Almost home

We are now into our seventh week of our adventure. I write this at 10 AM in the morning London-time, but sadly two in the morning BC time.now that we are back in Surrey, BC. 

It has been an amazing ride. We have covered six countries, flown on six airplanes, ridden the chunnel under the English channel, rented 2 cars, driven for days on the "wrong" side of the road, and slept in 19 beds. We have hiked through a glacier cave to Jungfrau and stood outside atop of the highest mountain in Europe. Next we savoured the beaches with clear blue warm water, visited a few of the 1,200 islands offshore and learned of tumultuous history of Croatia. A week later we walked the canals of Venice, and enjoyed the art and architecture of Florence.

Tuscany also had its romantic charm. The endless vineyards and walled cidiital cities such as Siena have an alluring attraction that makes one relax in a past cradle of time. The numerous bottles of Italian wine certainly help blend body and time. 

In Rome we found accommodation a few hundred yards from the coliseum and visited the Vatican, enjoying the sights and food of this ancient town.  Before flying to Paris, Vesuvius and Pompeii captured our attention for most of a day. 

Paris, the city of love, also did not let us down. The beautiful wide and tree lined avenues, squares, statues, Louvre, and Versailles are truly sites to remember.  Cruising the river Seine really helped us get a true appreciation of the beauty, romance and history along its tranquil river side. Ade's love was to enjoy walks along either side of the river to soak up miles of of true Parisian atmosphere. 

Finally England delivered the icing on the cake. There were the seaside towns of Brighton and Torquay--the countryside in Southern England and it's numerous small towns focused around a large Cathedral and numerous city pubs. The first division Soccer match where "our" team (Bristol City) scored the winning goal with 30 seconds remaining in "extra time."

Our final stop, London, had everything from nightlife to history, theater and spacious parks.

It has been an amazing ride!

As luck would have it, we experienced our first morning rain in over 7 weeks as Brian picked us up from the Vancouver airport. We did experience a little bit of rain in Britain, but were lucky as it generally took place at night and the day was either cloudy or sunny and easy to enjoy.

On the   ride home from the airport to Surrey, we were all struck by the urban development of the lower mainland compared to Britain. Britain's Greenbelt legislation has caused the cities to become much more densely populated but this has allowed the countryside to remain much as it has for The last 1000 years.  Also the "Heritage legislation" has made homeowners build and renovate in the ancient look of the various villages. 

 England truly is a nation you can travel over "hill and dale" and enjoy very pastoral  scenery along narrow roads lined with hedges as you go from town to town (driving on the wrong side of the road with roundabouts to negotiate very frequently). 

However, home is HOME!  The ease and the speed of the drive to Surrey was truly refreshing. Finally having spacious accommodation of a home and yard such as  Harvey and Wendy's is something we will forever have a much greater appreciation for.

… Back to Kelowna's!!

Day 3 and 4 at London

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The last 2 days have been a blur. London is a fast paced, vibrant, fun -to-be-in city. 

The hundreds of pubs and bars are always full from lunch on but you can always find a spot. Crosswalk lights are almost without purpose as pedestrians dodge between gaps in the densely packed cars and busses that are always in a stop and go mode. 

In additions to the river cruise on the famous river Thames, London has the best shopping in the world. Need anything in the world and Harrods will deliver it in 48 hours (at their price!). 

Even unusual things are found in Harrods, such as the Dianna and Dodi memorial. 

Every car dealership I have ever heard of is on London. It is a car buffs dream, window shopping for Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Lamborgini, McClaren and more. 

The first day when I returned the rental car we had to negotiate parts of the downtown. Thanks to Ade's navigation skills, a map and TWO GPS's we inched to our destination taking 3 times the expected time--driving on the left side of the road did not help matters !

The nice thing about london is their world famous museums are free!  Science, Natural history (from prehistoric time to modern day), culture and Art , V and A museum, and on and on. Although not as extensive in its displays, the 

Museum of Natural History is a scaled down version of Washington's Smithsonian Institute 

Then London has the public squares (like Trafalger), parks (like Hyde park the home of free expression where people stand on a soap box and tell the world of their ideas) and streets like the Beatle's Abbey Road.  The changing of the guard BuckinghamPalace was not high on our priority list.  However I accidentally had one of my walks pass by at the perfect time and it was really a spectacle. 

