Crossover
Monday, 2/9

We arrived home after dark last night.  It's good to be home, but we've not yet had a look around outside.

Had one of our very few rainy days on Wednesday.  Took the subway south to the 9/11 Memorial, which was very moving.  About 25,000 people a day visit.  We'd already found (eg at the Somme) that even when you know about something that happened, being at the actual site adds a powerful extra layer of emotion.  It seems strange that being at the actual place has the power to intensify feelings that were already well established. 

Had a look too at Wall Street and the financial district.  There's a little square (actually a triangle, like so many "squares" we've seen) that was recently renamed to Queen Elizabeth II Square and contains a memorial to the 9/11 victims from all Commonwealth countries.  Here's a bit of the nearby East River...

Thursday was our last full day in NY and we spent almost all day in MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art, which we really enjoyed.  We're not normally all that keen on some of the most modern art, but the collection here is wonderful and there's a terrific section on design. And there's a very nice little Thai restaurant just over the road, which provided us with lunch.

We had plenty of time on Friday.  We had a leisurely breakfast, packed and checked out, leaving our big bags at reception.  Then strolled out for coffee and some time in Bryant Park nearby, pictured...

Saved a small fortune by taking the subway and Airtrain to JFK airport.  Then the flights, about six hours to LA, a pause then about fifteen hours to Sydney.  We went through customs quarantine, etc in Sydney, so were domestic passengers for the short hop to Melbourne, which made it possible for Rob's sister and elderly mother to meet us in the gate lounge; what a pleasant surprise.

So now we're home.  It's hard to grasp that it's Spring after being so long in Summer.  We'll have plenty to do in the garden and elsewhere.  It looks like we've taken about 7500 photos between us, which is going to take a lot of sorting out.  And catching up with people will take us a while too.

But we're already thinking about other trips away...

Regards from Judy and Rob.

New York (2)
Tuesday evening, 27/8

Last time we were in New York City in 2000, we didn't do it well; we were unwell, we had messed up our booking and had less time than we thought, then we wasted most of the little time we did have, looking for a hotel room (or B&B, hostel, motel, or anything) and trying to buy a stove part that we found immediately we arrived in London.  So we didn't see or do much.  This time we're making up for that in a big way, and we're loving it!

On Saturday we walked up 42nd Street to Times Square where Levi had 30% off jeans in their Broadway store (and Rob had just gone through the knees of his jeans while on this trip).  We found out about subway tickets and then roamed for hours in Central Park, watching a game of softball, riding on the carousel, walking down the literary avenue, watching the model yachts, seeing the Alice in Wonderland statue, the Belvedere Castle,  the boating lake and Strawberry Fields.

On Sunday we went south, down to Greenwich Village and Soho, then made our way back north via a string of squares; Washington Square, Union Square, Gramercy Square and of course Madison Square Park, before visiting the Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum (J.P. Morgan's father) - we had thought that we'd rather like to have a library like the one at Chatsworth House; now we've upped the ante!!

With the weekend over, we thought that the galleries might not be too crowded so we spent yesterday at the Metropolitan and today we went to the Guggenheim and the Frick.  As usual, Judy had a few specific things she wanted to see before we started roaming the rest of the collections (although not at the Guggenheim).

We are totally in awe of the Metropolitan!  It is vast and full of really great stuff. It even lets visitors take photographs (without flash of course)! Jude couldn't believe her luck; a whole room devoted to each of Vermeer and Cezanne, almost a whole room of Rembrandt, and three rooms full of Degas!  There's no way that a whole day is anything like enough to see all we needed to, so it looks like we'll just have to come back to NY some other time.

There were even things we didn't see and didn't notice at the time.  It wasn't until this morning that we thought about how we entered the gallery. We just went to one of the many entrances, where we went straight in.  Contrast that with that long, long queue at the one entrance to the Louvre!

We're glad to have gone to the Guggenheim and it's an amazing building, but we feel a bit bemused by it too.  Perhaps we visited it at the wrong time, but most of the exhibition spaces were empty and there was an exhibition that we were disappointed with.  At one point we queued for half an hour to go into a darkened room to see a rectangle on the wall with a concave depression in it.  Yes it was interesting to see how hard it was to discern the shape of the depression, but was it art?  I think that the Emperor sometimes really does have no clothes.  Certainly we would not have queued for so long if we'd known what was in there!

The Frick Collection, on the other hand, was fantastically wonderful, a suberb collection still in the collector's Fifth Avenue beautiful house. No photos allowed here, or at the Guggenheim. 

After visiting a number of Rembrandt self-portraits (at ages 34 and 63) in London and seeing another one that we didn't know about at the Met (when he was 54), we were really looking forward to seeing the one (at 52) that we knew was part of the Frick collection and it was, in our opinion, the very best of all.  An afternoon really well spent!

So we now have Wednesday and Thursday ahead of us as full days in NYC before we fly out of JFK airport at 17:55 local time on Friday.

Here's a couple of pictures...

Regards from Judy and Rob

Manhattan Island, NYC
Friday evening, 23/8

We have arrived at our "apartment" on West 41st Street and done a brief recon of our immediate neighbourhood  (the Theatre District) to the north and east.  The apartment is more like a motel room with two hotplates, a rangehood and a sink.  There is not even a table and chairs!  The whole space would fit about three times into our classy hotel room in Boston last night, but it will be fine (and will encourage us to eat out!).

Our last postcard was from when we had just arrived in Quebec City.  What a great place that was! Although we had only three nights there, we made good use of the first evening and two full days for sightseeing in the city, the old quarter (Vieux Quebec) and the historic battlefields areas known as the Plains of Abraham.  Then on Monday morning we drove out to look at Quebec's waterfalls (99 feet higher than Niagara) and then headed south, crossing back into the USA and making for Rochester, Vermont, where Judy's cousin (another Rob) runs a berry farm with his partner Patricia.

