Te Haerenga

Beginning and End – 29 January 2012

2012-01-31T19:13:00.005-01:00

After spending the western New Year in China, we decided to go Trafalgar Square, to see the Chinese celebration of New Year in the West, especially as we discovered that one of us was born in the 'Year of the Dragon', which comes around once again this year.

The parade was disappointing, although colourful, but this year at least, the police bus was decorated appropriately!

We also planned to visit the Death Festival at the nearby Southbank Centre. Part of this was 'Boxed', an exhibition of coffins from UK and Ghana. These two companies make unusual custom-made coffins, often at the request of people for their own eventual death. Not on the same scale as fabulous tombs and mausoleums we have previously seen in the UK and Europe, but modern, novel final resting places nevertheless.

It was impossible to come to this part of London, without spending some time at the National Gallery. The amazing wealth of art there, is always an inspiration.

Coaching Inn to Chateau – 28 January 2012

2012-01-31T18:52:00.001-01:00

Today we stepped back into the time of historical novels, and visited the Kings Head in Aylesbury, one of the oldest coaching inns in southern England, which still has its original coaching yard.

It is owned by the National Trust, and they have a history room in the stables, which dates the history of the inn. It started life in the 15th century, and has housed many notables in its history including Cromwell; Judge Jeffries; Anne Boelyn & Henry who VIII visited on their honeymoon; and in more recent times, Richard Burton.

We visited for lunch, and very much enjoyed the food and the ambience. We could almost hear the horses hooves on the cobbled courtyard, and hear the grooms etc. It really is a wonderful piece of history.

Not far from here is Waddesdon Manor, a very different slice of history. The Kings Head was once a hotel owned by the Rothschilds, but Waddesdon was the country home of Baron Rothschild, built in the style of a French chateau. We went to see their winter garden, but it was more interesting to admire the house in the winter sunshine.

Emperor's New Clothes – 22 January 2012

2012-01-27T21:13:00.002-01:00

Of the many museums we had yet to visit, the one that seemed to get the most recommendations was the MoMu fashion museum and since Antwerp is famous for its fashion we decided that this would be worth a visit. Before that, since this was the first day for which there was no rain forecast, we decided to visit the sculpture park. It is a tram ride and then a 10-minute walk to what is probably a very pleasant destination in the summer. Today it was cold, damp, windy and bleak and the sculptures were thus not displayed to their best. After a fairly perfunctory wander around we headed back to the centre of town where the sun was finally putting in an appearance.

Sunshine and blue skies (between clouds): what could we possibly do but scamper around and get as many photos as possible? Having done the Cathedral and the square we caught a tram back to the harbour area to revisit MAS. The tram took us nearly there and we had to walk a short way to the harbour so set off in what seemed to be the correct direction.

The area looked a little sleazy and the first bar had a mural on the windows showing old men leering at young women; our comment “Nothing if not honest”. Turning the corner we were in the centre of the red-light district and although it was early afternoon the wares were already on display in the windows (or more correctly glass doors) all along the street. We thought we had wandered into Amsterdam except that in Amsterdam you do need to wait until after dark for the show.

After a quick, whistle-stop, photo visit to MAS we returned, like the Wise Men via a different route and caught the tram back to town to finally visit the fashion museum. Curiously, it has no permanent exhibits recalling how the Antwerp 6 broke into the international fashion scene, but instead has two special themed exhibitions per year.

The current main exhibition was works by a local designer which were definitely in the Emperor's New Clothes territory. Maybe, just maybe, it was not aimed at our demographic; it was not money well spent. There was a small side exhibition of clothes designed by Russian designer Nudie Cohn who, apparently,single-handedly created the whole “Rhinestone cowboy” country and western spangley costumes so loved by Dolly, Johnny, Elvis, Englebert and so forth – all of whom have worn Nudie designs. Not bad for a chap who started our designing G Strings!

There was time for one last nostalgic wander through what will be our last European town square before we wandered back to the station to catch a local train to connect with the Eurostar in Brussels.

Printing and Painting – 21 January 2012

2012-01-27T19:16:00.002-01:00

One of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in Antwerp is the Plantin-Moretus Printing Museum. It is housed in the original printing works and residence of Mr Plantin, who began the business at the start of the printing revolution and two of the world's oldest printing presses are still in situ in the place where they were first used. The business was passed down through the family generations until it was turned into a museum and donated to the city in 1876.

Because nothing has ever moved out of these business premises and residence, the extensive archives are the most complete record of life and times and printing business history available. When one considers that a credit card receipt will have completely faded and disappeared in a few months these days, there is little chance of a similar historical paper trail being created these days.

An original Guttenberg Bible is in the collection along many other firsts and the walls of the residence are replete with paintings by Rubens on walls that are mainly covered in beautifully tooled gilded leather.

There are a number of libraries, the largest with the books arranged by size, rather than any logical method and the printing rooms are just the way they were when in use, the company simply walked away from the presses and racks of old type and the workshops where the type dies were made and the letters cast.

The second walk in our leaflet took us down to the old harbour where a brand new museum (opened 2011) now dominates the skyline. The Museum Aan de Stroom allows free access up the escalators which are on a different facing wall on each floor, all the way to the 10th floor roof which affords a wonderful panoramic view over the city, and probably as far as the Netherlands if you knew a suitable landmark. It is a stunning building with all the curtain wall glass being curved like waves rather than flat.

After admiring the view from here called in at the Port Authority building back at ground level for an entirely different view of the surroundings. On the floor is a large backlit aerial photograph of Antwerp and the surroundings up to and including the border with the Netherlands. It graphically shows just how large the port is and how large the petrochemical industry is here.

Back on the walk we came across Rockox Museum based in a ex-Mayor's residence and with a great selection of artworks including a Bruegel. The walk returned us to the square and we set off to find the Mayer van den Bergh Museum. This collection was along the same lines as the Wallace Collection in London where the collector simply acquired artworks, collectibles, interiors and so forth that he liked, not necessarily because they were by “big name” artists.

He died at only 43, so his mother built this house purely to display his collection. It is another feast of Dutch Masters and is famous for one particular Bruegel that looks more like a Bosch than a Brugel. The other Bruegels are simply wonderful and we could have happily spent much longer there but it was late in the afternoon and the museum was closing so it was time for us to find a meal and return to the hotel.

Diamond Day – 20 January 2012

2012-01-26T20:03:00.000-01:00

Today had to be diamond day so we set off in good time for the 11a.m. tour of Diamond Land which, when we got there we discovered was not running, we could just browse around by ourselves. There are various displays and facts and figures about the diamond trade in Antwerp and through the windows you can watch the experts mounting the diamonds in special jigs to hold them against the polishing wheels.

Naturally, you had the opportunity to purchase the end product should you desire but since this was the first place we had looked at we browsed and moved on, heading for the Diamond Museum. Between the two is almost wall to wall diamond dealers with more bling in their windows than one could imagine.

Clearly being in the vicinity on a diamond anniversary we could not let the opportunity pass us by and eventually succumbed before heading to the museum which we discovered was closed until February. We consoled ourselves by window shopping at the many diamond shops in the central station.

Not too far away is the Rubens' House museum where a collection of artwork is displayed in the house that Rubens purchased. Although not much of his original house remained, it was painstakingly recreated from plans and sketches, but a portico that he had built in the garden is original. Unfortunately is was raining steadily so admiring his garden and portico was off the agenda and we went to the movies instead.

On the way to the movie theatre was a shopping centre called Stadsfeestzaal in a fabulously gracious old building. The cafe overlooking the atrium was a great place to fortify ourselves for the afternoon and we discovered where all the locals that were missing yesterday, shopped and lunched.

As French, Dutch, English and probably German are all spoken in the city, movies are simply played in their original language and since the one we wanted to see was an English movie we were well catered for and the locals had to be content with subtitles in French and Dutch.

Having successfully filled in a rainy afternoon we went back to the old town to find another cute atmospheric restaurant for dinner.

Central Antwerp – 19 January 2012

2012-01-26T19:16:00.002-01:00

Unfortunately, but true to expectations, it was raining steadily when we awoke so we made a very leisurely start to the day and then rode the tram into the centre of town. First stop, to get out of the rain was the Cathedral, the largest Gothic cathedral in the Low Countries. It has four huge canvases by Peter Paul Rubens as this was his home town. Currently showing is an exhibition entitled “Reunion” which has assembled 16 altarpieces and other works that were originally painted for the Cathedral.

Over the years, especially under French rule, many were removed and dispersed to other collections or sold. Many have been returned to the Royal Collection and this exhibition has temporarily reunited works that have not been seen together for over 200 years. The temporary collection included another Rubens.

As it was still raining we decided that the next indoor activity should be the renowned Printing Museum so set of to find it. When we arrived the rain stopped and as the museum was on a walking tour we decided to continue the walking tour from that point. Guides like this are invaluable in that they lead you into courtyards you would not otherwise discover and in one case even through a door that you would not randomly walk down the street and open, without the information that you were free to do so and that there was something interesting on the other side.

The tour took us back past the Cathedral where we discovered a most intriguing cafe simply crammed full of religious statutory. Every available ledge and a few added shelves were lined with statues of saints and monks and so forth so we elected to dine with the saints for a most delicious lunch, if you are in Antwerp, head for the Kathedral Cafe for a distinctly different dining décor.

By the time we had completed the walk and returned to the Grote Markt the clouds were beginning to break up and there was the promise of some sunshine for photographs but unfortunately it was not fully delivered so we set off for the fashion district for a little window shopping. We have been surprised at how empty the shops and restaurants/cafes have been and the extent of the savings in the sales indicated that all is not well in the “high street”. Admittedly it is not prime tourist season but we would have expected some locals out at lunchtime eating somewhere.

Wandering back across town we headed for the Quinten Matsijs restaurant where we enjoyed a good hearty warming meal for a cold night for about a quarter of the cost of the previous night's meal.

Antwerp – 18 January 2012

2012-01-24T18:50:00.002-01:00

One of the interesting features of Eurostar travel is that a ticket to Brussels actually allows you to travel to any station in Belgium. So since it was someone's Diamond Anniversary of their birth, we decided to have a long weekend in the diamond capital of the world. Apparently 70% of all cut diamonds pass through Antwerp.

With the new high-speed link from St Pancras, it takes only a hour before the train emerges above ground in France and just over two hours to Brussels. Unfortunately the connecting intercity train to Antwerp was cancelled and we had a bit of a delay before finally catching a scruffy, old, local train to Antwerp's Grand Central Station, the first we have ever visited with train platforms on three levels; one above the main concourse and two below.

It was a lot easier to find a vending machine to purchase a Metro pass than it was to find the Metro, but eventually we located the correct platform and got to our art deco hotel just as the rain began to fall.

The hotel website implied they had a restaurant and since it was late and raining and we had not had a chance to explore the options we asked the receptionist to book a table which she did and then informed us that it was actually an independent restaurant 50m down the road. The die being cast we wandered along at the allotted time to find that the restaurant was a tad classier than we had expected (and significantly more expensive). Maybe it would have been fine for the birthday night but this was just an ordinary night.

However, the “floor show” at the restaurant more than compensated: Every meal was “dressed” for the diner at a central table in the restaurant by the waiters. The meat, for example would be cooked in the kitchen and then brought out with the vegetables and the production would begin. The meat would be carved, the vegetables dished up, the sauce heated and served and so forth and then the finished masterpiece would be delivered to the guest. It was all quite remarkable and great fun to watch. The meals were very nice and accompanied by a number of “free” unexpected extras before and after the ordered courses.

In the Footsteps of Royalty – 14,15 January 2012

2012-01-17T19:28:00.003-01:00

A TV snippet regarding The Regent Hotel in the Royal Lemmington Spa, lead to a very enjoyable weekend away. The Regent claimed to be the largest hotel in the world, when it was opened in 1819, and one of the early visitors was the Prince Regent, who graciously allowed them to use his title as the name of the hotel. All things have their day, and The Regent is now owned by Travelodge, so we took the opportunity of one of their amazing offers, to book a huge family room for £12.

A heavy white frost blanketed the countryside as we drove to Warwick. We have previously visited the castle there, but have never properly explored the town. There are two other 'must see' sights in town, the Lord Leycester Hospital, and St Mary's Church.

The Hospital is not actually a hospital, but was set up as a retirement home for 12 soldiers by Robert Dudley, favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. He converted a 150 year old building to do this, the oldest parts date from 1383. Today there are now eight retired soldiers who live there, and we were given an introduction to the building's history, by one of them. All the buildings are original, with few modern updates. The Chapel is still only lit by candlelight for example.

In the museum, we watched an interesting film regarding one of the soldiers involved in the El Alamen during WWII. The battle was desperate, but an interesting fact for us was the inspection of the battle-field by NZ VC holder General Freyburg, who added his weight to the decision made to pursue the Germans and win out. The NZ Army then allowed the 6th Hussars to incorporate the fern leaf symbol on the front of their tanks, where it still is today.

Behind the hospital, is a lovely small formal garden, where the box hedges mimic the Tudor framework in the building behind.

From here, we explored the town and climbed the tower of the cathedral. The climb is pretty torturous, but the view from the top is great. The cathedral itself is worth visiting for the elaborate side chapels and tombs. Robert Dudley and his brother Ambrose have magnificent marble tombs in the very handsome Beauchamp Chapel

Royal Lemington Spa appears to merge with Warwick, but was built in the 19th century, when the spa was made fashionable by the visits of the Prince Regent and Princess Victoria, The whole town has a Regency appearance, and the handsome white buildings are quite dazzling on a bright sunny day. There is no sign of the recession here, with a busy high street (The Parade) full of colour and busy shoppers.

