London - bare with...

As much as we enjoyed trekking around the UK in a car, we were pleased to park it up and not have to deal with the traffic caused by the Underground staff going on strike in London.  What bad timing by us to strike a strike!  Like the Secondary School teachers, they are not happy with their pay nor their working conditions.

Our options for getting around - walk, bus and bike.  I wanted to go on the bicycle but Rosie and Grant were having none of that when they didn't know where they were going!

Hop on, Hop Off bus it was so we could cover most of the London attractions in the few days we were there.  We didn't even scratch the surface but gave it a good nudge!

Hyde Park - lots to look at here but Princess Diana's memorial fountain was closed for cleaning! 

It was in this park that I had my first encounter with a squirrel.  Grant wanted to see if the squirrel wanted to think I was a big nut but fortunately he didn't like the look of my cute face and ran off.

Trafalgar Square – dates back to the 1200s, and commemorates the famous victory of Admiral Viscount Nelson (on top of column) over Napoleon at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805.  At the base are 4 bronze lions depicting his naval victories.

China Town – quick look around here which included a yummy Chinese buffet meal

before going to a

West End Show – if you want to have a good laugh, Book of Mormon is the show to go to at the Prince of Wales Theatre. We had a smile on our faces the whole show but is an adults only show, not appropriate for youngsters!

Buckingham Palace – quick nosey at the outside of it, no royal members in sight

but had good timing to watch a bit of the ‘Changing of the Guard’.

I must say the memorial to Queen Victoria is quite imposing.  She definitely was quite a character!

Tower Bridge –  not to be confused with London Bridge that is not falling down, falling down

but is another most impressive looking bridge over the River Thames and it is mindboggling how it can split in half to let big boats go through.

 I loved it when our bus drove over it.

Tower of London – the history and stories that come out of this place are so interesting.

 From traitors to lost princes, to tortured prisoners, to the courageous soldiers, kings and knights,

who fought many battles over the years, to the unfortunate ones who had their heads taken off…  The Beafeater guide has many to tell.

The poppies on display are to commemorate 80 years of the end of WWII.

Paddington Station – this was our closest station.  I had to get my photo taken with the famous bear and low and behold, I found Harold the Giraffe hanging out with him.  It was so good to see a familiar face from NZ, so we shared our travel stories so far.

And that tis the end of the London blog, so pleased I got to visit this busy, multi-cultural city that has so much history.

Black Ferns Game #3

From the Tudor times to some more modern royalty, we had a quick nosey at Windsor Castle, which was the favourite residence of the late Queen Elizabeth II but has also been home to many, many monarchs over the centuries.  Originally built by William the Conqueror, he used it as a defensive base at the time.

It was Henry VIII who put in the extremely long driveway.

Whilst in this beautiful part of England, and to celebrate Rosie's birthday, both Rosie and Grant dressed up in their best finery and attended a Food and Wine Festival at Ascot Racecourse.  I didn't attend but got to be in the pre races family photo!

They both had a great day, backing some winners and enjoyed the hospitality that Ascot offers.  As the late Queen loved going to the races, one of her legacies was to make sure that everyone was welcome to come.  She had a display made of herself, and her husband Phillip, welcoming all walks of life, from the UK, to the racecourse.  

We had a day to fill in before the next Black Ferns game so stayed in a small place called Ashford but drove to Dover to see the white cliffs.  They were quite magnificent!  

We saw them from the little village called St Margaret's Bay which is situated at the narrowest point of the Straits of Dover, just 34km separating England and France.

And we had to get our fix of castles so drove past Dover Castle which is perched up high and is regarded as one of the largest castles in England, along with its defensive significance throughout history.

There was no luck for the Irish in the Black Ferns vs Ireland game in the coastal town of Brighton.  Watched by a crowd of over 30 000, our girls were just too strong beating them 40-0.

Even though the crowd was cheering for Ireland, they appreciated the classy play of our players, and enjoyed the commentary from NZ's Ruby Tui, below.

It is a shame that Ireland didn't score any points as the crowd would have gone nuts if they did!  Both teams have now qualified for the quarter finals and in true Irish fashion, there was still a good party afterwards! 

Brighton is a great place to visit with all its seaside attractions and historic narrow lanes with quirky shops.

All the piers we have been to have lots of arcade slot machines that you can win tickets off.  The more tickets you win, the better prize you can claim, which is usually a soft toy. 

That is now the end of our tiki touring around England, must one more stop to drop off the car and spend a few days trying to navigate our way around the capital city, London!

English Coastal Cities

Our rental car is clocking up some kms as we continue our exploration of England.  It has been great on the motorways humming along, speeding past the trucks and caravans heading home after the holidays but also small enough to safely navigate the narrow country roads.

