UK Grand Adventure

We set off in good time the next day, and managed the hour long trip to Bath along motorways, arriving at the Park-and-Ride station just after 10am.

Another beautiful day was emerging as we arrived in the city centre, although the kids energy and excitement levels were a bit low and needed an immediate hot-chocolate fix. Bath is too big to do quickly, and we only had a few hours to spare, so we decided to concentrate on the Medieval part of town and particularly the roman baths.

Spent a great hour learning how sophistictaed the Romans were and marvelling at the only hot springs in England. Really amazing how this area has been associated as a holy place for the Ancient Celts and Romans and then used by Anglo Saxons and Normans before falling into disrepair for over 500 years.

We grabbed a quick lunch of baguettes and pasties for the road, and then drove as fast as we could to the Warminster area, specifically Longleat Estate, the ancestral home of the Marquis of Bath, and of the first (and best) African Safari Park in the UK. We spent another fantastic 2 hours driving around the open air park, looking at giraffes, zebras, camels, antelopes (*many types), white rhinocerous, tigers, lions, cheetahs and timber wolves. Did I mention animal fetishes? We were in a frenzy, and Thomas took many great pics.

Afterwards we wandered through the grounds of Longleat House reminiscent of a scene from Brideshead Revisited. Ice creams wandering the gardens followed by a stop in the interactive animal enclosures to see monkeys, weasels, ferrets, giant snails and iguanas (fetish??)

We missed the Hedge Maze as the park was closing down, but otherwise had a fantastic day, and with the Caravan Park also within the Estate we settled down to watch a dvd (Fantastic Four) and have an early night.

The next day (yesterday) we tried to get back into the Estate to walk the Maze, but it was not possible without paying to re-enter the Park. Sadly we departed and drove the short hop to Stonehenge on a day drizzly and a good 6-8 degrees cooler than the previous two weeks have been.
Stonehenge is amazing, and humbling, and even the weather couldn't dampen our spirits as we wandered around it and marvelled at one of ancient mankind's greatest achievements.

The weather imporoved a little as we drove from Stonehenge to Old Sarum, another one of those magical places in Britain that has attracted the attention of every race to call the area home. You would think that after two weeks of castles and history we wouldn't have found anything new but that couldn't have been further from the truth. Sarum was an ancient stronghold long before the Norman conquest, and despite almost all of the original stonework having been dismantled during the Civial War or stolen for mundane building purposes, we still managed to get a very clear picture of what life must have been like here 1,000 2,000 and even 4,000 years ago.

In beautiful sunshine we dropped down the hill into Salisbury for a wander and a look at the beautiful Cathedral. Another magical hour including having the Chaplain of the Cathedral leading the kids around the church on a historical treasure-hunt,and finding the crypt of the 12th century Earl of Salisbury (half-brother to King Richard the Lion Heart and Bad King John of the Magna Carta!

A quick afternoon tea and it was time to leave for our campsite just eat of town, which as nestled on a hillside allowing the kids to run through wooded slopes in their new Norman Knight dressups both by sunset and torchlight. Ahhh!

What a pity that we're heading back towards London and the end of this amazing, magical mystery tour.

We will try to get one last entry done tomorrow, but if not, we will see you all soon in Oz.

Love from us!

Another early start the next morning, because we had a BIG day planned. A visit to Warwick Castle! (yes...another castle, but one with a difference). Not enough space to describe the full outing, but the photo gallery is full of them... suffice to say there was lots of history from the War of the Roses (Warwick the Kingmaker's home base) plus a themed Merlin Tower, a Dungeon Tour of Horror (complete with mirror maze and gruesome actors) and of course a Pincess Tower.

Highlight of the day was watching the 'world's largest' Trebuchet fire a flaming boulder (15 minutes of preparation for 15 seconds of flight) - oh and don't forget the fairy floss. Everyone happily crawled into bed that night which was parked in Warwick Racecourse.

Next day we headed off late in the morning (nearly midday) with the intention of stopping for the day in Stratford-Upon-Avon however after queueing for at least 20 minutes to get near the town, we diverted back off and decided we would give it a miss as it was almost a car park on the roads to get into town. Thus we made our way down to Moreton-on-Marsh, with a brilliant stop over at the Costwold Falconry centre.