Apart from being a Regency showplace, the original Pump Rooms are still open with a cafe and restored Hammam. This has been restored to how it was in its heyday in the 1840's.

Sunday was again fine and frosty, and we continued the circular driving tour, that had started in Warwick. The most appealing towns on the tour were Stretton-On-Dunsmore, with its tiny village green and equally tiny stream with miniature arched bridges. Even better was Stoneleigh, with its handsome brick homes around a somewhat larger green, which houses the Forge.

After lunch in Kenilworth, we set off for the heritage Motor Museum, only a short deviation on out route home. Murray found this very interesting, as it appeared to have a very strong MG bias, with many MG's on display, a recreation of Lord Nuffield's office and we watched a 45 minute film in the cinema on the history of MG sports-car manufacture in Abingdon. We have passed the turn off hundreds of times, so finally had time to visit, and found it very interesting.

From the Birdsnest to London Olympic Stadium – January 2012

2012-01-16T18:46:00.000-01:00

Only two weeks after walking around the Beijing Olympic site, we had the opportunity to take bus tour of the London Olympic Park.

After enjoying the new Westfield Mall in Stratford (and being tempted into a few purchases from the famous January sales), we met up with Ngaire & Stuart to take the 40-minute bus tour.

Tight security is already in place, and although we were not able to leave the bus, airport style security applied. The tour took us around all the venues in the Park, explained their function and future use.

We learnt a few interesting facts from London's past, in particular, the meaning of the surrounding area called Mile End. Pollution in the city was so bad, that a one mile exclusion one was set up, and all industry had to be over a mile from London City - hence Mile End. The consequence of this is that the London Delivery Authority had a major job cleaning up the contaminated ground. All the soil was apparently 'washed' and is now fit for purpose.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was pleasantly whiled away in the mall, another chance for the Graingers to help the local economy!

On Sunday, it was a chance to take another country walk from our front door. With broken toe now fully mended, it was a pleasure to do a seven mile circular walk to Rickmansworth and back via the River Colne, gravel-pit lakes (the gravel was used to build the original Wembley Stadium in 1924) and Grand Union Canal to our delightful Chorleywood Common.

We discovered two of our neighboring towns excellent food outlets: the Cafe in the Park in the Aquadrome serves wonderful Turkish food and the award winning Cinnamon Square bakery in Rickmansworth. We had to check them out, and agree it has the best home baking we've had in the UK.

Chengdu and the Pandas – 1 January 2012

2012-01-16T17:47:00.002-01:00

We had, in our party, someone who was willing to pay £130.00 to “hug a panda” so this outing was the highlight of her trip. After a relaxing start and a breakfast that was definitely not 5-star we set of for the panda sanctuary.

We were fortunate to see a group of four adult pandas enjoying their breakfast, a couple of very young ones and then a group of six or so juveniles having a great rough-and-tumble time before they suddenly all disappeared inside their “den”. There were a few red pandas to see and then another few solitary adults which meant we saw probably 20 or so of the 70 pandas at this 93-acre park.

Lunch was again highly influenced by Tibetan foods and we decided that the weirdness factor in the food served to us had increased as the days wore on. But overall, we enjoyed the experience of the varied dishes we had sampled.

There was nothing left now, but the return journey to Beijing, and following the overnight at Beijing International Hotel again, we were enduring the 12 hour flight to return us to London in time for the new working year.

Xi'an to Chengdu – 31 December 2011

2012-01-12T19:00:00.001-01:00

Although Xi'an is not a city to linger in or stroll around at this time of the year, we had a little time before our flight to Chengdu so had a “guided tour” of the city walls. The guide's input was buying the tickets and giving us a very brief overview before letting us wander along the wall. The wall is actually magnificent, and the best example of a complete city wall left in China,

Despite this, the dreary day and surrounding smoggy city reduced the impact of the wall. But fortunately this was enlivened by the colourful preparations of the lantern festival that follows Chinese New Year and the workers were busily constructing magnificent models of all manner of things from people, dragons, scenery to “Disney” castles ready for the big day.

From there we went to the local history museum where we were inducted into the art of Chinese calligraphy and were shown local folk art.

The flight to Chengdu was courtesy of Lucky Air, who were true to their name and delivered us safely in Chengdu, which was only marginally less smoggy the Xi'an and a little warmer.

Our 5-star hotel was well out of the main centre of town and while quite nicely decorated had a few odd foibles. It was New Year's Eve and this was the first VJV trip we''ve been on at New Year, where nothing had been laid on by way of entertainment for the evening. We were taken to dinner which had a fairly Tibetan influence and some rather odd dishes.

The group decided we would have to make our own entertainment back at the hotel. We discovered that there was only one “bar”, the hotel lobby, and then discovered that they only had one wine, a Great Wall white. It was quite revolting with a vaguely turpentine smell and fishy undertones. The glasses were quickly emptied back into the bottle.

Two of us set of to see what was available in the local area and came back with a couple of reds. One was sampled by a couple of people and declared disgusting so the other, a Great Wall cabernet savuigon was finally declared “survivable”.

By 11;30 we decided to retire and one couple was left finishing their drinks when the waitress came and asked them to leave as she wanted to go home! So much for a wild New Year's Eve in Chengdu!

Terracotta Warriors – 30 December 2011

2012-01-11T20:26:00.000-01:00

We knew that it was going to be cold visiting the Terracotta Warriors but although we wrapped up well it was still absolutely bitter and there was very little difference between inside and outside the buildings. The advantage of putting up with the winter temperatures was that it is the off-season and there are no crowds blocking the views of the warriors. The queueing barriers that we simply walked past give some indication of the numbers that are on site in summer when the temperature inside the pit buildings is 40C

Before we got to the warriors we visited the local museum for an overview of the history of the area and then went to the factory where the replica warriors are made but even though these were “inside” destinations they were still very chilly and the sales people in the museum shop were all wearing their duck-down coats to keep warm.

The money spinner at the warriors is the fact that you can have your souvenir book signed by one of the farmers who originally discovered the buried army when they were digging a well during the drought in 1974. Of the original seven only four are still alive and they presumably make a good living by signing books and keeping the sales bubbling.

Although the buried army has been well covered in articles and documentaries, the scale of the enterprise embarked on by the Emperor is quite breathtaking when one gets to see the real thing. 40 years in the making with up to 720,000 workers engaged at the peak, it is a remarkable monument to the vanity of the Emperor who was really just a child when he began to build his own tomb.

The fact that there seems to be no intention of opening and exploring the reported wonders of the tomb itself seems odd. The official reason is “to preserve it” but if it is never to be seen then what is the point of preservation? The more cynical may postulate that they have a fairly good idea it has been well looted in the past and “preserving it” maintains the mystique. It is something we will never know.

West to Xi'an – 29 December 2011

2012-01-10T19:51:00.003-01:00

Another three-hour flight to the west took us to Xi'an where we landed in the worst pollution we have seen so far. Beijing was not good, Shanghai was bad but Xi'an was terrible. When the pollution haze is discernible inside the atrium of the hotel and the local shopping mall you know there is a problem. Consequently attempting to take photos of the Small Wild Goose pagoda, our first stop after lunch, was an exercise in futility.

Although the lunch stop had an impressive name and was beautifully decorated we decided that the proprietor had invested his money in the wrong areas as the food was very mediocre.

The pagoda has had a chequered history and although it began life with 15 stories it lost a couple in an earthquake in 1556. According to the plaque, and verbal history, the tower has split and rejoined three time over the centuries as a result of earthquakes. If this is true the rejoins have been extremely precise.

Although we had free time in the late afternoon the outside conditions were not that inviting, but it was fun dicing with death crossing 8 lanes of traffic outside the hotel. There were white bars painted on the road surface but these only appear to be there for guidance as to where to walk, they have no relevance whatsoever to cars, buses, or the ubiquitous electric scooters.

How a busy intersection with 8 lanes of traffic entering from three compass points plus pedestrians works without traffic lights is a mystery, but the locals seem to cope with a minimum of fuss.

Suzhou – 28 December 2011

2012-01-09T18:44:00.001-01:00

Suzhou is a “small” city (11 million) not far from Shanghai and just over 30 minutes on the high speed train. It is variously known as the Garden City; the home of silk; the Bridge Museum; and the Venice of the East. This last descriptor is rather generous and is simply based upon the fact that the town was originally built on canals.

Canals imply bridges and the 354 old bridges give rise to the Bridge Museum nickname. As the production centre for the vast majority of Chinese silk the third nickname is self-evident and the last nickname is due to the 65 Chinese gardens that have been preserved in the city.

Our first stop was at the canal where we boarded our “slow boats to China” to be serenaded as we were transported along some fairly dismal canals to the Garden of the Couples Retreat. Chinese gardens have a rigidly formal informality about them and as mentioned before must incorporate rocks, water, plants and buildings and both the gardens visited today were not simply gardens but residences where the buildings scattered through the gardens were actually the functional rooms spread throughout the complex.

After a visit to a silk factory where we learnt how the 1500m silk thread was extracted from the cocoon and woven, along with the obligatory buying opportunity we had another Chinese meal and moved on to the second garden, the Garden of the Masters of the Fishing Nets. Fishing had absolutely nothing to do with the garden, it was simply that the retired official who built it wanted to adopt the “simple life” and the life of fishermen were synonymous with simplicity. The two gardens were wonderful examples of the art of Chinese gardens and very different to that which would be seen in Europe.

As we had a couple of hours before the train was due to whisk us back to Shanghai, the tour guide suggested we visit another part of the city where they have preserved some of the old buildings and with them, the traditional markets. Most of the old city has been flattened and replaced with high-rise apartments so the city fathers, in their wisdom have protected a couple of enclaves to keep a link with the past.

The market was very interesting with live fish, crabs, shrimps, chickens, pigeons, ducks, quail and various other species for sale along with vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruit and all manner of freshly cooked delights. The historic buildings were all converted to shops and it was very pleasant strolling along without the hard-sell of some of the other tourist areas.

Once the high-speed train had whisked us back to Shanghai we were on our own for dinner so we set off from our hotel in a different direction and within a couple of blocks had immersed ourselves back in “real China” with street markets, not unlike the one we had experienced in Suzhou. A bright, clean local restaurant attracted us so we stopped for dinner as there was English as well as Chinese on the menu. We could have selected “Same tasty dish”, “Serve hot” or “Double bacteria on hot iron dish” as well as dog and various other dubious options but we played it safe and enjoyed another very cheap and filling meal. Curiously, the most difficult item to acquire on our two solo dining expeditions has been rice.

Exploring Shanghai – 27 December 2011

2012-01-08T18:19:00.003-01:00

Leaving the hotel at 0900 was a relative luxury after the previous few mornings and we headed first to the Shanghai Museum for a whistle-stop 90 minutes. One could clearly spend a lot more time there appreciating all the porcelain and bronze objects illustrating the historical skills of the Chinese artisans. It is fortunate that there are still some fine works that have not ended up in the collections in English stately homes!

Another shopping opportunity was provided when we stopped at the pearl centre. This opportunity was taken full advantage of by a number of the women in the party.

It has been most interesting to see the various different dishes that have been offered at the Chinese restaurants we have been taken to. The only common factor has been white rice but today's lunch even challenged that norm as we were offered “brown” soy flavoured white rice.

The “old” Chinese quarter of the city was our next stop where the buildings are about 140 years old and exactly what one expects from Chinese style architecture. We had a short time to wander around before heading to the Yu Yuan Garden; a fabulous masterpiece of Chinese garden design, incorporating water, rocks, plants and buildings.

It is not surprising that Mr Pan who paid for the construction over 18 years was bankrupted shortly after. No expense was spared in creating an artificial mountain and an artificial forest on the 2 hectare site which he started as a place for his elderly parents to walk in.

We were offered the choice of another tea ceremony or, for an small extra charge, the chance to visit the viewing gallery on the 85th floor of the Jinmao building: the viewing gallery was the unanimous winner. Completed in 1998 the Jinmao Tower is now the second highest in Shanghai. It will move to third place in 2014 when the building across the road is completed.

Not only is the view to the outside fantastic, the view down the inside to the 55th floor is amazing. The internal atrium is part of the Hyatt hotel which occupies floors 55 through 84.

Another Chinese meal and then a very impressive Chinese acrobatic show rounded off the day.

Off to Shanghai – 26 December 2011

2012-01-08T09:40:00.002-01:00

The 0500 wake-up call was a bit of a shock but once we were on the bus at 0600 to beat the morning Beijing traffic the trip went very smoothly until we were on board the plane for our two-hour flight to Shanghai. After arriving in Shanghai and sending our bags on to the hotel we were taken to lunch at an ethnic Chinese restaurant and then to the Temple of the Jade Buddha.

The Reclining Buddha is relatively small and seems to be stuck in a shop area as a bit of an after thought which is curious since it is the rarest form of Jade. The larger jade Buddha is afforded all the prominence and glamour that befits its rarity and history.

Shanghai is an extremely impressive city and the major financial district has been built on the east side of the Huangpu River over the last 20 years. A great way to appreciate the city is from the river, so a short boat trip on the river had been arranged as our next activity.

From there we were dropped at the hotel which was near to the junction of the Huangpu and Suzhou Rivers and thus very close to both the Bund and Nanjing Road, which we set out to explore. As darkness fell, the city buildings and the passenger boats on the river became a fantastic light show.

Having enjoyed the lights we walked inland up Nanjing Rd to see the sights, window shop and find somewhere local to eat. Christine had a hankering for Chinese sweet & sour chicken and cashews. As we walked along a side road off the Nanjing Road, all the restaurants had touts outside, tempting us in. None of them seemed familiar with Sweet & Sour, except one women, who assured us she could deliver, even though it was not on the menu.

