UK - last stop.
Trip Start
Feb 11, 2008
1
11
Trip End
Mar 24, 2008
Bishop's Stortford, United Kingdom
Monday, March 24, 2008
We arrived at Heathrow after a long & cramped flight with hard seats in the very back row of the plane. Pleased to see TC's cousin John to meet us & drive us home to Bishop's Stortford & all the comforts of home.
In the afternoon in an effort to stay awake we visited John's brother Alan in his little farm home on the other side of town. The cottage is very old - supposedly one of if not the oldest in the district dated around the 1500's. Beautifully restored & yet comfortably modern inside it was a treat to see. Alan also has horses & a dog, which the kids played with for ages in the cold air giving them very rosy cheeks. Home to Jenny to dinner & a well looked for sleep.
Off to London on Wednesday as it had the best forecast for weather. We caught the train in (30 mins) & proceeded to be frustrated by an unfair number of delays & detours to get where we wanted to go. First the tourism info sent us in the wrong direction which cost us over 2 hours of precious time including some horrendous traffic hold-ups due to traffic lights being out in Trafalgar Square (where we should have gone straight to on the tube!). In frustration we got off the bus & found some delicious lunch in Covent Garden then tried to rejoin the right bus tour. It was 2.10pm before we caught the right one & were finally on our way which meant we couldn't hop off anywhere for fear of not finishing the tour before dark. We wound our way around all the London landmarks with a freezing wind on top of the double decker bus but were determined it wasn't all bad. We did stop at Buckingham Palace for a brief photo stop then caught the next tour bus 20mins later (the 2nd last for the day). I had also bought tickets to the London Eye but we decided that could wait until dark & stayed on the bus a bit longer. We then made our way to the river Thames for the ½ hour boat cruise including in our bus ticket. The gatekeeper shut the gate on the boat as we got there & wouldn't let us on so yet another delay only to find if we'd stayed the other side of the river we could have caught it there anyway. Eventually we got to the Tower but of course the last ticket had been sold 40 mins earlier so we didn't hang around. By now it was peak hour but we tackled the tube again with a very slow trip back to the London Eye. Now it really was dark & we did get a spectacular view of London at night from the Eye which was the big highlight for the day. Exhausted & more tube delays we made it back to the train station & got home at 10 pm. All this with TC suffering from a fluey bug he picked up in NY!
Thursday was a whole lot better with John & Jenny taking us to Newmarket for a tour of the racing museum, gallops, stables & town features (horse racing capital). In the afternoon after a delightful lunch we went on a tour of the National Stud - all thoroughly enjoyable & interesting (even for TC) despite cold rainy conditions. Highlight for all of us was the pretty grey 3 day old colt brought out to meet us. All the stallions were in their boxes due to the weather & the other mares & foals were not interested in meeting us either as they were sheltering from the rain.
On good Friday I had thoughts of going back to London with the kids (TC not well enough) but RJ woke with TC's nasty bug & squashed any ideas of more sightseeing. Thanks to J&J's wonderful hospitality it was pretty easy to stay close to home. TC went with John to Redding to pick up our niece Renee who is over here for a 5 year working holiday & we haven't seen her for a good few years so it was nice to have her visit with us.
Saturday's weather was not great with a little snow as well as rain. TC still not keen to venture out & RJ definitely housebound. We all went to see the Spiderwick Chronicles to fill in the morning. It cleared a little in the afternoon so John took TC, Renee & I on a short drive around the area and to see where Betty had worked as cook in the Barnados house - Little Bardfield Hall. It is now a private residence but we did sneak a look before going into St Katharine's Church where Betty would have gone to church on Sunday's. It was very cold (3 C) but the sun did shine a little for us before it snowed most of the way home through other little villages of Finchingfield, Saffron Walden, Thaxted, Newport (where Nell Gwyn's house - 1500's) & home via Stansted village where J&J own an office building - 1550 same age as Alan's cottage & same construction.
Easter Sunday morning dawned with a white blanket of snow covering everything much to all the Aussie's delight. It was picture perfect & enough to keep us home from church. We did sneak out in the garden though & built a proper snowman & marvelled at the garden under a couple of inches of snow. A little unusual for Easter but not uncommon for this time of year. TC, Renee & kids had a round of 10 pin bowling before lunch but JJ lost the plot & was out of sorts for the afternoon.
We were joined in the afternoon by other family - Alan & Tina, Claire & Aunty Jean for afternoon lunch & it was a really nice time with everyone. Unfortunately the cold air played up with RJ's cough & he struggled for the rest of the day, night & today - our last day here.
Consequently we've had a pretty quiet time here & not done anywhere near the things we planned to do like visit other friends & family. Nevertheless it's been nice to sit & relax before coming home after a fantastic family holiday (or marathon!).
Hope you've enjoyed our jottings & we'll catch up soon with everyone.
Cheers for now
