West Country Adventure, 9 July

I am getting even more confused than usual with what day of the week we are, etc, as we were at a Circuit event on Saturday, which meant I spent the whole of Sunday thinking it was Monday and so on. It is, I think, now Tuesday! Plus I am not used to being driven on this side of the road in the van, and keep thinking we need to be on the wing side - it's as well I'm not driving!

We were rather lazy this morning and didn't get up until after 8:00 am, but once we had cleared up breakfast we went for a walk and once we were in the car park at the top of the hill we had a signal, so caught up a bit. 

After our wall we wished our hosts farewell, and I did buy some artisan cheese, which was quite delicious!

We decided to go rather a long way out of our way to the chain ferry at Poole Harbour. But it was a lovely drive, even though I kept missing photo opportunities! Re parked up as soon as we were off the ferry and the SW eV for an explore and to watch how the chains worked while I caught up on this year's Tour de France so far.

We had to go back on ourselves, although not retracing our steps, to get to our next port of call, which was Wimborne Minster, enjoying the unusual place names en route. We found a car park and then spent a very happy hour wandering round the eponymous Minster,

and then had a cup of tea and an ice cream (me) or coffee and a slice of lemon tart (him), before heading on to our stop for the night which is a pub on the outskirts of Wimborne. Its USP was a 4 mile walk round local farmland, which the SW promptly went on, but he says it was nothing special. Then I made mushroom and butternut squash risotto and we are now in the pub, which has WiFi (no signal again here) and a lovely butterfly on the wall: 

 And I am drinking Glenfiddich and the SW is on the cider. 

West Country Adventure, 8 July

So here we are in the New Forest, with no signal on either of our phones. I'm writing this in a Word document and will upload it, with photos, when next I have a signal, which I hope will be sometime tomorrow. This doesn't seem to happen on the Continent, where there is almost always a signal of some kind.

So, anyway, we slept well in the motor home and in the morning showered, etc, and had breakfast at No 6, and then the Swan Whisperer went for a walk with the dog. I tidied the van and got things more or less ready to leave, and we were away by noon. Our first stop was a Lidl outside Chichester, where I got rolls for lunch and a couple of other things. We decided not to have lunch there, but parked up in the car park of Fishbourne Palace. 

We drove on - I went to sleep on the motorway - and arrived here in Burley in mid-afternoon. We are on a cider farm, and have bought some, and some apple juice. The field we are in was populated by geese and guinea-fowl,

but get have been shut up for the night. We had a cup of tea outside, and then the SW went for a walk again while I knitted. Supper was last night's trout with vegetables, cream and pasta. Yummy! 

West Country Adventure, 7 July

The saga of was I, wasn't I, preaching this Sunday is too long to relate here, but ultimately it turned out that I wasn't. So we were able to pack up the car and head off to Sussex to arrive about 2:30 pm.

First up, of course, was to load the van and fill it with water and so on. So we did that, and then, at about 5:30, we loaded my mother (with difficulty) and sister (rather more easily) into the motor home and set off to drive the ten miles or so to Duncton Viewpoint, a local landmark with a great view over the South Downs. 

Once there and parked up, we ate a delicious supper prepared by my mother of cold trout and various salads, followed by strawberries, raspberries and cream! 

Then the Swan Whisperer and I washed up and made coffee for those who wanted it, and meanwhile we watched a hot air balloon being inflated and setting off

After which we drive back to No 6 where we are parked up for the night prior to starting our West Country adventure proper tomorrow. 

Birthday Celebrations

Today, the Great Western Railway celebrated the 175th anniversary of the route between Didcot and Oxford.  And yesterday, it was my 66th birthday.  So I asked whether, for my birthday present, we could go to the celebrations.

We took advantage of the occasion to travel to Oxford from Marylebone, a route we had not done before.  It's cheaper than via Paddington, and the train was absolutely rammed!  We did manage to get seats, but many people were not so lucky.  We went on the Underground, changing at Oxford Circus, but the Bakerloo Line was crowded and there was no step-free access at Marylebone.  Still, it didn't really matter.

When we arrived at Oxford, we went out of the station to ask about buying tickets for the 175th anniversary, which the website said could be done at any GWR station.  However, the woman at the information desk had never heard of such a thing, and didn't know what we were talking about!  Fortunately, the staff at the ticket office were better informed and, armed with a ticket, we went out on the platform just in time to see the 175 Luncheon Circular Tour depart. 

Then there was a modern train heading to Paddington

and, a few minutes later, one of the regular shuttles to Didcot.  This stopped at Radley, where we tried in vain to see any trace of the branch line to Abingdon that had been such a feature of my childhood, and at Culham, from which my father had commuted to London every day over 62 years ago!  Then it arrived at Didcot, where we found the entrance to the railway centre was just a few steps from our platform.