They had a similar meal, but with peanuts instead of cashew nuts. She came in to the restaurant with us and told the waitress what we wanted. There was some discussion over our desired dish and eventually the lady took the waitresses' order pad and wrote on it then promptly disappeared down the street. A few minutes later she returned with a bag in her hand, presumably the new;y purchased cashews to meet the customer requirements. It was a delicious and extremely cheap meal and so we retired to the hotel well satisfied with the day.

The Great Wall – 25 December 2011

2012-01-06T20:10:00.001-01:00

“We Three Kings of Orient are” felt quite appropriate this Christmas morning as we visited the Summer Palace just outside Beijing. Three times the size of the Forbidden City, but mostly covered by the enhanced natural lake, this was the residence of the Emperor for seven months of the year. It is a fabulously beautiful setting with the pagodas, temples and quintessentially Chinese bridges dotted amongst the trees. It is a “Willow Pattern” fantasy on a grand scale.

After lunch and the obligatory shopping trip to a Jade factory we finally set off for the Great Wall. There are a number of sections of the Wall that have been restored and opened to tourists, in all about 20% of the 5533 miles that were originally joined together to create this defensive masterpiece. The point was made, at the entrance to the section we visited, that the Wall which was originally designed to keep foreigners away is now a huge draw-card welcoming foreign visitors.

From the car-park we took the gondola for the short ride to the Wall itself, arriving close to Tower 14 of the Mutianyu section. From there we could walk left to Tower 24 or right to Tower 1. We chose to walk uphill so that we could return on a downhill when we were tired.

Having arrived at the Chinese flag on Tower 24 we chose to ignore the “End of tourist area” sign and climbed on further to another tower. Clearly quite a few tourists do this as there were two vendors further along this forbidden section of the wall attempting to sell us drinks, postcards and trinkets. One did feel quite sorry for them having carted their wares all the way to the top but their location of choice was decidedly odd.

The sun was setting as we boarded the bus, extremely satisfied with the experience of walking the Wall in such wonderfully mild and clear conditions and being winter, without the hoards of other tourists.

All that remained to finish the day was the special Peking Duck dinner that had been arranged for the evening and then it was into bed ready for the 05:00 wake-up call.

Beijing City – 24 December 2011

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Tianamen Square was our first stop and beginning at the Qian Men Gate (1360) we walked past Chairman Mao's mausoleum and down to the Forbidden City (1420). Although, at 98 acres, Tianamen Square is the largest in the world it is only about half the size of the Forbidden City.

Much of the Emperor's old palace was refurbished in time for the 2008 Olympics so we enjoyed the benefit of all the work done for that deadline. The Forbidden City encompassed 999½ rooms as heaven was believed to had 1000 rooms. We never got to see the half room so not quite sure on how that would be translated into reality. But even with almost 1000 rooms, they still did not have space for a toilet, apparently.

With gate after gate, reception halls and finally the throne room and then the living quarters, it takes quite a while to simply walk from one end to the other, without taking in all the side rooms and courtyards etc Everything is in mirror-image symmetry as befits the Chinese ying-yang philosophy.

Leaving the Forbidden City we were taken to the first of our retail experiences, tea. After a most entertaining and quite tasty Chinese tea ceremony, and the opportunity to buy, it was time for another Chinese meal and then it was off to the Heavenly Temple, a circular structure built on an artificial hill.

More retail opportunities were provided when we stopped at the Silk Market which has diversified well beyond silk.

Our evening treat was a visit to another hotel where there is a show giving a taster of Chinese Opera. After an audio-visual overview of Chinese Opera, four well known scenes were described in English on the screen then played out by the actors accompanied by English sub-titles on side screens.

Although the costumes and painted masks were quite spectacular, the high-pitched female voices and the accompanying stringed music rather grated on our western ears. The best piece was an assassin and his target fighting one another in the “darkness” in a tavern. The choreography of the fight between these two who “could not see” one another but occasionally “bumped” into each other was very well done giving a most amusing effect.

China – 23 December 2011

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The 10 hour flight to Beijing passed relatively quickly, thanks to the helpful check-in boss. When we checked in, we checked the leg room in our Air China flight. When we queried the answer of 44”, the helpful boss must have decided to make good her answer, by releasing 2 bulkhead seats (reserved to the last minute for families with a bassinet), and we were able to stretch out for a pretty good (although fitful) sleep.

As the flight approached Beijing, we kept looking for the Great Wall. As we learnt at school, that it can be seen from space, we expected it to be easily seen from the air. Sure enough, there it was, winding over the hill-tops, complete with guard-towers. It was exciting to get this first glimpse of a man-made phenomenon we had known of most of our lives.

What did surprise us, was how long it seemed to take to fly over Beijing. But when our tour guide explained that Beijing has the same area as Belgium, then that made sense. (She may have been a little over enthusiastic as web research says the area of Beijing is 16807 km2 compared to 30528 km2 for Belgium.)

Everyone on the tour was very happy to accept the offer of a couple of hours at the hotel to recover before the first optional outing which most of us took. We were taken to the old part of the city where the streets are too narrow for traffic so the transport through the Hu Tongs was via rickshaw.

The traditional, single level, dwellings behind the high walls fronting the streets are based on quadrangles with strict adherence to the compass points for the various room uses. We were privileged to be able to visit a private home to show us the typical arrangements inside a quadrangle and although the land value in central Beijing would make the place worth more the £1 million the residence did not include a toilet, public facilities on the street provide the necessary relief.

After a fairly average Chinese meal for dinner we walked across the road to the Olympic Green park and down to the Bird's Nest stadium. Although it was bitterly cold it was great to have a look at this fantastic structure a close quarters.

Before being delivered back to the hotel we had a wander along the food market selling all manner of deep-fried delicacies; rat, silk-worm cocoons, centipedes, scorpions, snakes, sea-horses and so forth.

Old London Town - 17 December 2011

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It never ceases to amaze us, the things that one can discover in London. There is a set of stairs by Temple Station that features in many movies set in “old London town” and right beside them is a building that we have walked past many times and admired from outside and which has recently been opened to the public.

2 Temple Place is an absolute gem; a Victorian Gothic revival, built as the London abode of the Waldorf Astors when they moved to the UK from the USA. With the funds at his disposal, no expense was spared on the internal fit-out of this town-house which is now owned by Smith & Nephew.

The building has recently been opened to the public as a gallery, currently holding the contents of the William Morris gallery which is undergoing refurbishment. This means one can see fabulous tapestries, paintings, tiles, wallpapers and sundry other William Morris/Burne Jones items in absolutely sumptuous surroundings.

Having had our fill of Victoriana we wandered outside to see that the next-door Inner Temple area had been commandeered as a film set for a new production of Great Expectations. Unfortunately the “heavies” near the entrance made it abundantly clear that the public were not invited to watch!

Crossing the Thames we set off in search of a photo-op of the, under-construction, Shard tower and stumbled into the back of Borough Market. It is never a hardship to wander through this part of London and having sampled the mulled wine we set off for home.

Christmas in the country – 10 December 2011

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Every year we enjoy visiting grand country houses, decorated for Christmas. This year, the real treat was that the house we visited today, was very close to our new home.

Hughenden Manor was the home of twice Prime Minister – Benjamin Disraeli. It is a lovely liveable home, and today looked even more inviting, decorated for Christmas. Disreili was a friend and confident of Queen Victoria, and she even visited him there.

A fascinating exhibition explained the war-time activity conducted at Hughenden. The house was requisitioned by the army, and used for top secret work by map-makers. Like Bletchley Park, nothing was known of what went on there until very recently. The exhibition showed photos of the rooms converted into map-making studios. The maps were drawn from aerial photographs, and maps produced here, were used for the D-Day landings and the Dambusters raid.

'Downton Abbey' - 3,4 December 2011

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After watching every episode of Downton Abbey, we couldn't miss the opportunity of visiting 'Downton Abbey' aka Highclere Castle, open especially for Christmas.

Even though it is only an hour from home, we decided to make a weekend of it, and booked a night at the nearby 'Bell at Boxford'.

A circular drive starting near Boxford, took us through lovely countryside and many beautiful villages. The best architecture had to be in the two big towns of the area – Hungerford and Marlborough. Both were prosperous market towns, it is said that 200 coaches a week passed through Hungerford in the 18th & 19th centuries, travelling from London to Bath. We had never properly explored this town before and it is really delightful, with a stylish Victorian town hall.

The road from here led through the Savernake Forest. This is a private road (although available to the public) and has deteriorated considerably since we last visited in 2007. The large and frequent pot-holes made driving with a small sports car very difficult.

Marlborough is larger than Hungerford , with wonderful 17th century buildings. It was delight to walk around the shops admiring the Christmas decorations.

Not far from here was Aldbourne, the best of the villages we visited. A large green, handsome church and cute houses, several pubs; it was a great spot to stop in. The church has two hand-operated fire-engines donated in 1778 after a disastrous fire in the previous year.

On Sunday we visited Highclere Castle, along with hundreds of keen Downton Abbey fans. The Christmas decorations were rather minimalist, but it was still interesting to see the castle again, as we now had the TV series to place in the various rooms.

Chorleywood – 26-27 November 2011

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Having just finished our move to the country, Saturday was the ideal day to do the explore the town centre. There are no empty shops here, the town is well cared for, although not full of lovely historic buildings, it has lots of cafes, and all the useful things like a Library and Medical Centre.

According to the Web, Chorleywood was voted as one of the 'happiest' places to live, in a 2004 government survey. More recently, it has been rated as one of the 'least deprived' areas. We have certainly found it a pleasure to come home to.

Sunday was a glorious day, so we caught the train to Chesham, and walked the Chess Valley walkway, back to Chorleywood. The beautiful balmy winter weather seemed to get lots of other walkers out of doors, as we've never met so many people on a walk before.

The valley is known to have been settled from at least Roman times and the river provides the ideal conditions for watercress cultivation with one commercial cress farm still operating. Just before we arrived at the cress farm there was a free-standing brick tomb seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

In the past there was a church nearby but in 1777 the current occupant decreed that his body be buried here, well away from the church-yard as he wanted to make sure that his bones did not get mixed with others come the resurrection. His cunning plan was somewhat foiled when his wife was buried in the same tomb some 30 years later.

Lunchtime in London - 23 November 2011

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The last of autumn – 13 November 2011

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We decided to take some time out of packing, to enjoy the unseasonably warm November day; this gave us a chance to do a short walk not far away, before leaving Brent.

There was no need for hats, coats or scarves in the warm sunshine. We lost count of the open-top cars also making use of the potentially last nice day of 2011, in this hemisphere.

Totteridge Common gives the impression of being way out of London in the countryside, but the nearest tube station is in Zone 4 for the Underground, the same as we are, in a very dense urban area. The walk had no special highlights, just autumn trees and the obligatory pub lunch halfway round.

Last weekend of summer – 29-30 October 2011

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Summer seems to be hanging in, and with an extra hour on Saturday night, it was a perfect weekend to go away. Having read good reviews about the Haycock Inn in Wansford near Peterborough, we booked a room and set off for a weekend in the area. Peterborough is just six miles away, and we spent the day in that area.

After a coffee stop in the lovely market town of Whittlesey south-east of Peterborough, we visited the Flag Fen Archaeology Park. The Visitor Centre is built beside a bronze age causeway, which lay undisturbed in the swampy fens for about 3000 years, until discovered in 1982 by a drainage ditch digger. A section of the causeway is preserved in a swampy environment inside a building, exactly as it was found. A Roman road also passed very near the causeway site, so the area has been a busy area for travellers for centuries.

We drove to the outskirts of Peterborough, and parked at The Boardwalks, an area of canals and lakes. From here we walked along the waterways into the city centre. Apart from the very impressive cathedral, Peterborough has a very pleasant town centre with other fine buildings, and even another old stone church very close to the cathedral.

Wansford is a cute stone town, on the northern 'Cotswolds' stone belt. The hotel has been a hostelry for five centuries, and is a really special place to stay. Previous guests have even included royalty – Mary Queen of Scots and young Queen Victoria.

Having fully enjoyed the extra hour's sleep in on Sunday morning (thanks to the end of daylight saving), and the best hotel breakfast of our recent expeditions (this is saying something, as they have all been of a good standard), we set out to enjoy the national garden day at Boughton House. En-route, there were many pretty villages, and we passed several other stately homes.

The best village (apart from Wansford where we started the day), would have to be Geddington. Apart from the lovely stone houses, pub and church, Geddington has a ford over the river, as well as a lovely old hump-back bridge used by small vehicles and foot traffic, but it's main claim to being special is the 13th century Eleanor Cross. These were built by Edward I to mark the funeral procession of his wife Queen Eleanor, from Harby where she died, to London where she is buried. Only three of the original crosses have survived.

Boughton House is close to Geddington, and the grounds looked wonderful with their autumn makeover. We had visited the house many years ago, but since then the gardens have been restored to replace most of their original formal water features. These are surrounded by mature trees, reflecting in the still mirror surfaces.

As well as the restored lakes, a new garden was developed two years ago, the first addition to the landscaped grounds for 300 years. Orpheus is a spiral water feature, based on ever diminishing squares to formed from a golden rectangle. The largest feature of it is an inverted grass pyramid with a reflecting pool at the bottom. It really was a massive project, and with the added enhancement of autumn colours, a wonderful place to pause and enjoy.

