2016-04-29 Friday: to Polperro

Headlines

Breakfast, Pack, Leave: and a last attempt to geocache in Wales
Wales to England to Polperro: fast motorways, big bridges
Polperro at Last: fitting memories to facts
First Meal in Polperro

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Stream of Consciousness

Breakfast, Pack, Leave: and a last attempt to geocache in Wales

Another hearty hotel breakfast! Today, I have kippers. It seems so very... English. I have to try them, even though we're in Wales. Near enough...

Fishy.

I enjoy my kippers but would not have them again, not for a while, anyway. Deb asks, Have I tried kippers before? Yes, though not for years and years. Probably on an earlier trip to England.

Deb has the full Welsh breakfast. Today, I help her finish the rather large amount of food. I'm so kind :-)

Upstairs to our room. We pack, haul cases downstairs. I make sure that the hotel people know we're gone... And... we're gone.

It's a three hour plus drive to Polperro. A long drive. We'll still need to stop on the way, or arrive too early. No worries, we'll at least be stopping for lunch.

Oops! I take a wrong exit from a roundabout! The GPS recalculates -- and we're now travelling on less travelled roads. Still busy but two instead of four lanes. A good result.  On these quieter roads, we decide to try for a Welsh geocache...

I've loaded some geocaches in the GPS, caches centred on Abergavenny. So we can look for caches within a 20km (or so) circle. We look for a convenient cache...

There's a cache a few hundred metres off to one side of our road. Seems to be on that little side road. We follow. The road becomes a single lane. Squeezes past a farm building. And the cache appears to be right on top of a most amazing bridge!

It's an old stone bridge, arching over a canal. The car climbs up -- and the road on the bridge dips down -- out of sight under the front of the car! I take it on faith that the road really does continue... and slowly move forward.

The road does continue! Steeply down the other side of the bridge. We park -- next to a no parking sign. A passing local stops, tells us than in about an hour he will be driving a lorry through where we are parking. We assure him we're just there for five minutes, to admire the bridge.

Dratted cache! It seems to be below the bridge. I start reading the hint -- and the GPS battery dies :-(. Back to the car, replace the batteries, read the clue. It's something about Florence and her ?Davids?? Local slang? Local names for flowers?? Who knows! We have another look under the bridge -- at least we now know that the cache is on the canal tow path. Then I notice... the last few attemps were DNF. We give up, drive back to the main road.

I decide to try another cache: right on the main road, next to a parking area. The last log says that he drove up and saw the cache from his car. We can't see it at all. But at least there's a public toilet to use -- and photograph :-)

We swear off Welsh geocaches and drive on.

Wales to England to Polperro: fast motorways, big bridges

Pretty soon, we're back on the motorway. It's smooth, it's easy, it's fast. I'm sitting on 70, sometimes 80. That's *miles* per hour. It's easy but I'm getting tired.

We cross the Severn Bridge -- wow! it's huge! And the railway bridge next to it -- designed by Isembard Brunel, if I understand the sign -- is enormous and a weird, unique design.

Finally: a sign says, Welcome to England!

Both Deb and I give a little cheer...Wales was fine, the hotel was great but there was nothing great in what we saw. We walked and drove and it was just a variation -- a pleasant variation -- on countryside. I tend to read every sign, often aloud. What a relief that the signs are now in just one language! A language that we can pronounce, too. It was a pleasant break in our journey but neither of us were absolutely enthralled by our short Welsh visit.

And, of course, we will now refer to unfound geocaches as having gone Welsh...

Now we're in England. Somerset. Time for a break from driving. Time for lunch.

I take the next motorway exit... Okay, we considerd eating at a motorway service area. After all, it's a quintessentially English experience! But we'd rather not... Our preferred motorway break is to look for a pub, well off the motorway, with easy parking.

Our exit points to Cheddar Gorge and Caves, and Wookey Hole and Caves. Almost 20km away but that's our fallback option.

btw: Road signs here are often vague about distance. ie They point but don't say how far. When they do, it's in miles. Our GPS is still working in kilometres. So when Deb told it to find Cheddar, it replied in kilometres.

We drive towards Cheddar. (It's a town or village. As well as a gorge and cave and cheese.) Suddenly I spot a Free House & Inn -- a pub -- with easy parking!

We pull in and eat lunch at The Lamb Inn, in Lower Weare. Close to the Axe River. Really, I have no idea where we are. It's a nice pub, cosy, expecting to serve locals. We have soup of the day (mushroom) with bread. Plus tea and coffee.

And so, refreshed... back to the motorway.

It's still miles and miles to go. The GPS says we'll be in Polperro by 4:30. That's a good time. The only memorable point is the Tamar Bridge. Another enormous bridge though not as enormous as the Severn. There's some rain, some shine and temperature ranging from 8 to 11.

We bypass Plymouth. The road gets smaller. We turn off towards Looe. The road is down to two narrow lanes or just one... I didn't realise Polperro was so out of the way! And finally...

Polperro at Last: fitting memories to facts

Polperro!

We miss the turnoff and hit the wrong end of the village. We can't get to our cottage from this end of the village, there's a stretch of one-way road in the way.

Turn round, back up the hill. Find the correct turnoff. Find Talland Hill... Wow! it's steep! And narrow! The road is two-way, so I guess cars can pass. There are not-very-wide spots for passing. Luckily we don't meet any cars. Just parents picking up their children from school and walking down the hill.

We creep down the hill... Not just because it's narrow... We don't want to miss our cottage! There! Garden Cottage! I can even identify the spot for us to park our car... The description is clearer now that I can see it :-)

I spend five minutes reversing the car into the very small parking spot. Backwards off the steep hill, try to miss the stone wall, ignore the reversing beeper so that I can back up to another stone wall... Back and forward a few times till I get it right. We get out of the car.

Then I get back in, to move forward -- so that I can open the boot to get the cases out! Reverse in again, ignoring the desperate reverse warning beeping. Which goes from beeping to continuous tone. Phew! Done :-)

It's even a steep walk back up to our front door!

We're here. It's brilliant !

I'll write more tomorrow... Now it's time for bed.

Written tomorrow:

We settled in, went out to dinner. I'll write a separate post describing Garden Cottage.

First Meal in Polperro

First, we need to stock up for tomorrow's breakfast. So we walk down to the general store. And I do mean that we "walk down". It may be less that 100m. It may be a 40 degree slope.

The shop is open till five... we still have time to shop. That's a relief! Bread, butter, milk, tea, coffee... and a few other odds and ends. Enough for a meal or two. Then a slow walk uuuup that hill, back home.

Later... it's a bit after six o'clock... out to dinner.

We have decided on fish & chips. Deb thinks that "we" have decided. I decided, as we drove towards Polperro. We go the the Chip Ahoy simply because we can see it -- across the harbour -- from our cottage. It's a cheap chippie. Top fish (that is, the cheapest) are cod and haddock. We select one of each. Plus chips. And take it home to eat.

And that's about it, for Friday. We're here, we're settled, it's good :-)

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Agamedes Consulting
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"A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top."
   

2016-04-28 Thursday: Amongst the Brecon Beacons

Headlines

A Very Hearty Breakfast!
Driving in Search of a Walk
Walking in the Common: ooooh that's cold
Enough Walking: we drive home the long way, in the rain

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Stream of Consciousness

A Very Hearty Breakfast!

We're booked into the Lamb for B&B, bed and breakfast. So, down to breakfast. Even though it doesn't start till 8am.

There's orange juice and cereal on the table. After that the basic choice -- the obvious choice -- is Welsh breakfast. Which we obviously choose. Oh, and toast comes whether we ask for it or not.

Btw: the Welsh know how to serve tea and coffee -- with very large cups! Not quite mugs, but large enough. We noticed it once near Stratford. The large cups became standard as we approached Wales. Our breakfast tea / coffee comes in a pot which easily fills two of the large cups. For each of us.

