OUR VISIT TO THE UK - 2012

This is the other part of our blog to the UK - the section dealing with the King's College Reunion and visits to relative and friends.  You can read about our walking on the Cardigan Coast and the Southern Lake District from the menu at the top of this page.

Our trip began using the local airline for the short flight to Vancouver Airport where we connected with the Air Transat flight to Gatwick Airport.  Air Transat is a Canadian airline that costs a little less than the main carriers.  It is a little more cramped than Air Canada would have been but that isn't  real problem because the price was right.  

Just before we left home we purchased an iPad2 which proved to be very useful in allowing us to check things as we went along and kept us in touch with the world.  The photo below, taken with the iPad  shows the Air Transat Airbus 330 at Vancouver Airport. 

You can see a larger version of any photograph by simply clicking the mouse once on the image. Another click off the image returns you to the text

At Gatwick we collected a series of rail tickets we had purchased online some weeks earlier.  If you buy them many weeks ahead you can save quite a bit.  In all we collected tickets for six different trains at about 50% the regular cost.  

We collected a rental vehicle and drove to Stourport to see Don and Jean.  We were going to stay at a B and B just around the corner from where they live which was very convenient. 

We had arrived just before the time of the QE2 Diamond Jubilee.  There were many flags and decorations around and Jean gave us a little present that was typically English to celebrate the event, a pork pie and a bottle of HP sauce!  They took us out to a very lovely meal at a local pub.  Pub meals are the big thing in the UK.

To celebrate the Diamond Jubilee

We had time the next morning to walk along the tow path of the local canal on the way to Kidderminster.  Canal boat holidays are very popular and we saw a number on the canal as well as a whole host in the canal basin in Stourport.

We only stayed the one night and the next afternoon we drove to Stratford-upon-Avon where we were to join a few King's College London fellow grad students for the weekend.  This group had been meeting  on a regular basis over the last few years and one of us, Robin, had joined them for an evening meal on London a few years ago when we happened to be in the UK.  This time we were both able to spend the three days together with our friends, partners and wives.

After a pleasant meal that evening, the next day saw us take a boat trip up the River Avon in a pleasure craft hired for our group alone.  We meandered up and back for about an hour in lovely sunshine.

On the River Avon

Our intrepid leader - John Griffith, living in Newark

The bridge at Stratford-upon-Avon

The Shakespeare Theatre

Plenty of swans and tourists

John Raitt - living in Logan, Utah

That evening we all had a meal in the restaurant at the theatre and then went to see the Shakespeare play Richard III.  The stage at the theatre runs out into the audience and we happened to be in the front row at one side. So we were always close to the action.  And action there was as we witnessed a great battle scene, swords flying.  It all looked very dangerous from our viewpoint.  By the time it all ended were feeling as exhausted as the actors who had given their all.  A great evening all round.

For our last day together we went to the National Trust stately home at Charlcote Park where there is lovely house and gardens. 

Charlecote House

The magnificent dining room

A fine row of chimneys

Lunch at Charlecote Park

Our more humble dining table

We left the group and drove the short distance to Balsall Common to see niece Valerie and Paul and their two youngsters,  Ella and Toby.  Nephew Chris and partner Pauline were there as well.  The visit was timely as far as Paul was concerned because he has been building his own aircraft and that day he needed extra help to fit the wings.  The plane had been in the garage but was now nearing completion (!) and more space was required.  The photo below shows the plane coming together 

The proud aviator

 Now with the wings in place

Toby

Ella

Pauline, Ruth, Valerie and Toby

   

We stayed at a nearby B and B - Camp Farm.

   

The next day we gave the rental car back at Birmingham International Airport and took the first of our train trips to Aberystwyth.  All very convenient as the Arriva Wales train started out from the station at the airport and ran right through to Aberystwyth where we started our walking on the Cardigan Coastal path.  That blog can be accessed from the menu at the top of this blog.

