4th July Paul & Pauline with Pat & Laurie

Gemma was a bit slow starting today so we just took our time over breakfast and getting ready for our day. We were even further delayed by losing our keys which took almost 30 minuets to find. I made use of the delay to book our accommodation for the rest of the UK leg of the holiday.

Then across to the P's first. An easy drive as not much seems to have changed from my time here. Snarled at the BT research labs as I went past. Lol. Paul and Pauline are still in the same house and he is also driving the same car as I have for this trip! I suspect his really has a turbo though. I later discovered that this golf diesel normally comes with a turbo so I wonder where mine has gone? Perhaps somebody has nicked it!

We spent some time catching up with things the picture is of a quilt that Cathy sent to them when Clair was born. She is now 13 and was just going out to some function when we got there.

After a couple of hours it was time to head to the Maybush pub at Waldringfield for lunch with Pat and Laurie. I had not met Pat before and Laurie seemed even thinner than I remembered him. Had a nice lunch by the river, Laurie paid which I had not expected which was a nice surprise. We hung around for another 2 hours drinking good beer and eating the good food. Another semi retired pair. Can't help but feel that I am doing something wrong. Why am I still working?

Then it was back to Bury St Edmonds(BSE) to the cloths museum. We spent a long time driving round and round BSE looking for it. I got to know the road system for the centre of BSE very well. In the end we found out it had shut several years earlier.

Topped up with diesel for the first time this trip. We seem to have been able to travel a long way on one tank. Only 60UKP to top up. Actually doing it was a laugh. I could not find the car release lever? We searched and searched but there was just no release, Gemma suggested asking another golf owner where it was but there were none around. We had been looking over 10 mins by now and I was just going to ask in the shop when I had an idea and just flicked the cover. It opened ! It did not have a lock! In NZ every car comes with a locking petrol cap, if it did not you would not have any petrol left after a visit to the supermarket!

After all that stress it was back to the Inn for a walk some beer and dinner. Tomorrow it's goodbye to Suffolk.

3rd July - Delicacies day in Felixstowe



After a decent breakfast it was off to Felixstowe. The GPS took us on a direct route so we spent quite a bit of time in the winding country roads which was actually very pleasant if a bit of hard work, given that the car has a manual box.

We got to Joe's village without any issues but where was he? In the end I had to phone for directions, it turned out that we were very close but my memory had him on the left side while he was on the right! I was amazed I was 100% certain about the side, memory is a funny thing!

Joe looks like semi retirement suits him. Emma and Judy were there, Emma is a bright young woman who looks like Joe though fortunately without the mustache. We did not see that much of her as she had to go to her job but we had plenty of time to catch up with Joe and Judy. Judy is still working so I guess this makes Joe a kept man, they both seem ok with this. Emma is working in a local pub saving for a year in Thailand. Joe seems to spend most of his time either diving or planning the next dive trip. He is just about to do another week in Cornwall. After several hours putting the world to rights it was time to head to Felixstowe.

Driving in I felt like everything was the same as I had left it but also that some things had changed, bit of a contradiction eh! There seems to be more building around the edges and much of the centre is now pedestrian prescient but other than that much the same. WH Smiths has replaced the news agents and Woolworth’s is gone (not that I ever shopped there which is why it's gone because nobody ever did). I approve of the pedestrian work as it has improved things, bonnets and treasure box is still there though the wharf is gone. While waiting outside a fabric shop for Gemma I was asked to push a car into a side street which I thought was a bit odd but these things happen to me and the guy really had just broken down in the middle of the street.

I noticed in Smiths that the UK has gone massively to chip and pin debit/credit cards. It seems to be a much slower system compared to swipes like NZ. Additionally I keep on being given vouchers of the 10 off your next 50 purchase type. I just keep on dropping them on the floor, there are so many that they are a real pest. I bought one magazine and got 3 vouchers.

Had a look at bonnets and then went next door to buy a flat cap. Ended up paying 35 for one, Gemma thought that was to much but it is a good quality hat that should last a while though I realize as I write that that I no longer know where it is! Oh well it will turn up I am sure.

