Howlin

Part V 30th May - Tuesday Today we were off to Blackpool! Thank you so much for all the laughs and hospitality Williams and Morgan families. We went under the River Mersey in the Mersey Tunnel and came out into a less well off part of the City and passed by Aintree race course, home of the Grand National - the biggest betting race in Britain (similar status to the Melbourne Cup) run the first Saturday in April and covering four and a half miles (7.2 kms). The steeplechase is run over two circuits of the course and there are 16 fences, 14 of which are jumped twice. Some of these like ‘the Chair’ and ‘Becher’s Brook’ have acquired near legendary status for their severity. There are only four meetings a year at Aintree and the ... read more

Part XVI 13th June - Tuesday Susie wanted to take us to Portobello Road this morning so we went to catch a bus there. This was very different, the bendy buses have two doors and you pay for your ticket at the bus stop to show the driver, as they do not handle money. Guess which door everyone seems to use……the rear one…..and no ticket. We did this and were quite unsure of things. All of a sudden Susie whispers urgently for us to get off as she had spotted the Inspectors complete with clipboards getting on the bus. We walked the rest of the way Portobello Road Market is one of the most famous markets in the world and is internationally recognised for its second-hand and antique sections. Statistically it features in the top ten ... read more

Part XIV We were on our own in Paris, but we had our map, guidebook and Linda - we were all right. The first thing we did was go down to the metro and buy a carnet - a book of ten tickets, which can be used on the metro or the buses and works out much cheaper. Took the metro to the Place de la Bastille where we were booked to go on our canal trip. In the centre of the square is the 52m (170ft) high July Column and inside the foot is the crypt where rest the 504 victims of July 1830 and the February 1848 Revolution. The radio-controlled yachts advertising the 32nd America’s Cup fascinated Howard so he watched them whilst Linda went off to find the picnic she had been promising ... read more

Part XII 7th June - Wednesday Today we were off to Bolton Abbey where Paul had left their new Bailey Senator Indiana caravan for us to try out for a night. We left Adel in good time and headed on the Leeds ring road towards Shipley, which is not too far from Bradford, in Airedale. It was where that we wanted to see another model Victorian industrial village - Saltaire built by Sir Titus Salt for his woollen mill workers. From here we went up onto bleak Haworth Moor and the village of Haworth overlooking the Worth Valley, made famous by the Brontë sisters. Then it was on to Goose Eye a small hamlet near Laycock (Linda had fond memories of the pie floaters served in the pub/brewery here. Sadly we were too early and could ... read more

Part X 5th June - Monday "Thank You" Martin and Karen for your wonderful hospitality and great company, also "Thank You" Denise and Stewart for a fabulous meal last night We followed Martin into Darlington and he parked his car in Blackwell and drove ours into Darlington so he could give us a bit of a tour of the town centre. It was Market Day so we would have been hopeless trying to get around the one-way system. We stopped at Taylor’s the pork butchers so we could get some of their famous pork pies - yummy! We said a tearful goodbye to Martin and took the A66 to Stockton and Middlesbrough the start of our coastal drive to Whitby. Stockton was happily bypassed and we saw part of Middlesbrough including the industrial area of Teesmouth. ... read more