Catching up with the Cousins

Sunday 8th:

Spent a relaxed day catching up with family on Sunday and it was great to renew connections after so long away. Had lunch sitting outside in the garden and enjoyed both the company and the warmth of the day. We also had a walk along the canals in the early evening and got to see a narrow boat moving through the lock system.

Monday 9th:

We farewelled Lynda and Andy this morning (hope the decorating is going well!!) and headed for the Lake District. Fortunately the GPS worked today (hmmmm that was a bit of an adventure yesterday morning when we left the airport and the GPS failed to turn on so we had to "wing it") and got to Bowness-on-Windemere relatively easily. Its a very pretty place (although a bit like Queenstown I think). We had to contend with rain for much of the early afternoon, however, it fined up as the day progressed and we managed to do a bit of touring around the area. We took the car ferry across the lake to see Beatrix Potter's house and the photo above was taken at nearby Hawkeshead. Across the whole area the buildings and walls are generally made of stone and the flower baskets are in full bloom so everything is very picturesque.

Completing the Circle

Sorry for the delay in updating news of our arrival in UK but we made it on schedule on Thursday. The transfer on to the Heathrow to Manchester flight was an interesting challenge as a human error somewhere in the system resulted in us having to buy two new tickets to Manchester - but luckily that had two left and we got to Manchester on time to be welcomed by a couple of familiar faces (cousin Lynda and her husband Andy). We managed to keep our eyes open until about 9.30pm that night then crashed until around 4am next morning. We have now pretty much caught up with our "retarded clocks" and spent a day exploring Manchester on Friday and had an excursion to North Wales yesterday (Saturday).

Friday we visited the house I spent my first 6+ years in and spoke with the current resident (who was surprised and interested but not overly welcoming, so my tentative thoughts about taking a quick peek inside were not to be). I walked in the park I remembered as a kid and had a nosey around the outside of the 300 year old church we used to go to - it still looks like a church but is now supported accommodation for people with various disabilities.

We also explored Lyme Park (a 1400 acre estate where they filmed Pride and Prejudice - Pemberley??) and that was quite impressive.

We then visited the village of Mellor (my name was everywhere) and went up to have a look at Mellor church.

Llandudno was our destination on Saturday where some of our family holidays used to be. We did a walk around the Great Orme (Y Gogarth) which took a couple of hours, had a short while on the pier (much the same as 50 years ago), watched the pony rides on the beach and briefly watched a Punch and Judy show on the promenade. The quaint buildings remain with only a few modernisations visible.

We then drove over to Conwy. There were lots of people there as it turned out to be the first day of the Conwy River Festival. We looked inside the "one-up-one-down" Smallest House in Great Britain tucked into the town's wall. It cost a pound to look around and took about 30 seconds but hey, where else can you see 16th Century architecture in close association with 12 Century architecture introduced by a woman in traditional Welsh Dress who could have been 18th Century herself. The Welsh language is very interesting and luckily for us the signs were in both English and Welsh or I am not sure that we would have been able to translate anything!

David and Glenda

Leaving Hong Kong

Very hot and humid - somewhere in the mid 30's! Visited Ngong Ping where an enormous Buddha statue sits on the top of the hill. Also has a monastery and lots of souvenier shops!! (But didn't buy anything except water). We got up there by glass bottomed cable car which was a great way to see 360 degree views. After a good night's sleep last night we are ready to board our flight to Heathrow and then on to Manchester. Next stop UK. - Glenda

Up, up and away

So the first blog actually on the way and we are still in NZ. Waiting to board in Auckland - BUT... the good news is, our airpoints have done the trick... we have been upgraded to business class for the first leg of the journey which means we are also entitled to use the Koru Club while we wait. And that, dear folks is just where we are.... Auckland airport Koru Club. Of course this affronts my sense of fairness, all for the common man sensibilities etc but hey, this is a holiday and when else would we get to do this again... so we will eat drink and be merry for the next half hour at least... then see exactly what business class means on our Kiwi airline. Does it really mean that 13 hours flying just flies by or is it just the same flight in a slightly more comfortable seat? The answer MAY be available in the next post....... David

14 Days... but who's counting?

Well the big hurdle of the last few weeks has been to get the gall bladder op over and done with. It went off with only minimal drama while I was sleeping deeply (thank heavans) last Thursday (15th) and I am now hanging around home waiting for recovery to be complete. Although I am still a bit slow, it is giving me the opportunity to "help" double check and sort the 2.5kg of documentation from the travel agent to make sure that everything is as it should be.

With the surgery over, and recovery progressing well, excitement is now building. There is a sense of unreality when we say "only 3 weeks and we will be in the UK" or "do you think we should try to see X or Y in Paris". The just completed TV series by Kevin McLeod "Grand Tours" has given us a remarkable amount of information about what we are likely to see and touch in France, Italy and Greece - how do these people know we are about to visit those same places? (Mind you it pays not to watch the TV news as they also seem to occasionally focus on some of same places we plan to visit!!)

David (again)

While we are waiting...

perhaps you would like to see some pictures of other stuff we have done in the last couple of years.... there's the Asia trip in 2008 and a visit to Orana wildlife park in 2009.

Here is the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/34608053@N04/

2 Months to go

Countdowns are one way of passing the time. Of course the last thing they do is change the amount of time it takes to get there but if I remember my 1st year psych correctly, filled time passes quicker than empty time - or is that the other way round? Either way, it is still 2 months.

Today we have sorted another few bits of the trip. We are now dropping off the eurolease car a bit earlier (after Salzburg) and covering two sides of the Munich-Vienna-Prague triangle by air with the Vienna-Prague bit by train. This will give us a few extra hours in both Salzburg and Vienna and a bit of variation in our mode of transport.

David (this time)