We had lunch in the Wimpy. Some of the colour scheme has changed and I suspect that the bun is also changed but a quarter pounder with chips is still great as is a Brown Derby with nuts! Mind you I don’t think they had cleaned the gents since I was last there. Seems to be a different crowd running the show as well. We spent a total of two hours in the town, I would have liked to spend more but as ever on this trip we are under the time gun.

We went back via Sutton Hoo. What a disappointment there is nothing there basically just a display telling you about what had been there and had been removed. Still we got to use our Nat Trust membership.

Then back to the pub. I had wondered how busy they were and this evening I was surprised to hear that they are fully booked for six weeks and the owner was talking to somebody planning to put some more rooms on the existing block.

Dinner at the pub was scampi and chips, so 70's again! Then another walk around and turn in time.



Notice that my Brown Derby has nuts but Gemma’s does not!

2nd July 2010 - A Place in the Wops

I started the day with a continental breakfast for a change. This was a surprise for Gemma as every time so far I have gone for some version of full English breakfast. In this case I did not because yesterdays had been so bad so I decided that going for something that I could see at selection time felt like a better option!

Then Gemma and I spent some time trying to get our train tickets sorted for the European part of our trip. I think we should have spent more time before this doing the planning. Looks like we will have to drop Verdun, there is just not enough time for transfers etc. Gemma and I agree that Verdun will have to be a separate trip some time in the future. Perhaps we will have a holiday dedicated to northern France.

Gemma has just booked our Prague to London section on easyjet so we have our return timings now. We just have to sort out all the intermediate bits! We discovered that we will have to phone raileurope to get our tickets as not all of it can be done over the phone.

Then it's checkout time and we are off to look at the castle, slowly. Another truck has had trouble on the roundabout and everything is at a standstill. I suspect that this happens quite a bit around here, small windy narrow roads and lots if big trucks.

We got to the castle just as it was opening, $28 each to get in seems a bit steep. However the gardens are really nice, particularly the water gardens. It's a real castle not some disney mockup. Real keep battlements etc. Only the keep, the main halls and some of the battlements are open as the rest is a private residence but that is well worth visiting. The private chapel is larger than some churches. Due to a mix up we even got to see the bedrooms which were actually an add-on cost.

Then after a cup of tea/first lunch it was time to head to Ipswich. Well try to at least the traffic had still not recovered from the earlier problems. On the way we stopped at a little chef at Chelmsford bypass for second lunch/first dinner. It was like stepping back in time, really 1970's, even down to being disorganized. And the decor was very worn, it looks like it is ready for closure. Still it was reasonable refueling and we were off again.

Then it was Bury St Edmunds, and no cell coverage just as were were trying to refine our directions. Yes we are lost. We managed to recover coverage and check our details and discover that rather that being on the edge of town I have booked us into a place 10 miles outside! (Six Bells Inn Bardwell) It's right in the middle if nowhere the Wops of Suffolk! It's actually an old pub that has had rooms added onto it. It's in a real

picturesque British village. Very nice. Gemma and I had a walk round to find the post box to send some cards. It has a village pond with village ducks, one store (closed) and a village hall all very quiet but very nice. Gemma keeps on having a go at me about how far out we are. We eat at the pub that evening, nice but simple food. We booked our breakfasts and time to turn in.

Here is a Flickr set showing many more pictures from this day

1st July Fishbourne Roman Palace

Quite a poor English breakfast at the Inn, buffet style and I can't remember what was actually wrong, probably not up to my expectations, no black pudding I expect.

Fishbourne palace is very interesting, well organised. It was easy to find if a bit unexpected. I say that because when you drive there first you are driving through a winding road in an average English village when you turn a corner and there it is right in front of you. Feels more like driving onto a school sports field.

It's great to see the remains but it does leave you feeling that there is a lot more story to the site than they are telling you. I think kids tours should be limited to certain times and the kids should be muzzled. The noise and chaos spoilt things. I don't expect it to be like a library but never-ending screams of "miss! " get to much after a while. I bought a T-shirt and a very good book (Roman Forts in Britain by Paul Bidwell) on Roman forts in the gift shop.

Then on to Chichester. It's a small town but easy to walk around. We went into the National Trust shop which I thought was ok but Gemma did not think was that good. Then across the road to a Marks and Sparks. Stocked up on underwear, would have liked to look around to see what had changed but we were yet again under the time gun. We went to a nice looking pub near where we had parked for lunch, what a mistake to make! It was really bad, slow service and very poor food, mine was just edible bur gem's baked potato was so bad that she complained and got her money back.