WOW! What a fantastic 2 hours that was! We saw loads of wonderful birds of prey up very close and personal, as well as a live demonstration with buzzards, eagles and hawks that combined plummeting attacks with ground (and hair) hugging swoops. Lots of souvenirs there, and the kids have another English animal fetish to add to the deer, hedgehog and teddy bear ones they aldready had.

10 minutes later we found the caravan site and settled in for a quiet afternoon where it was just nice to sit and relax, read, play and have a G&T. That being said, we had a wonderful dinner at a great old pub (which served food more equal to a five star restaurant than your local pub) after a short 1/2 mile walk into town - there are apparently over 20 pubs - and the short joyful walk home again. Oh, we might have also snuck in a sneaky bottle of Chateau Neuf du Pap (Jon and I that is), thus the walk home was quite jolly.

That took us to then have another lazy morning (and yes, a couple of panadols required) which saw us head up to Toddington for lunch with some family friends at their property. It think Emma's comment sums it up "mummy, I think I am in heaven". Let's see... 10 kittens, at least 3 cats, 4 ponies, 3 dogs including a puppy in training, and of course the obligatory chickens. (did we mention animal fetishes?) All that was missing was some pigs - oh... they indeed used to have pigs, however unfortunately they had to go and 'pay a visit somewhere' from which they never came home as they just got too damn big!

Talking, drinking and enjoying the glorious "English" sunshine. It was the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. We ditched the night at Cheltenham and instead made our evening's pit stop 200 meters up the road from the farm - which was very sensible given the circumstances.

Early to bed as we were heading off down south the next day past Bristol and off to adventure in the amazing town of Bath and over to Longleat.

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For once we managed to get away early - 8 am - in the hope of squeezing every drop out of the day. And what a day it was!
Morning traffic did slow us as we wended our way through the picturesque northern villages, but we still managed to arrive in Skipton by about 9.30am. Skipton Castle is one of the most well preserved in England, despite having withstood a long seige at the end of the English Civil War, so the kids were able to see how both the older Normans and later Tudors would have used the castle. Skipton is a magic place and we truly loved the couple of hours spent there.
Having stocked up on sausage rolls, Cornish pasties and pork pies, we then made the (comparatively) long trek down the west coast to the Llangollen (thats 'clan-goch-lan' for us philestines) valley in northern Wales, staying in the village of Corwen.
Now this WAS magical! Imagine a winding valley, slowly climbing into wilderness beside a shallow swift-flowing river tumbling over rocks and under heavy field stone bridges, with the autumns leave turning golden brown under a pure blue sky. Ruins on top of windswept hills, wooded hillsides that formed arches over the road. No wonder the Welsh kept the Normans at bay for so long.
Our caravan site was on top of a hill with majestic views in all directions, so we decided not to explore; but instead throw on some washing and spend the late afternoon lazing in the sun, intermittently drinking G&Ts and sword fighting with the kids (you had to be there).
On the advice of the site-manager, we then drove up to the next village, where we had a great meal a one of the most charming little villages you can imagine (think single-lane-shingle bridge over bubbling water, lilting accents, welsh lamb stockpot and bread & butter pudding!) YUM.
We headed off very excited the next morning, but our great plans turned to 'mush' pretty quickly!
Our breakfast stop in Llangollen was missed due to lack of parking and small streets and we dropped back out of Wales before we were ready, headed for the border town of Shrewsbury. We arrived 2 hours later, hungry and grumpy and wanting the day to pan out like the previous one. It was not to be. A very ordinary brunch was followed by a long wander looking for the castle (in vain). We gave up; deciding to head down to Tewkesbury and hope for the best. The best we got out of Shrewsbury was some parafin for the head lice that have emerged (no time or appetitie for the long and water-heavy treatments required normally - sigh).
Well - Tewkesbury is pretty as a picture. And our Caravan site was 200m away from a lovely Abbey.
We spent a much nicer afternoon playing in the sun (and catching up on the blog LOL) then wandered into town around 6pm for dinner. Tewkesbury is the site of a major battle during the War of the Roses, and a local historical society has strung up the coat-of-arms of every noble who fought at the Battle of Tewkesbury along the major roads in town. As a result the town has a wonderful medieval feel. We found an old Baptist church and serene little cemetary at the end of a dim laneway that had promised cutpurses and assassins.
Not wanting more pub food, we ended up squeezing into an Indian restaurant with a one hour window before a big booking - lots of naan, korma and rice consumed very quickly, so six very tired and (well) stuffed adventurers wandered back to the van at 7.15pm to the wonderful sounds of the hand-drawn Abbey bells ringing across the valley.....which lasted for about two hours until after 9pm!
Strange, but still lovely days, with the best still to come.

