Britrail pass travel. Our lasting impression was that the North of England and Edinburgh were a lot friendlier to visit. We did not find the locals in Portsmouth, Brighton and Dover as freindly. We also realise we saw a lot in a short time and there was so much more to see. We just have to go back again some time.

Twickenham froim behind the Posts.

MOtivation For English Players in Their Changing Cubicles.