Then Arundel cathedral. It is big really big, it totally dominates the town! I still don't understand how such a small town got such a big church. We went around the gardens which were really nice.

We are saving the castle for tomorrow and as it was getting late we went back to the inn. Rather than go and find someplace to eat we decided to eat at the pub attached to the inn. Given what the breakfast had tasted like I was a bit dubious about this decision but to my delight the pan roasted salmon was really good. It was followed by a couple of good beers then time to read, update the trip diary and to bed to refresh for another days traveling tomorrow.

30th June Arundel and The Dockyard day

We signed out of the Travel Inn and under the guidance of our trusted tom-tom set off to do historic Portsmouth. How people made their way through the maze of old streets without a navigator is a mystery to me. Even with the system I suspect we took at least one wrong turn. But without to much stress we made it there, however the parking system was not very clear. Though the car park was well marked it was one of those places which had areas reserved for various special groups. This is ok by me but would they please be clearer where the general areas are, as with special signs on every other pillar it can be very unclear as to wether you are in some special area or not. After a bit of discussion Gemma and I decided we had located a normal use slot, I guess we were successful as we were not ticketed or towed, and off we went.

We had originally only intended to do the Mary Rose as I had seen the other exhibitions before and Gemma was not really interested in them. However the single option ticket was no longer available it was everything or nothing. Having bought an everything we started out with HMS Warrior. The worlds first iron warship, it showed it in it's mixture of fittings from different ages, some would have looked ok on a Roman ship others normal today. The route through the ship was not marked very well to insure you saw it all and we think we might have missed something but it was fine.

Then across the dock to HMS Victory which was closed for a tea break or something. So we walked around to have and had a look at the M33 in it's dry dock. One of the smaller monitors designed in WW1. Quite a bit smaller than I expected but well preserved. However it was not open for inspection which was an disappointment as I would have considered it well worth a look at.

HMS Victory was now open again and in we went. The beams are low but surprisingly I only hit my head hard once, but Gem enjoyed that once! The same can't be said of a group of German students making their way round as they seemed to be continuously hitting their heads, being German they had probably organized a roster or something. Still you could tell where they were from the noise, Gem and I found it very amusing, getting them back for towels at the pool or something.

The magazine system in the Victory was much better and complex that I had expected. They had put some real thought and work into making it as safe as their technology allow. It would have been hell down there during an engagement. They had a system of stripping down and packing away barrels to reduce the fire risk that surprised me.

After some more climbing around it was out onto the dock again. But no Mary Rose! They are spraying it with something highly poisoned so nobody gets anywhere near without a biohazard suite. We watched a band of some kind blowing brass things and beating drums for a while then had a look at some exhibitions etc.. Gem and I had quite different opinions about the visit to the dockyard, what I thought was good she thought boring and vice-a-versa. Still I got a T-shirt and she got a spoon so both of us were happy.

By now it was after 12 so our food homing systems turned on. Just near the car park was a pub that looked ok so we decided to give it a go. It was a traditional British pub that I miss so much in NZ. An old fashioned layout, good beer, good polish waitress. I am starting to wonder if the joke about all staff in british pubs are Polish is true.

After testing their food and drink for a while we decided to head on. It was now time to go to Arundel. Not a bad trip, quite relaxing, thought the end of the trip was complicated by a crashed truck which was across the exit we wanted and if course everything was backed up. But after a bit of back lane navigation we were in the Premier Inn. Initial impressions of the Premier Inn is that it is smarter than Travel Lodge. Though the room was very worn again. At the start they thought Gem and I were mr and mrs which put Gem's nose out of joint. It's got a smart pub/restraint attached which makes food hunting easy.

After a bit of a break it was into the town centre as they had managed to clear the truck out of the way. It's tight country lanes territory and parking was a bit complicated but not overly so for a Jersey boy. I think Lauren would have been a bit taxed. A nice small town, dominated by a cathedral and a castle. We will do those tomorrow. So we just walked around absorbing the culture. I bought some more stamps at the twee little post office and sent some cards. As it was after 19:00 now we decided to hit the trough again. We chose a nice looking Indian which turned out to be a mistake, the food was ok but the waiter was really off-putting. His attitude spoilt the meal. One thing which puzzled me during the meal was on of the diners at another table. I could not work out if one of them was a she or a he! Really weird, neither voice or appearance was a giveaway.

