Amazing Travels

So there haven't been many updates. That'll be because I've been on holiday... and then I kinda got caught up in this whole 'renting a flat' business... Hopefully I will finish typing up my holiday journal soon and then you can laugh and cry along with the other UKC girls. Or you can just log on to our Amazing Travels blog, which should be updated sooner or later...

Homebound to London

We were up early enough and said a sad farewell to the chalet before handing the keys into Reception and heading back to London. We detoured into Tesco's to pick up the latest Harry Potter book (Jenny bought two copies) and fill up the car one last time. The drive back was relatively quiet, Jenny and Melissa engrossed in their books and me getting quietly happier every time I saw a sign that said we were getting nearer and nearer home.

At Heathrow, I parked accidentally at the wrong terminal so we all took the free tube service between terminals to get Mel to the right one! When we arrived, we discovered that despite the bombings in London, check-in time was still max. three hours before flight take-off and we had planned for four. So we hugged goodbye and Jenny and I rushed back to the previous terminal where Liz had been patiently waiting about ten minutes, and was beginning to think she was in the wrong place…!

I said goodbye to them too and drove home, delighted to actually get a parking spot outside my house. As I struggle to get my stuff from car to house, I realise that the house is empty. But they all know I'm coming home today… (It later transpired that they had all gone to Norfolk for the day as it was my Nan's birthday.) A little upset at not getting a welcome home, I get refreshed and changed, bung some washing in the machine, and have a quick lunch. I then mooch around, waiting for the machine load to finish, when I have the marvellous idea of giving Reuben back his car, and then I won't have to worry about returning it tomorrow…

Back in the car, I search for a jet wash as the car is pretty filthy and I know mine is going to be returned in pristine condition… I pass three and they are all coned off due to the water ban. I reluctantly return the dirty car and Reuben's mother politely offered a drink. I accept and then find myself staying for dinner as relatives are coming over and it'll be nice to meet them etc etc… "I'm tired!" I wanted to yell. "I'm dishevelled and not in the mood to be polite to strangers!" But I didn't and just smiled sweetly and prepared for the worst…

Everything actually turned out okay and I met some very nice people who, in turn, (apparently) think the sun shines where it shouldn't…!! (I heard later that Reuben got a lecture from his uncle along the lines of appreciating me…(!)) I somehow managed to get home and was sooo knackered I didn't wake up until noon the next day!

Bournemouth Part 2

Nice long sleep-in today! Woke up about 9am, had breakfast and we made our way to Bournemouth to search for an Internet café. After a few wrong turns (entirely my fault) we found a reasonably priced café. Jenny and Mel checked their email, Jenny having to write home to prove she was still alive after the bombings, as her mother had apparently stirred up a frenzy of worry! I am hot and very thirsty so I go for a walk while they type away. Afterwards we hit Bournemouth town centre and had lunch in a small café after managing to park in the car park no-one can get to (long story). Jenny then called Liz to double check her flight info and we pottered around the shops a little. One was a fabric shop as Jenny has orders from her mother to bring home 'English fabric'. After a bit of dithering, Jenny finally plumped for reddish-orange butterflies on one, and a Union Jack pattern on the other!

Back at the chalet we took a siesta, much needed for myself at least, having driven almost non-stop for the past two weeks! Jenny finished reading her Jasper Fforde novel and I did puzzles and slept mostly! In the evening we had dinner in the club. The food was freshly cooked but took almost an hour… Desert was very nice – peach cheesecake and brandy snaps! The remainder of the evening was spent packing a few items and watching Jack Dee Live at the Apollo, a re-run from the earlier series. Jo Brand was guest starring and was just as funny the second time around! Eventually we retired for one last night in our fabulous chalet!!

Poole & Corfe Castle

It's been a week since the London bombings and a two-minute silence was held across the country and the rest of the EU at 12pm BST.

We went to Poole Quay this morning to have a peek at the boats in the harbour and at both the Purbeck (limestone) and Poole (clay) pottery. Unfortunately the demonstrations were closed while we were there, so we headed off towards Swanage to go to Corfe Castle.