Rochester lies on highway 100, which runs north-south along the White River and is surrounded by forested mountains, (which are soon to turn golden and red as autumn advances).  According to folks we spoke to in a nearby town, this means that Rochester misses out a bit on sunshine in winter, but Rob and Patricia's farm is in Sunshine Valley, just north of the town and in an ideal sunny spot for growing raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.

 We stayed three nights with Rob and Patricia; a great pleasure to be in a real home again.  There was a lovely mix of helping with farm work, sightseeing in that beautiful area, and good conversation and laughter (well lubricated with red wine) late into the night.  A special treat was a slideshow of some of Rob's family history archives, which ranged from letters home from Rob and Judy's grandfather to his wife during WW1, right up to family photos from their childhoods in Sandringham (and on  holidays all over).

We are very fond of Vermont, and were almost tempted by the "Keep Vermont Weird" tee-shirts.

We had a final breakfast together on Thursday (Judy's birthday) then drove the three or so hours back to Boston. There we returned the hire-car, found our hotel and selected a very swish restaurant for a candle-lit birthday dinner.

And today, the Amtrak train from Boston to New York, the reverse of our last Amtrak trip in the year 2000.  Very scenic as we came down the coast, often beside little yacht harbours and beaches crowded with swimmers and sun-bathers.

So here we are in the Big Apple, where the traffic noise couldn't be more different from Vermont's calm.  We're wondering if it's possible that the horn could be the first thing to just wear out on cars here.

Tomorrow we plan to go to the Visitors Centre in nearby Times Square, learn about subway tickets and what's playing on Broadway and start our NY visit in earnest.

Regards to all from Judy and Rob

Quebec City
Friday, 16/8

We've just arrived in Quebec City and just walked in to our hotel.  So we haven't seen anything here yet, nor know our way around, etc.

I can see that our last Postcard was from Albany, NY, so a lot has been seen and done since then.

We stayed a couple of nights in a really nice B&B in Niagara on the Lake (NOTL).  It's a beautiful little town in the midst of a wine growing area, of which we had no idea until we went there.  Saw the Falls, tasted wines, saw a great NOTL tradition in which they close the main street and people, dressed in white, book tables, decorate them and have a picnic in the street, complete with live music and a very festive atmosphere.

Then on to Montreal for three nights.  Our hotel turned out to be an apartment hotel, so we had plenty of rooms (including a kitchen) and space.  Lots to see and do, from Old Montreal, the old port, 'The Village', the Latin Quarter, the Olympic site, botanical gardens, a huge church (called the Oratory), a fabulous lookout atop the 'mountain', a really efficient Metro (which runs on rubber tyres!) and miles of underground shopping arcades etc (to avoid the winter weather).  Here's a corner in the old town...

and here's part of the more modern area...

And today the scenic route along the St Lawrence to Quebec City (with a very pleasant lunch along the way).

Regards to all from Judy and Rob

Albany, NY
Saturday, 10/8

Isn't it amazing how much can happen between Wednesday evening and Saturday evening!

We made a really early start on Thursday and were collected from our Glasgow apartment at 7:15 am; the beginning of a really long day and a really long night.  Of course we were earlier than necessary for our 9:35 flight from Glasgow, but that waiting was insignificant compared to the nearly five hours waiting for our 15:45 flight from Heathrow to Boston.

 But finally the time passed and the flight went smoothly, all in daylight, into Boston about 6 pm.  Then the usual long delays with the entrance formalities, and a cab ride to our hotel, which made it about 1 am Glasgow time.  So a seriously long day. However, it was not late by Boston time and we went to bed at (maybe about) 8 pm local time.  Hence a very long night too!

So Friday we spent in Boston, pretty much adjusted to the different times.  In often heavy rain, we checked whether our hire-car would come with a GPS (like our little Mercedes in Germany) (it didn't), bought a micro-SD card for the TomTom, bought and downloaded maps of USA and Canada, checked out US phone/internet plans (and decided to wait, at least until after Canada).  At Macys we bought a new watch as Rob's died at Heathrow.  And then we decided to buy a road-map covering our bit of the US and Canada...

You know how easy it normally is to buy maps.  You go into a newsagent, or good bookshop and just choose what you want.  You can't do that in downtown Boston.  There appear to be NO newsagents and very few bookstores (and they don't sell maps).  After about seven or eight tries, everyone had told us about an excellent bookstore in a big new shopping complex, but it was miles away.  (Barnes and Noble, by the way, at the Prudential centre.  Well worth a visit if you go to Boston).

From downtown, the Prudential was to be either a thirty minute walk through pouring rain or a ride on the notorious Boston underground.  We took the subway!  And the subway tickets are called 'Charlie Cards' in memory of "poor old Charlie", ("the man who never returned").

Also... The US calls itself the land of the free, but I think the statistics show otherwise if you look at the percentage of the population in jail. A notice on a subway platform helps explain this, indicating that you can go to prison for smoking in an underground station!

One thing the Prudential has is a tower block, with a very smart bar/restaurant up on level 52.  While I sipped Australian (Clare Valley) shiraz and Judy had her Italian prosecco, the skies cleared and we saw the whole city spread out below us.  It was fabulous!

Today we collected our car and have just come the short distance to Albany on our way to Niagara Falls.  What fun!

Regards to all from Judy and Rob

Glasgow (2)
Wednesday evening

Glasgow is great – not what anyone would call a beautiful city, but it is really interesting and energetic!  Some of the architecture is fantastic; some is rather ugly – but inside some of the buildings are fabulous collections of fabulous things.  We spent a full day at Kelvingrove Gallery which was wonderful and we’ve been to the Gallery of Modern Art (one of the very beautiful buildings), the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University (including Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s house), the Riverside Museum (transport and travel) and the ‘Glenlee’ tall ship, the Botanical Gardens and the Willow Tea Rooms (also Mackintosh).  We’ve made full use of the sightseeing tourist hop-on-hop-off bus over two days and also went on a Clyde river cruise which was great.  We walked all around Byres Street in the trendy west end and explored some of the lanes, and had coffee of course.