Sat on the river for a while then back to the inn.

29th June 2010 Fort Nelson

Fort Nelson

Had breakfast in the same pub as yesterday, it's convenient and reasonably priced but not that good. Gemma had veggie full and I had full english, this time they forgot the black pudding until I asked for it.

Then at 10:30 we set off for the fort. The Tom Tom did it's job again but the signposting for the car park could have been better. You have to drive past the fort before you see the signs. As we were going in three cars missed the turning and tried to drive in through the main entrance and had to back up to the main road.

Spent until 2:30 in the fort. It is very well presented with guns from all ages on show. The fort itself is in a very good state of repair with almost all areas open for view. I found the Caponiers very interesting, I had not realized how restricted the field of fire was from these positions. In the smoke of battle (gun power not smokeless propellant) it must have been chaos. We had a look at the mortar battery that seems to be a feature of forts of this age.

The main gun hall was across the top of the fort and full of stuff. I took a lot of photos there, many of the guns were much larger than I expected, moving them on a muddy battlefield must have been a real challenge for the crews!

Some of the displays were in the underground galleries of the fort. The main Caponiers was open with some 32lb SBBL being present. Again it would have been hell in there if the fort had ever seen action. There was a small canteen where we had a unimpressive lunch even though there seemed to be a chef on site, there was also a gift shop on site where Gemma and I made some purchases. I would have liked to spend more time there but we had other places to visit. On the way out we had a look at the only surviving 14" guns from a KGV battleship.

When we got back to the car it had been baking in the midday sun around stood around while the ac cooled the car, thank god it was fitted to the car!

Then off to Portchester castle, (GMaps)it was a bit confusing as we were much closer than we thought and the GPS took us down some very small roads in a sort of short cut. Plenty of space in the car park and a short walk over a stream and into the castle. It's a odd mix of roman and Norman. The main fort is roman and covers a large area, must have been very impressive in it's day. Inside the roman fort is a Norman one. Much smaller, we intended to go in but discovered that they wanted 4.50 for an area about the size of my house. Gem muttered that English heritage overcharges for their sites and we just visited the gift shop where Gemma bought a spoon. I should mention that she did this at almost every place we visited and she ended up with quite a collection of them. Gem should put them on her flicker page to show off.

Rather than go in we bought ice creams and sat in the Roman area to consume them. The roman fort also contains a church which was simple but interesting.

We still had plenty of day left so we decided to visit the sea front.

Quite peaceful down there, we went to the D-Day tapestry museum. I had been there before but gem had not. Not very much had changed. Gem had a moan about people taking flash pictures were there were clear signs saying not to. This is something that we saw a lot of people ignoring the flash rules, do people not realize how much flash damages the pigments or do they just not care?

Then with some time left we walked along the front to Southsea castle. As you can see it's a small fort but again they wanted 4.50 to get in, English Heritage again. We chose not to go in and while I was standing outside a group came up and made the same decision. It's a lot of money for a family of four for such a small site! After a while Gem came out of the shop muttering and cursing about English Heritage and saying how much better The Nat Trust is at this sort of thing. I was surprised that she did not have a spoon but she explained that though the shop had them they were the most expensive that she had ever seen and she just refused to be ripped off.

Then we were tired and it was really the end of the day, everywhere was starting to close. On the way back we went via a small Aldi store next to the hotel as we wanted some real coffee and tea for out travels. Some of the places were a bit stingy on their room supplies. Aldi was interesting a bit like a small warehouse, I was not sure if everybody got a bargain of not! (only NZ will understand that comment).

Then back to the pub for dinner. There was nowhere else close and we could not be bothered to loom further. Not only Thant but I had noticed Chicken Tikka Masala on the menu, real British food!

28th Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Fairly early start, 8:30, well for Gemma at least. Dad drove us to the hire car place after a short breakfast. It seemed to be in chaos with a different crew on from before. However found a teen who knew what she was doing and picked up the car. It's a black diesel golf, manual and 1400 cc. This is going to be interesting driving. It's a long time since I drove a manual and it's a fair bit of car for only 1400 cc. Gmaps Page.

We set off for Tankfest. It's only at Bovington which is about 40 mins away. It does not take me long to find out that the car is completely gutless. This engine could not pull the skin off a rice pudding. I an going to have to work the engine and gearbox fairly hard to get any reasonable performance out of this car.

Well here we are at Tankfeast. We are of course in the overflow car park as the whole area is taken over for the festival. As we are walking towards the event I start getting an inkling of one of the aspects that will dominate this holiday, it's HOT! This whole holiday is going to be hot!

Just as we get in they start a display, modern tanks rolling and growling around loud bangs etc you know the drill. We have only been outside for less than an hour but Gem is wilting. It occurs to me that as everybody is out here that visiting the inside museum would be good. Inside it has changed a lot from how I remember it. Much larger thought I do find the layout a bit confusing. Anyway tanks tanks tanks!

Here is the link to my Flickr tanks page.

I find a UE which is much like I expect it to be. The Tiger II us vast as is the Conquerer. For some reason many of my photos don't turn out very well but unfortunately I don't realize this until much later. We have lunch which was ok (Cornish pasty) but unimpressive. I have seen what I wanted to see and Gem is tanked out so after about 3 hours at the festival we head off. Before we go we spend some time in the shop where I would have expected more to interest me but in the end I bought a desert rats hat that I end up wearing for the whole trip around Europe.

As we pull out of the car park Gem is busy punching in coordinates to the GPS. I was expecting cars to come with GPS now days but this cheap one does not, however just incase that was the situation I had brought my tom-tom GPS with me. Before I came I loaded up the Europe maps. It was an absolute god send. It made driving the UK so easy and Gem and I were able to keep talking to one another for the whole trip. How did people survive without GPS?

Our next stop is Clouds Hill. The home of T E Laurence when he lived in this area. I had never hear of it but as it's only 10 mins away off we go! I am not sure what I was expecting but not something this small. It's the smaller than Dads trailer. We drive into a car park (stall) the size of a lawn, stop in one corner (stall). There is a ticket hut in a garden shed then a short walk to the house. It's really just 4 rooms, 2 up 2 down. The down is a reading room and a kitchen, the up is a bed room and a wash area. It's how he left it but its all very Spartan. It has a customized reading chair that looks like a good idea but other than that very simple. I sit out side for a while and wonder what it would be like to live here, there is no internet and no cell coverage. Very peaceful, I would not mind retiring to a place like this as long as the essentials were provided.

Then we are off to Kingston Lacy. It's a nat trust manor house, set in a large grounds. Quite a nice look to but inside there are just to many pictures. It's like somebody had two houses worth of pictures but only one house so they just jammed them in anyway.

We decided to visit the gardens but that's when things went a bit wrong. I wanted to see the kitchen gardens having seen the TV series and wondering what it looked lime for real, however we got there 20 mins late and it was all locked up. Gemma wanted to see another garden (there were about 8) but despite one sign we could not find it? Then we decided to follow a marked path back to the house. Little did we realize that it would be three miles!

We even had to climb over the fence and walk across the staff car park to get back. I can't believe that was what we were supposed to do but neither of us could see where we had gone wrong. Fortunately the tea room was still open when we got back as we really needed a cup of tea. I decided that as we were clearly going to be visit nat trust properties that I would join up. So after tea we visited the membership shed and did the paperwork. I did indeed get my value out of the membership as I visited enough properties to get my membership fee back but additionally as of this writing I have never been charged for my membership. All the debit details etc were correct but nothing has ever shown up?

As it was getting really late and we did not have accommodation sorted out yet we headed for Portsmouth. While I drove Gem used my iPhone to search for accommodation and then phoned ahead and booked us some. Portsmouth travellodge was our destination, our trip there was uneventful other than at the last bit the GPS path went wrong as it tried to take us round the back of the lodge and directed us to drive through a brick wall! Just as well I did not follow those orders, anyway as I could see that actual entrance by that point we made it safe and sound by about 7 pm.

I had never been in a Travellodge before it's very spartan. T E Lawrence would have liked it. Just a small check in desk, we had to wait a while and I suspect that most of the time there is only one staff on duty. However the room is ok, I had the bed and Gem the pull out couch/bed contraception. The taps leak in the bathroom and the shower will through you against the wall it's so powerful but as a rest and refuel stop it's fine.