Corfe Castle was once a grand structure built on a high hill as the original entrance to Purbeck and it was used extensively by King John. Unfortunately it is now no more than ruins, but they are beautiful ruins and have an excellent view of the surrounding landscape. We all went separate ways to explore and Melissa and I find ourselves in a small 'room' that was so high that the air channelling through the 'room' was ice cold and very welcome on a hot day like today! We stood there, gazing through the window at Corfe Castle village, and chatted away until I suddenly stopped and said, "I wonder what happened to Jenny?" We reluctantly leave the cool 'room' and start calling out for Jenny. It transpires that she missed us and went trekking around the entire ruins looking for us! All together again, we climb the ruins, take lots of photos, and simulate sword fights with long grasses, much to the amusement of people passing by!

The sun is incredibly fierce now and with no clouds in the sky is also potentially dangerous. I've already reached my sun quota for today methinks! We head back to the car and arrive at the chalet all hot and tired. We shower feet and laze around until dinner before glamming up and heading towards the club with the intention of getting Jenny either drunk or very happy, and possibly finding her a nice guy to snog. Unfortunately, tonight's entertainment consisted of the four site staff singing a medley of songs from 60's to 90's – compelling (!). However it was possibly better than the unfunny professional comedian we saw earlier in the week…

We had a round of drinks each and, well, Mel and I said we were 'happy' and Jenny claimed she hadn't had enough… but was pretty pink and perky so…! I'm not in the mood for a drink-fest. I'm tired and the club atmosphere isn't all that – there's hardly anyone there and those that are, are young families and elderly couples. Mel and I vow to take Jenny to a pub tomorrow and give her flirting lessons. (She failed to notice the barman flirting with her earlier this evening and Melissa found herself responding instead!) We did have a quick-fire round consisting of me picking up Jenny and her attempting to respond, but she kept just giggling. Melissa then demonstrated what she was supposed to do… More giggles. I think 'tipsy' is the word I'm looking for…!

Chawton & Winchester

Jenny's birthday! I bought Jenny a copy of 'Eats Shoots and Leaves' by Lynne Truss. She's an English teacher and would appreciate the zero-tolerance obsession over grammar that some of us share… Melissa warms croissants for breakfast and we are soon headed for Chawton, just outside of Alton, to see Jane Austen's house. It was fairly easy to find and was a gorgeous cottage surrounded by a beautiful garden in an olde worlde village. Inside the building were replicas of the furniture and crockery used, and illustrations all over the walls of characters from Austen's books, including the ones drawn by Jane's sister, Cassandra. After telling all the staff it was her birthday, we dragged Jenny away and went back down the road to Winchester.

Up in the Great Hall of Winchester Castle is the Round Table high on a wall, inspired by the legend of King Arthur and crafted c.13thC. In the middle of the hall was an exhibition on the World Wars as it’s the 60th anniversary of the end of WW2 (1945 in England). We grabbed a drink and lunch in O'Neill's pub where Melissa takes the opportunity of buying a meal and getting Jenny's for free, it being her birthday and all (!).

After lunch and a trip to the creepy loos (no lights, no locks, or no paper – take your pick) we visited the cathedral, which is the longest medieval gothic cathedral in Europe. It also holds in its library the famous Winchester Bible, a 12thC illustrated manuscript in six volumes. The library and cathedral was overrun with Italian students and we hung about in the gallery until most of them had left.

Back at the chalet we had pizza and Red Square followed by toffee & chocolate curls cake. We didn't have any candles so we lit a match, stuck it in the cake, and sang 'Happy Birthday' at twice the normal speed before Jenny blew out the match! We then turned on the music channels and flipped through the radio, singing along and dancing giddily around the coffee table. Fun fun fun…!

Osborne House, IOW

Today we decided to attempt to go to the Isle of Wight and see the sites. We drove to Lymington and hopped onto the passenger & car ferry to Yarmouth. Once there, we took a bus to Newport and then another to Osborne House. It was nice not having to drive! On the bus ride between Newport and Osborne House, I sat next to a chatty lady who lived there but originated from London. She had a proper cockney accent, which had crossed into a thick 'coun-tree' brogue so Mel and Jenny didn't really understand her… She was bemoaning that she couldn't see Ventnor or Sandown because they didn't have a harbour for her to dock her yacht and, upon finding out I was from London, started a tirade against the bombers of 7/7 and hoped nobody I knew was a victim.

Once at Osborne House it was already 1pm so we headed into the restaurant. The menu is two pages and eight items on page one are the food items. All the others are drinks. The food items consisted of soup and bread, egg and watercress sandwiches, poached salmon sandwiches… Yep, just soup and sandwiches, none of which sounded particularly appealing or filling. In the end, Jenny and I plumped for tomato soup and Melissa had the seafood mix soup. The soup tasted like the juice out of tinned plum tomatoes – bitty, watery, and pretty gross. I'm so hungry I eat it all anyway. Apparently the seafood mix soup wasn't all that wonderful either… The peach and passionfruit cordial drink was nice though… but didn't compensate. This is very bad food karma!! I'm still hungry and have digested tinned tomato juice. Not happy bunnies, we rate the food quality and choice as 'poor' on the comments card, adding that they should get 'real food'.

We left hungry and annoyed, and slowly walked around Osborne House, taking in the glorious décor, the intricately designed ceilings, and the brilliant views of the gardens from all directions. One room contained the Royal Family tree, and it demonstrated how Victoria and Albert attempted to marry off their children throughout Europe to ensure peace between the countries… You could also clearly see how Elizabeth II and Prince Philip are first cousins as well as husband and wife…! No wonder the children of Elizabeth II and Philip are a little weird – they're a bunch of in-breds!

After wandering around the gardens and quickly making out way through the Walled Gardens, we headed back to the bus stop, grabbed our two buses, and hopped back on to the IOW ferry to the mainland. Back at the chalet, we are incredibly hungry and open the Thai Chilli crisps and shortcake biscuits, and cook potato croquettes to snack on before dinner! I cooked sweet 'n' sour rice with southern fried chicken fingers which was eagerly devoured, and we spent the evening doing crosswords and playing the Friends game. Well, not exactly playing but reading out the questions and laughing at them and our own answers!! It was fun.

Salisbury

We are up in good time and get in the car to head towards Salisbury. We stop at the Park 'n' Ride and take the bus into the city centre. The cathedral in Salisbury is absolutely gorgeous and is the only British gothic cathedral still intact in its entirety. The spire is the tallest in Britain and the cloisters are the largest in England. The cathedral is actually undergoing restoration, which started in 1986 and is expected to continue until at least 2015. We get a free tour around the cathedral with an elderly gentleman who was very well spoken and knew loads about everything we wanted to know! Interesting parts of the 90min tour were the oldest mechanical clock, the baby who died eleven days before it was born (a result of the change from Julian to Georgian dates) and the guy who was found dead with a perfectly preserved skeleton of a rat in his skull – nice! Of course, there's also the infamous Magna Carta on display, guarded by numerous staff and surrounded by carvings on the walls, depicting major events in the Old Testament of the Bible (Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah's ark, etc)

After the tour, we trekked back into the city centre for lunch in a Tudor-style pub and had jacket potatoes and Ploughman's. The people moving around upstairs made the ceiling creak and I swear I saw one of the beams move… We then did a bit of shopping, mooched around Boots (the Yanks can't get enough of the Fresh! range) and then trudged all the way back towards the cathedral so we could go into the Salisbury museum. It contained the infamous preserved rat skeleton, a history and analysis of Stonehenge, costumes from the Victorian era, and a whole range of Wedgwood pottery. Completely tired out and way too hot (it is 28ºC today!) we relaxed on a shaded bench in front of the cathedral before finding ice cream and making our way back to the Park 'n' Ride.