 

 

 

The Willow Tea Rooms (above) are just around the corner from our apartment in Renfrew Street as is the Glasgow Film Theatre, so last night we went to see a Saudi Arabian film (directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour, a woman, and shot entirely within Saudi Arabia) called ‘Wadjda’ which was fantastic.  The GFT is a great cinema; if we lived in Glasgow we’d use it all the time!  The Mackintosh's reconstructed home at the Hunterian was really a highlight of our time in Glasgow.  It is really lovely, ahead of its time in terms of light and space and white painted walls, and beautifully decorated.  It was also quite an intimate experience; we loved it!

 

But our time runs out and we’re off to Boston tomorrow.  We’ve had a wonderful time; all of the Glaswegians we’ve met have been friendly and helpful and their accent is delightful.

 

 Here are two of Glasgow's street scenes.  The statue of Wellington is at the entrance to the Gallery of Modern Art and council workers remove the traffic cone every day, but it always reappears overnight.  Today the horse had one too, but that's less common.

And here's part of the pedestrian zone at the top of Buchanan Street...

So, for those Rod Stewart fans who can still remember, tomorrow we're doing Atlantic Crossing for real.

Judy and Rob

Glasgow
Monday, 5/8

We're now in our little apartment in central Glasgow and settling in, having arrived here on Saturday evening.

Our last postcard was from Troutbeck Head, the evening before our final packup of the van.  We'd been a bit toey about everything that could go wrong with this, relying on washers and dryers in a caravan park.  So on the actual morning we were up really early.  We managed to do all the washing and drying very successfully, using machines in both blocks, and amid pouring rain and strong wind.  Finally, just as we finished, and just as other campers were waking up, the rain stopped, the wind dropped and the sun came out for the rest of the day!  We should have just taken it easy and it would have worked out to be simpler, but who knows that in advance?

On our way from Coniston Water to Julia's place the other day, a little north of Grassmere, we stopped to admire the scenery at a roadside layby.  As we pulled in, a man was launching a radio-controlled quad-copter.  Initially, he stood right in front of the parking bay we wanted to use, so we waited a while in the van before he moved and we parked. He has now uploaded the video of the flight to the internet; you can view it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouyv_QwDbNU 

  If you do, watch out for 'Bessie' at the beginning of the flight and Rob's and the pilot's legs as it lands.

Our little hire-car was a tiny Skoda; perfectly adequate for our purposes, but a bit gutless when overtaking (overtaking is a new experience for us after two months in Bessie!).  We dropped the van in to Brough, where it is garaged in a farm shed and then headed west and north to Bassenthwaite, six miles north of Keswick, where we stayed in a superb hotel.  We regretted that we were there for only one night and would be very happy to return for a longer if circumstances permit in the future.

Then on to Glasgow the long way; over to the coast at Maryport, back almost to Carlisle and then west to Castle Douglas, northish along the Ayr tourist route and finally to Glasgow, all through beautiful country.  And adding to this absolute pleasure, along the way a phone call with Tom (Rob's son), telling us that he'd asked Sian to marry him and that she's said yes!!!!! And he popped the question in our back yard while they were at Crossover for the weekend.

Yesterday, Sunday, we returned our car and spent the rest of the day in the Kelvingrove Museum/Gallery, which you can already see that we loved (or we wouldn't have spent the rest of the day there).  Here's its impressive entrance foyer...

So today... a leisurely start then we'll go out for coffee and find the tourist information centre.  What we find out there will shape the rest of the day.

Troutbeck Head (Cumbria)
Thursday, 1/8


We did indeed visit the house and gardens at Chatsworth House, as foreshadowed.  Of course we loved it, but in no way did we identify with any of it; it was just way too 'over the top'.  In fact we were about to leave the house due to overload, when we passed this magnificent library and decided to see the rest of the open areas.

We know there's a lot we didn't see; areas closed off as well as all the secret passages we just  heard about.  And stories of all the infrastructure for powering and heating etc were mind boggling.  Early on we knew that the owners had influence when we were looking at one of the paintings of the property.  We saw that it had been painted before the village had been relocated.  So the Duke at that time had a village moved so that it wouldn't interfere with his view!

We stayed a night at Coniston on our way north again, and spent last night with Julia, near Barnard Castle.  A wonderful meal, conversation late into the night, a very special viewing of a remarkable motorcycle collection, beautiful  photographs and a walk through the local village and around the valley (over two becks) made this a sensational, albeit short, visit.  But talk of possible future travel adds excitement to this pleasure.

Now we're back in Cumbria at Troutbeck Head, where we usually begin our trips.  In the morning we'll do the washing, clean up and pack.  Then we'll pop into Carlisle, about 20 miles up the road, to collect a hire car, return the van to Brough and begin the next phase of our holiday.  What Fun!

Regards,

Judy and Rob

Baslow, Derby (near Chatsworth House)
Sunday, 28/7

As you can see, we're back in England.  We had a great time in Scotland, mostly staying with Mary and Mike in their fantastic new home outside Comrie.  Our time with them is characterised by fantastic meals with plenty of wine, conversations until well past midnight, long morning sleep-ins and days filled with walks in the local area, trips further afield and a few jobs around their property.

On one trip to Aberfeldy, Mike took us to the eastern end of Loch Tay, where an enthusiastic group of underwater archeologists has re-created a crannog, an ancient iron-age settlement built out in the loch on piles about 2,500 years ago . They discovered the underwater remains of many such buildings in the surrounding area (and there are many others further afield).  We visited their reconstruction and were fascinated by the fire-making and other skills they have reconstructed and now demonstrate. 

When Mike and Mary left for Ireland for a short break and a Bruce Springsteen concert, we headed the few miles back to Stirling.  We visited the Castle there in '08 and again in '10 but on both of these occasions we were unable to enter the royal apartments, which were undergoing some serious refurbishment.  Now they are finished and we had a good look, enjoying and being interested in what they had done.  The tapestries which have been recreated by copying the remains of the original ones are now hanging in the royal apartments for which they were initially made.

