London transport and jobs

Monday 29/9/15
Our Pub in London (the Angerstein ) is quite old but very comfortable. We got to know the manager/barman quite well which was done over a few beers and ciders at the bar. We had to return the keys of the Jeep after  the fiasco we had returning the jeep yesterday. Who would have thought a company like Europcar would not have a inner London branch open on a Sunday at 3pm! We decided to take a river cruise into London as we thought this may be quicker than a bus or taxi and more relaxing. The keys needed to be back between 9 and 10 am. It was a lovely way to travel. Once the keys had been returned we had a late breakfast and then set off on the London tube and train system to go to the flood surge barriers on the Thames. We made it. It was quite interesting and not only did we see the impressive flood gates but also the beautiful gardens and hedges close by. From here we returned back to Geenwich and did a quick walk through the magnificent Royal Naval college. There were many lovely buildings that we were able to check out at no cost. It is now used as part of the Greenwich university. We walked back to our pub and spent the afternoon washing and repacking ready for our European trip.

Back to lovely London

Sunday  27/9/15 
After a beautiful nights sleep in the best Air B&B we've stayed in just out of Canterbury, we woke to not only the normal continental breakfast but a full cooked breakfast too. To be honest Sarah our host really goes overboard with everything from the wine/beer, scones greeting, the 1,000 thread count sheets on our bed that she irons, phoning the local pub to make sure we could get in for dinner to giving us an extensive menu last night so we could select our dishes for the morning! We thought that it is obviously more than just a business to her and she got so much from hosting people as she loved the interaction. Rob did try black pudding along with bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, eggs etc. Rob and Sarah spent a lot of time talking about Air B&B and how it all works. When we left Sarah came out and gave us a big hug and kiss. We had intended to visit some gardens and a castle on our way back to London but this didn't happen. We were taking some of the little country back-roads and realised we needed fuel. We passed many villages that had petrol stations but being Sunday, they weren't open. We had the warning light come on so Rob stopped and asked a lovely lady where would be the best place to go. It was only 6 miles away but in the opposite direction to the castle. Anyway we could head back after getting fuel or so we thought. Unfortunately after a mile or two the traffic came to a halt. It took us about 45 minutes to travel the 6 miles due to roadworks. We made it to the service station but the line up of traffic trying to go back the way we came was so long that we decided to head back to London after lunch. We had a pretty uneventful journey back and arrived at the place where we were returning the Jeep. (Europcar) Unfortunately it was not open at 3pm on Sunday. (Our car wasn't due back till 9am tomorrrow. ) We found a ca rpark behind the office and called another Eurocar office that was open. We were told to leave the car there and we would need to returntomorrow at 9 am to return the keys and paperwork. Rob was not happy but there wasn't much we could do. We took a taxi back to our accommodation at the Angerstein Hotel for the next 2 nights before joining our European trip.

From Brilliant Brighton to Castles Cathedrals of Canterbury

Saturday  26/9/15  

Our stay at Brighton was an entertaining one. I haven't written much about out B&B's because all bar one have  been very good and last night was no exception despite a funny start. Our host, Diana had messaged us to say that she was going to be  out and about when we arrive in Brighton and so she would leave a key under a flowerpot. We found her house and the key. We parked close to the house but realised we needed a permit and there was a inspector hanging around so Rob didn't want to leave the car just in case. We let ourselves in and put some gear in the house and then waited for Diana to come. She had said

our room was upstairs so we went in to look and noticed that it hadn't been made up. We were starting to get a bit worried.