Welsh breakfast looks a lot like a full English breakfast: bacon, egg, tomato, mushroom, baked beans (served in a separate gravy boat, so it looks neat), sausage, hash brown... and blood sausage. Enormous! We eat it all... And decide that lunch will be a light meal.

Oh, and I had a bit of toast and marmalade to finish.

Driving in Search of a Walk

We're on the edge of -- inside, I think -- the Brecon Beacons national park. We -- by which I mean, Deb -- want to find a walk amongst the mountains. I see two possibilities. First, find the park's Visitor Centre. (It's on a map.) Walk any walk that they recommend. Second, come home via a place called Blaenavon... for a fairly level walk amongst industrial leftovers. Or a walk to a place which may have inspired Shakespeare. Cwm Pwca, or Puck's Valley. Cwn Pwca seems to be part of Blaenavon, it's hard to tell from the brochure.

So we're driving along main roads towards Crickhowell and Brecon. Till we spot a sign which points to the park visitor centre.

It's a nice drive. The "Beacons" are large hills rather than mountains. Or so it seems, with memories of Switzerland! The roads are a bit busy but we occasionally pull over, to let traffic pass. The temperature seems stuck on eight degrees.

There's at least one mountain that has snow on the top. And this is spring... The weather website reported zero degrees at six am today.

Walking in the Common: ooooh that's cold

The visitor centre is set on the edge of Mynydd Illtud common. (Luckily we have a brochure, to help with memory... and spelling.) The common is long and narrow, with an iron age fort at one end. Or, at least, the site of an iron age fort.

We walk...

The temperature may still be eight degrees. The wind is blowing -- strong enough to make it feel closer to zero. We're dressed for it but only just.

I'm wearing a thermal top, shirt, jumper, jacket. Warm enough to sweat on the uphills. Except that the jacket is sleeveless. So my arms are cool and my hands are very cold. I've taken to wearing woolen long johns all the time... so at least my legs (and feet) are warm :-) I may need gloves. I sometimes wish for a better jacket. Oh well. Not to worry. Better people than us have been frozen on the Welsh mountains :-)

We walk in the cold and enjoy the view. It is quite a good view! There's a mountain with a good snow covering to one side of us. Neatly laid out fields and farms on another side. Sheep in fields -- and on the common. We're up high, so there are wide views in most directions. All very nice!

It's a couple of kilometres to the end of the common, to the iron age fort. Near the start of the walk, my camera runs out of battery, so don't expect many "common" photos! Just imagine open grassland edged with stone walls and low fences. Patches of gorse and bracken. A few sheep. Gently up and down. With a distinct rise at the end, and that's the fort.

A group of twenty or so high school children are walking in parallel to us, on the other side of the common. We meet at the fort, then we head back.

The other point of interest for this walk is an iron age standing stone. It's back near the visitor centre.

There are quite a few small birds. Lots of tits, Deb tells me. We both smirk. We also spot some small furry thing with a tail, dashing along to hide in a hole in a wall. Snow rat, perhaps... :-)

Having seen the "fort", we have time to notice the cold wind. Notice it even more and comment on it, that is. The thought of seeing the standing stone keeps us going. That and the fact that the stone is on the shortest way back.

And there -- almost hidden behind a sheep -- is the stone! It's a stone, maybe a metre high. It's standing. The excitement :-)

Back to the Visitor Centre, straight to the tea shop. Pot of tea each and a scone to share. (It's about 12:30. We're still full from breakfast. And from several meals yesterday.) Aaaaahhhh... warm again!

Deb asks about the piles of earth that we had seen in some areas. About 30 to 40 centimetres across, ten cm high, looking as though the earth had been pushed up from underneath. Mud volcano, is my guess. Moles digging underneath, is the official answer. Moles!

Enough Walking: we drive home the long way, in the rain

The weather so far has been fine and cold. Rain has been threatening, but holding off. Rain or not, we're not sure if we want to walk any more...

Back into the car, we head for home.

We head for home... the long way. Looking for less travelled roads. Through the mountains. In any direction.

We're driving along one lane roads. Hedges on either side. Very little traffic other than us... Very, very little. Lots of pleasant views of farms and fields and sheep. Occasional views of steep and deep valleys.  Very, very nice!

Some of the roads that we follow, go through a farm. And I do mean "through"! We drive into a farm yard, between farm buildings. Make a sharp turn round a barn, or a house. Out of the farm and carry on. These roads seem to have begun life as tracks to the farm.

There are half a dozen teenage lambs on the road! They have not seen many cars, it seems -- they see us -- and start trotting up the road... Away from the closed gate that they had slipped through... Oh no :-(

We stop the car, back up a bit. I get out -- but the lambs have disappeared further up the road. We drive on, slowly. Catch up... This time, the lambs -- most of them -- huddle against a gate leading back off the road. We drive past. One lamb is still ahead -- but wants to follow (like sheep) the others, and darts back past our car.

Last we see, they are all trotting back towards their original field. Phew!

For a lot of this drive, it's been raining. On and off, mostly on. Not heavy. Just enough to convince us that not walking, is a good idea.

We get very high up amongst the farms in the mountains. Then down again, then back to main roads. Time to head -- roughly -- home again.

There's a reservoir, and a visitors centre. A place for tea -- or walking, or bmx bike riding. We drive in. Watch the rain. Drive out again.

There's a new road being built, a dual carriageway road. The GPS is very confused. No worries, we're just following the signs back to Abergavenny.

Back on the "old" road and the GPS knows where we are. It guides us around town, back to home. Where we have coffee and cake downstairs. Light fruit cake. Interesting: Deb & Nana's similar cakes were a lot drier. This one is very moist, almost -- but not quite -- doughy. Taken out when only just cooked? Or just a different type of recipe?

Deb goes upstairs to read or rest or watch tv. I stay downstairs -- with the tablet, the keyboard, and a table to type on -- and write today's journal.

We'll be eating dinner in the hotel tonight. (Again.) There may be more to write... For now: I'll publish... It's just after 5pm. Rain has come and gone, several times. The sun is now shining... I bet it's still cold outside :-)

Till next time...

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Agamedes Consulting
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"A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top."
   

2016-04-27 Wednesday: to Abergavenny

Headlines

Farewell to Welford-on-Avon
Lots of Driving: then -- it's Goodrich Castle!
More driving: then lunch at Hall Inn
A Bit More Driving: to Brains at Abergavenny

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Stream of Consciousness

Farewell to Welford-on-Avon

Ah well, it was good :-) Now it's time to leave Boat Cottage. Onward -- to Wales!

Lots of Driving: then -- it's Goodrich Castle!

We drive and drive and drive. Mostly on a high speed motorway. Easy but boring. I decide that it's time to take a break... Because (a) I'm tired and (b) I need a toilet. So we take the next motorway exit. No idea where it's going. All we know is, we're still in England.

We've driven in Herefordshire (commenting on the cows), Worcestershire (commenting on the sauce) and Gloucestershire. I think it will be Monmouthshire when we enter Wales. The motorway exit that we pick -- we pick it simply because it's the next one that we come to -- points to Goodrich.

As we turn off -- there is also an English Heritage sign to Goodrich Castle. Sounds interesting!

After a km or two of winding road, we reach the village of Goodrich. We want cofee (and toilet), so we stop at a pub at the start of the village. They tell us that food service starts at noon. It's only 11:30. At the other end of the village, a turnoff into the castle. We turn off.

One pound parking. No worries, we do have a pound coin. Our only worry is the tourist bus in the car park. We park, then walk up to the tea shop / souvenir shop / place to buy entry to the castle. Use their toilets, buy coffee and cake. Victoria sponge -- delicious!

Then on to the castle. Goodrich Castle. It's 400m along a track. Woods on one side, a green field full of sheep -- and lambs -- on the other.

The castle is ruined. And still very impressive...

There's the original keep, a tall, square, stone structure. The castle grew around the keep. After a few hundred years of a peaceful life -- in about 1456 -- the castle was beseiged and mortared and generally knocked about. Then it just sat there until some recent restoration was done.

