MG 80th Celebration at Penshurst Place – 8 August 2010

The annual MG SE Car Club picnic is always at Penshurst Place, and this year we were in London, and able to attend. It's a great venue, with plenty of room for the hundreds of cars which join for a great day out.

It was built in the 1340's by Sir John de Pulteney, four times Lord Mayor of London. When King Henry VIII stayed, after being lavishly entertained, he then had his host tried for treason and beheaded, and confiscated the house. It was given in 1552 to the Sidney family, after who Sydney, Australia was named, in a round about way. We enjoyed looking around the house, which certainly has a very old air. The most fascinating rooms were the two tapestry rooms. Two walls were hung with wonderful appliqué-type needlework creations and a chaise-lounge and six chairs were all covered in the same needlework design, Although aged and the chairs were faded, the actual design and effect was stunning. A real inspiration to create something similar! The commentary on the room said it was a unique remnant from the 17th century. It is amazing how some really old furnishing items survive.

The garden are formal, with 11 acres of yew hedged garden 'rooms'. We were fortunate to have just caught the roses at the end of their flowering season. The MG Club made the gardens even more enjoyable, by having a 'treasure hunt' for clues, which was not as easy as we expected. However, we did win third prize for our efforts.

At the end of the day, we made our way home via the neighbouring town of Tonbridge, having previously acquired a Jane Austen walk of the town. The town is lovely, and we thoroughly enjoyed the walk, during which we joined the many people enjoying a performance in the castle grounds. The walk took us to the school Jane's father taught in, the church where they worshiped, as well as various relatives houses. But we were a little surprised to finally read the last statement, at the end of the walk, which said they were not actually sure if Jane ever visited Tonbridge, even though the Austens originally came from here!

Then it was time for a slow and frustrating drive home on the M25, too many people must have headed out of London the enjoy the lovely summer's day.

Buckingham Palace – 7 August 2010

Every tourist visits Buckingham Palace, and although we visited in 2001 when we first arrived, we felt it was time to visit again, and re-evaluate our first awed impressions, in the light of all the marvellous palaces we have seen.

Even after visiting such marvels as Pushkin Palace in Russia, we still felt the Buckingham Palace experience is a cut above the rest. The State rooms are stunning, with amazing detail, yet tasteful. Every room is fully furnished, and currently in use for State occasions, which does elevate it above the 'Museum status' of the others we have visited.

George IV is largely responsible for its opulence, and we have always been fascinated by this particular monarch.

As tax payers, we now get our £17 ticket converted into an annual pass. This seems amazingly good value, but it remains to be seen how many times we re-visit.

Today's visit had a celebration of the Queen's Year, as an additional exhibition. Following this was the Investiture Room, containing an exhibition showing the Commonwealth Mace, which is covered in the flags of all the Commonwealth countries. We were delighted to discover the NZ flag was prominently positioned on the front. Also part of the display were the NZ merit awards.

This year for the first time, a cafe was available, and we enjoyed sitting in the sun, feasting on a delicious (and fattening) afternoon tea. The Palace is set in 30 acres, and although photos were forbidden inside, we were able to take photos from the gardens as we walked to the exit.

The Thames and beyond – 1 August 2010

Clara was dying for an outing, having heard her younger sister had romped all over Europe, so we invited Ngaire and Stuart to go out with us for a sedate Sunday drive.



Lunch was first on the menu, in the Walled Garden at Sunbury-on-Thames. This garden with its fabulous embroidery exhibition, was definitely worth a repeat visit, and we enjoyed being inspired by their millennium embroidery again, and admiring some new works.

From here we drove across the Chilterns, via Henley-on-Thames to Greys Court. We hadn't visited here since 2002, and there seemed a lot more to see, the most interesting outdoor feature was the donkey wheel. This huge wheel, powered by a donkey walking inside it, was used to draw water up from the 200 foot deep well. The contraption dates from Tudor times, and was used up until 1914.



The house is still presented as a well loved country home, and we could just imagine living here.

Back to London – 31 July 2010

After a morning at Ikea, which seems like a home show, without the entry fee, we headed into London. Every year, the Serpentine Gallery has a Pavilion, designed by an artist. This year it is designed by Jean Nouvel, and is an unmissable red landmark structure, with all the accessories to the cafe in red, along with red table tennis tables and a red hammock. We loved it, and stopped by for a coffee.

Another new feature of London parks this summer, is colourful prints on the deck chairs. These were harder to track down, but eventually we found some of the new chairs in St James's Park. We secured ours just in time for an hour long band performance. The sun was shining, the band played well, what more could we ask from London in the summer!

