Blogs from Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 2

Awoke to the beautiful picture of a loch, snow and mountains out of my window. Because I had left my bag in the car, I spread all my stuff out everywhere. The room looked like a bomb. I needed to get underway quite early this morning as I had a big day planned. Beautiful hot breakfast, tea and toast and I was on my way south towards a place called Kilmartin. Originally I had planned to go via the coast road as I hadn’t been there before but when I came to the turnoff, I changed my mind and went left instead of right. The left road took me over the mountains and it began to snow almost immediately. This road passes by the Glencoe ski fields and there was plenty of snow around! The snow ... read more

With a 10 days to go, it seems our preoccupations are (in no particular order): making sure we leave our work in some semblance of order only selecting things to take that are either essential (shampoo, summer skirt and sandals) or light (tent, airbeds, sleeping bags etc etc) working out how cold it will be, in January, at night, in our tent in Torres del Paine. Answers offered range from very to not very. Turns out the cosy Vango"Banshee" is designed for two lying top to tail. Jan's gone banshee at the thought of sleeping with my feet Our sleeping mats are Big Agnes brand. When I describe lying on top of Big Agnes, please remember I am not referring to my beloved wife. you might be wondering about the relevance of the photo; as we ... read more

Today I've been celebrating the 50th anniversary of Milton Keynes, optimistically labelled the 'Best City in Britain' by BBCs Newsnight... even though it still isn't technically a city. Milton Keynes is known for it's 'iconic' concrete cows, roundabouts and grid plan. Milton Keynians (Miltonians? Keynese? Miltish Keynites?) have been celebrating with birthday cakes and parties, the BBC have dug into their archive to bring us videos of the very beginning when the city was designed to be the first of many to relieve the housing pressures on London. The modernist, fairly brutal architecture, was purposefully placed between London, Birmingham, Oxford, Leicester and Cambridge to allow for endless business opportunities. Two of my friends hail from the city and have differing opinions on the 'city'. When I asked how I should celebrate, one suggested drinking a beer ... read more

Hi from the Thames. We are enjoying our boat trip on this historic river with so much to see and surrounded by beautiful country. But!! The country and history around Hadrians Wall is so good that I want to return. I have decided that walking Hadrians Wall is one of the things I want to do. I think!! The country around this area is so nice and gentle. Rock walls for miles and miles. And then when you walk beside this historic wall you wonder about how the Romans designed it and then about the man power it took to build it. it is 78 miles long and goes from coast to coast across England. It was built in the 200 AD's and although a bit of it is no longer visable it is magic to ... read more

So… first stop, first travel blog. For all of you people (all of you millions of people that are interested in my remarkable life) that don’t know. Me and my better (at least taller) half are going to Australia for 2 exciting months filled with family, sun, kangaroos (and all the other strange animals that lives over there) laughs… and..lots and lots of fun and silly things that I know we will be a part of. I must admit tho, I am a little bit nervous. Just a little bit. AND it is a surprise for many of my new family members.. so at the moment I will not not post it on facebook or anywhere where BigBrother can see what I am doing. Just here. (Basically this is for mum and dad Out first stop ... read more