From here, the trip back to the motorway and home passed through other lovely villages, the most picturesque probably being Barnwell, also enhanced by a golden glow. Even the journey home along the motorway was attractive, as clever use of trees made a colourful changing autumn kaleidoscope, which was actually better than most of the scenery we saw on our New England trip.

World Cup Final – 22-23 October 2011

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The Chilterns and The Thames are a wonderful backdrop to London. We spent the weekend enjoying both.

We converted a seven mile walk from Whitchurch-on-Thames to Goring, which relied on public transport to provide the missing link, into a ten mile walk by returning along the Thames Path. This looked easier on the computer screen than in reality, as the Thames Path climbs high above the Thames here along a cliff top. But despite this, it was a really enjoyable day out.

Goring is a particularly beautiful town, as most of the Thames side towns are. At the completion of our walk we drove to another town close to the Thames, Dorcester-on-Thames. Oddly, Dorchester is actually on the banks of the Thame river, just above its confuence with the Thames and to make it even more confusing the river downstream of Dorchester is the Thame while upstream it is the Isis.

Dorchester-on-Thames is a beautiful small town, and we stayed the night in the White Hart, a lovely old coaching inn, where we enjoyed a great dinner. When booking the room, the important criteria were, is there a large screen in the bar, and will you be showing the Rugby World Cup final on Sunday morning?

We were the first to breakfast on Sunday, and also the first in the bar at 8.30am, so had the pick of seats! A few other guests joined us eventually, surprisingly there were some French supporters, but no other Kiwi supporters. Along with the whole of New Zealand, we felt the 'tension is mounting in the stadium' type nervousness, and it felt more of a relief to have won, rather than an exciting triumphant conclusion!

After the cup presentation, we checked out and enjoyed the rest of our day doing an AA tour which started in Dorchester. Highlights of the trip were the lovely towns of Warborough, a stunning Romanesque church in Iffley, a very grand school in the tiny village of Cuddesdon, Abingdon, Clifton Hampden and The Whittenhams.

The church in Iffley was built 1160 and retains many original features, some of which show quite a decided eastern influence. We visited a number of other lovely churches on the tour, ending up outside St Peter's in Little Whittenham. This also has a Romanesque entrance. Opposite the church is a walkway to the top of the Whittenham Clumps. This hill has a terrific view, which highlights just how many churches there are in relatively close proximity.

And now for something completely different – 16 October 2011

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After cheering the All Blacks on to victory against Australia in the World Cup semi-final, we had a complete change of scene and tempo, by visiting Windsor Castle.

Only 30 minutes from home, but it feels like a world away. Murray was able to use his age for the first time to receive a concession, so it seemed appropriate for Her Majesty to have the honour of being the first to give him this 'privilege'!

The Castle is stunning, and now that the high season is over, the 'Semi-State Rooms' are open too. In fact, these are probably the most opulent rooms, as they were the private apartments of George IV, always known for his extravagance.

The fire which destroyed part of the Castle in 1992 has resulted in some rooms receiving a makeover. Among these are George's apartments, which have been restored exactly as they were when George first renovated. So today we saw them looking fresh and gleaming with gold everywhere, just as George lived in them. His furnishings were rescued at the time of the fire, as were most of the furnishings and paintings in the other affected rooms.

The Castle was built in Norman times on top of a hill, an ideal place for defence. Today it dominates the town, and the combination of town with attractive old buildings plus dramatic castle towering over them, makes Windsor a lovely town to visit.

After afternoon tea in the oldest restaurant in Windsor, we went back to the Castle for Evensong in St George's Chapel. We have enjoyed services in a number of Royal Chapels, but this would have to be one of the best. The beautiful chapel with fine vaulted ceilings, also has the unique status as Chapel of the Order of the Garter. This is where the Knights of the Garter come every June for a special church service. Each Knight has there own seat in the Quire (the area where today's service was held)

Out of Africa – 15 October 2011

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After a week sitting at our office jobs, which followed two weeks sitting in an RV around New England (with a seven hour flight each end), and culminating with two hours on the sofa this morning cheering Wales on in their World Cup semi-final game, we definitely felt a walk was in order, So we drove to Pirbright after the game for a ten mile walk.

First we fortified ourselves with lunch at the White Hart in Pirbright. We would recommend this pub, as their food is excellent.

The walk set off along the Basingstoke Canal and the return walk was alongside army land. Red flags were flying everywhere to warn us to keep out, as firing was taking place today. Sure enough, we eventually walked across the end of the firing range and could see the soldiers facing away from us and firing from a prone position.

Pirbright was the home to Lord Pirbright, better known as Sir Henry Morton Stanley, whose immortal words in deepest Africa make him famous to this day - “Dr Livingstone, I presume”. We found his grave in the local churchyard at the end of the walk. The enormous chunk of Dartmoor granite makes it fairly unmissable.

One last Boston fling – 8 October 2011

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We had a ridiculously early start to the day to accommodate the various travel plans and other constraints of the morning. First deadline was to get Janine and Alan to meet their taxi at 0630. We had all spent the previous evening packing so they were up and ready in short order, intending to breakfast once at the airport.

Since the rest of the party were going to be disturbed we figured that we might as well get on the road as soon as possible. After breakfast we set of to return the RV deciding that we would finish the cleaning in their yard rather than at the campground.

It was a good decision as the weekend was Columbus Weekend and we were on the road well in advance of any holiday weekend traffic. It also gave us time to discuss the refunds and recompense for lost vacation time due to the issues with the RV.

We had the RV all cleaned and presentable well before the 10:00 return deadline and were ready and waiting by the time the shuttle van we had arranged, arrived to take us to Boston. Our web research had indicated that the only place we could leave our bags for the day was the Bus Station at Boston South Station and this is where we thought we had requested the shuttle to drop us. As it was, the shuttle dropped us at Back Bay Station.

Bradley and Susan had decided that the complication of extra baby luggage, baby stroller and Linnea herself predicated against another visit to Boston and elected to get the shuttle driver to continue with them to Logan Airport. So we said our farewells and they drove off.

After they left we could not see any bus station as expected near the Amtrak station, so I asked where to find the bag storage and was told that we were at the wrong station, but we could take the train arriving in 1 minute to get to South Station and that we could ride for free. The train conductor was very helpful when we disembarked at South Station and it was not long before we were free of luggage and able to explore Boston again albeit with a time limit of the luggage storage closing at 5pm.

The first stop was the Tea Party Museum on the waterfront learn to more about the famous event. We were in the correct area but could not see any replica ships in the water so asked at a tourist booth only to find that the museum was being redeveloped an would open in 2012.

We then investigated various tour options: “Trolley”, “Duck”, harbour cruise and Segeway but decided to simply wander and set off along the waterfront walk, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather.

At one point a large Natural Gas tanker made its way down the harbour escorted by a pair of fast Coast Guard rigid-inflatable boats each with a manned machine-gun in the bow. These out-runners had the task of keeping all other craft away from the tanker and any other craft, no matter how innocuous were forced to a dead-stop in the water as the tanker passed. Talk about an over-abundance of caution. I think any of the fibreglass pleasure craft challenged would have come off worst had they been able to ram the tanker. Still, it was an impressive display of Homeland security paranoia.

We left the waterfront a couple of times, once for a gelato and once to wander through the Fabeuil Hall Marketplace. After a late lunch/early dinner salad on the waterfront, our return trip took us back through the recently redeveloped park in what is effectively the median strip between two major, one-way traffic routes along the waterfront.

At the end was a large protest camp outside the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston building as an off-shoot of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement were vocally protesting against the “Fat Cats”.

We were so exhausted by now, that we decided to take the bus to the airport. This gave us five hours to fill in, so set about writing up the day and checking photos. By the time we got around to buying coffee, we discovered most food outlets had closed. It appears that ours is the last flight of the evening, and not very full, so all employers had decreed their shop could shut early. It was just as well we ate in Boston.

Boston - 7 October 2011

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The campground proprietor provided helpful information on our travel options for visiting Boston. We had researched what we could from the Internet but his information was based on the particular issues involved in parking a large, high, vehicle – information not disclosed on the Internet sites.

So instead of driving 3 miles to the local commuter train station, we drove 40 minutes to the end of the Green T-Line and could use a much cheaper all-day travel pass. The Green Line took us directly to Boston Common where the Freedom Walk started.

This walk, well marked with a bold red line in the pavement, traces the early history and happenings of the Boston settlement, focusing on the times around the Revolution and Declaration of Independence. The walk ended, for us, at the harbour to see the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) which is the oldest commissioned warship in the US Navy and thus could still be called upon to go to war – but probably would not be!

The deck and a couple of levels below are open to visitors and all is in absolutely top-notch ship-shape condition with the brass gleaming and the woodwork all highly polished. We did not establish whether or not the cannon were still in battle ready, working order or not.

Visits to the USS Constitution are free if you have photo ID - it is a Navy Base so unidentified riff-raff are not allowed! How many tourists are going to come prepared for this without some warning? Murray had a photo licence but Christine had nothing so we had to blagg our way past security. He took Murray's licence, asked Christine his date of birth and thus proved that she was not a terrorist in disguise. We were very grateful for his discretionary latitude.

It was not the first time that ID had been asked and waved through. On a number of occasions the younger two were asked for ID before being served alcohol with their meals. Considering they are more than a decade over the legal age, we all thought it quite hilarious. On one occasion Alan's NZ licence was accepted but he was told that it was not valid documentary proof as it was an “out-of-state” licence. On another occasion Christine resorted to assuring the waitress that Janine was indeed over 18.

After lunch we made our way to Harvard Square to meet Janine's friend Dan who is a post-grad student at the Harvard JF Kennedy School of Government. Dan gave us a personal and informative tour around the prestigious centre of learning ending with a side trip to a bridge over the Charles River where the students were participating in the very English occupation of rowing on a beautiful autumn evening.

Bewitched – 6 October 2011

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Today was a beautiful day for a drive around the coast. Our campsite was at Salisbury, a fairly uninspiring coastal development (this made it all the more surprising that it had such an excellent restaurant!), but across a bridge is the township of Newburyport. This has many large impressive 18th century houses, once the homes of wealthy shipowners.

We continued following the coastal road around the peninsular to Rockport.. This proved to be our favourite place of the whole trip. Once a fishing port, it is now predominantly an artists colony. The small town was delightful to walk around, many picturesque old buildings, including former fisherman's cottages, are now selling gifts, artworks and pottery. The harbour with it's boats and old fishing-shack, provides seating to relax and watch the sun playing on the water.

South from here we were planning to stop at Gloucester, but it is so much bigger, and less appealing, we carried on. The coast had many lovely settlements, with fine old houses, which took us all the way to Salem.

As we have all heard of Salem, but were not too clear on the actual details, it was interesting to visit. The museums all sounded a little OTT, but in fact we enjoyed our visit to the Witch Dungeon Museum. Details of the history surrounding the Salem witch episode is narrated and acted out, using excerpts from the original court transcripts.

There is a curious irony that Salem is only a tourist stop these days because of false stories about witchcraft and yet the modern town is making its money off ghosts, ghouls tarot, psychic readings and so forth and thus is still trading on false stories about witchcraft.

Maine coast – 5 October 2011

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The day finally dawned with blue skies and a promise of sunshine. We had designated today as the birthday celebration as we are not all going to be together on the actual day so the celebrations began with another all-American diner breakfast in Old Orchard.

Once completely sated we set off down the coast to Salisbury, MA, passing through Maine and New Hampshire again. Highlights were Kennebunkport, a real tourist trap full of bus tour parties and York, the oldest colonial settlement in the area.

Kennebunkport has a real cute village feel, with lots of restaurants and shops selling artworks as well as souvenirs. There are many fine houses in the surrounding villages, and according to the guide book, George Bush along with many other Republicans, holiday there.

Lunch was overlooking York Beach, then we drove through York Harbour and on to York, which was the oldest permanent English settlement on the coast. As a result, there are still a cluster of fine old buildings in the centre. The York Gaol is the oldest colonial building still on its original site in the US. We enjoyed looking around, until the rain clouds that had been pursuing us all day, finally caught up with us.

Tonight was the designated 'birthday' as Murray's actual 60th birthday is not until Monday, when we will be back in the UK. Today was chosen, as the dinner venue sounded the best choice of the trip. We hurried to our campsite, as we had booked a window table early, at 5.30pm, to be able to enjoy sunset over the Atlantic.

The Seaglass Restaurant had excellent reviews on the Web, and we would heartily endorse them. Having a window table is a must, as the Atlantic breakers crash below the building in a most spectacular fashion. We discovered they actually floodlit the sea at night, so the view continued during the dinner.

Bradley, Alan and Janine shouted us the meal as a joint 60th treat, and we enjoyed the best meal of our trip. The best entree was probably scallops with risotto, best main tied between fillet mignon and pork steak stuffed with cranberries and walnuts. All deserts were equally good. The children presented us with a unique book designed mainly by Alan and Janine, highlighting selected significant events of every year since 1951.

Happy Fall – 4 October 2011

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As the reserved campsite for the night was well way from any significant towns and we were not confident that the propane situation was any different to yesterday we rang ahead to establish if there was “emergency” accommodation we could move to if required; there was not. The campground owner helpfully suggested a motel in the largest town we would pass through, so we secured two rooms. After a delicious dinner at the Black Horse Tavern we retraced our steps a few miles to the motel.

After discussion with the proprietor he upgraded us to the suite for one of the rooms as it it was a two-room unit and certain members of the party had complained about certain other members' nocturnal audio the previous night. The owner said that they did not typically rent the suite at this time of the year or for a single night but he took pity on our plight and accommodated us in both senses of the word.

