We were pleased that our aircraft landed safely in London City airport, the closest airport to the centre of London and also the newest. As the docks in the East of London were of little use a part of them was utilised to build a brand new international airport. Once through customs/immigration, a seamless invisible operation, we picked up our hire car and set sail into the London traffic. Quite an experience and one that finds us digging deep into our reserves of patience. These guys seem to think that queuing is part of life, we don't get that sort of training in NZ that sets us up for Britain.
However, we mastered the M25 without mishap and arrived in the early evening to Mike and Merima. Mike is one of the first backpackers that ever stayed with us, back in 1992 and we have kept in contact over the years. They have a lovely home on the south side of London and two gorgeous young ladies and a spare room for us, well actually Emma generously moved out so we could inhabit her space for three nights thanks Emma. We headed in to London Town by train and wandered with the incessant constant crowds for a day. This town is different to any we have encountered and it can get to be too much. We thought we would go to the London Eye and experience that huge Ferris wheel thing that takes people high over the city. We lay on the grass and considered the length of the queue. Once in line it would take 40-50 minutes to get to the front and onto the wheel. We steeled ourselves, battled our inner doubts, considered all options and took the plunge.....yes, we can do this. At about the same time that we made that positive decision we realised that we had to first stand in line, another line, to get a ticket, and that would take 40-50 minutes! also........we never did get to ride on the London Eye. We enjoyed the walk mostly for the fact that we could leave the city and once again, at sometime, roam freely on the streets of Blenheim without interference. We did manage to get tickets to "The Commitments" musical which was quite fun and ended up with a concert of all the movie songs at the end. The whole theatre were on their feet dancing to "Mustang Sally", a good way to finish a day in the big smoke.
 |
| Palace Theatre |
After leaving south London, with a couple of caches logged, we headed to Devon in our Vauxhall Astra. We found a B&B in Kingsbridge which is a nice small town near the south coast. From this town we could easily get to Start Point where Diana has distant relatives, Mary-Jane and Nick Ansell. This is a family that Kathleen, Diana, Hayden and Blair all visited and are related by way of a great, great grandfather. It turned out to be son Charlie's 30th birthday bash with lots of people camping in the paddock - like a mini Woodstock! The family is well into music so we enjoyed a line up of six different bands playing in one of the farm sheds including an 8 piece band which had Charlie, his sister Annie, and his father Nick along with cousins and uncles. Unfortunately brother Freddie could not be there as his band is having some success with gigs in Germany at present. The "Ferrets" were able to put on a great performance, including a few "Rolling Stones" hits, magic.
 |
| Start Point |
James, Mary-Jane's brother, was down from Hereford with his son, Anthony, and we had a good catchup with them. James visited us in Blenheim about 100 years ago. It was wonderful to visit these distant relatives and to feel so welcome in such a beautiful part of England. We walked to the lighthouse and also to an abandoned village built on rocks under a cliff on the edge of the sea while gathering a couple of geocaches. There was a tinge of sadness in finding Mary-Jane battling cancer, but it was so nice to meet her again after so many years and we will always have fond memories of our times with the Ansells in Devon.
From Devon we drove back to London and caught up with another special couple, Mike and Holly. They had looked after The Grapevine for us a couple of years ago and it was good to see them happy and together saving money for a house. We had dinner with them before we set off north.
Our route north took us through numerous little villages and past some farms which all look a picture at this time of the year. We haven't seen any rain and no doubt the farmers would like to see a change in the weather. We camped for the night in a wee town in the Yorkshire Dales, Hawes. It was a real treat with fantastic weather and such picturesque surroundings. We enjoy driving on the little by roads but they are much slower than the motorways. We tend to use both depending how quickly we want to get somewhere. Hopefully next time we write we have just witnessed our Sevens team winning the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Posted with Blogsy