YORK
York is a city of extraordinary culture and history. It’s spiders web of narrow cobbled streets enclosed by a circuit of 13th century Norman walls.
And at its heart lies the immense, awe-inspiring Minster, one of the most beautiful gothic cathedrals in the world. Originally a Catholic Church, but since the break in 1534 initiated by Henry VIII, it has been a Church of England.
It’s beautiful gothic stained glass windows, some dating back to 1260 and the largest of them as large as a tennis court depict biblical stories. Bombed during the 2nd world war and again devastated by fire in 1984, this church has been lovingly restored and still used daily for services.
We happen to arrive at the same time as the 5th International Sword Spectacular was on, wow you are probably saying, wish I were there for that! Some 50 groups from across Europe, the USA and the UK are here to perform. The dancers link swords (blunt edged) and create complex figures, intricate stepping and entertaining athletic showmanship, all accompanied by a fiddle and a tin whistle.
We had stopped in at the pub for a cider on our way back to our B & B and a few of the teams were there as well. Before long one team challenges another (to a dance off) and soon there were feet flying and swords flashing, all amongst a small and busy pub you have to remember. Only in England, you might say!
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
We arrive in sunny Stratford and make our way to a large country estate that now houses the YHA where we will stay for the next couple of days.
Known as the birthplace of playwright William Shakespeare, his home is now a museum with lengthy queues of tourists waiting to go inside.
We decide not to bother with the line-up and with no tickets available for a play, we make our way down to the Avon, hop on a riverboat, and have a lovely cruise. Stately homes with manicured gardens backed onto the river and the gravestone of Shakespeare is prominent in a lovely church we see from the river.
Narrow boats are moored at a park and we chat with the owners about what it’s like to live on one, another thing to think about doing on ‘Our Big Adventure’
WALES
Being so close to Wales we decide we might as well go and have a look, so after many train and bus timetables are consulted we’re off again.
Avergavenny is our first stop and we leave the train, and our bags with the stationmaster, for a brief visit to this village. We stop for a pot of tea, (we have given up trying to find a good cup of coffee), and a Welsh Cake, which is sort of like a flat scone coated in sugar, and then race back up the hill just in time for our connecting train to Cardiff.
Cardiff
We had booked ahead our accommodation at ‘The River House’ a newly renovated hostel right on the banks of the Taff and opposite the Millennium Stadium, home of the Cardiff Blue’s Rugby team. We drop off our bags and head back out again into the warm sunshine and venture down to the bay area for a glass or two of cider. Like the coffee, we have switched from red wine to cider for two reasons. One, the red wine here is overpriced and secondly, it’s just not very good. Therefore, cider at the reasonable price of about 70p a 750ml can and readily available from any pub, supermarket or convenience store and packing the alcohol content of a good stiff scotch, cider is our new drink.
The Welsh, like the English are all enjoying the unseasonably warm weather, and everywhere there are pale bodies ( and some burnt one’s) that have not seen the sun for months exposed in varying degrees, some of these guy’s should really leave their shirts on!.
We take a day trip to see The Big Pit, a coal-mining museum where you are given a hard hat complete with a miners light and a belt with attached breathing equipment then lowered down 90m, or 300ft into a coal mine by a retired miner, and explained all about the workings of a coal mine. A very interesting afternoon and makes you appreciate not being a miner.
Aberystwyth,
Two day’s, 5 buses the first day and 3 trains and 3 buses on the second day, we arrive at Aberystwyth (pron Aber-ser-wth and must be said very quickly, (as it seems with all Welsh names). The town names are getting more difficult to say the further we get up the coast. You can just imagine Brian and I standing at the station and trying to book our tickets, just getting a confused look from the attendant. We have tried phonetic pronunciation but they seem to randomly skip vowels and consonants, I think if I had a lisp, I may have more luck. Take Wales for instance it’s CYMRU, who would have figured that buy the way it’s spelt. Welsh is spoken here as the first language, but once they realize we don’t understand, they quickly change to English. The accent is also changing as we go further north to be harsher and more guttural sounding.
We visit World Heritage listed castles at Aberystwyth and in the beautiful walled town of Caernafon, both built by King Edward 1 in the 1200’s to protect England from the marauding Welsh . Caernafon Castle is where the Prince of Wales (Charles) had his investiture in 1969. We stay at a quaint B & B in Caernafon, Caer Menai, that is inside the walls of this ancient town, our room actually overlooks the tiny backyard, with a medieval watchtower in it’s back wall.
