Advertisement
Published: August 28th 2009
Edit Blog Post
somewhere in London
Westminster Abbey (thanks Dad, and yeah, i really had forgotten what it was... :P ) On Wednesday I had semi-recovered from whatever had ailed me on Tuesday, and was looking forward to the London Eye and Bus Tour. After much messing about (a long story, and not really worth recounting - all i'll say is, make sure you print ALL your e-tickets when you prebook things...), we eventually made it onto an Original Bus Tour big red bus. Thank god, we'd been walking around for about an hour and I was starting to feel unwell again, so sitting down was WONDERFUL. We got comfortable upstairs in the open air bus and within a few minutes knew we'd got on a good bus - our tour guide was fantastic (and live, unlike some of the other companies that just had a recording playing...)
Unfortunately we didn't have the time or composure to wait for our 'free' ferry trip included with the bus tour, and we also didn't get to see London from the sky (well, technically I'm lying cos we saw it from the plane...). But you know what I mean. It was high time to go pick up the hire car, and because we'd lost a day due to my mystery sickness, we missed out on
Dragons....
mark the boundaries of the ancient City of London some things. Oh well.
We picked up our 'mighty steed' of a car (a Ford Focus haha) from a place near Marble Arch, a place from which it was simple to get to our hostel to pick up our luggage - just go around the round-about, then onto the main street that would lead back to the hostel. But fate had other plans, and threw me well into the deep end when i ended up in the wrong lane heading on to the roundabout. Bear in mind it had only been about 2 minutes since I had first started this new car in a new city (and i'd already been beeped at by a Taxi for not turning more quickly into a street where I COULDN'T EVEN SEE WHAT WAS COMING...). But anyway, where was I? Oh yes, in the wrong lane. So I got forced onto Oxford Street, which we had been told only hours earlier was the busiest street in London!! Oh what fun. I was prettttty sure I wasn't suppose to be there, given I was wedged between massive red buses and Taxis that were doing blind U turns in front of massive red buses... And
yes, I was right. Only taxis and buses allowed on Oxford street. And every cross road I came to was no right OR left turn!! Very helpful. We finally managed to escape via Marylebone (Monopoly anyone?) Lane and about 30 minutes later arrived at our hostel that really should have only been 5 minutes drive away (yes, yes, we got lost again).
As far as driving in England goes though, once I got used to the fact that staying within lane markings and using indicators appeared to be optional, things got a bit easier.
After staying with some very welcoming and generous 'sort-of distant' family (Meryl and Roger McCartney, Thankyou!!!) in Watford on Wednesday night, we set off for the Lake District on Thursday morning. At this point I probably should point out that I saw a Robin hopping along the pavement outside the house that morning - for those of you that are following my 'birds of Europe' side-blog ;-)
Also, we'd seen some birds that are called “magpies”. They look like willie wagtails on steroids (about 4-5 times the size!!), but with a less outrageous 'wag' to their tails. They are also in Spain, but that's
The Mighty Ford Focus
a chameleon of a car - changed from grey to blue depending on the light another story.
After many hours of driving along the M6 motorway we arrived in the Lake District - in Northern England. I had pretty high expectations of this place, and certainly wasn't disappointed. We stayed in the youth hostel at Ambleside, which for the record I think is an awesome place name. The view from our hostel room was of Lake Windermere (the largest lake in the region... perhaps in the country?). We got there quite late in the day and the light was fading, creating a very pretty picture of silver, shining water leading to what we later realised were actually small hills compared to what else was around. The next morning we set off for a drive around the area. It was raining a little and a drive along “Kirkstone Pass” had been recommended to us by Meryl and Roger. The area is rather spectacular and ridicuously green, which is pretty novel for a couple of Aussies. It was good fun driving around the tiny little roads with old slate stone walls on either side, and having to find a 'passing spot' if you happened upon some traffic coming the other way. I would say its not
Family in Watford
Meryl, Me and Mum standing outside the McCartney's house in Bushey Heath, near Watford. Roger was taking the photo :P the best way to view the area - I glimpsed some fantastic views whilst driving, but with nowhere to stop and rock walls to dodge I couldn't really take in the scenery as well as I would have liked. In hindsight I think this is a place where you should plan to spend a good few days, or a week if you have the time, so you'll get some nice weather at some point!! I have nothing to back this up, but it seems to me it would be a good place to hire a bicycle, and simply explore the countryside (perhaps dodging places such as 'The Struggle' - part of the drive we did, which is very steep!!).
In the afternoon we took a boat ride around Windermere Lake. There is not all that much to report. It was very pleasant, but very noisy and the wind was freezing! At the halfway mark we got out to explore a Nature Reserve sort of place. We only had 20 minutes til we had to get on the next boat (cos it was the last one of the day!!) so we just had a quick look around the shop (after
the opposite of a tough burger?
this photo is totally irrelevant but I found it funny. This sign was at one of the services we stopped at along the M6 being distracted on the way by the sounds of tiny birds, i'll admit it...). And then, in the shop, more tiny birds!! But pretend ones, with a call inside that played if you squeezed them. We bought a blue tit, a chaffinch and a blackbird, plus a robin as a gift to Meryl and Roger, and attempted to confuse the local birdlife by playing back the recorded calls as we walked back to the jetty.
We left the Lake District on Saturday morning, stopping for a Devonshire Tea and look around the Beatrix Potter Attraction shop. And on this day, my friends, my travel mascot was born. He is a little red squirrel, I'll have none of these (still ridiculously cute) imposter grey squirrels. His name has not yet come to me, but i'm sure it will soon. And soon you will see a photo of him!! :-)
I never did explain about 'Summer of '69', did I? It just seemed to be playing everywhere, and I found it odd to hear it in England. Not a very exciting story, I'll admit. But then I found 5 dollars...... er....
Next entry - Meeting up with Tim for
our trip to Spain! Alcublas, La Tomatina, Valencia and Madrid...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.24s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0404s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb