My first castle

Me and Windsor Castle

Changing of the Guard

Another friend

Windsor town

Eton

Silly boys in suits

The cake Jane baked me

 It’s a balmy 10 degrees as I head out the door. Welcome to Summer. Two squirrels scamper along as I head to the train. Windsor Castle is my destination today, so that involves navigating the peak hour rush at Waterloo Station. Very impressed with all the people moving so fast, Waterloo makes Wynyard look very small.

After the obligatory security check, Prince Charles greets me on the audio tour as if he personally knows me. I don’t know how they he does that tone but it works. Its cold and blustery here today, perfect weather for castle exploring.

10 centuries of history are before my eyes, the turrets, arrow windows, stone work of all different types. Its easy to imagine this was one a defensive fort.

The crowds start to gather for the changing of the guard. The guards look amazing in their chocolate box outfits in red and gold but I would not want to tussle with them as their guns look pretty mean. The band knows how to whip the crowd up into a frenzy.

Next is St George’s Chapel, as you enter the gothic ceiling towers above you. The windows are so big you can’t see how the walls stay upright. Seeing where all the kings and queens are buried is like stepping back in time. Sculptures of each king and queen lay on top of their graves. Their features are so life like and peaceful in marble. It’s a pity you can’t take any photos but in some ways makes the overall experience more powerful and the beauty is burned into your mind instead.

Now into the room for the Order of the Garter, founded in 1348 and the oldest order for chivalry in the world. I ask if there are any Australian’s and am shown Sir Ninian Stephens spot with a king parrot on his helmet and wattle and thistle on his banner. The thistle represents that he was born in Scotland.

Now to join, the long, long, long line to see Queen Mary’s doll house. Americans complain loudly that the lines are longer than Disneyland. Some people abandon the line, I wait it out. Finally I get inside the building out of the cold and then wait some more. Then into a darkened  room, I first see all the cars lined up in the garage, then the rooms start to appear. Each room is exquisite a showcase of the best of British design at the time (1924) including an electric vacuum cleaner in the maids room. The toilets flush, the lights are electric, some of the paintings are copies of original works of art redone in miniature by the original artist. There is even a valuables room to secure the miniature crown jewels. Walking around every side of this exquisite construction is an experience I will never forget.

Shuffling along with the rest of the crowds its time to now be awed by the state rooms, without any photos to share with you I could write a book about how impressive each room is. A couple of the highlights for me.

Being blown away by the Waterloo Chamber, its was built to celebrate the success of the forces at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The large room is surrounded by portraits of major people in the battle all done by Sir Thomas Lawrence. As the portraits are all done by one person they create a harmony in the room. This room screams don’t mess with us we win battles.

Glancing into a small glass case and seeing the bullet that killed Nelson. These guys sure know how to do history. The life size marble statue of Queen Victoria has her favourite dog, Sharp sitting at her side, wrapped in amongst the folds of her dress.

So overall its pretty obvious to all where the “Great” in Great Britian comes from.

After checking out the rest of Windsor town, I make the trek over the Thames. In my Aunty Betty’s diary she comments “Eton boys in morning suits looked ridiculous” and she was right. They are everywhere around the streets and the tourists are secretly taking photos of them and the boys know it. The teachers with their white bow ties look even sillier.

Home late for a yummy dinner with Jane, lightly dusted haddock and vegetables, my favourite London meal.

Giddy at the gardens

This tale starts 18 years ago at 66 Clarence St where Amanda B is yet again regaling me with the places she has visited over her massive managers desk on Level 4.  She has lugged in an exquisite book with photos of Sissinghurst Castle Garden, a beautiful garden with a fascinating past in Kent. Today I stand in this garden and see first hand the beauty, symmetry and creativeness.

Sissinghurst started out as pig farm in the Saxon times, moved onto a manor house, then in the 16^th century was rebuilt into a much more luxurious house and tower. By the 1930’s the house and garden where nearly derelict and Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West set about rebuilding the garden into what we enjoy today.

Our first assault is to climb the 67 steps to the top of the tower and stand in the bitter wind to see the layout of the whole garden beneath us. The white garden, cottage garden, meadow, moat and buildings so much to explore. We are giddy with excitement and race back down the stairs to explore every possible nook and cranny of the garden. Between us we take 399 photos.

Hello London

A sunny day welcomes me to London and we take to the buses. First stop is Notting Hill and the famous markets along Portabello Road. Amongst silver tea pots, old cameras and food stalls I find a beautiful pashmina scarf to start our shopping spree. Next Jane finds another cow shaped milk pourer for her collection.

Is that Hugh Grant in front of us? Alas not, but we do find the shop that he works at in the movie Notting Hill. There are masses of people enjoying the sunshine, shopping and all types of food.

We now find the famous blue door from the Notting Hill movie and do the obligatory tourist photo. We are getting a bit hungry and find a pub called The Elgin for lunch. This reminds me of Chez Elgin, my home in Melbourne.

Our next mission is to follow my google map and seek a Banksy. Down one street, up another, cross over here, beautiful houses everywhere. But we never seem to get closer to our quarry. Cross back to Portabello Road and then find the right street. Start along the Acklam Street there is art everywhere, a live band playing, kids in a skate park playing but no Banksy. We turn around and retrace our steps, then low and behold Jane spots it, Graffitti Painter protected by Perspex and surrounded by other interesting pieces. Yes, my first real Banksy in the wild.

Its so sunny we hop on another bus and end up in Belgravia. First we find the shop where Beatrice and Eugene buy their hats and then a dog and cat outfitters. The house of Vivien Leigh, one of my favourite actors is down a side street. We could keep going on for hours. Alas it is time to head for Ladywell Lodge. Into the tube we descend and are whisked towards home within minutes. On the tube we are standing with all the other Saturday shoppers. A seat comes free and this young 30 year old girl offers me the seat, I am so exhausted I take it. Now I really am feeling old.

The journey over

On the plane 

My first Dubai friend

The top 5 books in Dubai today

Heathrow

The plane starts filling up with everyone jostling bags, pillows and travelling paraphernalia. But the seat between me and my new friend Rachel is empty. We hold our breath, the last few stragglers arrive and then the captain announces to close the doors.  We raise our arms in the air and cheer as we have an empty seat between us! The only empty seat on the whole plane.

Its 15 hours to Dubai as we approach its dark, there is a coastline, lots of oil tankers and big lines of lights going straight out into the water, maybe they are oil pipelines? Now lots of big areas of dark empty spaces and then pockets of lights. Towns in amongst desert? Then long, straight highways packed with cars all leading to Dubai, its 12:30pm at night. Where are all these people going? My first impression of Dubai is it looks like Las Vegas, all the coloured lights on the big buildings glowing in the dark. On the way out of Dubai we see a massive building twinkling in the dark, assume this is Burj Khalifa. Can I now say I have been to the Middle East if I spend 25 minutes in the airport terminal?

The plane settles down for the final leg to London. I crash out till we are over Romania and 2 hours out from London. After landing we whiz through customs and bag check and then into the welcoming arms of my London family.

London calling

Countdown finished

Aunty Betty's diary

Leaving Sydney

Exactly one year to the day, on the same flight I depart to see Jane in London and start another adventure. This time the flight is via Dubai. This year I am more excited than scared and so looking forward to seeing much more of London. Will London be my favourite town forever?

Along the way on this trip you may see some extracts from a diary written 53 years ago when my Aunty Betty travelled through the UK and Europe. Aunty Betty with three girlfriends boarded a ship from Sydney to London, a 4 week journey at the time. Once in London they settled at Earls Court and brought a car they christened Marilyn.

Then Marilyn guided them up hill and down dale through England and Ireland. Across the channel to France where the first thing they did was stop at a bakery. Wartime rationing had made them all keen on bread. Next they went onto Paris, throughout France, down to Monte Carlo and over to Italy. Marilyn took them up over the alps to Austria and Switzerland with one or two hiccups along the way.  In Germany they brought a camera and alas Aunty Betty slows down writing in her diary. Belgium and Holland are tackled. The final stop in Europe is Dunkirk, only 13 years after the massive evacuation in WW2.

During this trip Jane and I fly to Rome and embark on a road trip around Italy with Sue. Our car will be a bit more modern than Marilyn, but suspect some of the country roads we will travel on have not changed much over the years.

Escape to Hawks Nest

This tale starts on a Monday morning, we have the week off and the forecast is for sunny weather. Do we believe the weather report? The weather has been so crazy lately, we chance it and book a house at Hawks Nest for 5 days. Within two hours we are packed and on our way North to sunshine and fun.

We settle into the house, unload the bikes and head off to Winda Woppa to check out the beach. There is not a soul around, the tide is out, the sand is hard so we can ride our bikes all the way out to the point. Rosco runs along gleefully, stopping every now and again to tackle the waves.

The rest of the holiday is a mix of bike rides, beach walks and lots of swimming and chasing birds (the feathered kind).

One of the adventures we went on was a ride to Johnsons and Shellys beach. Along the way we met Roy, at 72 years old he was testing out his new bike on the same track as us. Now that’s something to aspire to as we get older.

At  Johnson’s farm we saw where the kid’s started their journey to go to school. First they had to row their boat across the river with the horses tied behind, then ride their horses 9km to grandmas house and finally walk the last 2.5 kms to school. That’s what you would call commitment to an education.

Back on the beach early in the morning in the dark before sunrise we discovered an interesting phenomena. As we walked on the beach our shoes and the surrounding sand had glowing specks whenever we moved.  When Rosco ran a trail of greenish glowing dots followed him. It turned out to be Noctiluca scintillans, commonly known as Sea Sparkle, it’s a marine-dwelling species that exhibits bioluminescence. It must have been washed onto the sand with the tide. We had never seen it before and thought it was pretty cool.

By the end of the trip we had identified 44 bird species and discovered a lot more of Hawks Nest and the Myall River National Park.

After 5 days of sunshine as we headed back into Sydney the rain started, a great holiday was had by all.

Empress Canyon

Nearby Wentworth Falls in flood
 Source: PolAir

This summer had the hottest day on record, 45.8 degrees and today as I write it is cold and rainy. Its been a summer of extremes a few hot days and plenty of not so hot ones. I have managed two canyons so far, Serendipity and Empress. Stephen has done many more. The video we made of Empress, should really be titled “Catherine does Empress” as Stephen did most of the videoing so I was the star.

Nearby Wentworth Falls and has been spectacular in the last week with all the rain. 18 people had to be rescued from the area and the rescue helicopter, PolAir took some great photos of the waterfall in flood.

Stephen and Shaun also made a few more canyoning videos with a GoPro camera. Whungee Wheengee which is a narrow canyon at Mt Wilson with lots of icy cold swims and some tricky abseils and Yileen Canyon which ends with a 60 metre abseil into the Grose Valley.