The wilds of Oberon

From the searing heat of Italy in the summer to the freezing cold wilds of Oberon, NSW.  The weather report predicted snow, so we got out of bed at 4pm and hit the road to the snow.  There was not as much snow as previous trips but still plenty to test out Stephen on his mountain bike. A fun day was had by all. 

Go Andy!

OMG what have I done?

Anybody know an elephant who can sit on this bag?

Ladywell Lodge afternoon tea

Today is packing day. Now its payback time for all the things that seemed very important at the time to buy. I will not need to buy a book or piece of clothing for at least 12 months.

The packing goes better than last year I have learnt a bit more but it is still a trail and error job and takes a few hours.  It’s a really hot day so we also get all the washing done. I did not know London could get this hot.

Finally its time for the traditional Ladywell Lodge afternoon tea, egg and chicken sandwiches, lurpak butter, vanilla slices, walnut cakes the works. Andy Murray is playing against Novak Djokovic in the final of Wimbeldon and we can watch it live on the TV. Bit different to being in Australia, though I suspect a few people in Australia will be watching. Jeff and Mary arrive to take me to the airport so we listen to the rest of the match in the car. Its so close Andy has one point to win and then loses the point, he then wins a point, he then loses it. The tension in our car is unbelievable; the tension down the road at Wimbledon must be immense. Finally Andy wins, the first British winner in 77 years. Everyone is elated. Jeff jokes that now we will get to watch the repeats of Andy winning for the next 77 years!

Ok, its time to depart, time to go home to Stevie and Rosco! We say about hundred goodbyes and then I push my trolley off into the depths of Terminal 3. Time for a 24 hour rest and the normal programming will recommence.

A big thank you to Jane for sharing her life and home with me, what an amazing holiday.

Carpe Diem

Outside British Museum

Matilda

The stage

Happy Birthday Lesley

Today is our last day of tripping around the fantastic places in London. First stop the temple of universe, the British Museum. Jane has booked months in advance and we have tickets to the Pompeii exhibition.  It’s the first major exhibition in 20 years on Pompeii and I think it is quite nice of them to think ahead and have it just after we have been to the actual Pompeii site.

With stacks of other people we enjoy the site, the exhibition is laid out like a house and we see first hand living rooms, kitchens and gardens from 79AD a fascinating snapshot in the rich and poor of Pompeii.

Then after a quick lunch we have a change of pace and go to Argo. I had no idea what this place was, you order what you want – cameras, gardening tools, curtains anything from the catalogues at the front of the story and then go to the counter and they go “out the back” into some kind of Tardis warehouse and get it for you. Another first time experience.

Now its London and there is still more to do so off we travel to the Cambridge Theatre to meet Lesley (Jane’s friend) to celebrate her birthday and see Matilda the Musical. It’s a matinee so lots of little girls dressed in cute dresses everyone is excited. We have wonderful seats and the stage is right in front of us decorated with all manner of boxes and letters a bit of a school theme. From the moment the play starts right up until the end the actors have us entertained, enthralled and at one stage most of the kids where really scared and holding onto their Mums. (I was ok, just). Most of the actors are kids they are so talented, can sing, dance and remember their lines and complicated moves and do it all with such precision. Often the acting moves into the seating area and it is like you are in the middle of the play. A truly wonderful experience we all enjoy.

Time to party now, off we go to a bar for a free bottle of Prosseco and a few more drinks, then onto a pizza dinner and one final desert. It’s so nice to meet the Lesley that I have been hearing so much about, she is fun and interesting I look forward to seeing her again.

Now its the walk to Charing Cross station for my final use of the public transport system. We are both tired and emotional and ready to go home. Jane asked me if I want to see one more invader? And I leap into life, yes please. A slight back track and we finish on a high. Then with the traditional wave goodbye to Nelson in Trafalgar Square we leave.

A dog called Angel

Primrose Hill

Angel

Queen Mary's Gardens

Banksy

So I think I am getting good at travelling on the underground, that is until I take the Northern line in peak hour. Sardines is an understatement it takes me three trains before I can get on. My first point of call is Primrose Hill, its brilliant sunshine and the 360 degree views of London are worth it. Glad I made the effort to get here.