While waiting for Diana to return, another couple arrived with a suitcase. They said they had also booked with Diana and she

had said to let themselves in with the key. They said Diana had told them their room would be in the basement. Finally the missing lady returned. She had got a bit mixed up and thought that Rob and I were

arriving Saturday not Friday. She soon had our room prepared and we sat down with the other couple and a cup of coffee. Diana then told us that another guest, Hildegard was also staying and her room was in the attic. Diana was a lovely, slightly eccentric and bohemian type of person in her sixties. We all had a good night's sleep and met up in the morning at breakfast. Diana had provided a good spread. She was off to something special that she did at the botanic gardens and told us just to close the door when we left. We walked back down to the famous Brighton Pier and beach again in the morning to see what everything looked like in the morning. We spent two hours wandering around looking at the gardens, the Royal Pavillion, the beach front and the pier. The weather was perfect too. We saw people in swimming and even water-skiing. From Brighton we had an easy drive to Canterbury but once we got into the main part of the city the fun started. It was so busy that we were moving at a snail's pace. All the carparks close to the city were full. We drove out of the city and just by chance found a park and ride station. We parked the Jeep and hopped on a bus to get into the city. We found out that it was the beginning of the sales and there was a special food festival on. Many of the locals said that it was not normally this bad. We walked to a few of the special places in Canterbury, including the magnificent cathedral, the  Norman castle, the town walls etc. We returned to the car on the bus and all for £3 which is pretty cheap for here. Tonight we are staying in our last and the most amazing AirB&B we've been in for the whole trip. It's about 5 km out of Canterbury. It's a cottage in a semi-rural town with a river just across the road. We were greeted by Sarah and she offered us wine and beer and scones! She sat down with us and we chatted for ages. She then booked us in to the local pub for dinner. We walked to the Pub which was over 500 years old and then had a lovely meal. The owners(Sue and Bill) were both once teachers and were lovely people. Bill spent alot of time when he wasn't serving drinks, chatting to Rob about Rugby as England v's Wales was on the TV. After a great night we headed back to Sarah's and Mitch home. We again sat with them and had a few more drinks and conversations.

To Brighton, via the long way!

Friday 25/9/15

This morning we left Oxford heading for Brighton. We had decided to go a slightly longer way so we could call into the  town of Winchester and then Portsmouth before arriving at Brighton. We thoroughly enjoyed our stop at Winchester where we did a walk around the town that included alot of history about King Alfred who ruled Wessex from 871 till 899. He was called Alfred the Great due to being an outstanding soldier, scholar and statesman. There was an enormous statue of Alfred in the main street of Winchester. When we had finished the walk, we discovered that there was a lovely Friday market going on with a wonderful array of stalls. From Winchester we drove to Portsmouth. The docks were very busy and we had a lovely walk around the quays watching the coming and goings of all the boats and ferries. It was soon time for us to be on our way to Brighton. It was about 3pm in the afternoon but the traffic was the worse we had seen. Apparently lots of people go places for the weekend and there were cars everywhere. We crawled at a snail's pace into Brighton. Once we'd met our host and settled into our B&B we walked to a nearby Pub for tea. Following tea we decided to walk down to the beach which was not too far away. We could see the famous Brighton Pier all lit up a little further along so we decided to walk to it. It was further than we thought  but it didn't matter as it was a perfect night for a walk being still and very mild. We have continued to have beautiful weather and today was no exception. We even felt hot at times during the day.

Museums lost and found in the seat of learning and more bikes!

Thursday 24/9/15 
Well today we had plenty of time as we were only driving a short distance to Oxford. 
I was so pleased with our punting yesterday that I asked Rob to choose some activities for today. The first he chose was to visit the Cambridge Museum of Technology. We found it pretty easily despite it not being very well signposted. As it didn't open till 10 am, we went and had a coffeee while waiting. Once it was time for the museum to open we headed back. We waited around near where we thought the entrance was and nobody came. We waited for about 10 minutes and then left. Rob thought he might have better luck at the Cambridge Museum of Computing. Again this was a  challenge to find as it was in an industrial area and not well signposted. This time at least it was open. It cost us £7 pound each to get into this museum and Rob was a little disappointed. It had lots of  old  computers and games from bygone days that you could play on and history about computers but it wasn't that inspiring. We were the only 2 visitors the place had the whole time we were there. From  here we were heading for Oxford. I thought Rob may like to visit Bletchley Park which the movie the "The Immitation Game" is famous for. It was all about the history of the code breaking in World War 2. Unfortunately we were once again thwarted as the park was not well sign posted and due to roadworks we had to drive miles out of our way. We gave up! 
Onward we drove stopping at a pretty little town called Buckingham for lunch. We drove into the centre of Oxford and found a carpark fairly easily. We visited the tourist information centre and found some free museums to visit. The Oxford museum was in the town hall and was excellent, giving a good history of Oxford. From here, we walked amongst many of the famous Oxford University buildings with their gargoyles, to the Museum of the history of science. This was in a building that was built in the 1600's for the purpose of housing scientific discoveries. We saw old scientific equipment dating back to the 1600's and there was even a blackboard that had writing on it from Albert Einstein even though that wasn't quite so old! There was so much see here, we stayed till closing time. I forgot to mention in yesterdays blog that Rob has really struggled with all the cyclists around here both in Oxford and Cambridge. With all the students needing a cheap form of travel it makes sense as cars just crawl through the city centres due to congestion. Many of the cyclists don't wear helmets and ride at such a pace, under-taking cars etc. There are many dedicated cycling lanes etc. The cycle rules.....much to Rob’s disgust. I do think that some of them do take their lives into their own hands though.

