England and Wales

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September 25th, leaving the Isle of Man. After a 6.30 wake-up call and a snack for breakfast poor Ron struggled down the 70 stairs with both suitcases and down the street to the car. Even though Ron is used to carrying heavy items as a builder, my case was the straw that broke the camels back and we decided to post some clothes and purchases back home before we left England. We had tried to post things back from Egypt but it was much too expensive and difficult, we found the English post system interesting in that one parcel of 6 kilos cost twice as much as three parcels weighing 2 kilos each.

The ferry from Isle of Man to Liverpool was pretty ordinary, Ron commented that it was quicker than the old days but not as pleasant. At 7.30am in the morning there were a group around the bar area drinking all the way to Liverpool.

I minded our bags while Ron went for a half hour walk through the streets of Liverpool to find our rental car. Ron had remebered a lovely village on the other side of the Mersey and we set off to find it. After doing a circle around Liverpools one way system a parking inspector came to our rescue by writing the directions on the back of an infringement notice for us.

The village when we arrived was very picturesque, the pretty houses had been built for the workers of the Sunlight soap factory many years ago and the whole village was peaceful and looked just as it would have when it was built. After a cream tea in the Victorian tearooms we visited the Lady Lever Gallery. Lord Lever, the founder of Sunlight soaps, had created the gallery to exhibit his prized art collection in memory of his wife. The beautiful gallery full of magnificent works and entry was free for the pbulic.

We travelled to Bredbury to stay with Dawn, Ron's aunt. We had three relaxing nights staying with Dawn, we were lucky to catch-up for dinner with Ron's family over two nights. We were made feel very welcome and it was lovely to spend time catching up with everyone.

On the way down to Southampton we detoured to South Wales to catch-up with Ron's cousin David, his wife Wyn and family. We were made very welcome and stayed the night, the next day David and Wyn drove us around the beautiful countryside where they lived.

Monday 29th September
Rather than stay at Southampton, we choose to stay at a bed and breakfast in the countryside, the Old Forge at East Kennet to be near the Avebury stones. After checking in to our B&B we found our room to be very comfortable and were impressed to be greeted with an offer of a cuppa. We drove to Avebury and walked around the amazing stones before dark. For dinner we drove in to Marlborough, which was a lovely little market town to have dinner at a local pub.

Tuesday 30th September
After a delicious home cooked breakfast, we left early to view the famous Step Locks on the Avon and Kennet canals. On the way we drove through the town of Devies where they still deliver the beer by horse and cart. It took us about 3 hours to drive to Southampton where we were to board the QE2, for our next adventure. Somehow Ron had managed to navigate from Liverpool via Stockport and Wales to Southampton without a map through the small back country lanes without getting lost, for someone that can’t navigate around Melbourne I found this very impressive.

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