All was well until 5 a.m. when with a quiet rumble the vast majority of the softboard tile ceiling fell on top of Janine and Alan who were sleeping in the lounge. Fortunately such ceiling tiles are fairly light and no damage was done. The emotional trauma and psychological scarring will take many years of expensive therapy to heal!

The proprietor was, naturally, mortified when he saw the damage and opened another room for them to get a little more sleep.
As we pulled away from the motel, we were struck by the irony of the sign on the church across the street, “Happy Fall”.

We had yet another RV repair rendezvous to make so after stopping for another American Diner breakfast we drove through the rain all the way to the next campsite at Old Orchard on the Maine coast.

The RV repairman arrived a few minutes after us and could not find any propane leak. But his trip was not wasted as the rear slider unit which makes the internal space significantly larger when parked decided to fail. He made some makeshift repairs to enable its continued use and we concluded that the final task the previous repairman had undertaken had actually resolved the propane problem. There has not been any recurrence of the alarm or propane smell since so, hopefully, all is well.

Finally, some colour – 3 October 2011

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Our weather gamble paid off and the morning revealed patches of blue sky so we had an early start and retraced our path back to Fracona to ride the aerial tramway (otherwise know and a cable car gondola) to the top. Although we were there in time for the second trip of the morning we were still a bit late as the mountain mist rolled in as we rode the “tramway” to the top. It was chilly at the top and the mist did not appear to want to move away so we rode down again and, once below the cloud base, enjoyed stunning views of the valley in a wonderful range of autumn hues.

Once down we set of back to Conway via the Kancamagus Highway, one of the most scenic routes in the area. The sun was out, the sky was blue, the colours stunning and the drive amazing. However, we could not linger as we had to meet a deadline to get the propane leak in the RV checked.

While Murray took the RV for the check which, ultimately, was inconclusive the rest of the party rode the Conway Valley Scenic Railroad, an historic steam train and dining cars etc. We enjoyed their lunch excursion.

White Mountains – 2 October 2011

2011-10-14T19:17:00.003-01:00

We presume that the White Mountains are not named that because of the low white mist hanging over them but it was certainly an accurate descriptor today as we motored up from Conway to Bretton Woods and around to Fracona Notch State Park. The incessant rain made any view further than the immediate side of the road impossible to see and most viewpoints and rest-areas were driven straight by as there was nothing to see in any direction.

We pulled off at the State Park to check on the conditions at the Cannon Aerial Tramway but there was no possibility we would see anything so decided to gamble on a better day tomorrow and drove on down to North Woodstock.

The campground there was pretty uninviting so after we secured our site and checked it out in the daylight we motored back into the Woodstock Inn and Brewery which is built in a relocated railway station and settled ourselves in for a game of Carcasonne while the rain did its thing outside.

The party is complete – 1 October 2011

2011-10-14T18:29:00.002-01:00

Today's mission was to rendezvous with Janine at Conway where her 5 hour bus ride from Boston (after 35 hours flying/transiting from Auckland) was to deliver her. En route we called in at an RV yard to have our RV checked for a propane leak.

The reason was that last night the alarm sounded three times and the smell they tag propane with was was very strong. The RV guy confirmed that there was a leak but could not locate it with the quick checks he could perform.

We reported this to the hire firm and they arranged for a service-man to visit us at our next campground. He arrived and checked all internal and external places and could not find a leak. We drove into town, had dinner, returned to camp and the propane alarm sounded almost as soon as we had set up. Totally frustrated, we located a hotel room and moved in.

Lake Winnipesaukee – 30 September 2011

2011-10-14T18:13:00.000-01:00

The day started with a breakfast trip to a typical American Diner. The Farmers Diner car was an original semi-Worcester Streamliner from 1946. Many of the fittings inside were also original.

After an impossibly huge meal of pancakes etc, we set off to visit the Cornish-Windsor Bridge, the longest wooden bridge in the States and the second longest two-span covered bridge in the world. Today the water was brown from the earlier floods, but appeared to be running at not much more than a normal level. A bystander said that during the hurricane floods, the water level was right up to the bridge.

We travelled on to Hanover where the road passed through the heart of the campus of Dartmouth University, the place where BASIC was invented, and sat at a pedestrian crossing while students poured past in both directions. It seemed as though we would need to wait until lectures finished for the day before we could proceed legally so we simply edged through the milling student throng and hoped the State Troopers were not watching. From there our route to Meredith touched on the most southern part of the White Mountains; here the red colours were pretty solid on the mountainsides.

Meredith is built on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, and was a great little town to wander around. We discovered a mill race built by John Swasey in 1816. The source of the water was Lake Waukewan, at the north end of town.

Onwards and Upwards – 29 September 2011

2011-10-12T20:10:00.002-01:00

Sadly for touring, the day started with rain, which was fairly constant all day long. We travelled north-west from Lake George through a winter sport mountain area, to Quechee Gorge.

On the way, Woodstock was a stunning town, even on a dreary day. But the approach to Woodstock from the south, was a very different story. The effects of Hurricane Irene were very obvious still. Cars in the river bed, houses collapsed, silt all across field and car parks. The workers were out in force with all types of earth moving equipment.

Just before our campsite we found the stunning scenic Quechee Gorge. The historic bridge from 1911 passes over a deep chasm, lined with trees. This bridge was so far above the river level, that the hurricane floods caused no problems here.

At the information centre, we saw an advertisement for Sugar Bush Farm maple and cheese centre. This tempted us down some minor back roads that took us through the town of Quechee. The effects of the devastation here were also very dramatic.

Their historic covered bridge was fairly battered and the approach road had mostly disappeared. The golf course was a disaster, large areas of deep silt had a few green mounds rising out of the grey, and the sight of a green pin-flag still on top of one was rather incongruous.

Sugar Bush Farm offered cheese and maple syrup tasting. We enjoyed both and of course they achieved their goal of luring us into their shop to make some purchases.

Back to Lake George – 28 September 2011

2011-10-12T18:52:00.002-01:00

We had got excited about taking a side trip to the top of Whiteface Mountain, to look down on the autumn colours. Our neighbours at the campsite told us how beautiful it was. Then we discovered the snag – an 8 ft bridge, specifically to block RV's from taking the mountain road.

When we realised it was for our safety, we acknowledged the wisdom and retraced our steps to Lake George, via the forest road. The scenery was pretty good, but as the day was cloudy, it didn't look as spectacular as yesterday.

However, our lunch stop was interesting, with a board walk along the far edge of a small lake, and in easy access, three beaver houses. They were fascinating, and showed the teeth marks of the beavers, clearly on the small logs.

The only other thing of interest was a trip to Walmart, the true giant of American shopping.

On to Lake Placid – 27 September 2011

2011-10-12T17:45:00.002-01:00

Another lovely day made the picturesque drive north up Lake George a real treat. Lunch by the lake at Hague was followed by another drive alongside Lake Champlain. The scenery stared to get really exciting, with vivid reds and oranges as we passed Hurricane Mountain and then along Hwy 73.

Lake Placid is an expensive mountain resort centre that was the home of the 1980 (and 1932) Winter Olympics. The town centre is actually on the shores of Mirror Lake rather than Lake Placid but the two lakes are only separated by a 100m or so at one place.

Only 15 minutes further on along a very attractive river gorge was our campsite for the night, at the foot of Whiteface Mountain.

Time was when the most complex technology required for a family road-trip was the iSpy (with my little eye). This trip we have an iPad, two iPhones, two HTC Android smart phones, two full-size Dell laptops, an Asus mini-netbook and a not yet publicly available Samsung tablet with Windows 8. All of which are connected via travelling Mifi connected to the world via 3G. It is a wonderful world.

On to New York – 26 September 2011

2011-10-11T18:26:00.002-01:00

Contrary to the weather reports, the sun has continue to shine each day, and we set out for Lake George this morning. Very shortly after leaving the campsite we pulled over to visit the historic Scott covered bridge. We had seen others earlier that were still in use but this one was special in that it was the longest wooden span bridge in Vermont when it was built.

The main, 166 ft, span is quite incredible. It was subsequently strengthened with wooden arches built inside the original structure but this attempt failed and more recently a concrete pier was constructed mid stream to support it. It has been closed to traffic for some time.

The roads around Bald Mountain had been closed after Hurricane Irene, but were now open. What the website didn't say was that there was a detour partway along our route to Manchester Centre, for any vehicles shorter than 23 feet. At 32 feet we felt obliged to ask directions. Luckily the lady we asked lived along the detour and said she had seen vehicles larger than ours travel along there, and suggested we ignore the sign and take the detour.

It proved to be very interesting. The destruction left by the flooding after the hurricane was very obvious, with the river bed a disorganised chaos of rocks, a house only half there and hanging over the temporary road (along the river bed). The replacement bridge was under construction, and we saw three other bridge repairs on the road to Manchester Centre.

The area here is obviously higher, as we saw signs to a ski field. As a result, the foliage became more and more colourful. The surrounding hills had bands of colour where the trees at a certain level were turning red. It was a real treat to see briefly the type of foliage we had come to see, before arriving at Manchester. This proved to be a neat and tidy provincial town. We found a bank to use an ATM, in what appeared to once have been a gracious home.

Lunch was an interesting stop at Dorset by the first marble quarry in the US. The large hole left after the rock was extracted has filled with crystal clear water and is obviously now a popular swimming hole on a hot day.

Lake George was an hour later. The town appeared a little as though the season was over and much was closed. But the lake itself was beautiful, with lake cruise boats lined up, including a paddle-steamer.

Our campsite at Lake George RV Park, was a lovely leafy cool haven at the end of the hot day.

Pine Acres to to Bald Mountain – 25 September 2011

2011-10-11T17:43:00.003-01:00

The web research on Fall in New England seemed to recommend the last week in September to the first week in October as optimum time to visit. But this year is still very warm, and the trees are only just beginning to turn; hopefully they get going while we are here.

We drove to Old Deerfield historic village to have a look at the village with it's original houses built in the seventeenth century. This gave Alan a chance to meet up with us. He had set out from NZ a day behind us. Alan arrived on time, as we were looking around the village with a self guide map. Many of the houses have been restored, and are able to be viewed with a guide. We however did not have enough time to do that, and set off for our next campsite in a fairly remote area called Bald Mountain.

When we arrived at the campsite, the owners had closed the reception and left a a note to camp anywhere. The campgrounds were pretty much deserted, so we had unlimited choice of where to park. We camped right by the river, near the facilities. We were fascinated by the antics of Chip (don't know where Dale was), this should have been a clue to our location, as acorns fell very loudly and heavily on the RV roof all night long. Not such a good choice after all!!

Conifer to Pine – 24 September 2011

2011-10-11T17:13:00.001-01:00

The flight to Boston was less then seven hours, which made us wonder why we had not travelled here before. We had to pick up our RV by 3pm, which seemed pretty impossible with a flight landing at 1.15pm, and no suitable public transport. But the flight was 15 mins early, the booked taxi ready and waiting, and we made it to Rutland by 3pm.

Bradley and Susan with Linnea were waiting there for us, it was great to meet our first grand-daughter, looking so sweet and tiny at two months old.

The RV formalities over, (Alison who sorted our booking was great and even loaned baby gear) dinner next door at Ladds, and we were on our way to Pine Acres for our first night in a RV, arriving just in time for a brilliant sunset over their lake.

London Open Weekend – 17 September 2011

2011-09-20T20:02:00.000-01:00

A quick look on the Web doesn't show any other other countries that have the same Open House weekend scheme as the UK. It is such a brilliant idea, and works very well here, with the hundreds of years of historic building styles.

We headed to the City of London, as the Square Mile has many participating buildings packed into an easy walking area. We managed to visit quite a few, ranging from Trinity House (which is in charge if the country's lighthouses), several livery companies (the best would have to be the Drapers)

and several churches, which are normally closed on the weekends. It is a curious effect of population dynamics that many city churches have no congregations as no one lives nearby, so they are locked on Sundays and open for many different functions during the week.

One of the more unusual places we visited was a hairdresser at Leadenhall Markets. In their basements is a glass door showing part of the original Roman Basilica foundations. So the modern basement is the ground level of Roman times.

Road and Rail - 11 September 2011

2011-09-13T18:34:00.001-01:00

We have very vivid memories of watching 9/11 live on TV, as we were new to the UK, and happened to be home, unemployed and unusually had the TV going in daytime. But while the rest of the Western World were remembering 9/11, we were a world away on Sunday with a group of Y Type MG owners. These cars were designed before and built after WWII, so started out in turbulent times.

The day started at the Stondon Transport Museum, one of the largest private collections of cars in the country. It's amazing how many collections there are around the country. This one had a very wide variety of items; cars, bikes, trucks, buses and the slightly more obscure such as a Russian ballistic missile, a Flying Flea, a 1920 street sweeper and a gypsy caravan. But probably, most surprising of all, was a life size replica of Captain Cook's Endeavor, built from the original plans.

An interesting route took us via picturesque villages and minor roads, including one that said 'Not suitable for motor vehicles', a great pub lunch at The Globe, to the Steam Trains at Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway.

This rail track was used for sand excavation from the many pits around Leighton Buzzard. Prior to WWII, sand was brought to the UK as ballast, but this was not possible during the war, so sand pits known from as long ago as Roman times, were developed and sand is still exported from here. In particular filtration sand from this area is exported all over the world.

After a ride on the train, there was time for a coffee and we managed to dodge the black rain clouds all the way home, as the remnants of Hurricane Katia edged to northern parts of the UK.