London has it all including the night life of Soho and the Theatre district. 

Our final afternoon saw us meet a friend of Harv and Wendy. We enjoyed a matinee theatre production--THOSE DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRALS. it was a comic musical and even though it lasted 2.5 hours, the music was fantastic and the storyline histerically funny. 

After another great London restaurant meal, it was a short taxi ride to St Pancras station and our final subway train to Gatwick airport. 

9.5 hours breathing Air Transit air and we are approaching the Vancouver airport. 

Bye bye adventure. 

Corfu castle

One of the most ancient cities in south England is Corfe  

The homes range from one to two thousand years in age!  They are still lived in today. Building regulation prevent construction of any new home that does not look one thousand years old!!!

Every home is rock!  The village is set in the backdrop of castle rules that date back over two thousand years!

The scenery is very pastoral as it is in much of south west england. Many small farms on green rolling hay fields separated by large hedges. Zoning regulations make it difficult to subdivide and heritage regulations prevent changing the ancient look of existing homes. 

Torquay and Taunton

Torquay is a beautiful seaside town in south west england  

Mom spent her war years there teaching young students who were relocated there for several years while Bristol was been a target of GermN bombs during the war. It must have been a tough job teaching kids who never got to see their parents for many months ar a time; and be responsible for seeing the into fallout shelters from time to time. 

Next was Taunton, home of my Gramps. 

He was born here in 1882. They were the Cider makers of the town. Much to my surprise they drink as much cider on this town as beer!

It is truly a beautiful old town with a very ornate cathedral. It was a little disappointed Ing that we were unable to locate the proper people to allow us a more thorough family search.

This area was the home a a large British insurrection agInst the king in the Middle Ages. After a fierce battle , hundreds of revolutionaries were executed but the area must have temained in the kings favour as it is the homes a many estates and beautiful architecture. 

It is one of the nicest places we have visited and a "must-see" on some future visit. 

London day two

O   We bought a London bus pass and rode around town from Trafalgar Square through the inner-city which included St. Paul's Cathedral Westminster Abbey Dan prominent buildings London Bridge Tower of London.

888,000 copies surround the Tower of London.  Each copy represents a slain British soldier from world war one. This display will run until November 11, remembrance Day.

We stopped at the Tower of London and spent most of the day they're taking in and enjoyable history lesson

BuckinghamPalace 

Ended the day with another bus tour, a short one, and then s walk from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham palace.

Another great meal in downtown London and then off to book a theater show for tomorrow. Tomorrow will be our last full day in downtown London.

London day one

Found pur place in downtown London in the heart of the theater district only one block away from Trafalgar Square.

It was a tad tricky driving for about a half an hour in downtown London. The traffic was extremely dense and it's always a little interesting when you're driving on the left-hand side of the road. However we returned the car to the car rental agency without incident.

We have finally encounter to rain on our holiday. It rained for most of the day while we were driving to London and now that we have drop the car off it is still raining but we were still able to do the small walk throughout the center of London and found the store to buy a little wine and beer. Find Thai restaurant wrapped up how most enjoyable evening.

Burford, and Oxford

I Out trip to London was interrupted by a very enjoyable stop at the medieval town called Burford. It is one of those places that you kind of accidentally bump into en route to somewhere else.

It was truly a find. All the houses  where constructed of stone. The streets were extremely narrow. Also there was a very beautiful and stream running through the town adjacent to an ancient church That was built in the 1200s. The cemetery was very unusual having many burial caskets placed above ground and made out of the granitelike rock. Some of the graves were nearly 1,000 years old. 

A late lunch at Burford saw us eating a traditional British meal with roast beef potatoes Yorkshire pudding vegetables horse radish and gravy. Was it ever good!!

from here it was onto Oxford university campus. However we did arrive a little late in the afternoon. It was extremely busy with traffic and parking was impossible. Oxford will have to wait for another trip.

We did stop for a few minutes on the River Thames that runs through the heart of the University. On it we met a gentleman who lives in a river boat – houseboat. He has spent 19 years drifting along back-and-forth between London and just beyond london. a river  license fee of 1100 pounds a year and a lot of boat maintenance make for a rather interesting lifestyle.

