Raining today - Homeward Bound

It's raining today - first time weve had daytime rain since we arrived - a sure sign that we're due to go home.

Last Day in London

What's a last day in London without seeing the Changing of the Guard.  We made it into London (with thousands of others ...) to watch the ceremony.  The first to march in were Royal Marines according to a close by tour guide (white hats).  Then Phil stayed behind on a lawn while I forged into the crowd and ended up on the Queen Victoria monument right across from the palace gates (I know - such a tourist!).  Couldn't see the back and forthing behind the gates but we saw this part at Windsor.  I was in prime position for the exit of the guard and am pleased to end this blog with a short video with marching guard music  - Aunty Marion is a much better videographer than me but you'll get the drift.

Back home tomorrow with some wonderful memories of our 2 weeks in England.  We'll be back and hope to not wait 14 years until the next visit.

Cheerio!

Another sunny day in London

 

Last day in Yeovil - updated pics

Today we started off at the Yeovilton air fleet museum.  Lots of old planes from days gone by, helicopters etc.  We went thru the sim of an aircraft carrier including behind a behind the scenes look via reconstructions with a video talk through.  The highlight for us both was the Concorde 002 - one of the first ones built between BA and Air France - this one did test flights and trials but never carried passengers.  It felt very cramped inside with not much head room.  The size on the outside though with it's enormous wings is impressive.

This afternoon we went with Aunty's Ada / Marion and Uncle Ray for one last visit out in Stoke with Aunty Valerie / Uncle Mervyn.  They are on quite a hill and have the most wonderful garden.  We sat out in the sun and had a creme tea and strawberries with clotted cream.  So good ...

Back to London tomorrow.  Be sure to check back to previous posts for updated pics.

Welcome to Concorde!

Glastonbury, Wells and Ham Hill

Today was a visit with school chum Pauline and her husband Chris.  Pauline and I met playing in the field behind our houses in Yeovil when we were 4!  How wonderful to see them both again and catch up with them both.  It's so lovely when you have such great friends that you can pick up where you left off last time without a pause.

We started out in Wells with it's beautiful cathedral.  There was a children's festival on and a parade of all the school children followed by Morris dancing.  We were advised for the 2nd time on this holiday that Morris dancing is "rubbish" and didn't see the dancing.  Fair enough that our parking ticket was expiring also!

Off to Glastonbury - even more new age than I remembered but interesting to walk around and have a cold drink.

Then we travelled on a hair raising drive through the British countryside and the Somerset Levels (where all the flooding was) to Ham Hill.  We encountered roads too narrow to pass, farm vehicles and a horse / carriage to jam up the works.  Had an ice cream (with Flake) and enjoyed the view.  After my lower leg started to go tingly, I noticed the stinging nettles I had just dragged it through to climb on a rock :(

We're having a bit of a quiet evening tonight to get ready for the  Yeovilton air museum in the morning.  Then off for last time family visits in the afternoon.

Turns out today was Trooping of the Colour so we caught some of it and the flyover on TV.  Impressive!

Pauline, Anne, Chris - Wells

Wells is a beautiful cathedral.

Ham Hill

Higgins Family Visit - updated pics

Off to sunny Weymouth today for a visit with 2nd cousins Claire (Nigel) and Marion.  First task was to walk the full length of the beach and then off for an outdoor lunch at Brewery Quay.  Then back along the beach noting the donkey rides, sand sculptures, and other attractions, including the clock and Punch and Judy show.  Regrettably there is no zoo, and no lion, unlike certain other (mythologized) seaside towns.

Back to Marion's for tea and a surprise visit from Tessa and Steve - Tessa is another 2nd cousin who lives in Wales (daughter of one of Dad's cousins - Barbara Zamorski - nee Higgins).

Returned to our Yeovil base using the excellent train service.

Claire, Anne, Phil, Marion on Weymouth Beach

The famous Weymouth clock dedicated to Queen Victoria

2nd cousins Claire (Nigel) and Tessa  (Steve)

Swap out Nigel for Claire's sister Marion

Hurley family visit - Updated pics

Weather continues to hold - who would have thought that England would be so consistently sunny and warm!

We walked up the hill (Hendford) into Yeovil town centre yesterday.  Some things I remembered like the big church in the centre of town and the shopping streets but not much else.

Then we walked up the hill the other way (we're at the bottom) to get to Aunty Ada's for the family gathering.  The GPS said it was 1.2  kms so we set off on foot - it didn't tell us the steepness of the hill!

It was so great to see all the aunts / uncles / cousins - it has been many many years (guessing 30...) since I've seen some of my cousins.  Claire and Dawn were able to coordinate trips home from continental Europe with our visit - so cool!

Off to Weymouth today to visit with Higgins cousins.

 

Cousins Claire, Dawn and Nicola

Aunties Valerie (lt) and Ada with Uncle Mervyn and cousin Dawn

Claire with Uncle John & Aunty Sylvie

Aunties Angela & Marion 

Uncle Ray with Sammy (blue) and Tommy

Off to Yeovil

We've made it safely to Yeovil today for the next phase - visits with family.