Now time to wander through Regents Park and find Queen Mary’s Gardens. There are dogs and their owners running everywhere in the sunshine. Just as I am thinking it was so nice of Henry VIII or whoever used this park for deer hunting or something or other to leave it for the dogs to enjoy a schnauzer pops into view. His name is Angel and he originally hails from South Africa but now calls London home, with his big brother Wompy they say hello and then run off across the fields.

Queen Mary’s gardens are a delight, the roses are at their best and the bright green grass against the flower beds is dazzling. Being a rare sunny day there is even a professional photographer here doing shots using a ladder to get a better angle on the garden beds. This truly is a paradise of calm and green.

I step out of the park onto Marylebone Road and the hustle and bustle of London hits me again. Big red buses, trucks, taxis, cars and pushbikes all rushing around going somewhere a big contrast to the park. Using my trusty Global Street Art app I find a nearby Banksy, if graffiti changed anything covered in Perspex and with a Rude Pope added. Now that sentence might not make any sense to you but it does to Jane and I.

I am now down to my last few hours of free time so it’s a choice Wallace collection or shopping. Shopping wins. By the time I finish shopping I have walked all the way from Primrose Hill to Charing Cross, with detours all over the place. Hop on the train and loaded down with shopping bags I make the final steps to home. Time to freshen up for dinner with Mary (Jane’s Mum) and Jeff. Yummy food and we get to see the end of Andy Murray winning his semi final at Wimbeldon.

A wander through London

Platform 9 3/4

Roman Ampithetre

La Ghirlandra by Rossetti

Guildhall

I wake up it is very sunny and the house is quite, where is Jane? I look at the time and its 8:58am. The tourist trail is going to be late starting today.  Stephen and I catch up over Skype he is eating his dinner whilst I am eating breakfast.

First stop today is Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross station from the famous Harry Potter series. I did not realize how famous until I saw how long the line is to take your photo with the half embedded trolley.  No time for that today, its onto the British library.

Its just a block down the street, I arrive and am confused this is a normal brick building, where are the ornate columns, the over imposing statues and other British paraphernalia. I find out the library was part of the British Museum and the current library was only built about 20 years ago. As it is purpose built the library has all the right rooms for storing the precious collection. More Captain Cook, a drawing from the Endeavour voyage by Tupia (unfortunately in New Zealand). There is a Magna Carta, letter from Napolean to his brother that was intercepted by Nelson a week before the famous battle, Handels music, illuminated manuscripts. Lots of great treasures well off the tourist trail another good recommendation by Jane.

Now some fancy tube station changes and I quickly arrive at Guildhall Art Gallery and save myself a long walk. The jewel of the collection is by Rossetti. It’s a pleasure to roam around an art gallery with hardly anyone in it and lots of great art. The best bit though is the Roman Amphitheater in the basement, only uncovered in 1980’s. Then the security guard asks me have I seen Guildhall, I don’t even know what he is talking about, he directs me and I am in a massive hall built in 1411 all to myself. Then the next security guard sees I am impressed and directs me to the clock museum around a corner and up some stairs. I think I have done the secret security guard tour of Guildhall.

Back onto the tube for the final leg. Thought I better go back to National Gallery and see The Fighting Temeriane again, from Skyfall scene where Bond meets Q and I had seen the spot where Turner saw it yesterday. Its afternoon the place is packed out every room is chockers. Navigate to Room 34 find a seat and am confused, Turner, Turner, Turner, blank spot. The painting voted by the public as the most important in Britain is out for cleaning. Oh well will have to console myself with a cup of tea and cake in my favourite café.

Final stop shopping for tonight’s dinner fish, veggies and raspberries then home on the fast train to Ladywell Lodge.

Maritime Meanders

Bike riding on Tower Bridge

Picnic lunch

Old and new

Susie, Harry and Jane

Its typical London weather, grey skies and drizzling rain. I set off for today’s adventure dressed in hidden lycra and with a back pack. The tourist trail today is via a different mode of transport, a bike. The weather report says the drizzle with stop by 10am, we will see.

As I enter the shop the familiar smell of grease hits me and I procure a bike for the day. The usual crappy service from Sydney bike shops is repeated here. Are bike shops the same around the world?