Brian was interested in the Llechweld Slate Works at Blaenau Ffestiniog and we catch the bus to there and down into another mine for a self guided tour. The hills all around this town are piled mountain high with discarded slate and it’s probably one of the dreariest places we have seen in Wales.
The rail line follows the northern coastline of Wales and we can only imagine how busy this area must be in the summer as we have seen literally thousands upon thousands of on-site caravans in park after park on both sides of the rail line. Along this coast the beaches do actually have white sand, as opposed to others further south that a stoney.
Riding so many trains and buses we have lost count, we have now worked our way up the west coast, across the top of Wales and now are coming down through Snowdonia, in the centre on our way to Chester and back to England
Day eight of our Freedom of Wales bus/train ticket and we are just about back to Leominster, our starting point, and where we have left our big bags in storage while we have travelled Wales. We certainly have gotten our monies worth from these tickets. They cost ₤69 each and we figure we would have at least spent triple this on all the buses and trains we have used in the last 8 day’s.
HARRODS
Wow, it really has to be seen to be believed. Harrods is opulence with a capital ‘O’
Gold and marble everywhere and it’s massive, it covers one whole London block.
Every designer label you have ever heard about is well represented in clothing, bags, shoes, jewellery, and they even sell food, wine and beer.
Really it’s your one stop shop!
They have a massive Egyptian Room, with authentic looking columns and hieroglyphics on the walls. We signed ‘The Diana Memorial Book’ that is in it’s own specially decorated area.
They have a pet section that sells little pink mink jackets and real diamond studded collars for your dog or cat. Burberry carry bags with matching hats lined with real fur, and for those who like to walk their pets without them getting wet or dirty, a special pet stroller.
And for those looking for that special piece for the bathroom renovation, they sell the ultimate in claw footed baths, solid beaten copper lined with nickel for only ₤8000, that’s approximately $17,000 Australian dollars.
Had a bit of a mission to attend to for my good friend Barb, didn’t quite complete it, so damn I’ll just have to go back there another day.
Lands End
We caught a double-decker bus and sat upstairs and in the front seat of course for our trip to Lands End. Down winding narrow lanes with the tree branches scraping the side of the bus and at one time the bus had to backup, yes a double-decker backing up about 500m to let a farmer pass. We passed the stone circles of ‘The Merry Maidens’ and the 5000 year old Neolithic burial chambers at Lanyon Quoit. Lands End is a towering granite headland and stunningly beautiful, it’s lighthouse shrouded in mist. We wandered around taking some photos then back over to the bus stop for our bus to Penzance and then train back to London, where we will spend the next few days.
Devon and Cornwell
We leave London and head for the Devon and Cornwall areas in the south west of England.
Catch the train from Paddington station to Exeter then on to a connecting bus to Okehampton. We are staying at the Okehampton YHA. The area is very scenic, small farms with long haired, black faced sheep, stone fences and thatched roof houses built so close to the road you could touch them from the bus window. Desolate moors line the hillside and you can see why hikers are often lost on these misty slopes. Tavistock, birthplace of Sir Francis Drake, has a busy Pannier Market in which you can but anything from antique furniture to fruit and veg. Tavistock is a very old town with evidence of prehistoric man, their stone hut circles still stand, and Viking plundering. On our way back to Okehampton we get off the bus and explored the ruins of a castle at Lydford. While in Lydford we unwittingly gatecrashed a open garden event (we are good at that) where the ladies offered us a cup of tea and cake and wished us well for our travels.
Port Isaac in Cornwell is our next stop. It is where they film the ABC TV program Doc Martin. It’s a picturesque town perched on the side of a sea cliff, with cute whitewashed homes and narrow lanes barely wide enough for one car. It’s fishing boats in the harbour bring in fresh fish and crabs daily and we have a lovely meal of fresh fish at the pub overlooking the harbour. Our accommodation is in the ‘Old Schoolhouse B & B’ ina lovely room with a window seat and views of the harbour.