Interesting about the mortaring: I think there were the usual cannons. Then a special mortar -- a large cannon -- was cast. This one mortar would fire a cannonball -- about 50cm across, weighing almost 100kg and stuffed with gunpowder -- up into the air, then the ball would fall into the castle and explode. It brought the house down...

Though there's still plenty to see. Some parts -- towers, walls, floors -- are missing. But we went up narrow stone stairs, along ramparts, down into dungeons and cellars. There's enough left to be able to visualise the original. It's solid and cramped and well laid out and well built and complex and large but still hard to imagine up to 200 people living in it.

There are even multiple garde robes! That's toilets, to those who don't know from reading fantasy... The gate guard had his own. There are three in a row off the main courtyard. Not just a hole in the wall, either. (We saw one of them in Switzerland.) These ones are a long drop into a cesspit. Every so often a boy would be sent down the long drop, to clear blockages. Nice job :-)

The bus had brought school kids. They were no trouble. Amongst the other tourists were an extended family from Queensland...

It is an amazing castle! Really impressive! It may have had a peaceful life -- till it was beseiged -- but we can see how it was built for defence. And to impress the neighbours, we read. A very lucky turnoff! Our best castle yet :-)

It's after one. I'm determined to have lunch in Wales.

More driving: then lunch at Hall Inn

Back to the motorway. More high speed driving. Waiting for Wales...

Into some mountains. Could these be the mountains that convinced the English and Welsh that they were separate countries? It finally starts to rain. And then... we are in Wales!

Next turnoff is to Raglan. Good for sleeves, Deb comments. Bad for parking, as we find out. Through town, out the other side. Well, out *an*other side. The GPS says turn right, I turn left... It looks more interesting. Less like the entry to the motorway.

A little bit further and we stop at the Hall Inn, Gwehelog. (I copied that off the credit card receipt.) The inn is by itself, at the edge of the very small village. It's old and low and snug. We order baguettes: roast beef, bacon & brie. Very nice! Very filling :-)

We relax. Enjoy our lunch. Then back to the car and back to the motorway. And very very soon... we're at Abergavenny.

A Bit More Driving: to Brains at Abergavenny

Abergavenny is, according to the sign, a traditional (or historic? I forget) market town. We take the through road -- to bypass some of the busy centre of town and to get to our hotel. The hotel -- the Lamb and Flag -- is just outside the western side of town.

I'm getting better at finding parking in a busy town or village. Particularly in the villages, where people park anywhere and everywhere. (Which takes some getting used to.) But I still prefer an inn with its own parking area.

We arrive at the  Lamb and Flag. And I think, Oh no! It's a zombie hotel!! Because, right out the front, it says, "Brains" !!

Turns out, the hotel is owned by the Brains group. Still seems suspicious to me...

Bu the inn is fine. It seems oldish and our room is cramped -- compared to the last place. But clean and comfortable. And warm. Later, Deb reads that it was burnt down and rebuilt! Must have been rebuilt from the original plans.

We check in and move in. Relax for a while. Watch the hail. The couple of drinkers in the beer garden put on raincoats and carry on drinking.

I fetch a few odds and ends from the car. Try to get back in via the late-entry door... can't get it to unlock. So I go into the hotel, through the bar, up the stairs to our room.

There's an outside door -- opening onto the roof?! -- that is swinging open. We pull it closed and the handle falls off. We decide to leave it open. Doesn't matter, there are still two closed doors between us and the outside weather.

Temperature has been in single figures all day. Mostly fine, sometimes sunny, the wind is light but chilly. A good day for walking, even better for driving :-)

We relax in our room. Read. Look for things to do tomorrow. (We have a full day here. It's on the edge of the Brecon Beacons national park.) Then it's dinner downstairs. And more relaxation upstairs.

It's a friendly pub. As soon as we check in, every one seems to know us. I mention the lack of kettle in our room, one is brought up, with apologies, no need to say who we are or in which room. At dinner we ask for more milk, it's in our room when we get back. All very nice!

And that's about it for today... A lot of driving and a lot of eating. And a lot of most excellent castle.

Now for tea in our room. And more relaxing. Till it's time to sleep.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Agamedes Consulting
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"A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top."
   

2016-04-26 Tuesday: Cruising the Cotswolds

Headlines

Hidcote Manor Gardens: Wow!
Snowshill Manor: just passing
A Long Barrow: what's in a name?!
Sun, Snow, Rain and Chill: a fine day in the countryside

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Stream of Consciousness

Hidcote Manor Gardens: Wow!

Deb has selected Hidcote Manor Gardens as worth a visit. So... after a slow and relaxed start to the day... we're off!

Today is for driving round the Cotswolds. Through the officially defined, Area of Natural Beauty. There's already been a lot of natural beauty. Perhaps this area is better because it's hilly?

The GPS guides us to the nearest village. Then there are signposts. All very easy. It's mid-morning. There are already quite a few cars in the carpark.

We start with coffee. Deb decides to try an Americano. Basically, coffee with milk. It's powerful stuff, in a large cup. The cafe area includes seedlings and plants in pots. Deb browses -- and is impressed. There's one enormous yellow flower: skunk cactus, it's called. From America, if the Americanus in its name is any indicator.

Through a couple of rooms of the manor house, into the gardens...

The story is, an American was given a present of the house and grounds. He then spent thirty years designing and building the gardens. They are amazing!

It's a series of separate areas that they call "rooms". Mostly, you move from room to room via paths. Sometimes, it's just a hole in a hedge, almost invisible till you get to the opening. You may be able to see from room to room, but they are each distinct.

There's a "white" room and a "red" room, with plants to match the colour, either flowers or foliage. Some rooms are one type of plant. One room is a long, looong lawn, another is a lawn which is big enough for a game of cricket. One large area faces a sheep paddock. I think of it as the infinity room... The wall to keep the sheep out is sunk into a ditch, so it is not visible from our side.

There are thirty or more rooms, each one is unique, it all flows together. Different themes, different sizes, different shapes. Brilliant!

Deb wanders from room to room, being amazed at the plants and flowers. I admire it all and am generally amazed. Towards the end there is a wisteria growing over a shed. The wisteria trunk must be a metre round! Branches as thick as a thigh! Enormous!

We recover from our amazement with lunch in the cafe. Soup for Deb, cheese sandwich for me. I've concluded: in England, cheddar cheese has a distinct flavour. Much stronger than the "cheddar" that I'm used to. I like it (cheddar is always my favourite cheese) but it needs to be cut quite thin.

We buy a couple of souvenirs and leave.

Snowshill Manor: just passing

And so we drive on. I think that we leave the Cotswolds. We did leave the hills. So we turn back towards the hills. No particular destination. Just going where we may not have been before...

There's another National Trust property: Snowshill Manor. Signs say that the manor is full. No worries. We buy a tub of icecream each: locally made, main ingredients are local full cream milk, cream, sugar, milk powder. My flavour is honey and crystallised ginger: very nice.

We sit and eat outside. Not for long. The temperature is in single digits.

A Long Barrow: what's in a name?!

We follow a sign with an unknown symbol: a square with extra bits sticking out. No idea what it means, never heard of the place that is named. I can't even remember the name but will fill it in if / when I find out.

Turns out, it's a long barrow, a neolithic burial mound. From 3,500 BC or thenabouts. It's off the road, no idea how far.

We park the car and walk.

Up hill... of course. There's a cold wind... of course. There's no rain and the sun is shining -- but it's still cold... of course. It's fun :-)

A kilometre or so following one of the "walks". Following three of them, in fact. The Gloucester Way, a loop walk, some other walk... This area is absolutely packed with named walks and footpaths heading off across the fields. We keep wanting to stop the car and see where they go... but not today, thanks :-)

Up a steep but short climb, up through a clear field, through a wood , following a combination collapsing stone wall and barb wire fence. With swathes of bluebells in the young wood on the other side of the fence.

We pass a group of people coming back. How far is it? we ask. Not far -- and worth it, is the reply. We should have asked the kid in the group, to get an honest answer, I think.

Then we reach the top of the hill and there is, indeed, a barrow!

