Road Trip England : part III

Hello all!
Ok... here are some more snaps of our English holiday last June.. How time flies! It´s september already... and in no time we´ll be back in oz for a holiday. (For Christmas)

"Bloke's Blog: Science and History come alive in England" has been postponed until further notice (at Bloke's discretion) ... but will hopefully follow soon..

For the moment we leave you with the another peice of the trip: Harrogate, York, Yorkshire Dales (pictured above) and the Williams partial-family intercontinental reunion

After leaving Tudor-lovely Shrewsbury, we headed north east for the Victorian Spa resort and home town of Joan and Derry (Ivan's Uncle and Aunt)..

There we were very well looked after indeed....we got to sleep in a proper bed for a few nights and enjoyed many cups of hot tea, jaffa cakes, 2 course dinners, and of course¨no end of stilton cheese¨ (The Jumblies, Edward Lear)

In the garden, Joan & Derry leave tasty morsels of food for nightime animals like foxes, badgers and hedgehogs... the most anticipated visitors are the badgers (who apparantly are partial to cat food)... the garden is wired so that a bell rings inside the house if an animal is in the designated snacking area.... then, there is a rush to the window, lights out, torch on, to spot the evening´s visitor. Unfortunately we only saw the hungry hedgehog which came very night for a snack... and not a single fox or badger... But it was a treat nonetheless.

It turned out that we weren´t the only visitors to the UK at that time... Ivan´s parents were also roaming around nearby and so we decided to have a family do... the English side of the family and a few Aussies thrown in...

So here we all are for the family portrait at Ivan´s cousin´s house (Jane & hubby Steve).
L-R Back: Jane, Joan, Nick, Elena
L-R Front: Mike, Derry, Ivan, Steve

Yorshire Dales
We just had time to squash in an impromptu visit to the Yorkshire Dales...of rolling green pastures, fluffy sheep, plump sleepy cows, and pristine rivers... Gorgeous stuff.

We drove to the village of Hebden just inside the Dales and went for a walk/picnic in the sorrounding countryside, along 'public footpaths' (which are just the best thing ever! (when well-marked)) ... we accidentally stepped off the path and onto private property a couple of times but we were promptly redirected by the local farmers yelling and pointing in the opposite direction. Usually, the pathways are quite obvious, but not always, or not at least for absent minded tourists.

L-R: The beautiful Yorkshire Dales, with sleepy calf

York city and York minster

A quick day trip to York City, to visit the amazing YorkMinster and the not so amazing Yorvik (Viking Museum)... although Yorvik was 'good' and even 'interesting', in the end it is best (i think) to hang around a town, explore at one's leisure etc.. and not visit as many museums... not that we visited many anyway... but less is more?. This lesson I learnt towards the end of the England Holiday (after Yorvik, to be precise).. because, it would have been nicer to walk the wonderful city walls...which, we didn't have time for :( Ces't la vie!

Still, YorkMinster was Amazing and the extra special ticket to climb the super-narrow, super claustrophobic spiral staircase right to the top was worth every little cent... breathtaking (literally).. the oxygen levels seemed very depleted in the staircase itself, very stuffy..... and the health warnings against climing the spire if elderly, pregnant, claustrophobic, 'vertigoish', with a heart condition, too young ... etc... where definitely well warranted... a mid-staircase or spire-top rescue would be an impossibility... It's no wonder that in many other Cathedrals, the Spires and spirally tower staircases are forbidden

But we lived to tell the tale.

L-R: York Minster and a cute pub.

Next up: we'll try and finish the England trip once and for all (its dragging on a bit) with Hadrian's Wall, the castles, coastline and animal life of beautiful Northumberland and 'Bloke's Blog'.

Road trip England: Part 2

Hey folks, time to upload those other photos of our England Holiday...
As we travelled north and left the Cotswolds behind us, we decided to bypass Stratford upon Avon completely and head straight up to Shrewsbury and Ironbridge Gorge...

1st up, Shrewsbury... I had very high expectations of a stunning and perfectly preserved tudor quarter, with wobbly black and white buildings everywhere and stuck together, but instead, those Black and white buildings (some indeed wobbly) were dotted here and there around the town, in-between other more modern buildings... and the effect wasn't as enchanting as first dreamed up. However once reality set in and we walked around the town properly, we found we liked Shrewsbury very very much... with it's 'bit of tudor here, bit more there', cute hidden tudor alleyways ('shuts'), lovely parks and and winding Severn river. The home of Darwin too, the war poet Wilfred Owen, and the burial place of the not so loved Ebenezer Scrooge.

L-R: Tudor Shrewsbury...

Famous 'Shrewsburians': Darwin and Scrooge (from the 1984 version of the movie)

Also, while in the area, we also checked out 'Acton Farm' a Victorian working farm.
This working farm still uses Victorian farming machinery and methods and is the site of filming for the fantastic BBC History series 'Victorian Farm'... Hopefully it has been shown in Oz, if not, stay tuned. It was worth checking out anyway.

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Next up: English Science and History come alive on "Bloke's Blog"- coming soon ...

road trip: England (Part 1) - Heart of England

Hi Folks! After that comical yet rather scary (cos it's true) last post about the Virgin Mary tree stump in Limerick...We are back to our camping trip in Emgland..

So, first up in our England Camping holiday: The Heart of England (The Cotswolds and Bath)

After getting off the ferry in Wales (and driving a long long way) we set up camp in a very small (and remarkeably empty) campsite near Northleach (southern end of Cotswolds for those with a map (or see map below)). A simple campsite with our very own smokery on site with delicious smoked trout and chicken...yum.. This is proper camping after all..