London Festival – 10 September 2011

2011-09-13T17:52:00.001-01:00

The annual Mayor's Thames Festival is, not surprisingly, based along the Thames, with lots of activities and previously we have watched the Festival Parade at the conclusion of the weekend. This year we went to see the Dunkirk Little Ships, displayed in the St Katherine's Docks. It was truly amazing to see these relatively small boats, who rescued soldiers from Dunkirk. Some would not have been able to hold many men, but that was the secret of the successful evacuation – all types of boats doing their bit.

The North Bank of the Thames was full of people, out enjoying sunshine, a bonus on a day when rain had been forecast. An extensive street market of stalls selling an excellent range of handcrafts were very tempting as were the many foodstalls which lined the Thames Path. We were very taken by a ship skeleton, built from timber rescued from the Thames, and covered in artwork by school children. The festival is one of Europe's largest free festivals.

The Thames Parade of Boats was due to start at 3pm, so we stood at the end of a pier to get a good look. Something obviously went wrong, as we had enough time to swap life stories with the couples either side of us, before the first boats appeared. Sadly, it was not worth the wait, although it won't put us off waiting for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant boat parade next year.

Euston – 3-4 Septembeer 2011

2011-09-12T18:27:00.002-01:00

Many London suburbs are also towns around the UK. We live on the edge of Sudbury, which is a much more attractive town in Suffolk. This weekend we set out to explore the other Euston (also in Suffolk), which for us is the London terminus of our trainline.

Saturday was a reprieve on summer, and we enjoyed a glorious day of sunshine, exploring the Suffolk area around Euston. Starting in Bury St Edmund for lunch, we had a stroll through their Abbey gardens, and agreed with the banners proclaiming 'Bury in Bloom'. The flower beds were a riot of colour.

We also visited the Royal Theatre, which is the last Regency Theatre left in England. It was opened in 1819, and was restored a few years ago. Much smaller than current theatres, it was an interesting glimpse into the past.

After Bury, we next stopped at the lovely little town of Woolpit, which has a stunning church, with a 15th century wooden hammer-beam ceiling, liberally decorated in angels with their wings outstretched.

Pakenham was next, with the distinction of two working mills left near the town. A five story windmill and a watermill, where we stopped for tea and homemade grapefruit drizzle-cake made from flour ground on the premises – delicious.

Euston followed, with a range of lovely estate houses. The 'big house' was not open until Sunday, so we planned a repeat visit. Thetford is just up the road, and quite a a pleasant town, which in 1066 (Norman Conquest)was the sixth most important town in England. It is now a town of has-beens.

All that is left of the castle (built at the time William the Conqueror) is the 80ft mound. There were several priories and other church buildings, a picturesque reminder of the nunnery is the three nuns bridges. Henry VIII's reforms of course played their part in reducing this important town to a collection of ruins.

From here on, our circular route took us through the Thetford forest, with lovely areas of heather, which must do well in the very sandy soil..

On Sunday we paid a repeat visit to Helmingham Hall Gardens, as these would have to be one of our favourite discoveries in this country. There is such a timeless tranquillity about the huge Tudor mansion and the Grade I listed gardens, also residing in their own moat.

The gardens appeared to be under the watchful guard of a large bull with enormous horns, who stood steadfastly by the gate. But he appeared to just be bemused by the warm sunshine, and gave no trouble.

Euston Hall finally opened at 2.30pm. It was a surprisingly simple homely house, despite the grand connections of the family who have always owned it. Decended from Charles II, with a Prime Minister, an Admiral who is recognised as inventing the first weather 'station'.

In the archives room, a newspaper article said the family tree read like a Who's Who of England. The tearooms was like stepping back in time too, as a fiver got two cups of tea and two delicious homemade large pieces of cake.

Pierrefonds – 29 August 2011

2011-09-09T19:50:00.005-01:00

BBC TV has had several series on Merlin and Prince Arthur as young men, set in a most stunning medieval castle, with amazing turrets etc. When we planned to take a week in France, we checked the Web to see where this castle might be, and discovered it was in Pierrifonds, just north-east of Paris. This seemed a good place for our last night.

We had hoped to pack up our tent after visiting the castle, which helpfully opened at 9.30am. But the grumpy 'dragon' in the camp office was adamant the the 'regulations' did not permit us leaving the tent beyond 10am. So although we would have liked a totally dry tent for our last morning, we had to make do with a nearly dry tent.

The castle is massive, originally built in the 14th century by Louis d'Orleans, it fell into disrepair until Napoleon I bought it and his nephew Napoleon III restored it in the 19th century. So a lot of flamboyant details were added, but the effect is still quite medieval. Somehow the filmmakers have avoided the more modern additions, to give a strictly medieval look.

We enjoyed our dinner beside a lake, overlooking the castle on Sunday night, so returned for a goats cheese salad for lunch, after the castle visit. Then we set of north for Calais, stopping off first at Compiegne. This town was where Joan of Arc was captured in 1430, it also has a palace designed as a summer holiday home for Louis XV and restored by Napoleon I. The town is really beautiful , full of substantial houses.

Close by is a very interesting historical spot, where the Armistice was signed, in a railway carriage on tracks running through a dense forest, at 11:00 on 11 November 1918 to end World War I. The carriage was preserved, with the table and the original chairs used by the various generals when signing the treaty. In 1940, Hitler staged a triumphant ceremony when the French surrendered to him, using the same railway carriage (at that stage a memorial in the forest clearing), sat in General Foch's seat, generally made the French eat humble-pie and took the railway carriage to Germany in triumph! Fortunately things changed five years later, but sadly, the original carriage was mostly destroyed in a fire.

The museum houses an identical carriage from the same railway company, and it is set out as it was when the WWI treaty was signed. The whole museum is very interesting, particularly the stereoscopic pictures they have, of all aspects of WWI. They must have about 50 of these, the quality off the pictures is incredible, and the photographers were not at all squeamish. To see pictures of the soldiers in trenches, medical operations, aeroplane accidents, and bombed villages made the war very real. We found the bombed village scenes very moving, as we had just driven through dozens of villages with their lovely old churches and cute houses; to be faced with such a massive rebuilding task and achieve it so successfully is amazing.

North-east of there is Noyon. This humble town boasts a huge cathedral. This one dates from 1150, but four previous cathedrals stood on this site, and this was where Charlemagne was crowned. The cathedral was a real contrast to our visit to Chartres yesterday. Not at all graceful, simple windows, in fact solid and ugly from the outside, and just plain massive inside.

There were two things of particular interest. A memorial for the allied soldiers in WWI, including a New Zealand Shield. The moving words 'To the memory of one million dead of the British Empire, of whom the greater part rest in France' really made it even more tragic. Behind the cathedral is a unique half timbered library.

From here it was north to Calais, passing by a series WWI War Cemeteries, and attractive villages. We wondered how many of these were in ruins after WWI, as we were driving right through the heart of the Somme battlefields.

Chartres and beyond – 28 August 2011

2011-09-09T18:34:00.001-01:00

The '24 Hour Circuit' museum opened at 10am, so we got there at opening time, and found it interesting, and then took the 11am minivan tour of the circuit, including the famous Dunlop Bridge, grandstands, control room, pit stop and workshop area.

There was a small team of cars practising, so that gave a feel of the race excitement. The tour leaflet showed the 13.6km 24-hour circuit included public roads, so this was probably the best discovery of the tour, and we enjoyed driving the public road sections of the circuit, about 60% of the route.

Although we have visited Chartres before, it is right on the way to Pierrefonds, so we stopped again. After all, the UNESCO protected cathedral in Chartres is quite awesome. Originally building began in 1020, mostly burnt down in 1194, it then survived the 100 Year War, French Revolution and both World Wars (although all the glass in the windows was removed during both World Wars).

The windows are amazing, donated by aristocracy, royalty and priests in the early 13th century, the detail in the fine 176 stain glass windows tells Bible stories and glimpses of daily life. If that was not enough, around the Choir are Bible stories illustrated in carved stone. This is referred to as the 'Bible in stone'. If you were to study each window, it would be a very long visit indeed. We unfortunately had limited time, so only allowed an hour, plus a walk around the historic centre.

Our destination of Pierrefonds took us on a ring road around Paris. We were unsure how slow this would be late afternoon on a Sunday, with locals returning from the weekend, but it proved to be very easy, with signs saying 'Perif fluide', although the other direction was at a standstill. This was definitely a time for the stressless guidance of a GPS. It was fun to drive along a section of the Seine with the Eiffel Tower a short distance away.

24 hours of Le Mans – 27 August 2011

2011-09-07T19:57:00.002-01:00

The morning was a total contrast to the day before, with brilliant sunshine. Our route to Le Mans went straight through the centre of the Loire Valley. We have visited here previously, but it is such a beautiful area, it was a pleasure to have a second visit. We decided to visit the gardens of Villandry again, as these were the highlight of our previous visit.

The gardens are laid out in a similar to the monk's gardens around their abbeys. All the vegetables are grown inside neatly ordered box hedges. Standard rose bushes around the gardens represent the monks at work. In front of the chateaux is a more formal box hedge garden, where each geometrical pattern tells a story – about love.

The grounds are extensive with more formal gardens behind, viewing platforms and a new gardens since we were last there – a sun garden full of gold, orange and yellow flowers; and a cloud garden with blue and silver flowers.

We passed a few more chateaux on our way north, before arriving at Le Mans. Murray was keen to visit the town, because of it's racing fame, but the town itself is also well worth a visit. The approach to the old town was past part of the original Roman city walls, said to be the best left in France, we were certainly impressed.

The Tourist Office staff were most helpful and gave us a map of the town, information on the 'Le Mans 24 Hour Race Circuit' and nearest camp site, 5k out of town. After admiring the old town, Cite Plantagenet, we found the campground and put up the wet shell of our tent. Unfortunately there was no food at the local village, so back to town we went.

This time, a poster on a large tower caught our eye, clearly they had buildings illuminated at night. The Tourist Office was still open, and told us it started at 9.30pm and lasted two hours. We had not paid the €20 deposit for a barrier pass at the campground, as we had expected to be home well before then, as we still had to finish setting up camp.

So while Christine researched the restaurant menus and made a selection, Murray went back to get a barrier pass. The office was most unhelpful and refused him one, saying the gate was locked at 10pm and a key did not allow entry. He tried to explain about the illuminations, but they couldn't/wouldn't understand.

Murray retuned empty handed and we set off for dinner, with the curfew time of 10pm to work to. By having time to research, we were able to avoid the obvious tourist traps, and found a small restaurant tucked away, with a good looking menu and much more reasonably priced than the tourist traps. It turned out to be another gourmet highlight. We explained our time constraint to the waiter, and he was extremely helpful in making sure we left in time. Our car was parked in front of the cathedral, so we were able to watch 5 minutes of illuminations there, before heading back to the camp ground.

As is always the way, when under pressure, we missed a turning, found the alternative road had a 'route barree' sign, then took a long way round that and got back about two minutes to ten. With the car in front of the barrier arm, there was no movement of the barrier, the office was closed, so no help there, a barrier card was clearly required for access.

We needed the car beside the tent to pump up the air-bed, so took the only option we had – manually, the barrier would lift up about 100mm, this was enough for our low sports car to sneak underneath! There are times when a lack of French can prove a problem! We discovered that at 10 pm, actual metal gates closed across the driveway, effectively locking the drive to all, including card-holders. But why she refused to sell a card, when she was about to close the office at 7.30pm, and Murray was obviously going out, is a mystery!

Distressed and Inspired - August 26 2011

2011-09-07T19:00:00.003-01:00

Other than the fact that the D-Day Landings had happened four days earlier, there was nothing particularly unusual about a June day 65 years ago in Oradour-sur-Glane. But in just three hours that fateful afternoon, the entire 642 villagers were dead and the village itself was a smouldering ruin.

The village has been preserved, as it was, as a permanent memorial to those killed that day and as a permanent reminder that wartime atrocities such as these should never happen again. Unfortunately the visitor's book here does not include the names of those subsequently responsible for the Killing Fields, Rwanda, Bosnia, Sudan and so on.

We were on our way north from the Dordogne towards Le Mans. The direct route through rural France went very near this village. We were glad we had made it a stop-over point, as it is a very poignant reminder of the horrors of war and the inhumanity that mankind is capable of when in the grip of an ideology and given power without rational checks and balances.

The 200 Nazi SS soldiers would each have had a mother of their own but that did not stop them herding the mothers and children into the church before gassing and machine gunning them and shooting the men, then setting fire to the town.

All around the town were poignant reminders of the families who lived there. Sewing machines, burnt out motor cars. Various shops were possible to recognise, the church had not escaped either. This was a very sombre place, and the weather reflected this too. Heavy storm clouds were all around us, but fortunately a lull in the rain allowed us to walk around.

We carried on through the rain until we reached Saint Savin, where the sun finally came out for the first time that day. This attractive town has an 11th century abbey church, now protected by UNESCO. The interior contains an amazing series of 12th century Romanesque frescoes. They cover the Old Testament stories from Creation to the Ten Commandments.

Not far from here is Angles-Sur-L'Anglin. This features as one of the attractive small towns of France, and we agreed. Set on a river, with the remains of a ruined castle up on the cliff top, this town would rate among the high-lights of the trip. We should have been so overwhelmed by it's beauty, that we took a hotel room there, but instead, we found the closest camp site in a village nearby and

no sooner had we put up the shell of the tent, when the heavy rain we had experienced for most of the day returned. But all was not lost, after it cleared up again, we walked to the restaurant in the small local town, and enjoyed the best meal of the trip so far. No tourist town this, no English spoken, but we figured out the menu and had a beautifully presented, truly gourmet meal.