After Stirling we came a little further to Edinburgh.  The caravan park there is about three miles from the city centre, with a good bus service.  Our one day in Edinburgh allowed us visits to a few favourites, like Wellington's Coffee, The Dome (which is fabulous, ask us about it!) and the Portrait Gallery.  This gallery is a similar story to the royal apartments at Stirling -- we loved it in 2008 and were disappointed to find it closed (for a very long time) in 2010.  But it is open again and better than ever.  We were fortunate that they even had a visiting exhibition of Man Ray portraits, which we enjoyed even though some of Rob's favourites weren't included.  Here's one of the big light, open spaces in the beautiful gallery..

After Edinburgh, we called in for a brief visit to Frank, who we met in Applecross in 2010.  He has a beautiful and well-known woodland garden, Humbie Dean, a short drive south from Edinburgh and we were amazed at what he has achieved in a short time.  A beautiful garden with a magnificent house as well.

And today was another lucky day for us.  We'd stayed near Scotch Corner last night, but were aware that we were close to Richmond, a medieval market town (actually an English version of a French bastide, we were told today).  So we detoured by a couple of miles for coffee and a brief look.  And then stayed most of the day.  The town is beautiful and really interesting.  The coffee was good. English Heritage was doing re-enactments and generally having a great deal of fun in the grounds of the castle.  And there was a really good photographic exhibition (Best Shots, maybe you could google it) at The Station.  In fact we were mighty impressed at how Richmond has used its former railway station, creating two cinemas, an exhibition space, a cafe, and more.  And it's being well used!

All this time in Richmond has meant a quicker trip south, but we finally arrived and tomorrow we plan to tour (hopefully) the house and gardens of Chatsworth House.

Best wishes to all.

Judy and Rob

Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland
Monday, 22/7

It's not a huge country, but the drive north from near Colchester to Scotland still takes a long time, especially when you're trundling along the freeway at about 80 kph.  But it is so worth it!

We had only a couple of  brief glimpses of Stirling Castle as we came by, but we're very keen to visit it again.  On our two previous visits we've been fascinated to watch progress on the restoration of the Royal Apartments and the tapestries that are being reproduced to hang in them.  According to the timeline we were given on our last visit, the apartments should be open by now, so we don't want to miss seeing them.

We're staying in the beautiful and comfortable home of our friends Mary and Mike, just on the edge of Comrie.  They bought it a couple of years ago and have worked miracles, bringing back to life a house that has been unoccupied for over twenty years.  As well as tours of the property and house, delicious meals and talk late into the night to catch up on news and to hear plans for the future, we have enjoyed visiting several gardens, open as part of Comrie Fortnight and we've pooled our knowledge at the Sunday evening quiz night in the village -- great fun!

And we've just been watching Hamish from the front window.  Hamish is a red squirrel, an endangered species in the UK, as they are being gradually pushed out by the introduced grey squirrels.  Here's Hamish helping himself to peanuts from the hanging feeder...

We mentioned the woodpeckers on the grass at 'the land'; they were Green Woodpeckers.  Now, here in Mike and Mary's garden are Great Spotted Woodpeckers (a juvenile pictured below from a bit of a distance) along with Blue Tits and Great Tits (pictured further below from a closer position), pheasants, and many others that we are just beginning to learn about.

 Regards to all from Judy and Rob

The Land
Wednesday, 17/7

It is over a week since we've written and that is because we've been so busy!

After Oxford, we meandered about that area for a while.  At one point we visited Little Rissington, where Judy's father had been photographed outside a flying school in 1975.  We could find no trace of the airfield there, but at nearby Upper Rissington there is a huge housing development that we think must be on the old airfield.  The streets in the development have names including Sopwith Rd, Bleriot Rd, Hawker Square, Bristol Rd (OK, that could have been the road to Bristol, but we don't think so), Avro Rd, DeHavilland Road, and Vickers Rd.

We spent some time with David and Lucy, our friends from Hadstock, near Cambridge in their beautiful thatched house which has been lovingly and expertly restored.  As well as hours of talking together, we were taken to an outdoor screening of Casablanca in the grounds of a huge (no, really huge!) estate nearby.  After such a hot day it was a welcome relief to have such a clear sky and to actually wrap up in a blanket for the film.  We spent virtually a whole day in Cambridge again, revisiting the Fitz, one of our favourite galleries.  On Saturday morning, market day, David and Lucy showed us around nearby Saffron Walden before we headed off for the short trip to Boxted.

We're still at "The Land", near Boxted, but will leave here tomorrow.  Our friends Gordon and Patricia have looked after us wonderfully.  Saturday night was the night of their annual barbecue, an amazing event with nearly sixty people, a stage with entertainment, games (including a shooting gallery), fireworks and such a friendly crowd. 

Yesterday we took the train to London.  We traveled in with Gordon, Patricia and their daughter Naomi.  Then went our separate ways.  Imagine our surprise then, in a city the size of London, to run into them again by chance in Westminster that evening.  Speaking of Westminster, here we are at Downing Street.  No sign of Jim Hacker though.  (Photo courtesy of the policeman at the door).

We really do love London.  Spent hours in the Courtauld Gallery and more hours in the National Gallery  tracking down a short list of particular paintings we were keen to see, before enjoying the galleries' other offerings.

Today we were taken to Lavenham, another very quaint medieval village nearby.  Very nice pub lunch too!

This morning Judy saw a woodpecker on the grass near the van; and this evening there was a pair of them in the same area - we both got a good look at them as well as a not very good photograph.

So we're off again tomorrow.  Heading North toward Perthshire and more friends (Mary and Mike).

Regards,

Judy and Rob

Oxford
Tuesday, 9 July

It never occurred to us that this would ever happen to us in England, but yesterday when we were traveling on a freeway and we decided to stop for coffee, we  actually looked for a shady (!) spot to park.  In fact it has been quite warm to hot for the last few days.  All the English people we've come across have been so happy, and quite a few have been quite sunburned!  We've been told that if the weather turned back to wintry now, it would already be the best summer here for several years.

And to capitalise on this glorious weather, we've been to some fabulous spots.  Our caravan park at Curnon Downs was between Falmouth and Truro, and right beside a bus stop.  So on Friday we caught the bus into Falmouth, as planned, and then we did the same with Truro on Saturday.  This was a much better strategy than trying to drive in and park.

We used a variation on that same idea yesterday and today (Tuesday) by using the park-and-ride services at Bath and Oxford. 

Between those Cornish towns and here, we visited St Mawes (just opposite Falmouth) and Charlestown, near St Austell.  We also drove across Bodmin Moor and camped one night beside Dartmoor (the evening that Andy Murray won the men's singles at Wimbledon. 

We had been to Charlestown in 2000 and loved it so much we were keen to revisit.  Here's one of the square-riggers in the harbour.

This morning we were going to visit what we thought was a quiet English village, Avebury, where Judy's sister and brother-in-law once lived for a short time.  However it is no quiet village any more!  The whole town is now a hive of tourist activity, and not just because Marion and Doug were there.  There is a circle of standing stones and henge, which partly encircles the village.  The whole village is now part of the English National Trust (free to us with our Australian National Trust membership) and on a beautiful sunny summer's day, it was thronged with visitors.  But very well managed and accessible.

Best wishes to all.

Judy and Rob

Cornwall

Cornwall
Friday morning, 5 July

Our ferry crossing went uneventfully and we arrived in Kent earlier than planned (because we were early at the terminal they put us on an earlier ferry, and also we gained an hour by crossing into a different time zone).

We even remembered to drive on the left, so in our left-hand-drive vehicle the driver travels along near the gutter while the navigator is out in the middle of the road, staring, bewildered, at the oncoming trucks.

We spent a couple of nights in Kent, very close to Sissinghurst Castle, (not a castle at all but the home of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson who created one of England's most famous gardens), then we used motorways to travel to Cornwall.  We stayed a night on Cornwall's north coast at a little place called Polzeith where they were giving surfing lessons in a little bay and yesterday drove to our present caravan park just outside Truro.

Here's part of Sissinghurst, now operated by the National Trust:

Last night (well, evening) we had a great walk down to the sea and a lovely little pub.  Actually the walk grew as it went along because with a few navigational issues now and then it was a little over three hours before we were back in camp (although some of that was in the pub, of course!).

Here's one of the little roads (or lanes?) in Truro.

Today we're going to catch the bus into Falmouth.

R & J

Calais
Sunday evening, 30/6

It's our last night in France (for this trip, but we'll be back!). 

We've had two days just sitting and driving (and for some hours, just sitting, because of the terrible traffic jams we encountered approaching and in Lyons!).

We kept on extending our stay at L'Isle sur la Sorgue (LISLS); having originally checked in for two nights, we ended up staying six (and aren't we lucky to have that flexibility).  During that time we revisited some old favourites (Fontaine de Vaucluse, Apt, Saignon) and found some new ones (Roussillon, Lacoste, Menerbes, Gordes*, St Saturnin). 

[* Unfortunately we had only a brief and cursory look at Gordes; parking issues meant we didn't get to walk around in it]

We had quite a few 'plats du jour' or 'menus du jour', sipped local wine or cidre in some great places, cycled, walked and drove along narrow roads through ancient villages.   Rob needed to replace some boots that wore through and luckily found the ONLY pair of size 48s in all of the shoe or sports stores in LISLS and Apt.  We made new friends and have added to our French.

With all of this, we have fallen in love with the Luberon area!  It was such a wrench, yesterday, to leave those warm sunny days for the clouds and occasional rain we came through as we crossed France diagonally.

We used French toll roads for the first time this trip and are still reeling.  They are so expensive, especially as our van is so high.  We spent 120.60 Euros (about 172 AUD) on tolls, more than we spent on fuel, to come from Provence to Calais.  And at one point there was a vast toll-collection area, with many staffed as well as automated toll booths.  We asked why we were exiting the toll system, as we were continuing on toward Calais and the answer was that there were three kilometers (yes, that's right) of 'free' road before the next toll section began.  What a huge infrastructure establishment, (and inconvenience) for 3000 metres of freebie!

And speaking of the Autoroute system, see if you can answer this without any knowledge of the French highway system....  
           What highway took us to Reims?   (Hint: Say the question aloud)  Answer below.

Tomorrow we're  booked on the 11:35 ferry to Dover and the next phase of our trip.

And here's one view of colourful Roussillon, a place we really loved.

Cheers,

Judy and Rob

Answer to highway question:  The A4 of course.

The Luberon
Monday evening, 24/6/13

We're in our little campground, just 1.5 Km outside L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and it's Monday evening, after a perfect day (although a little windy).

Since our last post from Rocamadour, nearly a week ago [apologies for our tardiness] we've been and seen and done a lot.

The trip south from Rocamadour started out in pretty heavy rain.  At one point we stopped for coffee in a little roadside inn and saw truly horrifying TV footage of serious floods in the Lourdes area.  They were very confronting, with helicopter rescues, huge trees hurtling down raging rivers and smashing into bridges.  Of course, we were only getting a tiny part of the story as all the commentary was in French.  We deduced, with a little help from their maps, that the serious floods were in the far SW, but with a serious flood risk also in the NE.  Fortunately, we were well clear of the problem areas.

We spent a little time exploring more of the Lot River valley downstream of Cahors, then made for a campground just outside St. Cirq Lapopie.  There we spent a day enjoying the medieval town and being amazed at a towpath that had been cut into the side of the cliff.  They needed to haul loaded barges upstream, and where the cliff came right down to the water's edge, they carved a path, perhaps 2m wide and of varying height [high enough to walk along, but you need to watch out if you're on a bike].  Here's a bit of it.

They tell us that the barges were hauled by women, unpaid so virtually slaves, because they were cheaper than horses or oxen etc. 

We stayed two nights almost under the walls of Carcassonne, giving us plenty of time to walk all over this amazingly scenic, yet touristy city.

Then, on Sunday, we drove here, via Montpellier and Aigues Mortes, and in other words, the Mediterranean!!

 L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is an absolute gem, one of our favourite places.  We've had a great day walking around it and will stay on and use it as a base for day trips out to other nearby attractions.  Unlike most of our recent visits, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is still alive as a town in its own right, and is not just kept alive by visiting tourists.  It is quite a bit bigger than we remembered it from 2000 and really bustles, even on a Monday!  Certainly there are plenty of tourists and other holiday makers, but they [we?] are not the only people out and about and drinking coffee and spending money.  Here we are, doing a bit of that ourselves...

With its incredibly clean, green water, this is such a photogenic place, as most places so far have been, that we've been taking an extraordinary number of photos, a far call from the days of film cameras and the care we took, deliberating on whether or not to snap what we saw.  It will be a major task, sorting through when the trip is over.

As you can easily tell, we're thoroughly enjoying ourselves.  Hope you are too!

Judy and Rob

Rocamadour
Tuesday evening

We're still in the general area of the Lot, which we think is beautiful.  Here's the look of the countryside from Penne across the Lot valley so that you can see why we like it so much:

We used our campground at St Sylvestre as a base for a bit of exploring, making sure we visited Agen, Condom, Villeneuve-sur-Lot and some of the areas to the south, and now we've let Tomtom bring us by narrow mountainous back roads to Rocamadour.

Although quite touristy, Rocamadour amazes us.  It's on the ancient pilgrim trail and the town, sanctuary (church) and chateau are grafted one above the other into the side of a vertical cliff.  If you buy real estate here you would need to look at more than just a plan view because the vertical dimension is at least as significant as the horizontal ones.  Here's an overall view:

In an echo of 'Daddy Cool' they even have a place called Rocher des Aigles! 

We had a great lunch of Confit du Canard today so decided on a lighter meal this evening.  And, just our luck, there's a lovely little restaurant over the road from the caravan park.  We'd just gone in to a table at the window when there was a commotion outside.  There was sudden wind, huge hailstones (most a bit bigger than a marble, a few the size of golf balls), followed by heavy rain and all the outside diners came rushing inside.  And of course a moment later all the lights went out!  But the chaos was short-lived and we soon had perfect omelettes, cider and creme brulee.  The outside tables were under large awnings which were under even larger cherry trees, laden with fruit so when the chaos subsided the outdoor eating area was strewn with the hail, a few leaves and a lot of ripe cherries.

We're not sure where we'll be writing from next but we're keen to have a look at the meandering stretch of the Lot just west of Cahors, so we think we'll head there tomorrow.

We're getting the occasional email from family and friends and have been enjoying catching up on people's news.

J and R

Beside the Lot
Friday evening

We are beside the Lot, in St Sylvestre, which is just outside Villeneuve-sur-Lot. It is a warm evening with bright sunshine and we are about to have some local cab-sav with some incredibly (!) smelly cheese (smells really bad; tastes really good). We hope that your bit of the world is good too!

Since leaving the busy city of Bordeaux, we've slowed down.  We stayed three nights in a small lakeside caravan park at Casteljaloux. From there we made a day trip to Nerac (after a brief stop on the way for coffee at Lavardac [or 'Luv-a duck' as Rob calls it] to see the Roman bridge) which we loved.  There have been serious floods in the last couple of weeks and the canal-barge business is not operating due to the number of damaged locks and boats.  And of course the rest of the economy is also affected.  We had lunch at a little place beside the river, which was much quieter than usual.

Yesterday was drizzly and therefore very low-key for us.  We rode our bikes from the lake into town for coffee and watched in amazement as huge semis rumbled through the narrow streets that are further restricted by the setting-up of carnival rides, (dodgems, merry-go-rounds and the like) on and overflowing from the tiny square.  We think it's challenging driving the van through such streets, so we are filled with admiration for the men and women driving such huge vehicles.

Today a strange thing happened.  I thought I'd asked TomTom to bring us through Villeneuve, but somehow he misunderstood and seemed to be skirting the town.  In doing so, we went through Pujols, a tiny medieval village on a high hilltop overlooking Villeneuve.  It is fantastic!  We had great food, astoundingly beautiful surroundings, brilliant sunshine and the time to enjoy them all.  Here's our lunch spot..

Good on TomTom for taking us there; but after all, he does get his instructions from the heavens.

And here's the view of the Lot from our campsite this evening ...

Regards from Judy and Rob

Bordeaux
Monday evening

Greetings from beautiful Bordeaux!  What an interesting city, fifth biggest in France, and second oldest seaport (second only to Marseilles).

We stayed Saturday night in a small caravan park, surrounded by old and prestigious vineyards near the tiny town of Lussac, then on Sunday visited St Emilion, which is old and interesting, but very much on the tourist trail.  Maybe only because it was Sunday (or maybe it's always the same) but there were loads of tour buses and crowds and very up-market wine stores and restaurants.  There was clearly a lot of money to be made looking after all those teeming hordes (of which we, of course were part, but not a lucrative part for the local industry).  We had a good look around and left for Bordeaux.

We had decided just that morning to stay in a hotel in central Bordeaux, rather than try to manage traveling through the suburbs by bike or public transport.  So we found a nice place (actually turned out to be a perfect place!) and set a course with the new Tomtom.  It was only when were well into the city centre that we had any difficulty.  Admittedly a few one-way roads have recently been changed around, but we managed well, up to a point.  A few times we were instructed to turn into a road, then found out that we couldn't, but we improvised a bit and got by.

There was one place that we kept returning to, with tomtom instructing us to go into a huge pedestrian zone, complete with huge barriers.  So we'd make a slightly different turn and tomtom would tell us to make a U-turn.  (By the way, have you ever noticed how often there's a police car immediately behind you when you have to make dodgy turns in a cumbersome vehicle in a strange city, whose signs are in a foreign language and where some of the streets are about 10cm wider than your car?  But they don't seem to care, or maybe they just sigh, look at our number-plate and dismiss us as English!)

Eventually, after driving down every tiny road and lane in the middle of Bordeaux, sometimes (I think) in the wrong direction, we pulled up (not properly parked or anything like that, although we would have if it had been possible) and phoned the hotel.  It was only then that we found that we DID have to enter the pedestrian zone, using an intercom at a barrier, giving them a four-digit code from the hotel and having the barrier magically sink into the road, out of the way!!  Would have been handy to know in advance!!!  Anyway, we made it and it has been WELL worth it.  Here's the van on Sunday afternoon on Cours de L'Intendance (the photo taken from our balcony).  Don't be fooled by the apparent spaciousness, outside this zone, the traffic is densely packed into narrow one-way streets and hardly moving!

 When we saw how lucky we'd been with our choice of hotel, we decided to stay two nights.  So today we've walked miles and seen heaps.  Tomorrow we'll leave (through week-day traffic!!) and head either NW or SE.

Regards to all from us.

Loire River
Friday evening

 Our ferry crossing , Dover to Calais via P&O on Wednesday, was so easy.  And so cheap!  We'd paid over GBP60 a little over a week earlier as foot passengers, so we were pleased that this time, with a vehicle, it was forty-something GBP.  But then we were given two 10 quid vouchers to spend on the boat (very handy) which brought it back to twenty-something quid!  Can't afford not to cross! [And we even still had some of that duty-free gin from the previous trip].

We drove to a little campground near Abbeville, called Val de Trie.  Although we initially registered for one night, we ended up staying for two.  It had a pool, the most charming receptionist, a bar and they take your bread order [baguettes, croissants etc] for the following morning!  That first night we were low on groceries, so enjoyed local cidre, and beef bourguinonne outdoors at the little bar/cafe/restaurant.

 Thursday was spent in the warm sun, exploring Abbeville on its market day, and Pont-Remy, beyond Amiens, which we almost reached in our canal boat in 2010.  Here's a little of the Somme River at Pont-Remy.

As we travel, we marvel at the differences between the French and English, typified by their caravan parks.  We've already shown you a sample of the "Caution: Steep Bank" and "Caution: Hot water"  signs that are everywhere in English parks [even when there was absolutely NO hot water].  Well the French are much more relaxed about such things.  In England we were carefully instructed as to which corner of our vehicle had to be aligned with the small site number post, but they wouldn't even try that here!  In England they have a warning sign informing you of the gender of the person who cleaned your bathroom, but here you are quite likely to have a person of the opposite type in the next cubicle as you shower (or try to shower while pressing the button to keep the water running).  And one we really like... In England there are bells and/or hand operated sirens to sound an alarm if there's a fire in a caravan park, but in our present park, the instructions, written in English, start off with "If you see a fire, keep quiet."  How laid-back is that?!

If you want to follow us and find this remarkable place, you'll need a very good map [or Google Maps etc].  It's called Parc du Val de Loire and is near Mesland [a little east of Tours].

Weather today, beautiful!  33C when we went through one small town with a big thermometer on its digital sign.

Not sure how far we'll go tomorrow.  We'll see.

Hi to all from Judy and Rob.

Brighton

It's Sunday evening here and we've been in Brighton for the last few days.

After we left Lincoln, we went to nearby Market Rasen Racecourse and rejoined the Caravan Club.  We had a feeling we were near the airbase where Judy's father, Ken Roberts, had been stationed (he piloted Lancasters during WWII).  Judy's sister Marion knew that he'd flown from Ludford Magna and when we googled it we found that we were less than 10 miles away.  We visited, of course, and found that the site of the airbase is now a huge paddock of rape/canola.  There were traces of old wartime concrete roads, but the runway blocks have been moved away and now form part of the fill for the Humber Bridge earthworks; so whenever you cross that bridge, you're driving over the old Ludford Magna runway!

From there to Brighton would have been a breeze except for the traffic jams where we crossed the Thames.  But we made it and have been enjoying seaside Brighton in sunny weather ever since.  In fact we've extended our stay to four nights and plan to cross back to France later during the week.

The old Lonely Planet in the van says of Brighton that it is "a fascinating mix of seediness and sophistication", which sounds about right.  Although it couldn't be more different, I think it's a bit like Surfers Paradise too.  But for all that we're loving it.  The Royal Pavilion defies belief and the pier, on a sunny weekend day at the end of the school holidays, is tightly packed with people of all ages spending money and having a great time.  You certainly don't get the feel that the UK is in recession.

Today we encountered hundreds and hundreds of Mini Minors that had participated in the London to Brighton Mini Rally.  [Shades of Genevieve the movie]  We're astounded that so many minis are still operational worldwide, but so many here is staggering!  A lot have been restored, many are in original trim and some have been tricked up in various ways.  So, can you imagine a very long stretch limo based on a mini?  Sounds incredible, but it was only one of the weird and wonderful variations we saw today.

We're at a Caravan Club site, two miles from the centre of all the action, so it was an easy walk in yesterday and today we got the bikes working and rode.  It is even more manicured and orderly than most Caravan Club sites and is complete with the usual warning signs.  In case you can't read this one it says "Caution: Steep bank".  [Is it just us, or is this really hilarious?]

So, best wishes to all at home.  Hope you getting just the rain you need.

Regards from Judy and Rob

Lincoln


Greetings from the ancient Cathedral city of Lincoln.  We've come a bit east and a bit south, across the mighty Humber Bridge to get here and we've made an interesting discovery ...

It's possible to have the odd night in a hotel or B&B even on a camping/caravaning trip!  In fact, we find, you can pay GBP40 a night in a fancy caravan park (but with no hot water) and then find accommodation for GBP45 a night in the heart of Lincoln with breakfast included, free WIFI and free parking.  (Actually for 45 you get a shared bathroom, but not shared with as many people as in a caravan park.    We paid 55 and have a modern ensuite.)  So we're cosy and comfortable despite the typically English weather that has now returned, and we're 4 minutes walk from the incredible Cathedral (which was the favourite of Judy's mum).

The photo shows us 'taking tea' at No. 1 Castle Hill, right by the Cathedral.  Rob thinks this is a pretty impressive-sounding address.

We're starting to settle in to a slower pace.  At this rate it could be several days before we get back to France.

Regards,

Judy and Rob

Cumbria
Sunday 26 May

 We're "aboard" at last.  In beautiful sunshine too.  And things still going pretty smoothly.

Our short drive from Bruges to Calais was easy and we returned the car early (which was lucky because with the effort to navigate to the place, I forgot to fill the tank; but I had enough time to go out again, find petrol and get it right on the second go!).

It was a bit different being foot passengers on the ferry from Calais to Dover.  We learned from fellow passengers that it was the day before a huge football match between two German teams, but to be played in Wembley Stadium.  60,000 German fans were crossing for the match!

Our car was waiting for us in Dover, but the "300 yards or so" from the terminal to the Hertz depot was a bit optimistic.  We even had time in Dover to find a UK phone simcard with good internet allowance.

Our Dover car-hire man recommended Sandwich, a small town nearby where we stayed at Bells Hotel for our last night of luxury.  Sandwich, we are told, is the best-preserved medieval town in Britain.  We'd never heard of it, but it was fantastic.

Interestingly, Sandwich is on the river Stour.  But we already knew that Dedham, near Colchester, is on the Stour.  So how could the Stour be both south AND north of the Thames???  We googled the Stour and it seems that most rivers in England appear to be called the Stour.  What an interesting country!

Most of yesterday was spent driving north.  And of course we arrived on a long weekend (we did that in Dresden too) so a LOT (!) of England was driving north with us.  It's a small country but that seems like a long way, and avoiding London is a big part of that.

By the time we'd paid for and picked up the van, visited Margaret and Martin (who usually house it) and set off, it was really late so we've only come a few miles to a caravan park in Appleby.  We've left the hire car in Brough and will be able to return it tomorrow, only because we phoned them Saturday morning and have arranged for the manager to come in specially at noon on her holiday Monday.

Meanwhile, we're a little entertained here.  They made "Fawlty Towers" about a Torquay hotel, but missed a great opportunity to set it in this caravan park.  When we mention that there's no hot water in the (press button) showers, we hear that it's been a problem for a long time.  When the washing machine gobbled Judy's money but didn't start, the staff seemed most accustomed to that.  And when there was no hot water in the laundry (mind you a different block to where the showers were not working), the staff told Judy that it'd been like that "for months" (!).  And it's GBP40 a night!

So we're getting ourselves sorted out, stowing our gear and will soon move on.

Here's Judy amid the chaos, contemplating one of the huge bottles of duty-free gin we bought on the ferry across.

Regards to all. We're having a ball and would like to hear news from home.

Judy and Rob

In Bruges
Thurs 23 May

Greetings from beautiful Bruges.

Our last postcard was from Prague on our last evening; a few days ago but it seems like we've come a very long way since then.

Almost everything has gone perfectly.  Our train to Dresden was smooth, comfortable, scenic and easy and our hotel, about 200 metres from the station, gave us a room up on level 12 with an outstanding view across to the old city.  Our car was waiting for us exactly as per plan the next morning - a little Mercedes Benz that we've come to love.  It has brought us easily across Germany and now Belgium. 

We're now old hands at using Booking.com at the last minute and finding great hotels at reasonable rates and in sensational locations.  Our overnight stops have been in Bamberg, Fulda, Aachen and now Bruges.  There have been a range of hotels from very basic to quite luxurious, but there isn't one we wouldn't happily go back to.

We've used a mix of motorways and (where the map indicates a scenic route) small local roads through tiny little villages.  Many of them look as if they should be on Ravensberger jigsaw puzzles (and perhaps they are!).

After our beautiful warm sunny days in Prague we had hot weather in Dresden (which had a holiday long weekend complete with international 'Dixieland' festival), and increasing cloud and chill as we've come west.  The last few days have been showery and there is currently a very icy breeze outside.  Our car reported an outside air temperature of 7.5C around midday today.

We'd thought of this part of our trip as being a quick transit from Prague to the UK to pick up the van, but have found that it's much more.  We've discovered how easy it is to drive around Germany without pre-booking.  We've also discovered that we should have allowed much more time for this part, but that's okay, we can come back.

Here we are beside one of the canals this afternoon....if Rob looks more rotund, it's not just the layers of clothing (it's freezing here) but more a reflection of the good, solid German food (and Chinese and Italian, etc.) and the Belgian chocolate!!

Tomorrow we'll enjoy another continental breakfast (but not like the ones in Australian motels) then drive the short distance to Calais.  If all goes well we'll return the car, step aboard a P&O ferry, cross the Channel and pick up another car waiting for us in Dover.  Fingers crossed that there are no delays or other problems.

We have email access on and off and love to hear from people at home.

Regards to all from Judy and Rob

Prague, Saturday 18/5/13

It's Saturday evening on our last day in Prague. We've had sensational weather and have walked our feet off for the last three days.  There's no way that we've seen everything, but we've done pretty well for two aging travellers.

Here's two shots of our little home for the last few days...

Doorway to our balcony

Kitchen (hardly used!)

 We won't try to post any photos of Prague itself, there are plenty available elsewhere (have a look in Google Earth if you need a starting point).  But maybe these will show you our response to this beautiful city...

This coffee (on Wenceslas Square) cost us nearly as much as an evening meal in a restaurant!!

There are impressive gardens surrounding the Czech Republic's parliament.

Tomorrow we'll take the train to Dresden.  It's a short trip, only a couple of hours, but is reputed to be very scenic.  Then we pick up a car and head west, across Germany and Belgium toward Calais.

But we'll keep you posted about that.