So... we left early in the morning after spending a fabulous night eating and drinking with the one and only LEGEND "Dams" and his gorgeous wife and daughter, we heading off on an adventure of the Hooded kind... however only after a quick round of putt putt ... "as you do"... Thomas / Jon won, Simon second, Emma a third with Bec brining up the rear. Although I will point out there was only approx 5 points difference between first and last place.

So we went off to the town of Nottingham to find the trail of Robin Hood... it required us to "park and ride" which we did quite successfully, catching the local tram into town. The weather was a tad miserable, sprinkling us with a light shower - but neither of any strength or power that could dissuade us from our cause.

We found that the underground tombs and tunnels were closed... sigh...and and then locating Nottingham castle, found that it had turned into a modern (and quite commercial) events centre with a very small education section... I will admit we were slightly disappointed.

After an hour to get back out to the car again we then decided we needed to head off to Sherwood Forest (and find our night-time farm-stay accommodation)! It was literally right in the middle of the Forest... a couple was renting out the back patch of their farm! Excellent!

The owners were not present, however we were generously greeted by two very friendly donkeys called Dylan and Mark. They made themselves quite at home with our presense indeed putting their heads through our windows and even nibbling the fabric on the drivers seat!

It was fish and chips and talking (and karaoke of Thom's i-Pod) into the night - no electric power hookup or bathrooms!

That was peaceful and tranquil... however we still hit the road early to head on up to the town of York... stopping off at Leeds for the Royal Armoury.

Wow - what a great 4 hours spent. we started at the top and worked out way down. So the top included a live crossbow firing range of which we ALL had a turn. The results were Jon 400, Thomas 300, Simon 200, Me 75, Bec 50 and Emma... well Emma had a lot of fun!

We saw everything from the early Armour worn through to current day - hunting weapons, Oriental... Medieval ... Everything... absolutley everything you could imagine. It was really cool and interactive and interesting! After 4 hours and a quick soup for lunch in the Armoury cafe, we were all ready to head off again.

Thus we arrived at the caravan site for the town of York. Out of town (as they all are) but not too far from a "park and ride" station.

Off in the morning after a breakfast of boiled eggs (not terribly good and making soft boiled in the caravan)... we walked (~2miles) to the park and ride and caught a bus into the town of York.

First up was the Viking centre where they had excavated an old settlement and by going down below the town street level, you could see part of an old dwelling as they had discovered it - all under glass that you walked over! In addition there were many many artifacts they had uncovered, including combs and shoes, amber and tools.. amazing to think how old these items are, and yet so well preserved.

We then headed up to to York Minster Cathedral.. and words cannot desribe just how magnificent the place is... enormous... proud... catacombs underneath showcasing the original Roman basilica, the Ango-Saxon building followed by the first Norman church and utlimately the Medieval building seen above ground today.

It was then off to the York Castle (a classic motte & Baily for those interested in technical details) and up the Tower... dinner at a trendy Japanese bistro and a short taxi ride back to the caravan park, after a good 12 hours on the go and mostly on our feet!

Oh...we did stop for a peaceful stop at the wonderfully refined and tasteful Betty's tea house for a spot of late lunch and divine cakes from the trolley. Welsh Rarebit was all gone, but we did manage eggs benedict, omelettes, prawn and avocado sandwiches and roast beef and horseradish sandwiches as well as a marzipan cabbage and pear... a pastry with creams and berries, a butter bear, chocolate eclair and a blackberry cheesecake!

by 10pm we were all asleep ready for an early wake up call of 6:30 in order to take the next stage of our adventure... Wales!

In the morning we went to the town of Burford and had breakfast at a French bakery. Then we bought some of the nicest cheese you can ever imagine. After, we went up to the town of Oxford and in Oxford there is the biggest university that covers the whole town. That has 38 collages which were spread over the city to stop them killing the town folk in the 1500s. Basically all the teenagers were wearing big robes that cover the back wheel of their bikes (If they're riding one.)
After Oxford we drove north to Northampton where we went on a cool showground ride. In the afternoon we met one of the greatest legends of Lord Of The Rings Online - 'Dams'. We had an awesome afternoon including the biggest chocolate sundae we have ever had.