Northampton - home away from home

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Foe the last 5 months, as we have been travelling around Europe, we have been lucky enough to have a base at Guy's brother's flat in Northampton. In all we have spent 34 days there over 5 different visits, washing, planning the next leg of the trip, booking flights and accomodation, and generally enjoying being away from hotels for a short period (in other words we have taken over Mark's computer, kitchen and TV - we're not sure what we would have done if we didn't have this base). In that time we have come to know Northampton reasonably well, although haven't really seen a lot of England.

We visited Oxford in June for a day (it rained - not really surprising) and spent a couple of days in London in August where we went to the Tower of London, took a river cruise on the Thames and wandered around Earls's Court and Notting Hill, but apart from that we haven't really ventured far. However, last weekend, on our final Sunday in England (and Europe), we took a 30 minute drive north of Northampton to the small village of "Great Bowden". What else can we say (for those who don't know Bowden is Guy's surname). We took a million pictures of signs (see photos), and had a traditional roast lunch at the only pub in town that was open (we had been hoping for maybe a steak sandwich and chips but the choice was roast or roast).

We leave England tomorrow (15th) to fly to Dubai to begin the homeward journey to Australia. And as much as we have enjoyed Europe, with winter approaching it certainly appears to be time leave England and seek warmer temperatures as we head for the Australian summer.

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Photos

Northampton - The pedestrianised shopping strip
We got to know this area pretty well.

How many pictures of signs can we take
(You should see how many more we have that didn't make the blog - Sharon)

Canal Boats are big in England
This is at the site of the Canal Museum

Notting Hill
For fans of the movie - Sharon is standing outside the door used as Hugh Grant's door in the movie (the scene where his flatmate opens the door in his undies to hundreds of press photographers waiting to get a photo of Julia Roberts).