Due to our aforementioned tiredness, we decide to drop by Stonehenge but when we get there, there are hardly any spaces to park in and we are hot and grumpy. I stop in a lay-by opposite the henge and we took some photos before driving slowly by the structure to grab a last shot. "It's smaller than I thought it'd be," Jenny commented. Hmm… Americans always say that about stuff in England…

So we drove back, stopping off at Tesco's to buy more provisions (read 'alcohol') and get petrol. Mel and Jen insist on arguing about everything when we go food shopping. Not only are they adults arguing in the middle of the shop, but also they are loud and have American accents – enough factors to get everyone looking at us! I try walking ahead to avoid the arguments but in doing so, I'm probably making it worse…

We have an orange dinner of chicken Kiev balls and potato croquettes followed by a yellow desert of lemon Madeira cake and pineapple chunks. Loyd Grossman would be appalled… Soz guys… Anyways, by 10.30pm the girls are shattered but I had just had coffee and was buzzing. I watched some music videos and a good episode of SATC before hitting the sack around 00.25am!

Bournemouth

This morning I woke up unfeasibly early considering I had a great night's sleep. I made Jenny and Melissa eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast and then we just lounged around in and outside the chalet until Reuben called me to say he'd arrived in Bournemouth. I drove to Bournemouth, found Reuben, and we all walked along the promenade, stopping in an arcade along the way. We had lunch in Hot Rocks, a surf-themed restaurant overlooking the square and with beach views. It was incredibly hot and all we could manage was two starters between the four of us. There was quite a bit of food though – chicken pieces, potato skins, southern-fried potato wedges, tortilla chips and spare ribs, served with salsa, sour cream and mustard dips. We took a short walk through Bournemouth gardens in the blazing heat, taking photos and trying to work off some of the food!

Back in the car and to the chalet, I noticed my upper right arm had turned slightly pink – sunburn! I should get more sunblock… Mel and Jen began to argue out their joint efforts on a new story for a while before Melissa finally left to call Andy. Jenny disappeared outside to enjoy the late afternoon sun on the patio, and Reuben and I decided to clock in some quality time… Well, a week is a long time when you're apart from the one you love!

Reuben left about 7.30pm and we had mince and pasta for dinner before heading out to the club for the evening cabaret. Comedian Paul Eastwood is not much of a comedian. His jokes were funny but they were recycled off the Internet so I'd heard most of them before. The ones I hadn't heard were in bad taste, a typical example being "The other day I met a blind prostitute… well, you've got to hand it to her." (sigh) Yeah…

Glastonbury

Thus begins our second week of holiday. We are up surprisingly early – 6.30am! We have breakfast, do some last-minute packing, and return all the hired items and chalet key into Reception. As we head out of the park at 8.40am(!) Melissa says, "See you in hell, John Fowler!" We laughed and prayed that the accommodation for the second week would be marginally better. Actually the week wasn't all that bad. We did do a lot of mileage, see a lot of places, and the park itself was good value for money. At £232 for the week, we had a reasonably sized chalet with water, electricity and heating on tap. Okay, there wasn't enough water pressure to have a decent shower, the chalet became extra tiny when the bed or table were fully extended, and we felt we were living in each other's pockets. It was literally a place to crash. We weren't exactly gonna live there!

Anyhow, we headed into Barnstaple for the last time to fuel up, and then headed towards Glastonbury via the M5. Glastonbury was beautiful. We walked around the ruins of the Abbey and watched some of a church ceremony being conducted outside, with a choir and large altar set up by where King Arthur and Guinevere's tombs were. On the way back to the car, a large procession had gathered in the street, blocking the route I was meaning to take out of Glastonbury. We stopped into a newsagent to pick up ice-lollies and water bottles, and asked the shopkeeper what was going on. Apparently, in early July, Christians of all denominations come to Glastonbury in pilgrimage, as legend says that Joseph of Arimathea came to England with Jesus and they built the old wattle and daub church, which unfortunately burnt when the entire Abbey was destroyed by fire in 1184. So we witnessed the C of E procession before we packed back into the car and took the alternative route suggested by the shopkeeper, heading towards Salisbury.

