What a day! Of course we woke up three minutes before our 2am alarm! Shower and a light brekky and then on the highway by 3.15 am. We parked down at Blu Emu, our usual car park, and caught their bus around to the domestic terminal, planning on catching their shuttle over to the international airport, but no, they don’t start until 6am and it wasn’t even 5am. So we went into the terminal and caught the train over. We found our way down to the Korean Airlines checkin and when we arrived at the desk and the lady asked for our Canadian visas we looked at her blankly. We haven’t been to Canada since 2004, and in 2016 they introduced a visa system. She said they could take us to Seoul but not continue on ... read more

I’d forgotten how quaint a double bed could be, especially in a poky, “under the eaves” room! But I’m pleased to say that breakfast at this disappointing place was delightful, even though the drizzle outside tried to dampen our spirits. We set off for the north western bank of the Severn River, to a village called Aylburton, where Tom’s 7xG grandparents (William Jones & Anne Prifford) lived at the time his 6xG grandmother (Anne Jones) was born In 1695. We continued on then to Lydney, to church of St Mary the Virgin, where William & Anne had married in 1684, young Anne was baptised in 1695, and then where she marries Henry Imm in 1725 and their baby Mary (Tom’s 5G grandmother) was baptised in 1730. We know it was the same church because the burials ... read more

Breakfast down in the quaint breakfast room was delightful. We ventured out at about half past 10, driving for half an hour through idyllic farming land. The roads were narrow, the villages picturesque, just beautiful countryside in the Peak District. We arrived at Chatsworth House, also known as the home of Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, and Buckingham Palace in The Crown, but actually the English home of The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire (remember, we saw their Irish home some days ago?). We spent hours there, touring inside the house, and then walking around the gardens. It was just amazing. They’ve done a wonderful thing, opening their home to the public. The extensive collection of antiquities, art, statues, furnishings was marvellous. It wasn’t cheap to get in (£21 each) but the cost of the ... read more

After our gourmet brekky bought from Sainsbury’s yesterday afternoon, Tom set off with plenty of time to get to his appointment. I set off some time later to walk the length of Ebury Street. This area was home to several of Tom’s ancestors. The earliest record is of his 4-G grandfather, Eastman Price, who was a surgeon here in Pimlico in 1797. Ebury Street has been part of Belgravia, Chelsea and Pimlico over the decades. Another of Tom’s 4-G grandfathers, Johan Christoph Mithoefer and his wife Elizabeth Page lived at #21 1832-1855, and their daughter Frances Ann and her husband, John Frederick Lewis (Tom’s 3-G grandparents) also lived there until 1855. #21 doesn’t look like an original building unfortunately. It may have been bombed during the war, or just pulled down and redeveloped. Directly opposite though ... read more

Wow! What a day! We got ourselves organised and into the breakfast room nice and early. The food was a little different, typical Scandinavian fare with the slices of meat and cheese and hard boiled eggs, with ryvita type crispbreads. We noticed in Sweden too that their hard boiled eggs always have whiter than white shells. The scrambled eggs were more like chopped up omelette. The pork sausages were nice. I tried their version of hash browns and they were nicer than what we usually have. After brekky we got ourselves organised and went out to the foyer to wait for our tour bus. We got talking to a German couple in the foyer. The lady had shown me how to operate the orange juice machine at breakfast. They were amazed to meet us - they’d ... read more