Our tickets included entrance to the railway centre, which was good.  First port of call was the café, where we had rather dry coronation chicken sandwiches and incredibly weak coffee, and then I had a
Toblerone ice lolly and the Swan Whisperer had tiffin and his weak coffee.  Then we set out to explore.  There was lots to see, including a museum which also had a 1960s signal display being demonstatrated, locomotives in steam and hauling passengers from one end of the site to the other

to the skeletons of carriages awaiting restoration

(is that Alexei or Sergei in the first picture?).  There were replicas of the original engines and carriages that ran on the broad gauge

And so on.  After a while, we decided we had finished with the site, and caught the next train back to Oxford.  We could, perhaps, have visited a funfair in Appleford or an exhibition at the Old Ticket Office at Culham, or even a fair on the site of the original Oxford station, about a mile from the present one, but there are limits on my energy, so we caught a train back to Oxford, and had a cup of tea in the station buffet there before getting a train back to Marylebone and a no 2 bus home.

Well worth the entry fees!

Late Spring Holiday, 5 June

Up at 06:45 this morning - well, not really up, but awake enough to put the hot water on and make tea - and we were away by 08:15.  First stop was the petrol station where we could empty the grey water, although I think we did make a little more during the homeward journey.  Then straight to the check-in, where they offered us a place on the 09:20 crossing - 08:20, UK time, which we must get used to again.

This was great, as it meant we could drive the van straight to Sussex, arriving there about 11:15, just in nice time for coffee. We had lunch with my mother and sister, and then my mother went to her WI  meeting and we finished unloading the van and packing the car, and then the SW did all the bits for the van that wanted doing, like emptying the loo, sweeping it out, double-checking everything and packing it away until next time.  We left for London at about 14:45, the car feeling very strange after so long in the van, and got home about 16:30; we have unpacked, put things away and started the first of many, many loads of washing!  I have gone through my blog and added photos, where I had some nice ones, and corrected such typos as I noticed - if you see any particularly egregious ones, let me know!

Late Spring Holiday, 4 June

I didn't feel great when I got up this morning - nothing serious, just headachey, and feeling as though I hadn't slept, which was not at all true. So I was thankful that the morning required nothing more of me than to sit quietly in my seat and sleep while the SW drove! I woke up when we reached Gent and felt a lot better.

After lunch we drove on to Calais, and parked up in the Cité Europe while we had a cup of tea and then drove over to the Auchan garage to get diesel and gas. Then we drove through Calais and waved at the Bourgeois, and then back to the aire.

I then went into Carrefour to do some last-minute shopping, and was rather startled when I came out to find that it had got dark and all the car park lights were on. As I was not expecting the sun to set before 10:00 pm, I wondered how on earth long is been in there! 

The darkness, needles to say, was the prelude to a huge storm, which lasted a good hour, but eventually cleared off and the sun has reappeared. I was glad if got back to the van before the storm started in earnest - one poor man wasn't so lucky and was soaked to the skin before he got his shopping put away! I have just seen him walking past in a quite different pair of shorts! I am really watching the wind turbines, not the people, but...

Late Spring Holiday, 3 June

I wanted to do a Last Shop in Germany this morning, so after breakfast I headed up into the Old Town to find an ATM, and then up outside the walls to the supermarket, which was a Tegut. There was also a Kik, and I'd thought I'd go in there if I couldn't get ice packs in the supermarket, but as it turned out, they had exactly what I wanted.

So I took my time over the shopping, as the SW was coming to get beer from the off-licence across the car park, and to return dead bottles. By the time I'd got back to the van, he had programmed the Sat-nav for the day's drive.

Well, neither of us has any real idea where we went; basically it was south of Kassel and east  of Dortmund, but full of places we'd never heard of. And it was lovely, despite a massive thunderstorm! Next holiday we will head straight for the area and explore it properly - there were hills and rivers, pretty little towns, most with a factory, mine or quarry to account for their existence, lakes, woods, all sorts. Really lovely and just waiting to be explored.

Why don't the British go to Germany more? In the camp site outside Brno we were the majority, and there were loads in Prague, too, but I don't think we've seen another British vehicle, never mind motor home, since we left Czechia! And it has been the same on most of our recent holidays here. Yet it really is the most beautiful country, with loads of varied scenery. I love the South of France, especially the Pyrenees and points west, and I love the Alps no matter which country I'm in, but Germany just has so much to explore.

However, it will have to wait for another time, as we must head home. We eventually hit the motorway and now we are in a camp site in the south of Holland which seems to be about half way between Fritzlar and Cité Europe, and which I chose primarily because it is on the edge of a nature reserve and I thought it would be nice for the SW to have his run there in the morning. He has gone out to explore. It's not nearly so hot this evening; the earlier storm seems to have cooled everywhere down.