Deciding that Stonehenge would be a decent day out, we stayed on the main road to Salisbury instead of heading out to Stonehenge, and take the Ringwood road to Bournemouth. We find the train station easily and said our goodbyes to Debbie, who profusely apologised for not being better company. Like she could help it, she is sick!! We followed Anna's directions to Highcliffe and find the chalet easily. It's actually an owned chalet on Hoburne Naish Holiday Park and Oh…. My… God… This place is wonderful! We have SPACE, a proper kitchen, table and chairs, enough sofa seats to go around, gorgeous beds and bedrooms, and a powerful shower! I am SO happy! We all are!! We feel like crying. If we had come here the first week and then gone to John Fowler's, we would have been sooo gutted!!

Anyway, despite every luxury spared, true to Anna's word there is no bed linen. I agree to purchase bed linen and then keep them afterwards. So we go to Reception and look through the Yellow Pages for an Argos, as I know they do nice bed linen at decent prices. We find it closed so we head on towards Bournemouth again and detour as we spy a Roseby's from the road. As we arrive, the manager come to the door and announces that the shop is closed. I ask him if there is anywhere I can buy bed linen at 6pm. "Find a hotel," he answers unhelpfully. "We are in a hotel," we say in unison. I explain that we need bed linen desperately and he directs us to the nearest Tesco's, turning the key in the lock as he says his last words. We duly go back to the car, grumbling about how everything shuts at 6pm outside of London. We find the Tesco's without grief and I buy £50 of sheets, pillowcases and duvet covers.

Back at the chalet, we have our longed-for and well-deserved showers, eat lemon-iced cake, and drink Arbor Mist, a pink/rosé coloured fruity wine that was de-lish! Man, I love this chalet!!

Arlington Court & Benton

I got to sleep in this morning! Well, not much but enough to feel better. I think I'm burning my candle at both ends – early mornings, late nights, and a dry cough that won't leave me alone! We have a slow breakfast and head to Arlington Court, a National Trust house with a cool collection of horse-drawn carriages and some magnificent grounds, including a gated garden and large pond. The house was full of artefacts and had some really fine and exquisite pieces of art and furniture. Outside the house was a sign to a bat cave. "To the Bat Cave!" we yelled in the style of Batman, but it was merely a room with a small TV screen in the corner. A control panel enabled the camera in the loft to move and focus on the (sleeping) bats. It was rather disappointing… We did get to have a fun but short ride in a horse-drawn carriage and we lunched among coloured and white peacocks.

After Arlington Court I wanted to go to Benton, a nearby village I'd seen on the map. We drove down narrow roads, some only the width of the car, and past wheat that towered high above us… but no Benton. It was possibly the house in the middle of a field that we passed but we can't be certain.

We headed on into Ilfracombe, stopping for souvenirs and Devonshire ice cream. The evening involved takeaway and getting ready for tomorrow's journey to Bournemouth, Dorset. Anna called my mobile to give directions and to warn us that there would be no bed linen. "Crud!" Jenny exclaims while taking notes. After failing to get through to the guy who hired me the chalet, we have a short discussion and decide that if there's no linen hire once we get there, I'll buy some.

Exeter

We were all up early and headed out to Exeter. On the way, Reuben texted me to tell me the news that London had been hit by four terrorist bombs: three on the underground and one on a double-decker. The radio was hastily clicked into place and the news was on all the channels. I was shocked and as soon as I had parked up, I desperately texted all my family and friends to make sure they were okay. All but one texted back to say they were fine and were either going home or were avoiding Central London. I felt sad for all those involved in the attacks, but in a way I felt numb too. It is hard to explain fully.

Pushing home events aside, I moved forward to Exeter Cathedral, took some photos, and lit a candle for the London bomb victims. We then walked through the city centre in the blazing heat (such a contrast to Tuesday!) and poked our heads into various shops, notably Lush, where we sampled various creams and sniffed all kinds of soaps and bath bombs. Lunch was in a small café tucked behind the High Street shops, where Debbie's cough, which had slowly worsened through the week, was so bad that she couldn't eat. We left Exeter, completed the long drive back to Ilfracombe, and I took Debbie to the local doctor's surgery while Jenny stayed in the chalet and Melissa called Andy. I found the medical centre pretty easily and waited a short while for the doctor. It transpires that Deb's medication is a waste of time and that she should just cough when she needs to. However, he did give her a small vial to hack in to so he could analyse her phlegm… Charming, huh?

