Big Ben

Photo: Big Ben from below

Day 19: Streets of London

The Hotel: Royal National London at Russell Square is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I’ve got no idea how many rooms it has, but there are probably about 200 rooms on our floor. We’re on the 6^th of 7 floors. Breakfast was like feed time at a cattle feed lot. Very mass produced, very unfriendly and an experience that we can tolerate for two more days, but not happily.

After breakfast we caught the tube to the river and caught the ferry to Greenwich. Straight up to the observatory. This was one of the places I’d been looking forward to since reading the book ‘Longitude’ many years ago. The observatory didn’t disappoint – the highlight being John Harrison’s 4 clocks which solved the Longitude problem in the 1700’s.

Next was the National Maritime museum. Lach and I went in a Volvo round the world racing yacht simulator. Awesome! We then caught the ferry back to London and walked the streets for a few hours. Parlaiment building, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, National Galley (including some famous Monet, van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, Turner and lots of others we should probably know but don’t) and Buckingham Palace. From there we caught the open top bus which toured all over the city. Dinner at a pub in Whitehall, then a walk to Piccadilly Circus and tube back to Russell Square. Big day. Lots of famous sights to take in.

The Hotel: Free Wifi doesn't work! I'll add the photo when I have wifi that works.

St Paul's

Photo: St Paul's - from close up so you can't see the dome.

Day 18: Welcome to London

Today we drove to London for the start of our 3 nights here. The drive into London wasn’t as bad as I had dreaded and the Lady-in-the-phone found our hotel for us easily. I dropped off Carol and the kids to check in while I found the Hertz office to drop off the car. It was only about 100m down the road from the hotel, but there was no evidence of its existence. First time round I overshot the driveway and had to find my way back for a second pass. Second time I still couldn’t see where I was meant to be, but saw an underground carpark in the general vicinity. With no other options I drove down. “Reserved for Hertz” signs in the carpark – but I still didn’t know where the office was. Eventually I found it – but the rest of the family must have been wondering where I was.

We then walked down to St Paul’s Cathedral. Wow. Lachlan says it’s now his #1 church – bumping York Minster out of that position. We spent a fair bit of time here, including looking at the crypts (including Nelson’s Tomb), then climbing the many, many stairs to the gallery and then up further to the top viewing area, overlooking London in all directions – but my camera was back at ground level with Carol because you weren’t allowed to take photos in the rest of the Cathedral. Damn.

From there we walked to Shakespear’s globe theatre and looked at the exhibition, but unfortunately we couldn’t do the tour because there was a play on in the theatre.

Back to the hotel on The Tube. With 3 of us on the packed train I attempted to get in the carriage, but as the doors closed they closed on my backpack. I couldn’t go forward (too many bodies) or back (the door was three quarters closed) so I had to pull the backpack free.  The next 15 minutes were some of the most uncomfortable minutes of my life. And people do this every day. People think this is normal! People all around us were reading, texting, playing games on their phone, and generally behaving as if humans were meant to be treated as sardines. Meanwhile we were all concentrating on just breathing. Yuk. I hope we can work out the bus routes – because at least they have air available.

We’re now relaxing in our room. It seems like this is the first time we’ve slowed down for many days. Or weeks. I didn’t even get a chance to do a geocache in Jim’s area.

Did I mention the weather. It’s pouring. Really, really pouring. Welcome to London.

Blenheim Palace

Photo: Blenheim Palace

Day 17: Blenheim Palace

Down toward Oxford to see Blenheim palace today. We’ve seen lots of castles but none of the stately homes England has to offer. We’d been told that Blenheim was one of the best, so we headed down to check it out. It didn’t disappoint. As Australians, where everybody is more or less equal (or at least has the opportunity to be more or less equal if they work hard), it’s hard to get my mind around this kind of wealth and privilege.

At the palace we also attempted their  hedge maze – the second biggest in the world apparently. It was great fun and not particularly easy. Carol was standing on a tall platform attempting to tell us where tyo go. Only problem with that is that from up there you couldn’t see all the dead ends – so she sent us the wrong way a few times.

Dinner was at ‘The Gurkha’ Nepalese restaurant. Fantastic!

Jousting

Photo: Jousting at Warwick Castle

Day 16: Warwick Castle

Arrived at Warwick Castle just after opening time. Great castle, with lots to see and do. Jousting, trebuchet, birds of prey show, archery. Had lunch at a typical British pub with Jim. 

Canal at 'The Greyhound'

Photo: Canal boat at 'The Greyhound'

Day 15: York to Bedworth

After an unplanned circuit of York (these walled cities can be tricky to get out of) we headed south to Jim’s. In the afternoon we toured the Battle of Bodsworth site where King Richard III battled Henry Tudor and became the last British monarch to die on the battlefield. Actually, we toured the site where the heritage centre is located, which is the site previously believed to be the battle site, but recent archeological evidence suggests the actual battle site was a few miles away. Oops. But it was another fantastic heritage site.

In the evening we joined friends of Jim at a small pub, ‘The Greyhound’, on a canal for dinner. This was exactly the type of pub I was expecting to find in England.

York Minster

Photo: York Minster as night falls.

Day 14: Edinburgh to York

Headed out of Edinburgh early in rainy weather. We made quick stops at the border for a photo and at Chesters Roman Fort. Didn’t get to see much of Hadrian’s Wall because of the weather. After arriving in York we located our accommodation – The Priory – and set off to check out the town on foot. What a beautiful city. After a bit of a look around The Shambles and York Minster we went down by the river and had a relaxing drink, followed by Mexican for dinner. After dinner we walked the wall and returned to the Minster and Shambles for some photos.

Hunterston Broach

Photo: The Hunterston Broach

Day 13: Edinburgh

Caught the bus into Edinburgh to meet up with Carol’s friend Arthur. We then went off to the Scottish National Museum to try to find the Hunterston Broach we’d heard about in Largs. We found it quickly – it’s one of their star attractions at the museum – and had a good chat to the attendant of the section in the museum. He told us that the last time the Broach was sold was in the 1800’s and it sold for £500. Imagine what it might be worth today! It was much bigger than I expected – about 10cm across.

We then looked around some of the rest of the museum, but couldn’t really do it justice in the time we had.

Next stop was Holyrood House Palace for the girls and Arthur and a few geocaches for the boys. I particularly wanted to find the cache down behind the Castle. I put a travel bug there to start it’s journey and hopefully get back to Australia one day.

Lunch at a typical pub, some souvenir shopping then a quick look at the National Gallery of Scotland. IN the evening we headed down to the docks to look at the Britannia, which has been here since it was retired about 10 years ago. Doesn’t really seem to be a very fitting place for such a ship to spend the rest of it’s days.

Overall, Scotland has been fantastic. So much to see, so much to learn, so little time.