After we had completed our four days on the path we took the bus to near Carnarfon to see Nephew Dan and Ceri and their two children, Osian and Megan.  They live with her parents in the tiny village of       Rhostryfan.  We had a nice meal with them and were able to see the house that they are renovating in the village by the local school.  This is a long term project is seems!  We also made a short trip into Carnarfon to see the castle and the local sights.

Carnarfon Castle

   

Dan and Megan

 Osian and Megan

 Megan  

Osian

    Megan, Dan, Ruth, Ceri and Osian

Megan and Dan (an iPad2 photo)

Welsh decorations for the Jubilee -  no Union Jacks!

We stayed at a nearby B and B where each room was named after famous race track, we were in Ascot. 

The next day Dan kindly took us to Bangor Railway station so we could catch the train to Crewe and on to Derby where we were going to stay with Anthony and Carol over the Jubilee Bank holiday.  There is a regular Bank holiday on the Monday but the Queen had declared an extra day on the Tuesday.  We arranged our times so that we didn't travel on the Monday or the Tuesday and on the Sunday afternoon when we arrived we were able to see on TV the grand flotilla of boats that were going to travel on the River Thames from Hammersmith to Tower Bridge.  If you managed to see any of that activity you might remember that the weather was dreadful, rain, rain and more rain with a resolute Queen standing at the front of the Royal Barge waving to the crowd as if her life depended on it - she is a tough old bird.  It was a real shame because the Monday and Tuesday were quite pleasant.

On the Monday we had a day out in the Derbyshire Dales.

Taking a little break

   

Arch under the railway - HDR again  

HDR is useful if you have a photo with a large range of contrast, too large for the camera to handle.  You take three exposures, one under-exposed, one over-exposed and one in between.  You then use special software to combine the three images into one.  There are two more examples on the Walking Blog.

   

A Derbyshire Farm

To prove we were there together

   

Anthony enjoying a foxglove

We collected another rental vehicle in Derby and drove North up M1 and A1(M) to Gosforth in the Lake District travelling up Wensleydale, as mentioned in the walking blog.

After our time there we came back South from the Kendal area through Skipton to Haworth, in Bronte Country.

This allowed us to visit with one of our godchildren, Penny.  Fortunately for us she had arranged for her mother, Hilary to be there as well, so we had a good visit and a nice lunch as well.

Ruth, Penny and Hilary

We left  Haworth after lunch as we had another call to make near Sheffield, another Godchild, Simon Webb.  We arrived in the late afternoon to find the whole family there, Simon, Sheilagh
and their three children Duncan, Elizabeth and Abigail.  They had just arrived back from Hay-on-Wye where they had been attending a book festival.  Shelagh cooked us a lovely dinner, very kind seeing that they had only just arrived home. We had a very nice visit before we had to leave to get to our B and B in Bakewell.

This turned out to be probably our nicest stay.  It was like an old style B and B where you felt part of the family with breakfast in the kitchen.  The house was located by a stream just away from the town centre.  Really pleasant.

We had a bit of time to spare in the morning and we walked into the town, it was busy as it was market day.  We found a number of bakery shops with genuine Bakewell puddings and Bakewell tarts.

It was time to drive the car back to Derby and catch the train to Reading where we had one more visit to make - Annie Cowan (nee Berwick), Stu and children, Thomas and Dan.  This was just a whistle stop was we got off one train, found a place to have a quick dinner together before getting back to the station to link up with Stu who met us on the platform as he had just arrived back from working in London.

We caught the train to Gatwick Airport, for our last evening in the UK.

We stayed at the Yotel Hotel which is situated right in the airport.  It is a little unusual as it has very small rooms, like a small cruise ship stateroom but it was very well designed and had all you need for a night.  It was very clean and had a really excellent bathroom.  Free tea and coffee, WiFi and flat screen TV. 

 

Inside the room at Yotel

The bed slides down when you need it

Another advantage of Yotel is that you can go and check in early and then come back to the room until it was time to go. Highly recommended and the price is very reasonable.  So much easier than a comparable cost B and B away from the airport with all the problems of getting there and back.

So it was back with Air Transat to Vancouver direct and the little plane to Comox Airport, always fun.

We had a great three weeks away.