Now its time to risk life and limb and ride along the Thames to Greenwich. Thanks to the Thames cycling culture tour I have a map to follow and lots of points of interest along the way to explore. The first major point for me is The Angel pub, visited by Captain Cook when preparing for his voyage to Australia. Yeah, finally something to mention Cook and even mentions Australia. Double points. On I go on bike path and quiet roads to see all kinds of maritime history. Where the Mayflower left to sail to America, where JMW Turner went to see one of the ships from the Battle of Trafalgar for his famous painting, more places Samuel Pepys visited and where Michael Caine was born.

Samuel Pepys is famous for the diary he kept in the 1600’s, you can even get his diary as an app. If you believe all the signs he supposedly went to every pub, dock and intersection in London, I am not so sure. I think people just like to add it onto the sign at the front door for gullible tourists.

Finally I make it to one of my favorite places, Greenwich. Time to lock up the bike and go into M & S to get a picnic lunch. Hmm, this is where the fun begins I figure out how to undo the lock but can’t figure out how to attach it. Do I risk it and leave the bike unlocked? Maybe not, everyone else has locked their bike. I cross the road and look at everyone else’s locks similar to mine and get and idea on how to do it. Back into my bike parking spot a bit of stuffing around and success. I can get lunch.

With a picnic hanging from my handlebars I pedal down to my special spot where I found the fossil in Week 1 and take a break.

The plan was to come back the same way, but I am feeling game and decide to cross the Thames and go onwards into new territory. To cross the Thames I enter the tunnel Jane and I found last year that goes under the Thames and was used by dockyard workers in the early 20^th century. Its quite fun to ride in the dark and damp tunnel and I can even ride into the lift and do a u-turn. Now that was a bit of stylish riding.

Onto Canary Wharf, there are masses of officeworkers out doing their lunchtime exercise along the route. They would give Ussain Bolt a run for his money they are the fastest runners I have ever seen. Make a few wrong turns but get back onto the right way and find where Captain Cook’s daughter, Elizabeth was christened.  The roads are a little bit busy but manage to find all the points of interest, feel like a modern day explorer with a pushbike.

Now there are a few more tourists around on the road, I turn a corner and see the top of Tower Bridge. That explains the tourists I am nearly there. Into the throngs of tourists I go, there is no way in Sydney you could ride a bike through this many people but anything seems to go in London. I do a lap around the Tower of London just for fun and then giggle as I make my way across Tower Bridge. It seems funny to be crossing this famous bridge on a Trek Hybrid with shifter gears. A quick sprint past Boris’s place and I am back to my starting point.

Time to meet Jane for the train ride to see Susie (Jane’s sister) and Harry. We have a totally yummy British feast of fish and chips with champagne and catch up on all the gossip. The champagne came from Royal Windsor Polo Club where Susie works. Harry is now officially taller than me, he has grown a lot in the last year. Susie had us rolling around with laughter giving us her version of our holiday.

21st century view

The Shard

View from the Shard

View from the Shard

A Midummer Night's Dream

With Bridget in Mayfair

In a city that is over 2,000 years old I start off today’s fun with the View from the Shard a sleek new building opened in 2012. The Shard is the tallest building in Western Europe, last year it was my homing beacon to find London Bridge station to make my way home. Now they have the newest tourist attraction in London with 360 degree views at 800m high. The ride up in the lifts is fast, smooth and quite. There are about 50 staff along the way directing you in into lanes big enough to cope with hundreds of people. There are about 10 people here visiting. The View from the Shard is constantly bagged by Londoners as too expensive to visit and obviously not yet popular with the tourists. That’s a bonus for me. The view is impressive, London stretches out for about 40 miles in every direction. All the main points, like Buckingham Palace, St Pauls, the Thames are laid out in front of you. They have really good telescopes that have an interactive ipad like screen with everything major place named. Its an amazing way to see London laid out in front of you. The photo frenzy commences. Time to walk up the steps to the outdoor viewing platform, there are about three people up here, it is cold and windy but not much different to the first view as the glass windows are above your head. Its so high up the planes and helicopters buzzing around London are level with you. Then like any standard attraction its time to exit via the gift shop, this one is on the 72^nd floor that makes the highest gift shop I have ever been to.