No Robin Hoods but lots of Bikes

Wednesday 23/9/15  
We said goodbye to York and our lovely hosts, Jane and Will after a great 2 nights. Today we travelled to Cambridge via Nottingham. I think Rob was hoping to venture into Sherwood Forrest and see men in tights but it wasn't to be we had a look around Nottingham and then continued on towards Cambridge. We stopped at a normal services stop for lunch and could not believe what we

saw. The area was like a massive food-court full of different types of food shops but this isn't what we found amazing. Most of the time when we have stopped for lunch while on the road, the places have been quiet and not busy at all. This stop was

packed with about 500 people, many dressed in blue and

white shirts and tops. We worked out that they were supporters of the Ipswich Football (soccer) team and were on their way to Trent Bridge to play Manchester United. Many coaches and cars were in the carpark. At about 1.30pm they all cleared out and obviously needed to be back on the buses. From here we made good headway to Cambridge arriving around 3pm. We found a high rise carpark about a 20 minute walk from the tourist information centre and the river. I have to say Rob is doing a great job with the "Epic" (the Jeep). It drives really well out on the open road and he has managed to manouvre around carparks that are clearly built for smalled cars. After checking out the things we could do, we decided to go "punting" on the Cam River. We booked into a chauffeured punt tour and set off. The punt was designed to take 12 people but we only had 6 on our trip. It was a

wonderful introduction to the history of the Cambridge and all the different colleges that make up the University. We saw iconic colleges, like Kings College, Queens College, St, Trinity College  etc etc. Our young chauffeur was very good with telling the history as well as the Cambridge students funny pranks stories. Was a wonderful experience. Following this great experience we drove to our B&B which was less than 10 minutes drive from the river. We met the owners who were lovely and were shown to a beautiful self-contained unit which was attached to their house with its own entrance

Vikings, trains, walls and walks around York

Tuesday 22/9/15 

We had a lovely comfortable night and as our next B&B in Nottingham had not contacted us we decided to stay another night with Jane and her partner and spend today exploring York thoroughly. After the great day we've had we think this was an excellent decision. We walked into the main part of the city via the museum gardens and fed squirrels with some peanuts on the way. We headed for the Jorvik Viking centre. It was about a 20 minute walk from our accommodation. York has an amazing history and excavations show that it was a Viking stronghold and  an important Viking town. The display at the centre showed examples of the archeological excavations that had occurred in the area and many displays of artifacts that had been discovered. The most impressive part was a "ride" that we went on a monorail that took you through a viking village as it would have been. You even got to smell the different smells in different areas eg. we both smelt a stew cooking when the commentary pointed out a pot cooking over a fire in a certain area. We felt that this centre was well worth the money. We  then decided to have a quick "free" look into York Minster. We could look in the first part but after that you had to pay. It is a stunning cathedral. From here we went for a walk along the famous ancient walls that surround the main part of the old city. This was facinating and fun. Now it was time for lunch. Rob had already had a small cornish pasty for morning tea and decided they were so good that he needed a large one for lunch! 
After lunch we walked to the National Railway Museum. This was free to enter and we could not believe it . It was enormous and  contained old carriages belonging to former Queens and Kings as well as memorabilia from bygone  days. While I was studying the social history of the trains, Rob got to listen to an expert talking about the Shinkansen. We both enjoyed the demonstration of the turn-table and later Rob watched and listened to an explaination of a steam engine and how it exactly works. This was done using a full size cut-a-way model. We could not believe how many engines and carriages this museum contained. We spent several hours here. Feeling a little weary, we walked back into town and found a pub for a drink and another pub for dinner. Another wonderful day!