There we stayed put for 5 days while exploring the countryside and the villages of Chipping Campden, Bourton on the Water, Stow on the Wold, Upper and Lower Slaughter and Bibury and sampling some of the cream teas.
So cute, so English and so like the BBC dramas everyone is familiar with... It was the England I really wanted to see (but wasn't sure if really existed) and it was the England we actually saw with our very own eyes.
We did this great little walk from Bourton on the Water, through Upper and Lower Slaughter via bits the 'Heart of England way', the 'Glouscestshire Way' and along those fantastic Public Footpaths. Doesn't it just make you want to go right now?
L-R The Walk: Bourton on the Water, Lower Slaughter, Ivan on Public Footpath, and walking through some yellow fields... We don't know what this yellow stuff is, but it sure is pretty.
This here is the old Market Hall in Chipping Campden , which is a lovely town with awesome tea and scones... the problem is you just can't seem to capture it properly in a photo.. damn! The market hall, built in 1627, is nice though.

While in that part of the world, another compulsory stop was Bath, and how rewarding! It is beyond beautiful... One of the highlights of the holiday for sure. The Roman Baths themselves were amazing, far better and bigger than anything I had imagined and the streetscapes, straight out of Jane Austen.... A stunning city, without a doubt.
L-R Check it out: The Circus, The River Avon, The Roman Baths and The Parade

Also, very nearby Bath is Monkton Combe, a small town where Ivan spend a few years when he was little... and though he was only 3-5 years old, he remembered little bits from his childhood and what family had told him about the place and eventually, by driving around the town very slowly and stopping often, we finally found the house he lived in, the primary school he attended and the local park.

An excellent success rate! considering the lack of actual information.
L-R: Snaps for the Williams Family: Ivan's old school in Monkton Combe (Schoolhouse and playing fields (ha ha ha)) and Priory Close, Ivan's actual house..!!

and hopefully this will work too...the map. Cos it's nice to see where these places are.

View England Part 1: Cotswolds in a larger map

Late Breaking News: the Virgin Mary tree stump

Um, yes...
this is too good...

Several workmen tending the grounds of a church in Limerick a few days ago, discovered the shape of the Virgin Mary in a tree stump. After chopping down the said tree, "One of the lads said look, our Blessed Lady in the tree,' Mr White said. 'One of the other lads looked over and actually knelt down and blessed himself, he got such a shock.' 'It was the perfect shape of the figure of Our Lady holding the baby,' he said.

Despite great skepticism from the Church, hundreds of people have flocked to the site to pray and light candles and thousands have signed a petition to prevent the removal of the tree stump from the Church grounds.
Local parish priest Fr Willie Russell said on radio station Limerick Live 95FM yesterday that people should not worship the tree. “There’s nothing there . . . it’s just a tree . . . you can’t worship a tree.” Um, yes you can.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/0709/1224250319175.html

Road Trip England : step 1

So peeps and peepettes, one of the trips we have been waiting to do since we arrived here was a driving holiday through England, camping among the greenery and visiting all those lovely little villages. The land of Shakespeare, Darwin, Nelson, Tea n Scones and the motorway roundabout. So we did. There is a certain magic to walking into a small old village with a market hall which was built in the 1600's or has a monument to the local lord who dug a well, thereby ensuring the village's water supply, 300+ years ago.
Anyways, how great and how simple it was to pack one's car, hop on a ferry and a couple of hours later, drive off in another country! No airports, no planes, no (ever-horrid) Ryan Air inspired delays.

Here we say goodbye to Dublin port from the ferry




and that's just a taster!
There's heaps more photos to come...

Quick Blogs 3: Visitors from OZ

Last of the Quick Blogs...
Ivan's parents are travelling around the uk, and dropped in to stay with us for a week.
It had been over a year since we saw them last (except skype-wise) and it was really great to see them again.
Nick and Mike wandered around Dublin town checking out Museums and churches.. including the wonderful Marsh's library, and the Chester Beatty Library, the Archeological museum with its preserved bodies from the bog (a genuine Irish experience and a real must for all Irish visitors), and popped into St Pats and ChristChurch Cathedral... The last two we haven't seen ourselves, so they are ahead of us in some Dublin sights.... But we have plenty of time to see all.

Then on the saturday we had lunch at the Queens Pub in Dalkey, quickly checked out the harbour and hurried back home to hide away from the appalling weather (the one odd day out in a whole week of beautiful sunshine). Snug back at home with a cup of tea we watched "The Return of the King", part 3 of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the only one not yet seen by Nick and Mike... and who could deny Ivan the opportunity of watching it yet again. not us.

Sunday brightened up again and we set off to Co.Meath to see one of the main sites of Loughcrew Cairns (a series of neolithic burial tombs).. We had previously been up there ourselves but at the time weren't able to step inside the chamber... This time we had a guided tour of the chamber, with its fantastic carvings.











We returned home late that afternoon after dropping to the site of the Battle of the Boyne.
...thus ended a great week catching up with family.

We are off tomorrow to england camping and will actually coincide with Nick and Mike again (on their travels) and with Ivan's uncle, aunt and cousin, who last saw him when he was only 5ft tall (about 4 years old)...so that should be fun too. A big family dinner and get-together..

oops, nearly forgot... Nick's haircut on the balcony, much to the amusement of our neighbour (and possibly myself)

Well, my quick blogs have been a success, so i will try this fast pace from now on, which may mean I write and post more often, as it is less of a drag to do so... All the best, have a great weekend... Ivan and Elena