Off to London

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My birthday. Specially selected as a good day to start our trip with a bit of a flourish.

A much needed holiday this year as we haven’t had a winter break and summer has been a long time coming.



We couldn’t get away earlier in the year as we’ve had the back garden completely reworked to replace a couple of paths, the steps, extend the patio and raise the flower bed. While we were at it we thought a pond would be nice so we’ve now got one of those as well.



We have been away for a few days, to Scotland, just after Easter, as my eldest daughter Paula got married to Gordon in Strathclyde Country Park. We decided to add a few days to our trip up there and used the motorhome so we could make proper visits to Glasgow and Edinburgh.



While I have a new son-in-law, Bob has a second Great grandson Harry, brother to Archie. A somewhat traumatic first few weeks but all is now very well and our family continues to expand.



As usual Bob has done all the planning for the trip as I’ve been engrossed with my stained glass. Just stopped long enough to clean the house and the Tandy, make sure the garden was tidy and prepared for summer and we were all ready to go.



A different start to our trip this time. We’re not heading straight for France but going there slowly by way of London and Kent.

We left home at a leisurely pace as we had no ferry to catch. This was fortunate as 2 miles down the road the new Sat Nav, which I’d bought Bob as an early birthday present, froze and lost it satellites. Bob persuaded it to try again and it worked for a mile and then froze. Useless. We turned Tandy round, returned home and retrieved our old faithful Tomtom.

It is likely that the new Satnav will be returned whence it came when we get home. Bob was looking forward to using it as it has settings for motorhomes to allow for size restrictions. Not a lot of use if it doesn’t know where it’s going.



We set off again and this time first stop Crystal Palace. The last few miles of the drive were ‘interesting’ as some of the roads we used did not seem terribly accommodating to motorhomes being residential with cars parked down either side, but we made it to the site without mishap. The route Bob chose was certainly preferable to finding our way through the centre of London.



Our site is Caravan Club and an oasis of peace and greenery in spitting distance of London.



We walked down to Crystal Palace, past the towering mast, for dinner as it was my birthday and had a lovely Thai meal. Appropriate as Bob's daughter Jane has just returned home to England after living in Thailand for several years.

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Photos

Back garden reworked. Plants now back in again
Just waiting for some nice weather to get the flowers bedded in

The Satnav which can't find any satellites to navigate by
Does that count as not fit for purpose !