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Day 2 to Day 15
The ‘actual traveling’ begins tomorrow…………………
Tomorrow we are heading to France and beyond. We are booked on a P&O Ferry at 2:00pm from Dover to Calais.
We arrived in London 2 weeks ago and it was interesting to see the boys experience ‘jet-lag’ for the first time. Andrew and Jo sent Leo, their driver, to collect us from Heathrow. This was the first time one of those signs with names on it was actually for us!!!
It’s about 60 minutes to Oxford and apart from New Zealand; this is the first time the boys had been outside Australia. This is visit number 6 for both Melissa and I to the UK and only our second together. Last time we were here together, we got engaged. The boys, like in New Zealand, feel that the UK is much like Australia – until they saw their first double-decker bus, black classic taxi (black cab), narrow streets, ‘free-for-all’ parking arrangements on the streets, much smaller houses, heard British accents and had to pay to use public toilets.
We spent 2 days at Oxford. Day 2 saw us buy a Volvo 940 Classic station wagon
for £815.00. Yes, it’s a classic alright. A 1997 model and yes, it’s purple. The boys have named it Jeff in honour of the classic Australian Band – The Wiggles. Andrew and Jo’s twins just saw the Wiggles in concert last week in Oxford, so it was quite appropriate. We also spent a few hours walking around Oxford. It was busy with students doing final exams for the year and plenty of tourists walking around too. It was interesting to note that students wear traditional formal dress to undertake their exams, no shorts, thongs and t-shirts like the Griffith University days for me and University of Technology for Melissa back in Australia.
The next day we woke to perfect weather again, so we thought we’d tackle London. The Park’n’Ride for Oxford was a great option as it dropped us of at Victoria Station and is only a few hundred metres to Buckingham Palace. As the long term weather forecast isn’t looking to flash for London, we thought it would be a good idea to ‘go hard’ and see as much as we could in London in one day. So here it is….. we saw Buckingham Palace, the changing of
the guards, walked through St James’s Park, saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye, the House’s of Parliament, 10 Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, the Underground (a few times), Tower of London including the Crown Jewels, the Tower Bridge, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Harrods. It’s was a bit like going to Disneyland and buying a one day pass instead of the 3 day pass. We finished with dinner in a back street restaurant in Covent Gardens before heading back to Oxford.
Day 4 saw us head to Devon and Cornwell to spend 10 days with the Frasers. The drive to Exeter took us past Stonehenge, which happened to be closed!!! Yes, it closes one day each year and it happened to be the day we wanted to visit. It’s a bit like National Lampoons Vacation with Chevy Chase when Wally World was closed. We managed a few photos driving past. It was closed for cleaning from the night before from when all the hippies turned up for the Summer Solstice.
We spent a few days in Exeter and then an amazing week with Don, Emma, Jessica and Lucy down at Sennen Cove in the far most South
West corner of England (only 2 kms from Lands End) We stayed in Cottage overlooking the Cove and the Atlantic. Even though the weather wasn’t your ‘typical Australian beach weather’ we still had a great time and are very thankful to Don and Emma for inviting us down for the week.
We explored some great little villages around the area each day with Team Fraser, mainly St Ives, Penzance (made famous from the musical The Pirates of Penzance), Mousehole (pronounced Mousel, not Mouse Hole like most Australians) and Falmouth (no, not pronounced Foul Mouth!!!) as well as consuming a few coffees along the way and the odd Cornish pasty and serve of fish and chips.
Our week at Sennen Cove was certainly a great way to start our 4 month Odyssey. Staying in one place for 7 days will be sorely missed over the next 3½ months on the road. Staying right on the beach was great, but no summer swimming with a water temperature of only 13-14 degrees. However, Jackson did manage a surf for about 45-50 minutes before the cold finally forced him out!!!
Henley Royal Regatta was as great as usual and for me,
a special place and exactly 20 years since I first rowed there with Mark Halsted, Andrew Veal, Mark Chappell and Francis ‘Kingo’ Baker. It was also great to catch up with a few people I hadn’t seen in over 10 years. Unfortunately I missed a few, including Francis, Bill, Paddy and Rob. However I did manage to run into a few lost friends including Simon Harris, Richard Wearne and Phil Bourguignon as well as the usual suspects including Lizzi, AB and the legend Jamie Koven. The best part was having a beer or two with Don and Emma Fraser, Andrew and Jo Veal, Adam and Sam Halstead and of course, Mr Mark Halstead and watching Mr Koven nearly win with a 5th or is it 6
th Henley Medal.
The boys had a great time at Henley Royal Regatta and who knows, they might be back themselves in a few years’ time racing.
Today was our last full day in the UK and we managed to play ‘tourist’ again,with a visit to Windsor Castle. We had a great day and it’s definitely worth paying a visit.
Thanks again to the Veal’s and Fraser’s for their amazing hospitality over
the last 2 weeks and Team Free certainly look forward to repaying the favour soon.
Off to France………………..
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Churchy
non-member comment
Awesome pics!
Looking good guys, wots doing with the deaf cat sign???? Jackson surfing over there is another wot the, its summer but still a bit cold in the water no doubt! Great to see you all having such a good time, after almost a week of solid ran last week here its fine and sunny again but about 7-17, so a bit chilly! Everyone all good back here, Aunty Jan just had her hip replacement last week & Uncle Mick recovering from his little bout of bowel cancer burt should be fine! Travel safe kids & help me cheer on the Roos as they head to September with a big 5 goal flogging of the Saints yesterday & the Mighty Kangas now sit inside the Top 8!!!