Remember my earlier comment about traffic congestion in London ...   today we got caught up in it and almost missed our bus.  We had about a mile to get to the coach station so decided to take a taxi instead of train / tube with 2 transfers for around 5 stops in total.  Who knew that today there are taxi demonstrations and slow downs resulting in difficulties getting taxi's and massive congestion once in a taxi.  As time was ticking by and we weren't moving in the taxi, we decided to abandon our taxi and  manage by foot.  This resulted in the 3 of us practically sprinting for blocks and blocks with luggage in tow.  Good thing Aunty Marion had her trainers on!  We made it with just about 4 minutes to spare and settled onto the bus for our trip to Yeovil.

Uncle Ray picked us up at the station, Aunty Ada cooked a lovely roast chicken dinner and we had a really nice evening running down memory lane.  Tomorrow the rest of the family are gathering in the afternoon - can't wait :)

Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, Oxford

It's been a full day today.  Our coach left Victoria station at 8:45 headed to Windsor Castle.  We saw the Queen Mary doll house and the state rooms - totally fixed up following the fire in 1992 - very impressive including lots of Reubens and Van Dyck paintings of royalty, popes, painted ceilings, the massive dining room table etc.  Then 11:00 was the changing of the guard.

Changing of the Guard

Phil & Aunty Marion

Windsor Castle

Next stop - Stonehenge.  They take you way around now and into a huge new visitor centre and onto a shuttle bus to go up to the stones.  Haven't been able to walk around the stones for years but the scale is still massive.  It got a bit windy up there and we regretted our earlier optimism where we all struck out without sweaters!. We could see it from the highway as we headed back towards London - Phil suggested they should just put a road pullout there and make it all so much simpler.

Last stop - Oxford.  Not a university as we know it in Canada but a series of colleges where the top students each work with a tutor to set up a program.  The buildings were all very old.  We stopped at the Randolph hotel (Insp. Morse) and the Eagle and Child (drinking hole of Tolkien and T.S. Elliot) as well as hearing stories of martyred protestants and seeing their statue and visiting the courtyard of the Bodleian library (they get a copy of every book printed) - sssh!

Jersey Boys

Another sunny day in London.  Got out for a run this morning - much needed - followed by a walk over to Starbucks as is the usual Sunday morning ritual with my pal Julie.

It's Sunday so a Sunday Roast at the pub was next on the agenda - sooo good :)

This afternoon we headed back into London for Jersey Boys at the Piccadily theatre.  We both really enjoyed it.  The story was great and the singers were amazing.  Phil doesn't usually do musicals and even he enjoyed it.  Will be humming Franki Valli songs for days to come ...

Additional observations:  there is a much lower rate of morbid obesity here than in North America, people dress much better (no Lululemon or yoga / running gear is apparent except for those actually exercising), way more people smoke and attitudes about drinking are much more casual - we saw a guy walking down the street at 10:00 this morning with a Strongbow (cider), people take drinks out of pubs and onto the sidewalks and children and dogs are welcome in pubs (both inside and on patios).

Looking forward to Aunty Marion's visit tomorrow.

(These pics were all taken with my iPhone today - something has gone awry with my big camera as it is really overexposing the sky as is seen in previous posts - hmmmm.)

A great spot for a run along the river is minutes from Suzy's.

Sunday morning Starbucks outing

Sunday roast at the local pub

Where east meets west

We got off to a slow start today and completely missed the trooping of the color :(

We headed out to Greenwich to visit the Royal Observatory this afternoon once the sun came out.  We walked all the way up a steep hill, visited the telescopes and stood on the meridian line.

Off to Jersey boys in Picadilly tomorrow.

Turns out you need a Google account to post a reply - it's easy and free to set up :)

The Meridian Line

A 99er

Cutty Sark

Westminster, cabinet war rooms and Tower of London

We started today at Big Ben and then headed to the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum.  It was really interesting to see where so many worked (and slept) through the war in a series of small bunker like rooms.  They had one of the Enigma machines for sending coded messages. Videos made years later of the people who worked there, particularly the typists, made it very real.

Any relation Dad? 

Then it was off to the Tower of London where we went on a tour by the Beefeater, heard the stories of the gruesome activities and saw the Crown Jewels - wow!  Sure didn't pay to be a wife of Henry the VIII - at least 2 of them were killed and buried there.  Sounds like they're really not positive about the princes but our guide believes they were the young remains found on the site, lost again and ultimately found and buried at Westminster.

Not sure about tomorrow yet - forecast is for rain.

Finding our away around

Today we started finding our way around London.  It was super easy and fast to get into London on the Overground and tube using the Oyster card (1 stop on the Overground and 5 stops on the District line to get to Victoria station close to Buckingham Palace etc .  This is the same company that is working with Vancouver on the Compass card - not sure why Vancouver is having so much trouble - it's really easy and quick to use.  We bought a 2 day on-off bus pass to get oriented which was excellent.  We visited Harrods (passed on the £800 sneakers), Hyde Park and St. Paul's Cathedral.  Things we learned / re-learned - look right before stepping off the curb, nowhere is as bad as London for traffic congestion and you just have to accept that £1 buys you about the same as $1 and you just can't stress about the difference in exchange.

In Hyde Park at the Diana memorial.

St. Paul's Cathedral with it's beautiful dome

Phil at the Serpentine pond with some of our Canada Geese (also Hyde Park)

Arrived safely

We've arrived safely in London after a long 8.5 hour overnight flight. Today's a day for catching up on some lost sleep and getting organized.  It's been rainy but the suns out now so a good time to get out to pick up some groceries and dinner.  Looking forward to exploring Fulham (where Suzy's flat is) and then into London proper.