Next on today’s tour is a total contrast. I take a trip back to Elizabethan England with a play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare at the Globe Theatre. From the first moment the actors enthrall me. Haunting music, fight scenes, loves scenes, amazing acting and something always happening on the stage. I can understand how they get to the hordes entertained all those years ago and the story works so well today. The theater holds 3000 people but feels so personal you can see the actors faces clearly and hear every change of tone in their voice with no microphones or 21^st century paraphernalia. The crowd laughs along with the jokes and every single person is enjoying themselves, even the plebs standing up for 3 hours in the rain in the pit. A wonderful escape into a different era.

Now like the seasoned traveler I am I squish onto a peak hour train at Southwark and travel the few stops up to Green Park. I escape into the relative quite of Mayfair and head for Embassy Mayfair for dinner with Bridget, who I worked with at AMP. Tiffany’s, Cartiers, Boodles and all kinds of fancy shops line my walk. A quick detour up Saville Road to see if Warren or James Bond is there buying a new suit and then onto dinner I go. Bridget is looking great and we chat for hours just like we had seen each other yesterday, a wonderful night!

I captured the castle

Roman light house in background

Today I beat all the other tourists up to the top of Dover Castle and declare all I can see to be named Roscoville from this day forward.

Dover Castle is strategically placed on a hill top only 22 miles across the channel from France. It is a great walk back in time starting with an iron age hill fort right up until 9 centuries later in the 1980s when the tunnels are used as a nuclear bunker hideout for the government.

After capturing the castle I move onto checking out all aspects of the castle and learning about Henry II and his sons and how they squabbled and fought over England and France. Now the medieval tunnels and when turning around to do photos I promptly get disorientated and cant figure the way out. After a while I hear some school kids and figure out where the exit is. Its so windy up here on top of the hill but I brave on and tackle the battlements and am rewarded with great views of the white cliffs and the big seaport below.

Its amazing to walk in the footsteps of so many different parts of history that have happened on this site, the Romans in 43AD, William the Conquer after the Battle of Hastings, through to the French sieges in the Napoleonic wars and finally the Operation Dynamo to evacuate from Dunkirk in WW2.

Entering the wartime tunnels where the planning and communications where done for Dunkirk evacuation and D day is like entering a labyrinth, there are passages and side rooms everywhere. With smart use of projections and videos onto the side walls the story of Dunkirk is told by Paul our guide in such a realistic way I get goose bumps.

At the end of the tour Paul and I have a chat about Vice Admiral Ramsay who ran the operations. Then Paul goes and finds some binoculars so I can see France, alas there is too much cloud on the horizon and I can’t make out the land. Paul tells a story about Winston Churchill who during the Battle of Britain with powerful binoculars could see a town clock on the other side of the channel and complained that the clock was 5 minutes slow.

Next I do the hospital tunnels tour, these tunnels look similar but have a different tale to tell as we follow the story of a pilot shot down over the channel with leg injuries. The tour is again very realistic and they have smells pumping through different parts of the tunnel as well, beef stew in the canteen and antiseptic in the operating theatre.

Final part for me to visit now is the Saxon church and Roman lighthouse, my Roman obsession just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Mostly thanks to Time Team, the best show ever. Mick Ashton who was the senior archeologist on most of the digs passed away suddenly last week. It is thanks to him and the team that so many people have the archeology bug now.

The Roman lighthouse would show boats how to get to England from Europe, I have never seen one of these before and did not even know they existed.

The layers of history here are amazing, glad I picked this castle to visit as its strategic position as an entry point to England have made it an important part of history.

Time to walk back down the hill and check out Dover. The seagulls are the size of eagles and make a hell of a racket. Now I know where all the sound effects in the TV series Foyles War come from. Dover itself has an excellent small museum with a bronze age boat. The boat was found in 1992 and is 3,550 years older that Tutankhamen. Now that’s old. 

Also check out Shakespeares Leap, a cliff used in the play King Lear. Finally time to follow the signs written in English and French back to the train. I think the French writing is for an invasion of a different kind, tourists. There are French school kids everywhere. As I head back to London the lush green countryside races by the window.