TresBirk

So incredibly thankful we had moved on from Ypres from the music festival and a decent night sleep was had. Onto the town of Ghent (Gent) which had been relatively untouched by war as the Germans had moved through prior to forces advancing and were retreating fast at the end of the war. It is a student/university town and the sheer number of push bikes attest to this. Helen was meeting us, coming from Antwerp, so Marie and Philip went into town first, while we waited for her train to arrive. A trip in on the tram to the centre we came across an 'interesting' person (still not in agreeance on the sex) who went above anything expected in the rain, guiding us to another tram which literally dropped us straight in front of Gravensteen Castle. ... read more

Up early for the train back to London Waterloo Station, hopefully it will be more time efficient and easier than the way down. Linda made us some bacon sandwiches for the train ride, much appreciated, and it was off to Wool Station for the ride back. Train was on time and off we went. 10 minutes late into Waterloo, not too bad considering the trip down. Off to the tube station for the last time to St Pancras International Station, turns out on the noisiest tube we have been on. Too much grease we think. Arriving at St Pancras with lots of time to spare we found quite possibly the biggest coffee's I have ever seen, I think they are classed as 'bucket' size. Grabbing some snacks for the Eurostar and off to departures where we ... read more

So what a day! What should have been a simple 2.5hr train ride London (Waterloo) to Wool, Dorset ended up a 4.5hr experience, with an hour delay at Waterloo due to points failure and then a train change at Southampton, with no one really knowing what was going on. Then after being told the train stopped at wool it wasn't going to, however the conductor Phil and train driver were amazing, organising a stop at Wool so we could get off. Above and beyond and we were very thankful. Quick 10 minute taxi to Bere Regis and then it got worse again. The Royal Oak Hotel wasn't open until 5pm (was just before 3pm when we arrived) and no phones were answered. Lovely neighbour put on the Facebook Village page about us and the response was ... read more

After such a long day and a somewhat decent sleep, it was up for brekkie and off to see London with our own special tour guide, Helen. Can't believe we are finally here seeing Helen, she really lives way too far away. Back onto the tube into central London, Phil and Marie were off doing their own sites as they have been here before. Onto the sights, Westminster Abbey, the cool old phone boxes (which are about to be removed as on some days no one uses them at all) and gold letterboxes. Turns out if you won a gold medal in the London Olympics or Paralympics a gold letterbox was named after you. Quite cool really. Onto St James Park and... Squirrels :) turns out Amelia has a thing for tails like me. They were ... read more

So it's finally here, our big adventure to Europe. After a relatively civilised flight time we are off to Singapore for a stopover before heading onto London. 8 hours on a plane, plane is on time and we are off. Amelia's excited for the plane as usual but 'I want to sit next to Marie' happens, don't think she minded though ;) and as trips go it's uneventful and the 8hrs pass really quite quickly. Landing at Singapore I'm hoping my bronchitis (the after effect of my pneumonia) might be helped by the humidity . . . As we are waiting to go through immigration we get talking to 3 ladies, (daughter, mum and a friend) who are on their way to Africa. Mum has never been overseas before and Africa as a first holiday in ... read more