One of graces on this trip has been latebooking.com. Once again we use their services and ended up at the

The New Inn, in Readong county. It was another great find with great food and find accommodation. And a real good thing about the location was its price -- only $55 pounds for a couple. This included breakfast!!

Windsor Castle

We left John and Bob and headed in the direction of London, with our first stop being Windsor Castle.

This location is one of the three or four residence is owned by the queen. It is truly a massive estate -- Surrounded in its entirety by 12 foot thick walls that rise about 20 feet in the air. It is located on a rocky Knowl and commands a 360° view for as far as the eye can see. The ultimate location for a sturdy defensive structure. 

The queen is not in the residence at the time so we enjoy a very extensive this it throughout most of the palace. It was truly functional and at the same time very beautiful.  

Football game

My cousin John has had a 67 year relationship with Bristols first division soccer team. Over that time he has been a fan, massage therapist, team trainer and team physio-therapist. 

In his words the team is "My team". 

He secured 4 tickets for us and we went to our first professional soccer game. 

What a game. Fans from both teams were segregated into different sections of the stadium and separTed by a fence and 24 security police!  Bristol scored first then Chesterfield tied it. By the end of 90 minutes this repeated again and the score was 2 - 2 at 90 minutes. The ref added 4 minutes of "extra time" and with 30 seconds remIning in extra time Bristol scored the winner. 

The place went crazy. People hugging and screMing and singing!  Quie an experience. We even had the security escort 6 unruly fans from the stadium as the game near the end. 

After the game we went to Bob's (my other cousin). He has been a professional  photographer for over 50 years. His collection of arial and land shots is amazing. 

Timmsbury, Bath and Wells day 2

Bob and John figured we should visit Timsbury today. 

Ade and I drove with Bob and Wendy and Harvey drove with John. 

Bob figured he would take the back roads leading to Timsbury. That was certainly an experience. Even though traffic moves in both directions on these  roads, there is not room for the vehicles to get by each other when cars coming from opposite directions meet. Since all (and I mean ALL) of these roads have dense hedges that grow to the edge of the pavement, there is usually no room to pass by each other. To accommodate this problem at random intervals the hedges have been "car pruned " by the rubbing of vehicles against them. When see an approaching car you must either dash ahead and squeeze into one of these slight indents or stop and back up into one. British drivers seem to have adjusted to this tedious method of driving  country roads a slide goes on. It certainly is taxing in the nerves in North American drivers -- especially when you are driving on the left side of the road!  

On more than one occasion Bib took wrong turns to the point where I finally had to get out my cell phone and use the GPS!

W finally arrived in Timsbury. It was a very moving experience to visit mom's beautiful old church. In the grave yard was the plot of her mom and dad. We helped clean up the grave site. 

Adjacent to the grave site was a new home that was built in the location if Grampa Evans old home. 

On a stroll by the location of mom's childhood home Adrienne noticed a small sign on the next old home. She brought it to my attention. It read THE PITFOUR HOUSE". I was almost brought to my knees in surprise and emotion. This was the home of my dad's mom--my grandma!!  

No one has ever told me that mom's dad and my gramma were next door neighbours. My two grammas were friends. My gramma from the PITFOUR house was the daughter of the town doctor. When he died, she and her mom made the perilous trip to Canada alone to start a new life. It was in Canada that she met my Gramps so had also immigrated to Canada from  village only a few miles away--Taunton!   Small world, even back then !

After a climb up a shakey couple of ladders in the churches clock and bell tower, past the works of an ancient clock Nd though a couple of old trap doors I made it to the top of the church bell tower. It housed ; enormous bells over various sizes upto 6 feet in height. 

Harvey was right behind me expressing concern that we might get in trouble. However I snapped a picture of these wonderfully old chimes in their rarely visited old home and dreamed for a few minutes before descending from this ancient dusty room shrouded with curtains of cobwebs. 

Next it was more tight British roads and on to Bath. 

Bath surprised me. The town dates back 1900 years!  On the sight of a large natural hot spring (o we a million gallons a day!), the Romans built enormous swinning piols and spas. This location became a holly destination for Romans from throughout their enormous empire. Roman roads that still exist today ended in Bath.  Fabulous marble work, buildings and statutes made this spot very special in their time. British reconstruction in the past 200 years has made bath and international destination. 

