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Greg and Kerrie's travels
Heading south from Blackpool we decided to return to London via Llandudno, Wales. This is a beautiful seaside town that we first visited in 1982. We have been back since then and decided another visit would fill one of our last 5 days.
The visit worked out to be as delightful as we remembered the town. We felt quite young and sprightly as we wandered the streets among the elderly visitors to the seaside resort. We found a lovely Italian restaurant for dinner called "Valentino's" and it was almost as good as 'HE' is!
Next morning we headed to Oxford for 2 nights. Kerrie is a keen viewer of "Lewis" a 'who done it' based in Oxford so she was eager to visit and see if she could spot Lewis or Hathaway going about their business of catching the baddies. Neither one was spotted so we spent our day visiting Oxford University and admiring the beautiful buildings of this educational institution. The most famous of the buildings is Christ Church College. You enter the college through Christ Church Meadow, a beautiful area of tree-lined paths bordered by the rivers Cherwell and Isis. The Hall is one of the main spots to visit and is found at the top of a staircase that was used in the film, 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'. At the top of the staircase you enter the Hall which was the inspiration for the dining hall at Hogwarts. Filming actually started in this hall but it turned out to be too small for Hogwarts Hall so was recreated in a studio for filming. Today the Hall was set up for a banquet and looked magnificent. Portraits of many famous members of Christ Church hang on the walls, including six past Prime Ministers and Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll the author of Alice in Wonderland. We thought that Christ Church's 'Tom Quad' was also the scene of the run around the grass quad in the film 'Chariot's of Fire' but we discovered that had been at Eton College.
We paid a visit to the college's Cathedral, which was built in the twelfth century and is one of the oldest buildings in Oxford. It is also the only church in the world to be both a cathedral and a college chapel. The oldest window in the cathedral contains a panel that shows the martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Becket who died in 1170. After our tour, we headed back to the car and towards our hotel.
We decided to also visit Blenheim Palace, at Woodstock, just a few kilometres from our hotel. Blenheim Palace is the family estate of the 12th Duke of Marlborough and also the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. This World Heritage Site has over 2 000 acres of gardens and parklands designed by the famous British landscaper, ‘Capability’ Brown. The Palace contains numerous portraits and tapestries that retell the history of the Marlborough family who lived there. We visited the State Rooms and also the room where Churchill was born 2 months prematurely in 1874. A whole section of the Palace has been dedicated to the Sir Winston Churchill story tracing his boyhood, marriage, Prime Ministership and death – 2015 is the 50th anniversary of his passing. We then went up the street a little bit to visit St Martin’s Church in Bladon where Churchill and his wife Clementine are buried among other members of the Duke of Marlborough’s family – a very simple burial place for a very memorable man.
Satisfied with our visit to Oxford, we headed to London via Alton (a bit out of our way) where Greg could buy some bits and pieces for his bikes at R & G Racing. Luckily they threw in a helmet bag with our purchases as our suitcases just wouldn’t have coped!
Our last 2 days would be spent in London - you can never have enough time in this wonderful city. In 1982 during our first visit to London, we went to the Imperial War Museum - we felt another visit was well overdue. As it was Saturday we decided to drive in to the city rather than find a train.
The Imperial War Museum is right in the city and our route took us passed Harrods, Buckingham Palace, down The Mall to Trafalgar Square before we crossed the Thames passed Westminster Abbey, The Houses of Parliament and The London Eye. We reminisced about our time in London with Stacey, Brett, William, Thomas and Hayley as we drove through the city. We had no trouble parking about 100m from the entrance to the museum - free on Saturday. The Museum also has free entry so today looked like a real bargain.
The Museum was opened in June, 1920 by King George V. At the time he stated "We cannot say with what eyes posterity will regard this Museum nor what ideas it will rouse in their minds." The museum has displays spread over 5 levels of the building starting with World War One on the ground floor. Planes hang from the ceiling in the entry hall and the exhibits are set out in an easy to follow route. The ideas that the museum 'roused in our heads' was to see connections to so many other places we have visited - The Somme, Gallipoli, Poland, Auschwitz, Dunkirk, Berlin and even New York. We spent 4 hours exploring the museum, looking at the memorabilia and reading the information displayed beside each exhibit. We saw Field Marshall Sir Bernard Montgomery's staff car used in the Middle East Campaign - we had seen his Western Front staff car in Coventry. The Holocaust Exhibit was very moving with an exceptional model of The Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp with a detailed description of what happened as prisoners arrived by train from all over Europe - this exhibit was not recommended for children under the age of 14. More recent history was recorded as well - a twisted window frame from the World Trade Centre in New York and the witness box from the trial of the Lockerbie Plane disaster - another place we have visited. There was the usual collection of tanks and guns and also a model of the Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima. We then checked out the Lord Ashcroft Gallery on the 5th Floor where the world's largest collection of Victoria Cross and George Cross decorations are displayed; each set of medals had a picture of the recipient and a brief description of the bravery that led to the award.
We returned to our hotel ready for a rest before we watch the RWC game between England and the Wallabies - do or die for England, so it should be a great game - with the right result we hope!
Tomorrow is our last day and we plan to spend it packing up, doing a bit of last minute shopping and then heading out to the airport for our trip home.