Evacuated from Dunkirk – 25 July 2010

Our camp site was within easy reach of Dunkirk, so that we could spend some time there. But first we stopped for morning coffee at Bergues. This proved to be a real delight – a mini Brugge. The town is attractive, with Flemish style buildings, and as a bonus, we discovered it was also a fortified town designed by Vauban. The walls, gates and areas of fortifications still exist. This was so appealing, we can imagine a return visit for a weekend.

The 'Musee Portuaire Dunkerque' was our next stop; it is a very well presented museum of the history of Dunkirk, and surprise, surprise, once again, the story starts with Vauban. Louis XIV purchased Dunkirk from the British in 1662 and commissioned Vauban to turn this area of sand banks into an arsenal, port with canals and a channel out to sea. The museum traced the history of the port, and for the 70th anniversary this year, an extensive display of the evacuation of the British forces from Dunkirk. This historical account was most interesting to us, as we have always heard the stories from the Commonwealth slant. To learn that the French were most upset to have their allies retreating, without any prior warning was a different slant. The news only got out, when Churchill had to let the media in on the retreat, as there was no way of disguising the thousands of men returning to England. He put a suitable spin on the news, and first hand recollections, by audio guide, told of how the soldiers feared they would be jeered at as deserters, only to find they were cheered as heros.

90% of Dunkirk was destroyed during WWII, and as we ate delicious salads beside the Hotel de Ville, we were impressed at how they have rebuilt the town, much of it keeping the Flemish character.

Fortified, we moved on - 24 July 2010

The rain continued most of the night, but cleared in the morning, and we were able to make use of the walk leaflet we were given at the Longwy Tourist Office. About half of the original town and ramparts still remain in this town. It was obviously built on a similar design as Neuf-Brisach. This town has suffered military action more recently though, and we could see hundreds of WWI bullet holes in most of the public buildings.



The final UNESCO Vauban site on our route back to Dunkirk was in Arras. The sat-nav seemed determined to route us there via Belgium. We decided not to argue, until we discovered the state of rural Belgium roads. We had thought British rural roads were in a bad condition after last winter's freeze, but the Belgium minor roads we encountered were shocking, one of them looked like the craters of the moon! We were relieved to cross back into France, and their excellent roads.

Arras is a town worth visiting for it's own sake, which was just as well, as we were unable to enter the Vauban Citadel. The design looked very similar on the outside, but the fortress was locked up tight.

Despite this, we enjoyed walking the town trail. The centre of the city is built around two main squares, which are surrounded by Flemish style houses. The town was heavily bombed in WWI and WWII, and the reconstruction is incredible. There were photos in the cathedral of the destruction and the town today is very well restored.

On the second half of our drive today, we passed many war cemeteries and monuments. At Arras, next to the Citadel, we were able to take in the grandeur of the British War Cemetery. 159,000 Commonwealth soldiers were killed in this area during a period of 39 days. The graves only account for 2,670 soldiers, the names of 35,000 missing men are written around the monument. This area is a stark reminder of the grim history of last century.

Vauban's Forts – 23 July 2010

The fortified town of Neuf-Brisach is really amazing. Now a UNESCO protected site, it was designed by Vauban, King Louis XIV's military architect. We first encountered Vauban in Briancon, where he was the architect, and the Vauban Museum in Neuf-Brisach gave us an insight into the amazing feats he accomplished. Many of his designs used the star shape design used here, and result is elegant and in its day was the epitome of military architecture.

Vauban designed 130 fortified towns all around the borders of France and Neuf-Brisach was his last work commissioned in 1698 and competed five years later. The Tourist Office has a great town trail, which we followed in the intermittent rain, having fortified ourselves with a delicious breakfast in a cheerful cafe, and feeling cheered that we had got our damp tent packed away before more rain arrived!

The Museum gave us the names of two more forts built by Vauban, which could be easily reached on our way back to Dunkirk. So after driving the Wine Route in Alsace (unfortunately in the rain), the sat-nav took us over a very scenic mountain road and off on a direct route to Longwy.

By the time we reached Longwy, a thunder and lightning storm had arrived in earnest, and we got drenched just trying to navigate the main square for coffee and a Tourist Office. The coffee was disappointing and the Tourist Office didn't exist. The whole place looked depressed, and apparently their steel industry closed some time ago, which explains the look of the place. We were surprised there was no mention of this UNESCO site, and finally found the 'high town', complete with Museum, Tourist Office and fortifications. The rain had no intention of easing off, so we found a hotel on the high town square, which had a much more pleasant look than its neighbour (even in the rain). Dinner, once again, was a delicious experience at the only restaurant open in this small town.