It was getting late in the day but Bob and John said the little town of Wells was a must-see on our way home. 

More crazy driving and before to long we were in Wells. Wow!!! The town has one of the biggest and most beautiful cathedrals we have ever see !  Adjacent to the cathedral on one side was the huge palace of the bishop complete with high walls, an enormous moat, and a draw bridge with a 15 foot castle double door!

On the other side was an 800 year old building that housed a music school that was rehearsing while we were there--fantastic! Beside the music shook was a roman cobble stone lane with a dozen mini rock mansion homes on either side that are lived in today. Certainly a prestigious address in England. 

Wells has another claim to fame. It is home to a couple of the most prestigious and expensive private schools in the world. 

 The route you ready for two vehicles to pass the hedges on both sides. Stopped and pulled over, squished to get stands, well another car passed. The roads were almost very Windee oncoming traffic.

Grampa evans grave

M's church

Pitfoour house

Wells cathedral

Taunton to Bristol and meeting Bob and John

From Taunton it was on to Bristol to meet my cousins John and Bob. 

South England

After about 2 hours on the Chunnel between France and England, we ended up in the st. Pancreatic train station in London. It took us a few minutes to get oriented and pick up a phone card and then we were off to the car rental.

Believe it or not we arrived at the car rental store at 4:03. We were three minutes late. They had shut down the system and we were plain out of luck.

Thank goodness for the Internet and phone card. It only took us a few minutes and we had found an extremely reasonably priced hotel less than 10 minutes walk from the car rental store.

 It was only 10 minutes from the train station.

However this was the very last room. Sure enough it had beds for all four of us, but they were all in the same room!

This meant for a somewhat cozy night!!

In the morning the hotel treated us to a full course breakfast. It was amazing with everything from cereal juice eggs to toast and more.

After breakfast we are headed to the car rental store. For some reason we were upgraded to a very sporty Volvo four-door with every option including GPS.

After some tense moments of learning how to drive on the left-hand side of the road and understanding how to maneuver the wrong way around a multilane turned out, we finally made it to Hastings and then Brighton 

Brighton pier. 1,770 ft long with a carnival  atmosphere. 

This time our hotel was a truly nice. Two very nice rooms and we were only hundred and 50 yards from the water. Also it included a wonderful breakfast in the morning.

Roman Catholic cathedral in erin dale

Driving in this part of England is definitely a test of one's patients. The roads are narrow quite busy, and there is a roundabout every 2 to 5 miles. We could not begin to count all the turnarounds that we had to navigate.

Lunch was at a fabulous English Inn in a town that dated back to 1067, where William the conqueror gave a parcel of land to one of his supporters. He built Erindale castle and a small city evolved around it.  The castle is truly a must see, but wouldn't you believe it we arrived on a Monday. That is the only day that the castle is shut down.

A short while later we called at a day and found our destination--the 500 year old White Heart Inn. 

King Louise XIV's Palace in Versailles

The final amazement of Paris was King Louis XIV's palace of Versailles. For me it was definitely the high point of our complete holiday. From the entry square that rivalled the Vatican to the enormous building complexes of the palace to the canals and hundreds of acres of groomed lawns and gardens, it was awe inspiring. 

As much as Versailles was remarkable and unbelievable, it was also repulsive. 

How could one man's ego be allowed to shackle a complete population to his opulent desires. A small city was displaced to make way for palace grounds. Tens of thousands of people were forced into basic slave-labour. All this was for the edification of one manNd his family. No wonder the French had such a bloody revolution. 

The imported English Hardin, thatched homes and working farm covering hundreds of acres was one of my highlights 

Paris (the City of Love)

Paris is truly a beautiful city. Many of its long strait avenues ae lined with sycamore maples and ancient buildings constructed of rock and cement. Compared to Rome, I guess the buildings in Paris should be in better shape. They are on average 1,000 years newer!

From beautiful parklands to iconic structures like the Eiffel Tower and Arch de Triumph to the Louvre to a night time cruise on the Seine, Paris certainly delivered for us!

Notre Dame Cathedral

Arch de Triumph