It looks a lot like a mound of soil covered in grass. Surrounded by a low dry stone wall, but that would be a later addition. The mound has four openings in it, hollow spaces supported by stones. Neolithic stones!

It's really quite exciting!

There used to be skeletons in the various holes, 38 people in total. It was all excavated in the 1860s (I think). There has been reconstruction since then. So we ducked low and entered the holes in the barrow. The skeletons are gone (I think!) and the roof is modern concrete rather than neolithic stone work. (It still looks like stonework.)

Not the most exciting spectacle -- but the age of it makes it most interesting.

Then it's a long walk back down the hill. With time to admire the beautiful views. We are looking over Broadway, a classic Cotswolds village, according to signs. It looks a lot -- to me -- like a modern resort built to resemble a classic Cotswolds village :-)

Sun, Snow, Rain and Chill: a fine day in the countryside

A bit earlier in the day we stop for a geocache. At a spot called Drover Hill. The cache is an Earth Cache so there will be questions about the unusual geological features of the area... I don't bother reading.

We start to follow a path across fields, to a point with a view... And it starts to snow!

Even earlier, we had stopped the car and managed to catch a snowflake or two... It was so little falling that we had to convince ourselves that it was really snow. This time, there is enough to believe it! Some flakes settle on Deb's jacket. Everything else melts as soon as it lands.

It's cold, it's swirling snowflakes, it's brilliant!

We ignore the view and shelter in the car... that is, after enjoying a minute or so of this miserable weather.

We choose smaller and smaller roads as we cruise to nowhere in particular. It's quite tiring, driving along one lane roads that twist and turn. Deb asks if I'd rather be driving along a motorway. No way! These roads pass through beautiful countryside -- and occasional villages -- and we have time to admire it all. But nowhere to stop because a lot of it is just one car wide.

It's five o'clock and the weather is looking a bit grim. Dark, with regular, light showers of rain. (With intermittent patches of sunshine!) We set the GPS for home... It's 20km direct, the GPS says it'll take almost an hour.

The GPS is, as usual, correct. We're back in Welford just after 6.

I can see why Roman roads are so amazing... In WA we put roads where we want them. Here, the roads just wind from voillage to village, from farm to farm. The straight Roman roads must have been a real eye-opener for the locals!

Back in Welford. We don't go straight home. We stop at the Bell Inn. Deb had spotted a parking area out the back, so it's all easy.

Outside temperature has dropped below four degrees. We sit inside, by the fire. Enjoy our meals (sausages, pie). The ceiling is low, several exposed roof beams are below head height. One low beam -- next to the bar, so in a well travelled passage -- is labelled, "Duck or grouse" :-)

Home for dessert and coffee and journal. Deb is already asleep but I've promised her that that won't keep her safe when I get to bed :-)

And so I'd better get to bed... Tomorrow is not an early start. But we do have to pack and leave...

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Agamedes Consulting
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"A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top."
   

2016-04-25 Monday: Kenilworth and Cadbury

Headlines

Run Recovery: Kenilworth Castle
Cadbury World: fun -- and chocolate -- for kids of all ages!
It's Cold, It's Still Early: let's check out Solihull
Home: local news and a very scrappy dinner

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Stream of Consciousness

Run Recovery: Kenilworth Castle

Today is recovery day... recovery from Sunday's runs.

Deb finds pamphlets about castles and gardens that she would like to see. I look on Google Maps to see where they are and whether we can get there. Whatever we visit has to be roughly between here and Birmingham -- we have to end up at Cadbury World for an afternoon visit...

First stop is Kenilworth Castle.

Deb sets the GPS and we set off. All over the place! But the GPS certainly knows where to go. And it doesn't really matter where we go -- it's all something new to be seen. There's a lot of traffic but no problems. Deb navigates and I dodge the other traffic.

Kenilworth Castle is -- impressive! Ruined, but still impressive.

We have to pay for parking. That's to stop the people of Kenilworth filling all the Castle parking. When we pay to enter the castle, we get our parking money back. We only have a single pound coin so we can only pay for an hour's parking... Must get more coins!

We pay our entry fee and go into the castle grounds. Into the grounds, not the castle -- it's a ruin. It seems that an English king (hundreds of years ago) was sick and tired of local lords going feral and resisting the king from inside their country castles. So the king ordered castles to be destroyed... Or, at least, made unliveable. Since then, Kenilworth Castle has no roof and several walls missing.

Other bits are also missing. An order of monks was retired (on a good pension, apparently). Their monkery was then torn down and the stones used for other buildings.

There's a formal garden. Rebuilt from detailed descriptions from when it was first built. Queen Elizabeth I (?) was due to visit so the then castle owner had a formal garden built in honour. Complete with sculpture and a fountain. Impressive! I may have to build a garden for our own next visitors :-) I did see that the gardens stand out very clearly on Google Maps.

There are some buildings still standing, complete. One low, square building set low, almost underground, is now the public toilets. Very modern inside, very old stone outside. We were in and only just out as a tour group of school kids came in...

The day is cloudy with occasional light showers. The sun does occasionally shine. There is a very chill wind. We are very glad to find that the cafe is indoors.

The cafe is in the old stables. A very high, long building. There would have been at least one storage level above but it's gone now, so it's open all the way to the ceiling. Solid stone floor and walls. Big, peaked wooden roof, showing the wood construction on the inside. Love it!

We have soup and bread for lunch and a sandwich to take away. That'll be dinner tonight.

We're at Kenilworth for more than our hour's parking... It's fascinating. Including the history and descriptions in a display in the old stables.

Cadbury World: fun -- and chocolate -- for kids of all ages!

Time to move on. But no time for the moated house that was to be our next stop. We drive straight to Cadbury World.

As straight as the GPS lets us, anyway. There's no such thing as a straight road in this part of the world! No worries, though. I have Cadbury World as a waypoint in the GPS. We drive and drive and drive... and arrive.

From the outside, it's an old brick factory. With a more modern (1991?) front face, in Cadbury colours. Glass fronted like the entry to a cinema.

Not much space in the carpark but the display area itself is quite peaceful. I would not like to be there with a few groups of school kids! We are able to take our time, wander at our own pace, without feeling crowded.

We walk to the start of the main display. The woman at the door pushes several bars of chocolate at us -- we don't even try to eat any -- then she ushers us in...

The main display starts with museum-style dioramas of cocoa history. Models of Aztecs and Spaniards in South American jungles. Impressive.

Next stage is brilliant! Small sets -- models of streets and buildings. With holographic characters walking round telling the chocolate story! The characters are about 20cm tall and look very realistic. It's quite spooky!

A couple of movie theatre presentations about making chocolate and the history of the Cadbury company. Interesting but rather heavy on the happy, contented people in the process. In one theatre there are special effects... For instance, when we are told that the cocoa beans are shaken -- our seats are also shaken :-)

Then it's up some stairs and a walk round an actual packing plant. Posters of what is happening, actual wrapping and packing going on, all a bit hard to see in any detail. Interesting, though.

Next is the Cadabra ride! It's a kiddie ride in little trolleys on a track. Through a sort of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory setting. All sorts of cheerful cocoa beans, laughing and singing. Chirpy, cheery, aimed at kids six years old and younger... We loved it :-) Impossible not to smile :-)

And then, we're at the end of the main display. We're given a cup of almost liquid chocolate, with marshmallows and sprinkles. We eat it all... I think I have now reached my chocolate limit for the week!

That same area is demonstrations of chocolate making and decorating. There are people hand-making chocolate shapes. Others -- behind glass -- are decorating chocolate. A couple of enormous chocolate sculptures... One is a model of Buckingham Palace that would be a metre high. Wow!

Our final stop is for afternoon tea... High tea, I guess. It's in the Cadbury Cafe, next to the Cadbury shop. (We did go through the Cadbury Shop. By that stage we were no longer willing to buy any actual choocolate. Sorry!)