Dawdling down the Dordogne – 25 August 2011

2011-09-06T18:30:00.003-01:00

As expected, we were woken by rain once more but the thunder was a very lack-lustre affair and the rain was all over by the time it was a decent hour to arise. Driving up river we visited Domme which had its weekly market day and thus abundant crowds of tourists milling around.

Having surveyed the scene from the fabulous viewpoint at the edge of town we wandered back past all the shops crammed with the artisans wares all vying for the tourist eye and tourist Euro.

Dropping back to the valley floor we returned to Castelnaud, and just happened to be there at a suitable time to re-visit the patisserie, after we had slogged up the hill to the chateaux. It really was not worth the climb and we felt sorry for the serfs who rebuilt this castle 10 times during the 100 year's war.

The castle was the English base and Beynac just down river was the French base. Whether it says anything about who won; or the contrast between English and French design flair; or what; is hard to say but Beynac is world's apart in terms of tourist appeal.

Again it is a hot hard climb from river level to the Chateaux at the top of Beynac, but the views are great and the buildings along the route very attractive.

Wherever you are, looking down on the Dordogne, it is hard not to notice the stream of canoes and kayaks paddling down river and since we had a vendor based at the beach a few yards from our campground we decided to join the throngs of happy paddlers. From La Roque-Gageac to St Vincent-de-Cosse is 9 km by river

and you can take as long as you like to drift, swim, or paddle down as there are shuttle buses returning you to the start point every hour. By the time we had finished photographing Beynac we realised that we were close to an hourly departure time and if we hurried we would make the next bus, or have to wait an hour; we made it with 10 minutes to spare.

After a swim back at camp we set off to find the viewpoint looking over the great loop of the Dordogne, it was frightfully disappointing compared to the other views we have seen in the last two days. Carsac was just around the corner so we carried on to look at the beautiful Romanesque Church, which did make the trip worthwhile.

It was the perfect night for a picnic, but the pull of Le Roque-Gageac was too strong, so we walked back again to eat on the roof terrace at the other end of town enjoying the two specialities of the area – foie gras salad for entree and walnut gateaux for desert. By the time we finished, the town was flood-lit, making attractive reflections in the river.

Discovering the Dordogne – 24 August 2011

2011-09-05T19:03:00.005-01:00

We knew the forecast was for thunderstorms on Wednesday, and we heard some thunder in the distance at midnight, but at 5.30am it started in earnest overhead. It was such a contrast to the perfect sunset the evening before. The lighting and thunder playing games with us, sometimes nearly overhead, then moving away, only to come back again. It played this game over and over, to the accompaniment of torrential rain.

After a couple of hours, it stopped and we hastily began breaking up camp. We had only got as far as the bedding and inner tent, when it returned. So we relocated to the camp buildings for breakfast, then used the next lull to roll up the very soggy tent and put in a large plastic bag. We then had a shower while the rain continued to provide nature's shower, and we were off in the rain. Fortunately the thunderstorms had moved away and after a few false starts, the sun came out more and more frequently.

The Dordogne river valley starts to get more interesting after Bergerac. This town has a beautifully restored old centre. We passed through several pleasant country towns, and the visual treats really kick in once you get to Castelnaud. But just before that, we made a diversion to visit Les Milandes. This is a romantic looking castle in a wonderful position, high above the Dordogne Valley. The castle was the home of Josephine Baker, an American who found fame as a Paris cabaret singer and exotic dancer. The story of her life and the costumes she was famous for, made the visit very interesting.

Our lunch stop (we had intended to eat at the castle, but lunch waits were 45 minutes) was Castelnaud, just down the road. This stunning spot beside the river, has the most essential picnic asset – a great patisserie (in fact we bought lunch here three days running – great walnut tarts, walnuts are one of the specialities of the area). After our riverside picnic, we set off to visit the Marqueyssac Gardens.

We had seen pictures on the Web, and they are stunning for those (like us) who are captivated by clipped box hedges. The gardens were developed for 30 years from 1861 by Julien deCerval, abandoned and then in 1996 restored to their former glory. The chateaux and gardens occupy the entire flat area at the top of a massive cliff – in fact an entire flat topped mountain.

A very strategic spot above the river. A military owner before Julien, moved 2500 tons of rock to make a large straight ride, to exercise his cavalry charger. A track navigated the cliff top, and from a belvedere at the far end, we looked down on the stunning village of La Roque-Gageac and close by, a camp site, also on the banks of the Dordogne.

After exploring the gardens, we drove back to the river and managed to secure a riverside site at the campground. As we planned to stay for two nights, its position was brilliant, right in the heart of the most interesting part of the Dordogne, on the river and near a 'must visit' village.

We erected the very wet outer shell of our tent, and set of to explore Sarlat, 10k away. We had visited this by chance in an earlier visit to France, but not explored the surrounding area. We were very impressed by Sarlat last visit, so were interested to see if second impressions after seven more year's of travelling, matched our first. The quick answer is 'yes', Sarlat is definitely a must visit village when in the Drodogne. It is full of wonderful medieval buildings, a large square and masses of narrow fascinating streets.

Back at the campground, we made our way along the river to our own stunning village – La Roque Gageac. This beautiful village is built on pretty much a steer cliff, there is just enough space between the buildings and the drop into the river to fit two lanes of traffic, but no footpaths so it is “walk, or drive, with care”. Up above the river side buildings, narrow paths lead to a beautiful small châteaux, a church and houses. We dined beneath an ivy clad châteaux, on the rooftop terrace of a restaurant, our table right above the Dordogne. We were able to dine and watch a group of six balloons rise from the other side of the river.

To Bordeaux and Beyond – 23 August 2011

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Even though the storm predicted by the camp receptionist was pretty much a non-event, the strong winds and grey threatening skies were enough to get us up promptly in the morning. This was probably a good thing, as the rest of the day fitted together nicely, with enough time for everything.

First up, we stopped by the remote walled medieval village of Brouage, once a thriving port, but as the sea receded and left it miles inland, it's prosperity declined. The village is built on heaps of ship's ballast thrown overboard over many years. This provided good foundations to build this maritime city.

The walls are still intact, and make a marvellous circular walk. Its regular grid of streets and neat and tidy original houses are still lived in and the whole place has a very monochromatic cream stone look.

From here we travelled south to Bordeaux. The old city is now a UNESCO site, and definitely worth a visit, with an 18^th century heart, built along the river bank. But modern enhancements have improved it, in particular, the Place de la Bourse has a shallow flooded area, fed by small fountains in a cycle of off and on. This provides endless fun for children (and older), and great photo opportunities!

Bordeaux also provided us with the best ever ice-cream experience. A shop advertising it's wares with a picture of an ice-cream flower, attracted our business, on a very hot afternoon. The deal turned out to be that you paid for the size of cone you wanted and then could choose any number of ice-cream/gelato flavours, which after they were selected, were fashioned into a flower. Delicious and an art-work!

We dragged ourselves away from Bordeaux, before rush-hour traffic, and travelled west to Saint-Emilion. This wonderful town is situated in the heart of Bordeaux wine country. The drive there passed some chateaux, for which the area is famous. Saint-Emilion is a stunning little town. There is nothing particular to do there, apart from purchase bottles of Bordeaux as every second business seemed to be selling the local output. However, we climbed a tower to admire the town, before walking the town and of course buying a bottle of famous Bordeaux for a picnic tea.

This proved to be a good idea, because we next purchased bread, cheese, ham etc to make up our picnic, and set off for a camp ground in the next town. This seemed pretty straightforward, but after cruising the town twice and following signs that lead to nothing, we resorted to the GPS to find us a campground. Following this method was even more alarming, as we got onto more remote and narrow roads, and wondered if there would even be a campground at the end.

Finally we reached the spot and discovered the campsite did exist, and what's more, it was right beside the Dordogne. Our picnic tea provisions were then critical, as there was no nearby town to eat in, and we had the perfect setting for a picnic; sitting in the sunshine on the riverbank. A little church beside us kept reminding is of the time, as we sat below a chateaux and enjoyed the last of the sunlight; a perfect end to a wonderful day.

From Brittany to Ile de Re – 22 August 2011

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After packing up our campsite, just as the rain moved in, we had coffee in the fabulous walled town of Guerande. The drive from here to our next stop of La Rochelle, had little of interest. But by doing a detour inland, we were able to explore the area of Marais Poitevin around the town of Coulon.

The inhabitants of the area have reclaimed the land by digging a series of canals. These provide the area with attractive waterways, which are now a tourist attraction. We enjoyed driving around the area, and in particular, the town of Coulon.

Saint Martin-De-Re on the Ile De Re, is an attractive town built within one of Vauban's forts. The idea of camping inside a Vauban Fort had real appeal, but the guide books all agreed that there are no camp sites (or hotel/chambres de hote beds) available in July or August, without booking ahead. We decided we would try for the Municipal Campsite, which is sited in two arms of the actual fort.

The sign on the gate said 'Complete', but we decided to play the part of ignorant foreigners, and see if they had room for one small tent for one night, and in fact, they had one site left. But we had no sooner checked in and paid, when the receptionist told us to tie the tent down well, as they were expecting a storm to come through tonight. That was discouraging, but as it turned out, pretty much a non-event.

We enjoyed walking around the town in the hot sunshine. The island is said to have a special microclimate, second only to the Cote D'Azur. We certainly found this to be true, as we had left the mainland threatening to rain, for the island enjoying hot sunshine.

Within the Vauban Fort is the port, and surrounding that were lots of cafes. The whole town has a wonderful holiday (and very touristy) feel. There is a great view of the town and harbour from the top of the church tower. As we enjoyed the view, we noticed a bride in an amazing gown walking along the road, with accompanying groom and photographer. We took a few photos of her walking far below, looking remarkably like an ostrich at that angle.

Shortly after, they appeared at the top of the tower looking extremely hot and bothered, quite a feat in a beautiful long wedding gown, to have photos with this brilliant background. We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon walking around, and a great meal on the harbourside; really a memorable spot.

Brittany – 21 August 2011

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Brittany has always seemed an exciting destination,but the problem is the volatile weather. The forecast was pleasant and fine for the weekend only, so we decided to explore Morbihan. This department in Brittany has some beautiful walled towns, with medieval castles.

Sadly, Fougeres was still overcast when we left, and our next destination, Vitre, was no better. Both towns have wonderful castles, walls and old towns. They were very picturesque, in the sunshine they would have been even more amazing.

The low cloud and mist cleared as we drove to Josselyn. This town is very captivating, with fine old town centre and a stunning castle. The sun was out in force and we enjoyed the beautiful summers day.

From here we travelled south to the coast, to Vannes. This is another old town with most of its medieval walls intact. The town is lovely, but more impressive are the wonderful gardens around the walls on the south side of the town.

Vanne is on the Gulf de Morbihan. This large Gulf is flooded with water from the Atlantic through a narrow channel, and there are many islands in the Gulf. We decided to visit the fishing village of Le Bono. The is one of the many villages on the coast around the Gulf. The village was cute, and we nearly spent the night there, but as there was plenty of afternoon left, decided to push on towards tomorrow's destination.

This meant that we came upon an unexpected beauty spot, the medieval town of Guerande. This has the circular town walls and moat intact, with the original town gates. We totally fell in love with this town, and after exploring, found a camp site nearby.

Britain to Brittany in 12 hours – 20 August 2011

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A 6.45am departure from home got us to Dover for the 9.55am check-in, and by 6.45pm we were checking into a campsite in Fougeres in Brittany.

The GPS said non-toll roads would take us 6 hours, but toll roads would only take 4.5 hours. We decided to pay the €30+ tolls and get to Fougeres in time to visit their medieval castle. But we now know that toll roads have drawbacks.

There were queues at all toll booths, both to collect your toll ticket at the start of the toll portions and then to pay the toll at the end. Some of these were extremely slow moving, and worst of all was the fairly new suspension bridge over the Seine near Honfleur. The queue to pay the toll went on for several kilometres, and added another 40 minutes to the journey time. The total time for the journey was 5.75 hours; we may as well have saved the €30.

Fougeres is a lovely town. There was enough time to put up the tent, have a brief look around before eating at a delicious creperie. We had just started eating when the lightning and thunder heralded the arrival of rain. As the day had been super hot, this was not surprising. Fortunately it stopped just before we were ready to leave the restaurant, but it had done very little to cool the air. It was definitely a night were we could sleep comfortably, but felt sorry for those indoors.

Blooming heather again - 13,14 August 2011

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Heather is blooming again, and although we have previously travelled to other parts of England, such as Yorkshire and the Peak District, to enjoy it, we hoped for better weather than last year to explore the heather right on our doorstep.

Cobham Common is the largest National Nature Reserve in southeast England, and said to be the best example of lowland heath.

We took Clara for a spin and then enjoyed a 7 mile walk all around the heather clad heathland. This was at it's best, and what can only be described as a totally bleak and barren landscape for the rest of the year, comes alive with the slopes covered in purple flowers.

The week of the London Olympic showcase to the world, as it ran trial events, was also the week of the worst riots since the 1980's, and the worst skyline for burning buildings since the blitz.

Today we drove through one of these events, although we were unfortunately unable to see anything, as we journeyed to Sussex, through the London to Surrey practise long-distance cycle race.

Sunday continued the heather theme. We took this as potentially our last chance to see the heather in bloom at Ashdown Forest, also the home of Winnie the Pooh. Last year we attempted this, but low cloud and drizzle forced us to abandon it. Today, the clouds rolled away to leave a pleasant day.

Our drive started in East Grinstead, a town we have often driven through, but today we stopped for coffee on the lovely terrace overlooking the church, and had a proper look around the town. The High Street is full of wonderful old Tudor buildings.

After leaving East Grinstead, we were into Ashdown Forest. In places there are great view points, and everywhere masses of purple heather. Ashdown is of course famous for the Winnie the Pooh stories, and we did a walk which took in some of the famous spots from the walk – 'The Enchanted Place' (enchanted because Christopher Robin said no one could be sure if there were 63 or 64 trees), the 'Heffalump Trap' (this large hole was supposedly dug by piglet) and Roo's favourite 'Sandy Place'. It was a wonderful nostalgic trip to remind us of hours spent reading those wonderful stories to our children.

Lunch at Duddleswell Tea Rooms followed, and this is a must for anyone in the area. The tearooms are very attractive, set back from the road with wide lawns and lovely flowers. The cream teas are delicious and a meal in themselves, but we had to go for their Pooh Bear Tea, which not only had one of their giant scones with honey and clotted cream, but also our choice of a piece of cake.

Making that choice wasn't easy, as they had an amazing range of great home-made cakes, and when our choice (pavlova full of cream and strawberries and raspberry roulade) was served, the sizes were enormous. Although, as Pooh once said, “My tummy is feeling a little eleven o'clockish.”, we could easily have shared a Pooh Tea. But we made it through eventually, and decided a salad would be all we should allow ourselves for dinner!

We continued a circular drive, through a variety of interesting towns, finishing once again in Ashdown Forest. Walking around a few a few towns as well as Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum, helped overcome the 'I've eaten far too much' feeling.

Bentley happened to be on the route, and as the entry price was modest and the day was so lovely, we decided to visit. We actually enjoyed it because it was so different to normal country houses, with a very varied range of attractions.

In addition to visiting the country house and garden, there was a huge area of ponds (admittedly rather green) and heaps of different wild water birds, including two from NZ that we don't remember every seeing before, a ride on railway just like our children loved 30 years ago, craft shops and a Motor Museum. Basically something for everyone, and their tearooms served the best ever Pimms!

So after walking the extensive grounds, and visiting a few village churches, we felt able to do justice to dinner, keeping to our plan of a salad, but the 'Red Barn' have very delicious imaginative salads, the perfect end to a great day out!

Home through the Cotswolds – 8 August 2011

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Monday morning gave us time to browse the shops and visit Ludlow Cathedral, known as the Cathedral of the Marches. (after the area – not walking) It is a beautiful example of the Perpendicular architectural style with wonderful stained glass windows, elaborate tombs, but best of all are the wonderfully carved misericordes. As well as pious scenes, there are carved scenes of everyday life.

We travelled south to re-visit Hampton Court gardens, which we first visited in the autumn last year. The water features looked great in the autumn, but summer sees gardens at their best, and we enjoyed seeing the yellow and mauve wide border gardens and the vegetable gardens, arranged artistically, to even make vegetable look appealing.

From here we plotted a route along the B roads and byways straight through the Cotswolds to London: enjoying a drive through many appealing villages; with a lunch stop at the classic favourite of Broadway.

Ludlow – 7 August 2011

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As we have travelled around England, we've seen many wonderful historical towns, with exciting looking old Tudor or other era buildings, and often said 'it would be wonderful to come back and stay there'. This weekend we actually did this for the first time.

Ludlow has always stuck in our mind as one of the most beautiful towns in England. A guidebook said it had the most Michelin Stars per head of population outside of Paris. (We don't believe that however, as Bray is smaller and has 3 times as many Michelin stars.) We booked into the Feathers Hotel, one of the most beautiful Tudor buildings in the town and when we checked in, we discovered they had upgraded us to the honeymoon suite, so our plans for a special weekend suddenly got better.

We set out for Ludlow, stopping off at Deerfield, a tiny town which has two pre-Norman churches. The oldest is from Saxon times, 'lost' for years as a house was built onto and “over” it.

Tewkesbury is another stunning town, with a huge Abbey, and streets of wonderful old buildings.

North again we visited Spetchley Park Gardens. These were not at their best for borders, but had many wonderful roses, all labelled, so we noted some which looked and smelt the best. The church on the estate is definitely worth a visit, with a very elaborate tomb near the altar.

Our next exciting find of the day was marked on the map as a tithe barn. This turned out to the oldest cruck-framed barn in the UK. It is an amazing structure, with each huge floor to roof cruck beam is one continuous piece of an oak tree, selected and felled for its special shape.

Before reaching Ludlow, we stopped at Berrington. This palladian stately home gives a look at how life in the country used to be. The entire house is open for viewing, and affords a very comprehensive look at the roles of the servants below stairs.

Sunday is the day for an antiques market in the Ludlow castle square. We browsed the markets, walked down to the river and the silk mill, and then visited the castle. The castle dates back to Norman times, but is now just a ruin, with several towers which can be climbed. We enjoyed wandering around it in the sunshine and seeing the rare circular Norman chapel.

Random Roaming – 6 August 2011

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A long weekend away from London was the plan for the weekend, with no fixed ideas of where to go. But high on our list of towns to stay in is Ludlow, on the Welsh border. To break the journey, we spent Saturday night near Gloucester.

Today's travels took us to villages on the east and west banks of the River Severn. First up was a garden at Westbury-on-Severn. Westbury Court gardens are rather special as they were left to deteriorate, when anyone of note was replacing their 18th century gardens with the latest look by Capability Brown. The gardens have been restored by the National Trust, and are a wonderful place to visit, with a real air of by-gone eras. Then onto lunch at Newent, a wonderful town, with timber buildings and a market house building on stilts.

North west took us to Kempley Church, with it's Roman arch architecture and medieval wall paintings. The next village has a medieval knight on his tomb but, unusually, he is carved from oak and further down the church are some somewhat newer relations of his, resplendent in marble, resting for all time in a private chapel.

The Malvern Hills were next and onto Upton-on-Severn This is an even bigger market town than Newent and very attractive

We ended the day at the Gloucester Docks, which have been redeveloped into apartments, cafes and an Arts and Crafts centre. Here we finally purchased a hand crafted glass bowl.

Years ago we saw a glass dish in an arts centre in Painshill. We were very taken with it, but walked away. Then at the Gloucester Cathedral floral festival, we met the artist, and he had some similar dishes for sale there. But the dish we had seen was dramatic in black and white. He had only made three of this style. One had been sold, one was in his rural studio, and one in Gloucester. During our day out, we called by the studio in a tiny rural community, far from the main roads. We arranged to meet him at The Docks at the end of the day, to make our selection from his two remaining dishes. The Docks area is worth a visit in it's own right, but we had double pleasure, as we came away with a memory to commemorate our 'Gloucester connection'.

Battle Proms – 30 July 2011

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Battle Prom is a series running through the summer, just like a traditional Proms in the Park, with a few extras thrown in. The Proms are being held at many major historical houses, within a couple of hour's drive from London. We choose Highclere Castle, after seeing it on the Downton Abbey historical drama series. It proved to be an excellent choice, as the weather was perfect. Compared with recent Saturday nights this summer, we were exceedingly fortunate, as we had a perfectly fine and mild summer evening.

Ngaire and Stuart came with us, and we combined the trip there with an AA circular tour centred on Newbury. On the way there, we did the northern half of the route, which left the M4 motorway, and wove under and over the M4, as it explored the lovely little villages of Yattendon, Peasmore and Boxford,

Yattendon has a great Pub, with a really lovely garden, where we relaxed in comfy chairs under a grape arbour, and enjoyed a coffee.

Coffee was nearly our undoing, as we enjoyed another, after checking into our Travelodge (booked using their summer special at only £15 – a perfect compliment to our Proms just a few miles down the road). But although we left there in plenty of time, we joined a queue stretching 2 miles from the Castle, and it just wasn't moving for long periods. A nail-biting 90 minutes later, the queue finally started to move, and we arrived 30 minutes before the 'calvary charge', which opened the programme.

It was virtually impossible to see the cavalry charge, due to the 7,000 other people there, but we did manage to see the riders over the heads of the spectators, as well as on the big screen.

The next highlight was a Spitfire, piloted by a women who does stunts in her husband's plane, after he was killed in a car crash. She was brilliant, doing loops and rolls all synchronised to the music being played by the orchestra..

The programme followed a typical mix of favourite classics, such as the Sailors Hornpipe and 1812, accompanied by 70 field guns. The 'battle' accompanying Battle Symphony was most realistic with plenty of atmospheric red smoke from the cannons and fireworks.

The evening finished with the traditional favourites of Jerusalem, Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory, accompanied with a magnificent fireworks display, they even had more fireworks prepared for an encore.

We expected the exit to be as slow as the entry, but were pleasantly surprised by a smooth and swift return journey.

On Sunday we experienced the queues at Highclere again. As it is open to the public on Sundays, we had planned to visit. On the way we stopped by the ruins of Donnington Castle and the Sandham Memorial Chapel. This is a very moving place to visit. This consecrated church is was built after WW1, by friends of Stanley Spencer, so he could paint his war experiences as a medical orderly, as a type of therapy. These have recently been cleaned, and the murals are so vivid, you feel they have just been painted.

On to Highclere, only to find long queues at the ticket office, so time for a change of plan. After completing our circular AA tour, from Newbury to Buckleberry (sounds like something from Middle Earth), we headed for the nearby Thames, and enjoyed a lunch on the terrace of The Swan, overlooking the Thames, with the pleasure boats out enjoying the warm summer day.

The Gardens Royal – 24 July 2011

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After the Royal Palace yesterday, we extended the theme today with two Royal Gardens.

We had a 2 for 1 coupon for the Savill Gardens for the month of July only. Fortunately, after all the rain this week, Sunday was a beautiful day, ideal to make use of this.

Savill Gardens are named after Sir Eric Savill, ranger at Great Windsor Park, who obtained permission from George V to turn a waste land corner into a garden, and that was the beginning of Savill Gardens. The summer borders were stunning, as was the new rose garden, with an elevated walkway, to smell the especially chosen fragrant blooms.

Morning tea in their new stunning pavilion was a must. The old pavilion had been removed, which made way for a special New Zealand Garden. The idea was germinated from the gift of plants to the Queen from New Zealand.

Following the visit to this royal garden, we then made use of our membership to again visit Wisley Gardens and see how their summer borders looked. We spent even longer at Wisley, as the gardens were absolutely stunning. Our favourite had to be the new Bowes-Lyons rose garden. It was so much more than a rose garden, beds of vibrant flowers complemented the roses.

We finally dragged ourselves away from Wisley, and checked out the church in Wisley village. This old 12th century church is simple, yet timeless and quite moving to think of all the lives who have been involved in it's history.

Just down the road is The Anchor pub, on the Wey Navigation. The pub was chockka when we arrived, but we had come armed with a 4 mile walk designed to be done in conjunction with a visit to the pub. By the time we had completed this, there was a smaller queue for tables, and we enjoyed a delicious salad beside the canal. British summer at it's best!

Royal Garden Party – 23 July 2011

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'The Dress' dominated news broadcasts, at the time of the Royal Wedding in May. When we visited Buckingham Palace last August, and had our tickets converted into an annual pass, we didn't even know there was going to be a royal wedding. So to learn the dress was going on display at the Palace summer opening, was a bonus.

We planned to meet David Smith at the Palace, but before then, we decided to complete the Grosvenor Estate walk that we had to abandon last Palace visit, because of rain. The Grosvenor Estate is recognised as the largest and best preserved Regency estate in Europe. There is a real mixture of top quality housing, once the residences of aristocracy, side streets occupied by tradesmen (we saw an old time motor repair garage still operating) and even experimental social housing.

The mix still applies, as the social housing is still there, and the best streets still have private residences, even including Lady Thatcher with an armed policeman outside.

The Palace is, of course, stunning and we enjoyed the chance for a second visit on our tickets, purchased last year. This year the special exhibition was the royal collection of Faberge. The display was amazing, and certainly far more than we have seen previously. The wide range of objects made was intriguing, even a kiwi.

The Dress was fascinating to see up close, and the welcome chance to sit and watch a video about it's design, was great too. We also enjoyed seeing reproductions of the wedding photos, displayed in the Throne Room, where they were taken.

Lunch of course had to be at the pavilion just outside the Palace, beside the large lawn used for garden parties. As we left, we were approached by an ITV reporter, and asked our impressions of The Dress. But unfortunately we didn't appear on the news clip that night.

Floral Feast – 17 July 2011

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Gloucester Cathedral is one of our favourite cathedrals. Not only is there the family connection with Bishop Hooper, the tomb of William the Conqueror's eldest son always fascinates us, the massive pillars and elegant cloisters are a wonderful mixture. This was all enhanced this week with the cathedral's Floral Festival.

We had planned this weekend away to fit in with the festival, and it turned out to be even better than expected. The advertisement that encouraged us to attend told about a floral carpet which filled the aisle, but in fact there was so much more. The whole cathedral was filled with floral arrangements from groups all around the area. The ticket suggested allowing two hours to see it all, and this was certainly required.

The morning had started with heavy rain, but by the time we finished the floral festival, the sun had come out and we were able to enjoy the rest of the day in sunshine.

Southwest of Gloucester is the lovely property of Rodmarton Manor. The house is relatively new, having been built in 1909. It took 20 years to build, and was made by local craftsmen using local materials and traditional methods. The effect is that of a much older house, quite simple and quite special.

The garden is advertised as one of the finest in Gloucestershire, and that's not a false claim. We really enjoyed the variety of garden styles, the colourful borders, the formal clipped trees and old fruit trees. It was a garden to inspire budding gardeners.

The trip back to our hotel was through a variety of lovely Cotswold villages, all just as lovely as Wroxton, the village we are staying in.