After we had got sorted we went looking for food. There is an Orchard pub (The Sovereign) next door so we went there. Modern looking pub but very water stained floor, later we heard it was water from the ladies! We waited to be spoken to by staff,Gem went back to room to get something, when she got back I was still being still ignored. After I while we went up to the bar to order some food. Got told off because we had not selected out table and made a note of its number. Food was tatally average and the staff were having a set to behind the bard over shifts or something like that. Other than its attached to the travelodge I cant see why anybody woul dgo here? Anyway we refued and decided to turn in for the night early. After all the head a etc we were both a bit nackered and we wanted a sharp start in the morning.

27th Honiton

An Admin day.

The night was quite cold but the morning was warm. It was a bit of a shock to find that dad no longer has coffee for breakfast, fruit juice is his thing now. I unpacked the asus netbook and soon had the 3 stick up and working. I was surprised to get 3G coverage in the trailer but as I discovered it was quite unreliable. Gemma with her 2G stick had a slower speed but at least it did not keep on dropping out on her.

I spent some time on admin stuff, looking up train times, hotel bookings, moving money around and the like. Dad and I decided that we would go into town and sort out the hire car and my accommodation. Honiton does not seem to have changed much since my last visit, there seemed to be more street traders and the independent newsagent has turned into a Smiths but other than that it seems to be much the same as always. The hire car is a local trader garage on the other side of the town from Dads trailer. Seems to be an all service garage that does some hire cars on the side. We sort out the car for pickup the next day, it will be a black Diesil golf. Its a manual so I have a bit of a challenge ahead of me. Gemma is glad that she can't drive. Everybody at the garage seemed to be a bit eccentric, inbreeding or small town? Dad tries to convince me to have two hire periods so as to save money as there are a couple of day in the middle where we do not really need the car but I resist as I can't be bother to do it like that, it's just to much hassle to save a couple of days hire and I have not got time to waste buggering around. Dad does not seem to understand that I am time limited not money limited on this trip so I am quite prepared to spend a bit more money if it saves me time.

Then it's just across the forecourt to the Turks Lodge motel. A bit seedy and run down but what do I care? I make my booking and chose the double room with breakfast as it's on special and does not cost anymore than a single room. It should be ok for three nights. The place is about 12 rooms around an open parking area. I am a bit bothered to discover that there is no laundry, forgot that it's just NZ motels that always have a laundry.

Then it's off to Tesco for some travel supplies. This has to be the most run down Tesco that I have ever seen, peeling paint and cracks everywhere. Dad explains that they had been trying for ages to build a new one nearby but had just been refused planning permission again, they had been running this one down in expiation of closing it. I would have liked to spend more time looking around the shelves but Dad was getting fractious. I don't think he has any idea what it is like for me after all these years, he just wants to get a move on. I bought a real pork pie to share with Dad for lunch

After the pie it's off to Castle Drogo. I have been here before but it's an interesting place, I would not want to live here. It was built in the twenties but styled as a medieval castle. I think the owners must have been a bit mad. Large halls, very cold in winter despite the heating. I of course are more I treated in how the house worked than the portraits and works of art.

They are having a real afternoon tea event but don't seem to be having much trade, after I saw the prices I understood why. While we were walking around dad put on some of the props and insisted on having his photo taken. I guess we were lucky not to get thrown out.

The whole system is setup to make the staff as hidden as possible with hidden doors and corridors etc. It's really more like a manor house than a castle.

We manage to resist the bouncy castle as we return to the entrance. Dad and I had our photo taken in the garden. This place is now a national trust property and there is a new combined tea rooms and shop at the entrance. We have a nice afternoon tea and Gemma joins the national trust, I think about it but decide not to. We buy some things at the shop and I stock up on cards to send Clare

Back to Honiton where Gemma is cooking the tea. We have cheese fritata potato salad and I make a green salad. Hilda come across again and we have a good time other than dads foul wine. I will have to do something about that wine.

After a lot of talking I realise it's 22:00 and time for bed. I hope I will not be so cold tonight. It's time to hit the road tomorrow what adventures lie ahead and will I be able to conquer that manual gear box!