Our tea -- we had booked in advance -- is in a somewhat closed-off area of the cafe. Not really private, just enough to make us feel special. Tea, coffee, sandwiches. Scones (nice scones, too) and jam and cream. Plus cakes. For example: triple choc square of something. Double choc muffin. Ordinary choc slice. And a few not so chocolate cakes.

We ate enough and had the rest put in a bag to take home.

A very, very enjoyable afternoon! Aimed at kids and a lot of fun. Plus quite good food. And a lot of advertising for Cadbury :-)

With one final -- minor -- disappointment... Advertised for the near future, coming soon to Cadbury World: Sooty and Sweep in Space ! Woohoo ! Though I suspect we would be cursing if we were here with the crowds that that show would bring :-)

It's Cold, It's Still Early: let's check out Solihull

It's still only 3:30 or so. We have time to check out a Cotswolds Outdoor shop in Solihull, almost on our way home.

Our South Downs walk comes with a discount card for Cotswolds Outdoor. I'm thinking that a warmer jacket is needed for Antarctica next year -- and would be useful for England, now. (Today I'm wearing wool long johns under my pants. I'm about warm enough, as long as I don't spend too much time in the wind.)

Deb sets the GPS. We drive.

There's more traffic on the roads, it's school closing time. With Deb navigating, no worries. There are some really slow bits but -- as always -- it's just some new place to see. Just a bit slower :-)

We reach the Solihull carpark near the Cotswolds shop. Parking, no worries, it takes my credit card. Not sure where the shops are! We ask a passing woman... She tells us where the shops are -- we think. She seems to be speaking English -- but in an almost incomprehensible accent. She is, I would guess, a local Solihullian!

No worries, we find the shopping centre. And the Outdoors shop. We look at jackets. There's only one that seems suitable but I'm not sure if it would be waterproof enough for Antarctica. The jacket is "showerproof". Antarctica is dry but we can expect to get wet on the way, visiting the subantarctic islands.

Anyway, the jacket I try on is too small and they have no others in stock -- it's summer(!) and winter stocks have been run down. The shop assistant tells us that a larger store -- which we may pass, further south west -- does have one larger jacket in stock. (Did he say Plymouth? I should have tried to remember!) We may try again.

While we were stopped at Solihull shops we had intended to buy some milk and cheese. We forgot. So -- on the GPS-directed drive home -- we stopped in a convenient larger town. Henley-in-Arden. It has a Co-op and a few other suitable shops. We buy milk and cheese and apples.

We are parked outside a fish & chip shop. The local hoods are hanging out, in tee shirts and looking as though they should be very, very cold. Local hoods? Well, half a dozen young blokes eating fish & chips. Deb looks at the shop and decides that we really must try some battered, deep fried sausage. But not today.

And so, on home.

Home: local news and a very scrappy dinner

There's a lot on tv about Stratford-upon-Avon. Okay, it is West Midlands BBC TV. It's all about the Shakespeare weekend. The reports are that there were 55,000 people in town over the weekend, twice as many as this time last year. No wonder there was no room in the cafes or the carparks!

Plenty of news about Shakespeare and the parade. And about the celebrities -- including actors and royalty -- who were in town. No mention of the marathon. Ah well. Listening to some of the people who found it all to be very exciting -- makes me think that yes, it was all rather exciting!

We are here for the marathon. It was a convenient fit to when we wanted to go, and to our South Downs walk. It was a complete surprise when we found that we were here for a 400th deathday celebration! We were less than excited... But now, I definitely am glad that we happened to be here, this year, for the big celebrations! No matter how little we actually took part :-)

Dinner was the sandwich from Kenilworth and leftovers from Cadbury World. I also had some bread and cheese. Not at all a balanced meal, just filling. Deb spotted a parking area behind the local Bell Inn, we may go there for dinner tomorrow night.

Or, we may eat a hearty lunch in a random pub in the Cotswolds. And snack in the evening.

Who knows! That's tomorrow :-)

2016-04-22 to 26: Boat Cottage

We are staying in Boat Cottage, Welford-on-Avon. A few miles from Stratford.

To get to the cottage: Drive to Welford. Turn off at the tall Maypole (largest in somewhere, I remember reading). The road gradually narrows. After a few hundred metres we turn off that road onto Duck Lane. Near the end of Duck Lane, turn left, between the oak posts (one of which is entirely hidden by ivy). Down a lane with tall hedges either side and a foot trail on one side. Round someone's yard, between the mini soccer goals and the large tree cubby. Park then walk another 50m...

Boat Cottage has a thatch roof. It's 20m from the Avon River, with its own jetty. Surrounded by a quarter acre of cut pasture with trees. Wow!

I suspect that the cottage was originally a shed -- boat shed, perhaps? The living area (kitchen, dining, lounge) is a rectangle: the original shed. On the side away from the river is a later addition: bedroom and en suite. Plus an extra toilet, accessible from the entry passage between the two parts of the building.

That entry passage has glass either side, so there's a view outside. All rooms -- including bathroom and toilets -- have windows with views. Just looking out on garden or river. No neighbours in sight.

Out front -- the river side -- there's a verandah. It runs round two sides of the building. We've been out there but not for long. Temperatures are eleven degrees or less. Though the weather is mostly fine and there is occasional sunshine. Oh, and there's a barbecue on the verandah. No, we're not planning of having a barbecue!

The kitchen is well equipped. Even a dishwasher. Plus tea, coffee, a loaf of very nice bread, butter, a litre of milk. A good tv, plenty of DVDs. Another tv in the bedroom. A small wood heater.

The toaster... is a four burner DeLonghi. Black and stainless steel. Claims it can toast, or bagel, or defrost or reheat. Dials for toast colour...I bet that's just a timer. But it looks... really... techno:-)

And the fridge... Took me a while to find it. It's not behind a cupboard door... The cupboard door -- including a drawer above -- are the door of the fridge! So you open the cupboard or drawer -- and it's really the fridge that's opening. Impressive :-)

On the down side... The dining room -- the only -- table, is small. Enough room for two people to eat. But very quickly crowded with our junk. On holiday I like to store things where I can see them. And won't forget them. With such a small table -- there's a lot of stuff "stored" on the floor.

Lots of lights. In-ceiling lights in all areas. A couple of standard lamps. (Is that right? Lamps standing on table or floor?) Reading lights in the bedroom. And night lights... In the skirting boards around the en suite. Just little lights, enough to see. Very clever!

The bed is enormous. Though it does depend on a single doona. Well and truly warm enough, though Deb, last night, started to pull it over to her side.

The whole place is heated. Plus heated floors in the bathroom and spare toilet. Large bath... with spa jets. (Bath is not large enough to stretch out in. So I guess it's really a standard size bath.)

Little bay windows here and there. Music player in one, chess set and vase of tulips in another. Cute wooden ducks in the kitchen, a rubber ducky in the bath -- a rubber Shakespeare ducky :-)

Very nice, very cosy, very pleasant :-)

2016-04-24 Sunday: Half & Marathon

Headlines

Marathon Preparation: strong language required
And We're Off! Average times, we're both pleased
Microwave Dinners: never going to move again

Stream of Consciousness

Marathon Preparation: strong language required

It's Weat Bix and tinned fruit for breakfast. I have four Bix and plan to eat a shortbread a bit before the run starts. I forget to bring the shortbread with me.

Checking the route to parking worked. Today it's an easy drive in. We park and prepare to pay. We have just too few coins to cover the expected time. Another parking machine will accept credit cards. But not mine. Bah, humbug. We leave a noote with the parking ticket.

Off to the start. I'm wearing shorts and tee shirt. Deb, at least, has longer running tights. And an extra shirt to wear to the start. Should we be wearing thermals? Perhaps...

And We're Off! Average times, we're both pleased

Nine o'clock -- and we're off!

Once we cross the start line, Deb and I separate. We each set our own pace. Mine is a bit faster than Deb's. At the start I pull ahead. I don't believe in the "negative split". Run fast at the start, slow at the end... I'll slow down anyway so I may as well go faster while I can!