No walk in Edinburgh but a walk in York.

Monday 21/9/15
We were sad to leave Edinburgh as we could have done so many more things but we needed

to make tracks to see more of the country. I was keen to go for our mandatory walk before our drive and had suggested that Aurthor's Seat (an extinct volcano close to the city centre of Edinburgh ) may be the place to go. Our host Laura said it took about an our to climb the steep trail to get to the top. Unfortunately it was raining so we drove around it instead. I think secretly Rob was pretty happy with this outcome. Oops nearly forgot....before driving off we decided to visit the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. It

didn't open until 10am so we had to wait but it was well and truly worth it. Unfortunately we couldn't stay much more than an hour but the little we saw was fantastic. They had 7 floors of exhibits but we decided just concentrate on Scotland. We started on the bottom level where the displays were all about the early people from the Bronze and Iron

ages. Just amazing. We then jumped a couple of floors because we were running out of time and landed on a floor all about the start of the Industrial revolution in Scotland. We were so lucky because a fellow was operating 2 of the steam engines on display while we were there. Unfortunately we had to go but on our way out we saw the very impressive millennium clock. It was huge. If ever we go back to Edinburgh we would definitely spend at least a day at this free museum. We would thoroughly recommend it to any one who visits Edinburgh. From Edinburgh we drove to York. Our sat-nav took us both on main roads and little country roads which was good. We arrived in York and went to our accommodation. We were greeted at the door of another beautiful Victorian townhouse by Jane. She showed us to our room which is up in the attic with it's own bathroom. Very nice. Jane said that many people convert their attics like this in these buildings and that has been our experience while on this trip. We needed to do some washing and we asked Jane about a laundromat but she said we could use her washing machine and dryer which was very kind of her. While the washing was on we walked into the main part of the town. We were lucky again as Jane's house is only 10 minutes walk away. As we were walking we saw the very old walls of the old city still standing as well as an amazing cathedral. We visited a part of the town know as "the Shambles". Here the very old buildings from each side of the road are so close together that the rooftops almost seem like they are touching. We were  starting to feel hungry and then heard music coming from around the corner. There was a giant marquee set up with a food, beer, wine and music festival going on. We stopped here and had dinner and Rob tried a beer but this was a warm one!

Walking the The Royal Mile and some more! (or our own City to Bay for our Adelaide friends)

Sunday  20/9/15 

After another comfortable night and having a lovely breakfast and chat with our host, Laura we set off to walk the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. The Royal mile is very famous here and stretches from Hollyrood Palace (a palace that the Queen and royal family use when they are here) at one end to the very famous Edinburgh Castle at the other. In between there are numerous shops selling all things Scottish as well as pubs, cafes and museums. Many of these establishments are in very, very old buildings that all have their own history. Our B&B was about a kilometre from the start of the mile at the Hollyrood end so we walked to it.
Rob had bought tickets for Edinburgh Castle online so this meant that we didn't have to line up to get tickets. We walked the mile quite quickly even though it was uphill. When we arrived at the castle, the temporary stands that had been put up in the forecourt of the castle for the Tattoo were being taken down. Rob hired an audio set for me and we joined a 30 minute guided tour at the start just to get our bearings. It was so good and I could rave on for hours but I won't. Suffice to say we spent well over 2 hours exploring. Once we'd finished we headed back down "the mile" and stopped at a little cafe for lunch. From  there we returned back to where our car was outside our accommodation. We decided to drive out to the Edinburgh waterfront where the royal yacht Britannia was berthed. We found a park that we thought looked close by but it was about a 3 km walk to the quay where Britannia was. There was a large shopping centre on the quay in front of the Britannia. It included the ticketing and entry point for the yacht but after looking around Rob decided he wasn't interested enought to pay the money to go on board. We decided to walk back to the car and drive to the base of Calton Hill. Another steep walk up the hill and we were rewarded with beautiful views all over Edinburgh as well as seeing several old monuments and the observatory.  It was back to the car and by this time it was getting close to drinking and tea time. We parked the car back near our accommodation and once more started walking to the royal mile to find a spot for tea. We probably walked about halfway.....again. A great day and now probably an early night.