The visit worked out to be as delightful as we remembered the town. We felt quite young and sprightly as we wandered the streets among the elderly visitors to the seaside resort. We found a lovely Italian restaurant for dinner called "Valentino's" and it was almost as good as 'HE' is!
Next morning we headed to Oxford for 2 nights. Kerrie is a keen viewer of "Lewis" a 'who done it' based in Oxford so she was eager to visit and see if she could spot Lewis or Hathaway going about their business of catching the baddies. Neither one was spotted so we spent our day visiting Oxford University and admiring the beautiful buildings of this educational institution. The most famous of the buildings is Christ Church College. You enter the college through Christ Church Meadow, a beautiful area of tree-lined paths bordered by the rivers Cherwell and Isis. The Hall is one of the main spots to visit and is found at the top of a staircase that was used in the film, 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'. At the top of the staircase you enter the Hall which was the inspiration for the dining hall at Hogwarts. Filming actually started in this hall but it turned out to be too small for Hogwarts Hall so was recreated in a studio for filming. Today the Hall was set up for a banquet and looked magnificent. Portraits of many famous members of Christ Church hang on the walls, including six past Prime Ministers and Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll the author of Alice in Wonderland. We thought that Christ Church's 'Tom Quad' was also the scene of the run around the grass quad in the film 'Chariot's of Fire' but we discovered that had been at Eton College.
We paid a visit to the college's Cathedral, which was built in the twelfth century and is one of the oldest buildings in Oxford. It is also the only church in the world to be both a cathedral and a college chapel. The oldest window in the cathedral contains a panel that shows the martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Becket who died in 1170. After our tour, we headed back to the car and towards our hotel.
We decided to also visit Blenheim Palace, at Woodstock, just a few kilometres from our hotel. Blenheim Palace is the family estate of the 12th Duke of Marlborough and also the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. This World Heritage Site has over 2 000 acres of gardens and parklands designed by the famous British landscaper, ‘Capability’ Brown. The Palace contains numerous portraits and tapestries that retell the history of the Marlborough family who lived there. We visited the State Rooms and also the room where Churchill was born 2 months prematurely in 1874. A whole section of the Palace has been dedicated to the Sir Winston Churchill story tracing his boyhood, marriage, Prime Ministership and death – 2015 is the 50th anniversary of his passing. We then went up the street a little bit to visit St Martin’s Church in Bladon where Churchill and his wife Clementine are buried among other members of the Duke of Marlborough’s family – a very simple burial place for a very memorable man.
Satisfied with our visit to Oxford, we headed to London via Alton (a bit out of our way) where Greg could buy some bits and pieces for his bikes at R & G Racing. Luckily they threw in a helmet bag with our purchases as our suitcases just wouldn’t have coped!
Our last 2 days would be spent in London - you can never have enough time in this wonderful city. In 1982 during our first visit to London, we went to the Imperial War Museum - we felt another visit was well overdue. As it was Saturday we decided to drive in to the city rather than find a train.
The Imperial War Museum is right in the city and our route took us passed Harrods, Buckingham Palace, down The Mall to Trafalgar Square before we crossed the Thames passed Westminster Abbey, The Houses of Parliament and The London Eye. We reminisced about our time in London with Stacey, Brett, William, Thomas and Hayley as we drove through the city. We had no trouble parking about 100m from the entrance to the museum - free on Saturday. The Museum also has free entry so today looked like a real bargain.
The Museum was opened in June, 1920 by King George V. At the time he stated "We cannot say with what eyes posterity will regard this Museum nor what ideas it will rouse in their minds." The museum has displays spread over 5 levels of the building starting with World War One on the ground floor. Planes hang from the ceiling in the entry hall and the exhibits are set out in an easy to follow route. The ideas that the museum 'roused in our heads' was to see connections to so many other places we have visited - The Somme, Gallipoli, Poland, Auschwitz, Dunkirk, Berlin and even New York. We spent 4 hours exploring the museum, looking at the memorabilia and reading the information displayed beside each exhibit. We saw Field Marshall Sir Bernard Montgomery's staff car used in the Middle East Campaign - we had seen his Western Front staff car in Coventry. The Holocaust Exhibit was very moving with an exceptional model of The Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp with a detailed description of what happened as prisoners arrived by train from all over Europe - this exhibit was not recommended for children under the age of 14. More recent history was recorded as well - a twisted window frame from the World Trade Centre in New York and the witness box from the trial of the Lockerbie Plane disaster - another place we have visited. There was the usual collection of tanks and guns and also a model of the Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima. We then checked out the Lord Ashcroft Gallery on the 5th Floor where the world's largest collection of Victoria Cross and George Cross decorations are displayed; each set of medals had a picture of the recipient and a brief description of the bravery that led to the award.
We returned to our hotel ready for a rest before we watch the RWC game between England and the Wallabies - do or die for England, so it should be a great game - with the right result we hope!
Tomorrow is our last day and we plan to spend it packing up, doing a bit of last minute shopping and then heading out to the airport for our trip home.
- comments
Cath It looks like you've had a great holiday, I can't believe how quickly six months has flown by! Thanks for helping me get through winter by reading your blogs, I laughed when you were sweltering in a European summer, while it was freezing here:)
Jo Hannan Have you started planning the next trip?
Sandra Wow, all over red rover, such a full on six months, so much for retirement. Your map looks like a sea of red lines! Looking forward to seeing you on the Red Rocket Kerri, bet you have missed your baby.