Blogs from England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 5

We finally, finally left Xeraco Campers after 12 nights! The site was just that good: excellent company, great food, a short walk into town and more importantly for me - the sea and a beach that went on forever. I cannot say how good it felt to finally be swimming again and especially in slightly cold water, although it made me miss my M4E friends. It never ceases to amaze me that there is such a common bond between travellers from all over Europe, regardless of language, age or whatever - good conversations were always had. During one of these it did involve me having a slight internal panic attack as I felt my knickers slowly but surely slide off my backside, with my shorts the only thing keeping my modesty in tack. I had visions ... read more

The car with no name also known as Clint was parked up on a half full National Trust car park next to the Leeds to Liverpool Canal. It was midweek. The children are still at school and Clint had just been given a much needed run out of one and a half hours. When we started him up the voice control refused to work and the display told us the battery was getting flat. He needed a long drive to charge him up. Something he had not had for some weeks . Indifference has kept us in. What had discharged the battery was anyones guess. Not using the car. The alarm systems and dash cams running down the battery. We had no clues from the all singing and all dancing display. The drive took us out ... read more

Today we got up early, were among the first for breakfast, caught a cab, and were at Victoria Station to meet our tour group by 8 am! We were headed to The Cotswold with Evan Evan tours. Our first stop was Burton on the Water. It is a quaint little village on the River Windrich. It is known for its low bridges and stone houses. There are 5 bridges built between 1654 and 1911, each cut from Cotswold stone. They give Birto on the Water the nickname of Venice of the Cotswolds. During the Middle Agest, the Cotswolds became rich from all trade. Much of the money was dedicated to the building of churches, and many large “wool churches“ remain today. Once wool trade ceased the area attracted wealthy landowners and prominent figures to purchase second ... read more

We are back at base, we were due to head straight to Scotland, to include the North Coast 500 - as the name suggest a trip around the coast of the Highlands. First though we need to have some work to alter the Air Suspension that we had fitted, unfortunately this was on the south coast. But every cloud has a silver lining, and we used the available time to head to one of my favourite parts of the country, Dorset. We based ourselves at East Fleet Farm a superb site overlooking Chesil beach and the calm of the Fleet that runs alongside it. First day, a bus into Weymouth to explore the lovely beach and harbour. I used to come here as a kid and spent a happy holiday here. The front and harbour have ... read more

Crossing England on Hadrian's Cycleway gave me new-found confidence that I'm not a complete amateur when it comes to bicycle touring; destroying the rear derailleur on my week-old bicycle just a day later had the exact opposite effect! So when the train drivers of England decided to go back to work after their second nation-wide strike in five days - and with my no-longer-shiny but still-new bicycle armed with an ancient-looking, second-hand rear derailleur courtesy of the bicycle shop in Consett - I immediately hopped on a pair of westbound Northern Railways trains to head back to the Irish Sea coast, so that if the weather ever improved from 'awful' to 'mildly disappointing' I would be in the perfect position to strike out on another sea-to-sea cycle route (appropriately named the C2C) with the almost-guaranteed prevailing ... read more