The Eden Project

Today, the Eden Project! The Eden Project is a former disused chalk pit that has been transformed into a diverse array of plants, flowers and trees from all over the world. The main attraction is the two large Biomes - temperature-regulated environments that recreate the climate conditions of Europe and the Americas, and Africa and the East. Outside of the Biomes were the remains of the recent Live8 concert and fields of tea and lavender. One very large sculpture was made out of the number of electrical goods discarded as waste from the average individual, such as refrigerators, computers, toasters and mobile phones. We also saw the enormous half-haired bee grazing on the landscape! The journey to the Eden Project was long and painful. Remember we are in Ilfracombe, North Devon – the Eden Project is located near St Austell, South Cornwall. Yeah, a round trip of c.200 miles and nothing but 'A' roads. Southwest England badly needs motorways!

After the Eden Project, we decide to drive into St Austell to have a Cornish cream tea and maybe ice cream before starting out 2½hour journey back. Easier said than done! After driving up precariously steep corners and circling the town a few times, we find nothing. My grandmother said St Austell was a delightful little town. What she failed to mention was that driving was a nuts idea and there aren't any cafés, just takeaways and pubs! The turning point was when I found myself faces with a narrow road able to fit one car across and the sign by the entrance was for the national speed limit… 60mph up a narrow winding path with a strong chance of on-coming traffic? Uh-uh… Wrong-o!! I quickly about turned and drove home, stopping at Okehampton Little Chef at 6pm because I was too hungry to continue! We also made a quick pit stop at the Tesco's in Barnstaple for some provisions, namely cough mixture and petrol… again! The Rover 200 isn't the most economical car in the world…

Clovelly, Dartington Crystal & Bideford

I know I'm missing some days... Bear with me here!!!

We get up and leave at 8.55am – wahey! We're practising for when we have a long haul journey (like tomorrow!). We head into Clovelly (cloh-vellee) first, a tiny fishing village situated on a very steep slope of cobbles. (I found out later that it was actually the setting for the old Hovis ad, where a young boy drags a trolley of bread up the slope with an old man's narration over it.) The cobbles were a nightmare to walk on, especially since it was drizzling quite a bit and threatening to get heavier, so all the (uneven) cobbles were very slippery! We all inched (well, Jenny bravely marched) down into the village, heard about their way of life, and admired the fantastic views of the Bristol Channel and Barnstaple Bay. Debbie and I trekked along the part-stone-part-sand beach while Jenny walked along the harbour and Melissa… disappeared for a good ten minutes or so!! It later transpired that she took a pathway back past Crazy Kate's Cottage and stopped to talk to a local! Looking at the steep hill, walking back up was not an option and we paid to be driven back by Land Rover. We lunched in the café overlooking Clovelly and watched the donkeys feed on the grass slope outside.

We then braved the rain again and drove to the Dartington Crystal factory. The factory was very cool and had some great pieces of crystal glassware on display. There were boards and audio-visuals about how the crystal is made and we were able to watch some glassmaking first hand. One guy was preserving a couple's handprints in glass and we watched people round the back rolling and blowing glass into shapes. The gift shop, of course, had a marvellous display of ornaments, glassware and figurines, all of which were either too expensive for me to purchase, or too delicate to take back with me. I'm guessing I can order stuff off the Internet…

The rain still pelting, we head to the Atlantic Shopping Mall in Bideford, purchasing chocolate and banana chips to munch on. Later that evening we ate spaghetti and played Gloom. Gloom is a card game whereby each player has a set of cards representing a family. The player then has to kill off each of their family members with the highest number of points displayed as possible. Apart from the not-too-solid game rules, I found the hardest part was concocting a story to accompany the various ailments, deaths and tragedies bestowed on my characters! Melissa thinks that’s the best part…

Sick

I'm soooo sick. It's a sore throat/tickly cough/semi-blocked sinuses combination. And I have to pick Melissa and Jenny up from LHR tomorrow morning. I hope that its not viral and that we'll be ill all holiday... I just want to curl up and sleep... but I have washing and packing and food shopping to do before that. Argh...!! Where are servants when you need 'em?!