The next day we are off to Penzance, it’s name derived from 2 Cornish words Pen and Sans, meaning holy headland. Two buses and one train ride later we arrive in this busy seaside town, with it’s marina full of pleasure boats. We found a lovely B & B ‘The Wymering’ www.wymering.com dropped our bags off and went to explore. Had dinner at The Barbican, part of a still standing fort that was built in the reign Henry VIII to protect the harbour against it’s enemies. Large bronze cannons in place from when they were used to protect the residents from the French in the Napoleonic wars. Stone terraced streets wind there way through the town, lovely parks with people enjoying this warm (24-26C) unseasonable weather.
Arrival in the UK
The next leg of our adventure takes us to the UK.
The 13hr flight from Hong Kong into Heathrow went smoothly, although when we arrived it was a very busy time and we had to de-plane onto the tarmac in the rain and then be bused to the arrivals gate. Luggage has made it along with us again without a hitch (hope I'm not jinxing us by saying that), through customs and onto the train into the city in no time. We hit the peak hour and the underground was very busy, by the time we had to get off it was so crowded we barely made it off the train at our stop, I managed only with the help of a nice French girl that picked up my larger suitcase pushed her way through and deposited it on the platform for me. We are staying at the St Athans Hotel (thankyou Sandy) conveniently located in Russell Square and only a short walk from the station.
It was still raining and it where soaked by the time we made inside, the umbrella of course was safely stowed at the bottom of the pack, we dragged our bags up to our third floor room (Sandy you forgot to mention to request a ground floor room). We changed into some dry clothes and of course hit our first Pub, The Marquis of Cornwallis. We had been now going for about 23hrs with only a short nap on the plane so it didn't take long for us to feel the effects of the wine, so headed back to St Athans and our bed.
First stop, Hong Kong
The flight to Hong Kong went reasonably well, that is once we got off the ground. Apparently the baggage compartment was damaged when loading luggage and once fixed had to OK'd by Canberra before we could take off. So being a Saturday it did take a little longer than usual. Finally about an hour later we were in the air and settled in for our 8.5 hour flight.
We arrived in Hong Kong just as the sun was setting and it was beautiful sight.
No problem getting into Kowloon by bus, they have a public transit pass called an Octopus that you swipe across a reader that is valid for train, subway, bus and ferry's and that we recommend anyone travelling to Hong Kong buys, it makes it so much easier to get around town, and they really do have a terrific rail system, clean, efficient and reasonably priced.
We stayed at Lee Garden Guest House on Cameron Rd in Kowloon run by the friendly Charlie Chan (really). Although the rooms are small, they are spotlessly clean and the staff are friendly, in fact we didn't find anyone the 4 day's we spent in Hong Kong that was not helpful or friendly.
We ventured out onto the streets looking for something to eat and a look around. It is busy and bustling, the hawkers offering to take you to have custom suits made in a day or wanting to sell you 'copy watches or copy handbags'. There are people just everywhere. I have never seen streets so busy anywhere.
The next day we went to the Jade, Ladies and Temple Street night markets, just about anything and everything you want available and inexpensive. And it's so crowded, people everywhere. We ate with the locals at street corner stalls and it was wonderful, most of the time we had no idea what we ordered, but it was always tasty.
We took the ferry over to Hong Kong Island to go up to the peak but we didn't make it to the top as the smog was so thick. We rode the central escalators, a series of 3 moving walkways and 20 elevated escalators that run 800m and is travelled each day by over 50,000 locals that take the 20min ride to and from work.
We discovered a local market where the locals shop for their meat and fish for dinner, butchers in open air stalls cutting up beef etc and fish still alive and swimming in open containers.
The Island is such a mixture of extremes,tall impressive high rises on the waterfront and then a few streets back tiny flats with laundry hung from windows, and streets on such a incline they look like ladders. Temples with huge burning incense coils hung from the ceiling in remembrance of deceased relatives. Bamboo scaffolding tied together with rope by nimble footed workers on new multi-story building sites amused Brian, this is a country of such extremes.
On the island of Lantau we a rode the cable car up the mountain to see the Giant Buddha, inside the statue there is an alter which holds a sacred artifact said to be part of the ashes from Buddha. When he died his ashes were split into 5000 pieces and distributed to his followers to worship. At the Po Lin Monastery for a small donation we had a lovely vegetarian meal prepared by the monks. Incense burned here as well on large alters both inside and outside in remembrance of the dead.
On our final evening we went down to the harbour to watch the Light Spectacular, a show with lasers lights that play in sequence on the skyscrapers on the waterfront of Hong Kong.
We have enjoyed Hong Kong very much and look forward to visiting again.
