July holiday, 21 and 22 July

We decided to profit from the daughter's being away next week to have a short holiday ourselves. But by the time we decided, all off-peak and most peak crossings were fully booked until Sunday evening. But we decided to have a few days in Kent, as although we pass through it often enough, it's not really a place we know.

We set off at about 7:30 last evening, to spend the first night at a café (a former Little Chef, now independent) at Gate Services, where they said you could spend the night.  It advertised itself as being open until 10:00 but was firmly closing when we arrived just after 9.  We were not impressed (managed to get junk food in the petrol station which was open 24 hours), and less so this morning when they served instant coffee with breakfast!  I could have sent it back and asked for a cafetière instead, but life was too short.  And they ran out of mushrooms so we couldn't have them in our breakfast. Very unimpressed.

We moved in to the New Dover Road Park and Ride outside Canterbury, which has a proper motorhome aire, so rare in this country. It is very crowded, but hey...  And after lunch we caught the bus into Canterbury. We had a good walk along the main shopping drag and up to a farmers market place near the West station, which had been recommended to me by Abbeybufo. We bought some strawberries and some cherry tomatoes, and also an ice each - I had brown bread ice cream (yummy) and the Swan Whisperer had coffee. 

We walked back into town a slightly different way and went to the Cathedral, which was wonderful. I've never met a cathedral in so many levels before, and we saw where Thomas a Beckett had been murdered. When I was little, I'd thought it was at the pub that bears his name in Broadwater, where my brother's school had lunch each day, and was so disappointed when I learnt it was miles away.... But I've seen it now.  And the rest of the Cathedral. I know I post nothing but photos of cathedrals, it seems, but no two are alike....

Then a much-needed cup of tea, and back to the Park and Ride, where we are enjoying a drink before I get supper.

TfL Transported by Design

On summer Sundays, Regent Street is apt to close for special events.  Two years ago, there was the Bus Cavalcade, and today there was the Transported by Design exhibition.

There are some excellent photos on the BBC report of the event.

Two years ago, The Boy was not quite four and Boy Too was about 9 months.  Now he is nearly 6 and his brother is 2 3/4.  It makes a huge difference - Boy Too was loving the exhibits, especially the ones he could climb on or get into, while The Boy was able to read the captions and generally realise far more what was happening than that someone had put all these buses there for his pleasure.

I didn't enjoy the exhibition as much as I'd liked the Bus Cavalcade.  There were several old buses, a tube carriage ("The same as the one in the Transport Museum" said The Boy - it probably was that one) and a couple of taxis, but after that it was rather more static exhibitions about the present and the future of transport design.  The most popular - from the boys' point of view, anyway - was a giant London train set, with Tower Bridges, buses, and Underground trains.  Both boys were promptly absorbed, and the Daughter worried about an exit strategy, but in the event Boy Too is learning to do without nappies and didn't quite make it ("I'm all wet!" he said, ecstatically), and once he had been put in dry clothes, The Boy came away very cheerfully, with no sulking.

There were also things you could colour in, and people giving out free yo-yos and boxes of peppermints, and endless stickers.  And various concession stalls.  "Frozen yoghurt!" said the Boy, blissfully, but we pointed out that there were six of us (Mrs Rev had joined us for the afternoon, lovely to see her) and it would be too expensive.  I noticed the Swan Whisperer eyeing the ice pops stall thoughtfully, but again, probably too expensive if you bought one for all of us.

But I don't think any of us were really sorry to arrive at Oxford Circus and meet the boys' father who had come to join them.  And The Boy went into one last tent to do one last colouring, and we went our separate ways.

June Holiday: 22 June

It was overcast in Calais when we woke, but shaping up to be a lovely day. We got up quite early as we had been warned that extra security measures were in place at the terminal.

However, I had been unable to get any citrus tea in Auchan, so did a quick dash into Carrefour to see if they had some, which they did, also any lavender honey shower gel, which they didn't (but they did have a shower gel version of my current favourite shampoo) and a baguette for lunch.  Once that was all put away, we went to the terminal, and although the letter on the hangar was for the 10:50 crossing we were waved through and got on the 10:20, so, with the hour's time difference we were home in time to empty the van before lunch!

June Holiday: 21 June

Driving. All day.  We had about 700 km to go, from the far side of Frankfurt to Cité Europe. 

So we set off at about 09:15 and stopped for coffee a couple of hours later, and for lunch, and to ship the Auchan at Grand Synthe, near Dunkerque. And finally arrived here about 20:15. We took ourselves out to dinner at one of the long-standing restaurants in the Cité, which was good, and are now enjoying the quietness! 

I did manage to doze for a lot of the drive, but am still tired.  Still, we knew it would be like this, and it was worth it.

June Holiday: 20 June

It started off a a lovely day. We had breakfast with Cestina, pooling our resources, and then set off across country towards Plzen and the motorway, seeing all kind of birds and even a deer on the way. Unfortunately I hadn't slept very well - fennel tea, while delicious, appears to have a diuretic effect on me!  So I soon dozed off and missed much of the lovely Czech countryside.

We crossed the border about 1:00 and found a place to stop for lunch, we thought, but it turned out just to be for lorries, so we parked in the Norma next door and ate there before doing since shopping to justify our parking.

Then we headed up to Bamberg, but the car park the Swan Whisperer thought he'd found turned out not to accept motor homes. We found another one, and he went off tu explore while I got supper ready, but unfortunately the gas cylinder expired about then and I am not sure how change it.  So I had to wait for him to come back before I could have the cup of tea I was gasping for, and then he insisted we move on before I'd had time for more than a mouthful, which did not please me

When we finally arrived at Aschaffenburg, we found the motorhome aire was closed for a fun fair, and were going to sadly drive another 30 miles or so to the next one when, serendipitously, we found the services. So we have parked up near them and stuff it!

And THEN I spilt my supper all over the table when I was putting the plates down.... tomorrow has to be better, doesn't it?

June Holiday: 19 June

It was raining this morning, so we didn't hurry out of bed, and it was nearly 10:00 am before we finally had breakfast.

Our destination today was Bavorov which we last visited three years ago on our memorable Inter-Rail trip.  This time, of course, we were driving. We had a lovely drive, stopping at the border to buy a vignette for the Czech motorways, and a restaurant there offered duck with red cabbage and potato dumpling, so we said yes please. I had another Aperol Spritz, which was much weaker than the one I had at Zoran's (just as well really!) but equally good.

Then on to Bavarov, and a visit to the Small Worlds museum, and back to Cestina's for the night.  Lovely to see some of the new items In the museum, and how the display has developed over the years.

June Holiday: 18 June

The last day at Oberstdorf always has the best skaters.  However, to begin at the beginning, we got up when the "Cow Alarm" went off, and after breakfast we visited the services, gave up our Kurkarten, and left the van all ready to move when we got back (oh, it was hot with the windows having been shut), and went to the rink for the last time.

The morning started with the younger Bronze men's artistic, then all the free dances (why do so many couples insist on keeping the same music all the way through when they take such a penalty for it?), which ranged from dire to fabulous. At least two of the Bronze couples blame me for their participation. Moi?  I'm innocent, innocent I tell you!

After the dances came the Masters Elites men and women, including Olympians. We had friends in the Masters Elite Ladies III, so stayed to watch it, but then came away so missed seeing Fumie Suguri, but we can catch up when we get home.

Back to the van, and first stop was the ReWe supermarket we hadn't been to yet this trip, and then a long drive past Munich to a little town called Landshut, where we are parked up for the night, not sure how legally!  It is a pretty town, and the car park is by the Isar river.