The first lap, I'm fine. There's a two hour 30 cutoff and I'm past the cutoff point in 2:15. Deb was with a 69 year old woman running the full marathon. She was late for the cutoff -- but grumbled, said, I'm not missing the second half :-( And ran on anyway. Wonder if she was disqualified? Wonder if she ever finished?!

My full marathon is two similar laps. Both laps pass through Welford. In fact, there's a shortloop off the main road -- to within 500m of our cottage! Can't stop :-(

After a 2:15 first half, my second half was 3:05. So I ran 5:20, about average for me. I'd been going slower in my last few runs. So I'm pleased to move back towards average :-)

Deb finished in 2:46. Another good -- average -- time :-)

My last half, I'm feeling the cold. Not badly but I needed to be quick getting on warm clothes when I finished! Deb is sensibly waiting inside the warm car. There's non stop traffic leaving the carpark, we just reverse out and expect someone to give way... Someone does.

We drive home via the south road, avoiding Stratford. Okay, I miss a roundabout exit and we're lost. The GPS set us right again -- mostly by wanting us to do a U turn. When I don't U turn, the GPS takes us round a circular road in a small village. Back to the roundabout. Back to Welford.

We stop, stagger into the local shop, buy two frozen dinners. Then home.

Deb has a shower. I have a bath. It's just a bath, relaxing, but just a bath. Until Deb comes in and turns on the water jets!

Microwave Dinners: never going to move again

The microwave meals are, well, food. My "fish stew" has some fish. But a third of it is a sort of surround of mashed potato. With a rather blehh flavour. I finish off with dessert of Crunchy Nut cereal: milk and sugar held together by a small amount of cereal based flake. Just what I wanted :-)

And now... We are sitting, watching tv. Never going to move again.

Late Extra

Not sure if I've mentioned this anywhere else, a special note for Antonia and Robbie:

This area is thick with magnolias. All in bloom. Not only that... On my marathon run alone, I passed three pink magnolias.

Come to think of it, I don't remember any pink magnolias which were not on my run !? Was I just seeing magnolias through the red haze of my run?? Noooo... I definitely saw them when not running. Perhaps the concentration of pink on my run is because my run went... everywhere.

2016-04-23 Saturday: Stratford

Headlines

Happy Birthday Shakespeare! (No it's not?!) The parade could be improved.
Where Do We Park? And... how do we get there?!
Out and About: on the edge of the Cotswolds... Lunch at the Howard Arms, Ilmington.. And a few geocaches.
I Subscribed to The West: but why?!

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Stream of Consciousness

Happy Birthday Shakespeare! (No it's not?!) The parade could be improved.

I think I mentioned this earlier: this is the weekend of celebrations for Shakespeare's 400th birthday. Stratford is packed. We didn't know about the birthday to a few days before we left home...

Correction: It's the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. That could explain the bell tolling (see later). And the four masked people carrying a coffin.

Anyway, today -- Saturday -- was intended to be a quiet stroll around town. Check our preferred parking spot, find the start and finish locations, wander round the famous town... Well...

We drive to town -- and half the roads are closed. Shakespeare's birthday celebration involves a street parade. We give up trying to get to our preferred parking, it's on the other side of town.

We park at the top of a multi storey carpark. It's about three quarters full. It's about 9:30am. And to skip ahead: when we return, at about noon, there are cars queuing, waiting to get into this carpark.

The carpark is next to the area for Saturday markets. They are just getting started. We walk towards the middle of town, looking for the information stand for our run. We ask a policeman. He doesn't know about the run but he can tell us where the shop is that the info is meant to be near. It's not there... Possibly not till tomorrow.

We walk to the roundabout in the middle of town. It's all a no traffic zone. There are barriers, to keep pedestrians away from the parade. And there are crowds of people. We follow High Street to the town hall... Seems to be some action here, certainly an area for the crowds to gather.

First things first... We walk towards the river and find public toilets. Must get more 20p coins! I spend a 50p to pee.

Then back to the town hall. Judging by the growing crowd, something is going to happen here. Sure enough... At 10:30, a bell starts tolling. By the time it stops -- at 11 o'clock -- I guess that it tolled 400 times. Once per year of Shakespearian birthdays. (Or deathdays.)

There are announcements, from up the road at the roundabout. Introducing people, groups and bands for the parade. We stand and wait.

After 40 minutes of waiting -- and bell tolling --  the parade passes by!

Local school kids, dignitaries, actors, students of Shakespeare... Not at all what we were expecting... We were expecting themed displays... Perhaps Romeo and Juliet holding hands, or Birnam Wood marching by... Or something... interesting!

It may have been interesting to the locals. And to diehard fans. Though even for them, a bit of passing commentary -- regular calls to applaud such and such a group -- would have helped. It would have been nice to applaud at least the school kids.

There were occasional costumes, some quite good. There were lots of ceremonial robes, interesting but not particularly Shakespearian. One man had his hair and beard -- his actual hair and beard -- looking very very much like Shakespeare. That was excellent :-)

The organisers had given away (?) ten thousand masks of Shakespeare face. An excellent idea -- but it really needed to be pushed a bit more... Perhaps: Everyone wears a mask so noone knows who they are -- yet everyone knows who he is... Or something like that! There was just an announcement: put on the masks. And: Most Shakespeare masks ever worn at one place. Nice idea, lacked pizzazz in execution.

Oh, and Robbie (when he heard about the Shakespeare celebrations) said we should wear a ruff and carry a skull. I saw a total of one ruff and no skulls at all. See what I mean about lack of pizzazz?!

Where Do We Park? And... how do we get there?!

Why are we in town at all? We're not exactly fans of Shakespeare. Anyway, I saw Stratford forty odd years ago, the things you go to see will not have changed.

We are in town to scout out key locations for tomorrow's event. Especially parking, and the walk from parking to the start. We had walked past the start... At least, we had walked past where we thought the start would be. Parking was across the river -- via heavy traffic and closed roads. Too far to go on foot. I really want to see how to get there by car.

We drive out of town towards home, the only clear way that we know will get us out of town. Then we drive round town -- out in the sticks -- to get back to the other side of town. Luckily the sticks are quite close. (In fact, we go way, way out of town... but that's in the next section.)

We find the carpark. Work out how to get there without crossing town. All good. Ready for the morrow.

Out and About: on the edge of the Cotswolds... Lunch at the Howard Arms, Ilmington.. And a few geocaches.

But first: that drive through the sticks.

We just drive. Going generally south and west. Towards the Cotswolds but not -- I think -- into the defined "area of natural beauty". Nevertheless -- it's beautiful! English countryside, fresh and green. Flowers just starting to appear: daffodils, bluebells, amazing flowering trees! Hedges, fields, sheep and lambs. All from inside a warm car :-)

We stop in a little village called Ilmington. We stop for lunch at The Howard Arms, Ilmington. There's lots of fancy food so I choose calf liver with mash and crispy bacon :-) I'm into local traditional food. Deb chooses fish, stonebass.

Both meals are nice but seem a little lightweight. We skip dessert and decide that our next stop will include scones with jam and cream.

More driving. We need to do a bit of shopping, so I head for Shipston-on-Stour. It seems (on the map) to be a town rather than a village. And we've not been there before...

Shipston is, indeed, a very pleasant little town. We park and walk. To a bakery, Taste of the Country, we need a loaf of bread. (The cottage came with a loaf of bread. I may have to provide more description of our accommodation. Later!)

We buy bread (no definitely not sliced and plastic wrapped). Plus some sliced beef and fancy cheddar cheese. I taste a sample of "millionaire's shortbread". We buy four squares. Tonight, we eat at home.

I ask in the bakery, Where would we go for scones and jam and cream? Up to Mrs Brown's tea shop, we're told. Off we go.

Very cosy! I manage to knock over several items as I reach for a menu. Oops. After that I'm very careful. We don't really need a menu. We ask for cream tea for two.

Plain scones have run out so we have fruit scones. Which turn out to be a bit dry. (Baked much earlier that day, perhaps.) The cream is almost as thick as butter, there's plenty of jam. All in all, a very enjoyable "local dish". And at the end of it -- we are no longer hungry.

