We rang the little girls before breakfast this morning - it was lovely to talk to them - Shannon and Jess spoke to them too. The dishwasher I won has been delivered! We weren't on the road for long this morning (still in Manchester) when our lovely little Ford Mondeo broke down. We called the RAC and they couldn't fix it so he towed us to the Eurodollar depot and we swapped for a Vauxhall Cavalier. It's not as nice, but we were so lucky there was a Eurodollar d...

Wow! What a day!! We packed most of our gear last night - finished off this morning and took just over 2 hours to drive up to Stratford-upon-Avon. We saw through an exhibition on Shakespeare's life, and the house where he was born. After that we went to Warwick Castle (21 pound) and spent hours exploring. They've certainly increased the exhibits there - it was very good. The medieval castle display downstairs was really good, We got back on the motorways and s...

We all slept in today - had a late brekkie, sat around writing postcards. Went off to Borough Green to pick up some provisions, then down to Tonbridge to see their castle. Also walked through their markets. After that we drove to some National Trust sites that were closed, and up and down country lanes, just admiring the countryside and spotting the pheasants in the meadows. We've only seen one squirrel. Tonight we had dinner at the George and Dragon (pub) in W...

Up early this morning, on the 7.39am train to London. We had to be at Victoria Station by 8.30am (we were there 8.05am) to be collected for our Evan Evans tour. We were taken by coach firstly to Windsor Castle. We were shown through the chapel where the Queen's father and grandparents, & Henry VIII and Jane Seymour are buried. We were also taken over the State Apartments and saw where they had the fire 2 years ago. It destroyed 100 rooms!! Only a few have b...

This morning we slept in (we all needed it), so we didn't leave until 10.30am. We took our washing to Borough Green (three pound 80 for 4 bags of dirty clothes) and dropped Shannon's film into to be developed (five pound and a free film). We then drove down to Dover to explore the castle more thoroughly. We also had a guided tour of the tunnels under the cliffs (well, a couple of them - there are miles of tunnels). They were used in WWII and before. It was reall...