Walking, Water, Working and Whiskey

Saturday 19/9 
This morning we left our accommodation and drove down to the Ness River for a walk. We seem to be making a habit of going for anything up to an hours walk before driving. The River Ness runs through the centre of Inverness and is so clean and clear. We couldn’t believe that people can fly fish in the river so close to the centre of the city. We thought the river was running really well but an angler we spoke to said that this was not so. We walked around the river over footbridges and through some delightful forest and garden areas so close to the city. We saw quite a few people fishing. Afterwards we

drove to the canal area not far from the river. Here we saw about 6 locks, all within about 200m of each other. A small pleasure boat was making it's way through the locks and Rob was most interested. He got talking to one of the 2 lock operators. This fellow explained how everything worked and then let Rob close the sluice gates and lock gates. He was like a little boy with a special toy! After this excitement we made tracks heading down to Edinburgh. I think I mentioned in the blog yesterday how Rob had enjoyed a whiskey or two at the pub and one was a Dalwhinnie whiskey. Well what do you

know, the Dalwhinnie distillery just happened to be on the way to Edinburgh so we just had to stop. We took a tour of the distillery which was brilliant with a very interesting and entertaining lady leading it. It finished with a taste of the whiskey and a chocolate. Rob enjoyed both while I enjoyed the chocolate. Our trip into Edinburgh was uneventful and we have lovely accommodation once again within walking distance of the  famous Royal Mile. We actually walked a small part of it tonight when we went out for dinner. Looking forward to doing it and more tomorrow.

Friday 18/9 John O'Groats and Whiskey

We were up early today as we intended to do a fair bit of driving. Our accommodation in Inverness is not a B&B

but a room with bed, bathroom and small kitchen all included. Very comfortable for the two nights we're here. We had a very good run up to John O'Groats passing an area where oil rigs were being built in the bay. We saw about 6 of them. The North Sea was very calm which was unexpected and once again we had good weather although it was a little on the cool side. John O'Groats was great to see and we went on another uphill walk (just to please Rob) to see some spectacular coastal scenery. The Orkney Islands are just off the coast here and the Shetland Islands are further out. In Summer, wildlife tours are very popular in the area. The wind was very cool here so we stopped for a coffee before driving on to Thurso for a walk and lunch. We drove  back to Inverness in time to go into the main part of the city and look around. Again this town was decorated with beautiful baskets of flowers everywhere. The River Ness that runs through Inverness was so clean and clear. It was also very tidal. We returned to our room and then decided to head out to a local pub, The Thistle Inn. We walked to this Pub and then the fun began. It was a tiny pub and the owner (Richard) was behind the bar. He asked us where we came from we said South-Australia, Adelaide. He then pointed to the shirt he was wearing and on it was a picture of the Glenelg tram and the words Adelaide, South Australia written under the picture. This guy knew more about Australia than most Australians and had been out to Australia many times for long holidays. We chatted to him for awhile and then Rob mentioned he wanted to try malt whiskey. Richard took us into his lounge bar where he had 167 different bottles of whiskey. The men had a discussion about whiskeys which went over my head and Rob chose a couple of whiskeys to try. He really enjoyed both. Richard recommended a good place for tea within walking distance and we headed there. Following an enjoyable dinner we headed back to our room. I'm typing this up listening to the snoring of Rob......