There's tea towels for sale in the tea shop. Actual Shipston tea towels, not just random flowers with the name of the town on it... Interesting factoid from the tea towel: The town (or location) began with a Saxon name, Shepscoeurten or some such. It means "sheep cleaning place". Saxons would drive their sheep over a ford over the River Stour -- and clean the sheep.

Back to the car. Photograph the public toilet in the carpark. And home again...

We do pick up a few geocaches. The final attempt, Deb decides to stay in the car. So, of course, I fail to find the cache. Very satisfying, though, to have found a few!

Via Stratford. I head roughly north and find the carpark for tomorrow. And check the way there -- to avoid Stratford and its traffic and closed roads. Sure I get lost but now I know where we will be going on Sunday morning.

Dinner of sandwiches -- dleicious bread, good beef, nice cheddar. Yum :-)

I Subscribed to The West: but why?!

The West has been pushing an online subscription as a trial, $1 for the first month. Then they offered AIM members free subscription for six weeks. I took it, so we can read a "home" paper while we are away.

It works. It's a scan of the actual paper. Simple and cheap. I read the latest paper.

Hmmm... Can't do the crossword though.

I'm absolutely knackered and crash into bed, quite early.

2016-04-22 Friday: Toward Birmingham

Headlines

Flying to Birmingham: never again!
Rental Car to Stratford: no worries
Boat Cottage: wow!
Phone Problems: lucky we don't make phone calls
Faggots at the Masons Arms

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Stream of Consciousness

Flying to Birmingham: never again!

Second leg of our flight to England. This time, Deb gets the window seat. So I'm in the middle, between Deb and a Muslim lady in the aisle seat. (Moslem? Could be Sikh. She seemed less than worried about total coverage of her hair by her scarf.) Anyway... as soon as I have to step over someone to get out -- I want to go to the toilet :-( Whether I want to... or not.

As soon as I have dependable internet -- I'm shifting the next window seating, out to the aisle.

I do have some internet here, on the plane. Free 10Mb, apparently. An update to yesterday's blog post failed. But an email has arrived -- from Tim :-) Must check, see what he says...

I'll post this first. The blogger app makes it very easy to update a post. (The swype keyboard makes it difficult to type the post.)

Posted this short journal entry. Exchanged an email or two with Tim and Robbie. (Bragged about email in a plane:-) Then it all stopped... Perhaps the 10 free Mb was used up... Tim did send a photo :-) (Of Misty, as I found out later.)

Some extra excitement on this plane trip! First, an announcement that if the toilet smoker was identified then he or she would be met at the airport by the police. Then, when we landed, we all had to stay seated -- while the police escorted someone off ! (Amazingly, the concept of "stay seated" was well beyond the capacity of some passengers.)

Turns out -- chatting with a passenger as we left the plane -- that it was a man starting his second bottle of whisky and getting abusive. Crew "tied him up". Using plastic ties, I suspect... An Emirates person had walked towards the trouble with a pair of cutting pliers.

It was funny for us but not so nice for the man I spoke to, he was closer, with his family.

Rental Car to Stratford: no worries

We have arrived safely at Birmingham!

Three quarters of the passengers were EU or UK people returning. We were in the "other passports" queue: shorter but slower. The usual casual questions by immigration (Border Force, or Border Something, I think). Casual, friendly questions -- looking for the suspicious hesitation in our responses... We passed, and quickly passed through.

And passed even quicker through Customs. We followed "nothing to declare" and were waved through with barely a glance.

To Hertz, to pick up our rental car. I had already "checked in" online. They only needed to see my licence and credit card. A five minute walk to the car... It's a diesel Kia. With all the modern bells & whistles. Wing mirrors that fold in when we turn off the engine. Engine that turns off while we're waiting at a stop sign. But no reversing camera. Just reversing beeps. And a "turn on the defroster" beep when outside temperature drops below four degrees C...

Asked the car man which way to get out of the car park. Followed the GPS to Boat Cottage near Stratford. Stopped on the way to ask a man at a garage, are the speed limit signs in MPH or KPH?! The speedo shows both. (It's MPH.)

Boat Cottage: wow!

Found our accommodation: Boat Cottage, Welford-on-Avon. It's brilliant!

The village, Welford is small but... The streets are so narrow that what little traffic there is, makes it seem busy. Our cottage is outside the village -- within 20m of the Avon River ! With our own little jetty! Not that we'll sit on the jetty... The temperature hovered round 10 degrees C, with occasional light showers.

The cottage is warm and cosy. Room for two. Nearest neighbours are 50m away and out of sight. Brilliant!

We settled in, then checked out the village. There are a couple of pubs and one shop. Due to my unwillingness to turn suddenly, we drove to the next village south, Long Marston. It has one even smaller shop and one pub, the Masons Arms. We bought stuff in each shop. I decided that dinner would be in the Masons Arms.

Phone Problems: lucky we don't make phone calls

We bought a sim card but... Deb's phone seems to be locked to Telstra. We couldn't open my phone. Telstra have been sending texts warning of the high cost of phone calls while roaming...

I tried various combinations of phone numbers in the area, starting with the Bell hotel. It seemed safe to try phoning a place where we were willling to book for dinner :-) Then I changed who I tried phoning, to the Masons Arms, the pub down the road in Long Marston. Finally hit the combination! So I booked a table for two, for six pm.

Blow the expense of roaming phoning! It works, we don't phone much, we'll use what we have.

Ah! the power of communications technology: anything is possible and it can be simple if you don't mind paying for it :-)

Faggots at the Masons Arms

The bar was crowded. It was just us in the dining room -- which is also the skittles room! Take up the carpet and play skittles, it's one of the regular fun nights in this pub. There's even a gully for ball return. But no skittles tonight.

Deb had steak and stilton homemade pie. Couldn't taste the stilton. I said, it's probably used instead of salt. Excellent pastry. It was cooked in a pie dish but enclosed in pastry. Most pub pies (in Australia?) have only a top pastry.

I had faggots because, why not?! Just herb floavoured meatballs (with mash and gravy and peas). From the local butcher, we were told. Wikipedia says that the meat should be offcuts and spares, mostly from a pig. Tasted very nice.

I helped Deb with some of her mash. And her pastry and gravy. Then we shared a banoffi cheesecake.

Nothing fancy. Solid pub food. Very nice.

As we drove home -- a couple of miles up the road, then through Welford -- I was glad we had not eaten in Welford. Cars chock-a-block, parked along the road! Narrow roads, no parking areas. The Masons had its own -- admittedly crowded -- parking area.

Oh, and driving to and fro: We are constantly reminded that we will be running that road, on Sunday...

9:30pm. We crashed. Into bed, that is.

An excellent day!

2016-04-21 Thursday: Departure!

Headlines

Packed, Repacked
Coffee and Shops
To the Airport!
Dubai

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Stream of Consciousness

This post is typed in the Giraffe cafe at Dubai airport.

Packed, Repacked

Time to pack our bags.

The timing works well. We fly out in the evening so have all day to prepare. Which is good for packing things that we still need to use at home.

There are a few things that get added, a few replaced. Mostly, it's quite simple. I added a windcheater to my backpack. Must be missing something, the backpack is not too crowded. And it's easy to fit everything into my bigger than usual case. Last few trips, I've had several items in Deb's case.

Coffee and Shops

Off to the Forum, to return all library books. To get coffee and cake. And to buy a couple of last minute essentials: including a small Vaseline, for pre-run use.

Then home again for lunch, some last minute repacking and some playing of computer games.

To the Airport!

Robbie picked us up to give us a lift to the airport. He phoned my mobile, to say he was on his way, we didn't hear it ring. He phoned our home phone, it was off the hook. He phoned Deb's mobile, I heard it buzzing, upstairs, packed away. He sent an email...

Anyway... Robbie arrived, we were ready, so... Off to the airport!

It was just Robbie (Antonia stayed home with Will) so Robbie dropped us and left. No need to hang round, so we went straight through security to the departure lounge.

A bit of a shock there... Lots of duty free shops -- but no cafes! Two hours to wait -- with no food or drink! But... luckily... the cafes were in the other direction.

Deb bought a magazine. As we discussed who should pay -- I realised that I no longer had my credit card! Or my glasses... Or my jacket, with all that in its pockets...

My mind was a complete blank. Luckily Deb instantly realised... I had put the jacket on a tray for x-ray scanning. Deb had had to have a full body scan -- due to her shifty eyes and generally suspicious looks, I guess. While I was chuckling at Deb -- I forgot to pick up my scanned jacket.

Oh well. Back to pick it up. Still plenty of time for coffee and muffin.

The departure lounge -- away from the cafes -- is new and spacious. Rows and rows of chairs on one side, more comfortable chairs with small tables on the other. One duty free shop. No café.

And nothing exciting. We sat, we waited, we boarded.

I'd picked seats way up front. In -- as it turned out -- the families with babies area. The babies were all good, quiet. Some were almost cute. I'd also chosen the two aisle side seats. I hate being on the inside... So Deb was next to a man who, very politely, slept for most of the flight.

I watched a movie: UP. Brilliant! I used cc, closed captions. No sound, just read the captions. I prefer that, on a plane. No worries about the engine noise interfering with my listening. In the movie, the good guys finally meet the bad guy. He said, All a misunderstanding. They said, All a misunderstanding. Everyone said, All a misunderstanding. After that, that's all the subtitles said, All a misunderstanding... All the way to the end of the movie. Not to worry, the plot was fairly transparent :-)

Dinner, cat naps in uncomfortable airplane seats,11 hours in the air.. Now the worst is over.

Actually, the plane was okay. Almost enough leg room. A double decker A380 Airbus or some such. We, of course, were on the lower deck. We were so close to the front that we debarked ahead of the first rush... Usually we wait till the crowd has passed.

Dubai

So now we're in Dubai terminal. Drinking coffee. Sun has risen outside. Another hour till we board the next flight, to Birmingham. Just under eight hours flight.
So far, so good :-)

Footnote:

While I was typing, the free Giraffe WiFi access expired. Now we're checked in and connected -- for free, for an hour -- to the Dubai airport WiFi.

As we left the cafe we were given a card for 20% discount if we go to Giraffe on our way home through Dubai. We took the card but will probably go to a different coffee shop. When testing cafes, I prefer the one I haven't tried before :-)

And now, to publish this post...

Oh, yes, foot-footnote: This flight is apparently shared by Qantas. Out tickets are bought from Emirates. I wonder if the Qantas flight was the same price -- and why it didn't turn up when I searched for flights?! Oh well... I've stopped preferring Qantas as our national carrier, as I understand it, it's no longer Australian owned. But we may have missed out on frequent flyer points. Ah. To bad :-)

2016-04-20 Wednesday: Departure minus one

Headlines:

Bash for Bard on Saturday
Time to Wash and Pack
​Need for Race Day Reassurance​
Visit the Grandson
Online Checkin

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Stream of consciousness:

Bash for Bard on Saturday

Our plan -- for the fun run -- is to fly in on Friday, scout out Stratford on Saturday, run on Sunday. That Saturday scout is just a stroll round Shakespeare's birthplace. Looking for the start and finish of the run, where it leaves town, where to park on the day... just to get a comfortable feeling that we won't be lost. Perhaps also take in a bit of Bardic history. And lunch.

In today's West: "Bash for Bard. The stage is set at Shakespeare's birthplace for a 400th anniversary celebration of his life and works. Stratford-on-Avon in England will host tourists and fans from around the world on Saturday."

So much for a quiet stroll round town on Saturday!

And it's Stratford-upon-Avon.

Time to Wash and Pack

Last load of washing. First pass at packing... Threw a lot of clothes into the case. It all fits so easily! The benefit of using a larger case.

I also created a couple of piles of odds and ends: things for the backpack, things for the case but I still need to use them... Spent the next hours moving things to the piles, from the piles, between the piles. There's a lot of "essential" electronic stuff and possibly not enough warm clothes.

One item now safely packed is the keyboard for this tablet. So I'm now typing using the swype keyboard. What a pain! I expect to mistype. What I don't like is that swype will guess at a real word that is completely different... When I proofread, I have absolutely no idea what word I intended to use :-(

​Need for Race Day Reassurance​

Deb felt the need for some extra reassurance from her online coach. He's a very positive coach! So she sent an email asking an irrelevant question... just so the coach would get back in his usual reassuring style :-)

Visit the Grandson

One last visit to our grandson. Very enjoyable :-)) As we said goodbye to him I thought, I'll miss him the most. But only because he's too young to understand that we're going away. If he does notice our absence, he's too young to understand that we'll be coming back. Sigh.

Mind you, it's the same with the cat.

Online Checkin

Checked in, online. There was the exciting offer of upgrading our flight! For a mere doubling of the total cost of flights! And that would only upgrade for one of four flights... No, I think not.

So, that's done. Now we just have to get to the airport, by two hours before the flight leaves... No worries.

I'll worry anyway :-)

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Agamedes Consulting
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"A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top."
   

2016-04-19 Tuesday: Departure minus two

Headlines:

Tuesday. We fly out on Thursday, evening. Two days to go.
Packing: complete. Well, depends what you decide is "the essentials".
Training runs: fully tapered, half ready.
Travel journal: testing a new approach, instant online.

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Stream of consciousness:

I plan to fill in the details here... For now, though, I'm just testing the posting technology. (Which I messed up for the first attempt!) (And on the second attempt: fine. Posted via email, update via the Blogger app. Which I'm doing now.)

Tuesday. We fly out on Thursday, evening. Two days to go.

Wrapping up the last few things before we leave. House and cat care sorted out. (Responsibility passed on, really. So it will all happen.) Misty fully briefed. Latest newsletter printed... I'll be off to help fold it, this evening. Hopefully someone else will be able to post it, tomorrow.

Packing: complete. Well, depends what you decide is "the essentials".

Well, to tell the truth: Very little packing has been done. What I have realised, though, is that I could leave immediately... Pick up the little bag with passport, itinerary and a few descriptions of where to go. Pick up my glasses and a credit card. All else can be bought on arrival in England!

Deb has made a start on her packing. I have gathered a few piles of odds and ends that will need to be packed. Wednesday will be the main packing. Thursday -- we have all day to finish.

We have two cases that we have used for the last few trips: a rather large one for Deb and a "carry-on" size for me. I was clearing a spare bedroom -- when I found another case shoved under the bed! I pulled out that case -- and found two more cases! So, out of a choice of four, I have selected a case which is too large for carry-on but still smaller than Deb's. So this time I shouldn't have to shove half my stuff into Deb's case.

Training runs: fully tapered, half ready.

Deb has been training for her half marathon. I have been following Deb's training plan. So Deb is ready to run and I am just half trained for my marathon.

Today was our last training run... We've been tapering... Just an hour's run. And it seemed like a lot of work. Oh well. Just need to run five or six times as long, in a few days' time. No worries! Eighteen hours in a plane -- cattle class -- and an eight hour shift in time zones... Jet lag... No worries at all :-)

Travel journal: testing a new approach, instant online.

My first travel journals were in notebooks... the old sort... paper notebooks. Recently I upgraded to an electronic journal: type on the tablet, post it as a draft to a blog. So It's stored online. The main benefit? As an electronic copy, it's "immediately" ready to be merged into a text-and-photo record of the holiday... something that can be kept, will last, and is easily accessible to both Deb and me.

This journey, I will go one step further: type on the tablet, post to a blog -- and publish...  So I can instantly bore more people, with tales of our travels :-)  And it's still available, in electronic form, for a later hard copy record.

This is the first test of the new journal process. I emailed the headlines. And am now adding the details -- stream of consciousness style -- via the tablet's Blogger app.

So far, so good.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Agamedes Consulting
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"A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top."