It is like from one extreme to the other, huge motorway or roads that you don't think are big enough for two way traffic, especially the big tractors, trucks and buses that use them as well!

The seaside seems to be attractive to us as the next two stops are port cities.  We didn't think too much of Bournemouth, maybe because we got caught in a rain shower but it was awesome to watch the big waves crash against their piers.  A great swimming beach when the time, and weather, is right!

Not far around the Dorset Coast is Portsmouth which has quite a bit of history that interested us so bare with...

One of the most famous kings in Tudor times was Henry XIII, mainly for the saga of having 6 wives  but that is another story.

At this time in English history, there were many invasions of England so Henry XIII built a few castles along the South Coast for defensive purposes and he significantly built up England's royal fleet from just 5 ships to over 40 by his death.  His favourite ship was called the Mary Rose but unfortunately she sank in 1545 during the Battle of Solent, watched by Henry from Southsea Castle.

Now if you weren't aware, Rosie's name on her birth certificate is actually Mary-Rose so off we went to visit the Museum of the Mary Rose, and what a fascinating story which I will tell briefly.

Mary Rose was launched in 1511 and had 34 years as a king's ship before that fateful day in 1545.  The extraordinary thing is that for 437 years she was underwater but in 1982 she was raised to the surface by a huge team of divers, archeologists, engineers etc and what they found is now the largest collection of Tudor objects in the world.  Throughout the museum are fascinating objects, remains and stories about the ship, and the poor 500 souls who lost their life during the sinking.  Apparently 35 survived.

The interactive displays were thoroughly interesting, especially the ones about the ship's dog, whom they have nicknamed Hatch,

and the skeleton of an archer.  It is absolutely amazing how they can find out so much about someone from their bones, and chemical studies of their teeth can state which area of the world they were originally from.  This guy was either Welsh or English.

The hull of the Mary Rose was raised onto a dry dock at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard where she was originally built and launched, and now history can be re-enacted as it was in those Tudor times.

The Mary Rose also housed the latest guns and canons of the time, and the soldiers were trained in all sorts of warfare.  This particular gun is a forward facing one found at the front of the aftercastle, the widest part of the ship.

The archers must have been very strong as we had a go at pulling the string of a long bow, and it wasn't easy!!

Around Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard are some other notable exhibitions especially this one of the HMS M.33, (a gunboat) which was a unique survivor, the only ship left from the huge Allied fleet which supported the landings at Gallipoli in 1915.

Portsmouth is also home to the only UK museum dedicated to telling the events of June 1944 - D-Day.  This was about the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, which created a path to victory for the Allies.  We didn't have time to visit the museum but this landing craft it is definitely worthy of a mention in the blog.

So, a huge amount of history in this coastal city.  We were very pleased to be able to experience it.

Wales and Black Ferns Game #2

It would be remiss of us to be in the United Kingdom without visiting Wales so to Wales we went.  How do you know you are in Wales?  The signs are bilingual - Welsh and English.

We chose to stay at a little town called Pontypool for two reasons - 1.  We could pronounce it.  A lot of the Welsh towns have hard to say names eg: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (longest town name in UK) and 2.  It had a Park Run.  On Saturday morning, Rosie and Grant put on their walking shoes and walked the 5km Pontypool park run around one of the more famous club rugby grounds in Wales.  Apparently they have had some very good players represent the Lions from this club.

I stayed in the car since I can't walk!  Fortunately, the rain stayed away and they had a good chat to some of the locals on the way round.

From our travels so far, we can most certainly say that the Welsh are the most friendliest people, very much like us Kiwis, and if you want somewhere to stay in Wales, The Little Crown Inn is the place!!!  Great accommodation, bar and restaurant!

Whilst in Wales we went exploring and found a village called Hay on Wye which had numerous book shops so if you are into reading, this would be the place to hang out!

The Hay castle, whose 13th century gateway has survived numerous sieges in the middle ages, is in the middle of the village.  It survived attacks by King John in 1216 and Llywelyn the Great in 1231.  The history of the UK that we are hearing and reading about is just so fascinating and mindboggling!!  

On the way back to Pontypool, called into a market town called Abergavenny.  Had some quirky wee shops and stalls to have a nosey at.

We woke up on Sunday morning to the news that the Southland Stags had secured the Ranfurly Shield off Waikato so it was antlers up for the rest of the day!!

Back in England we drove straight to Exeter for the next Black Ferns game, this time against Japan.  In front of a sell out crowd, the Black Ferns were too good winning 62-19.

One of the highlights was Portia Woodman-Wickliffe's 50th try for the Black Ferns, and record for tries scored by a NZ player!

The Japanese were very plucky and courageous in their play and just so respectful after the game, bowing to every side of the stadium.  

Definitely crowd favourites but in the next game, France vs Brazil, when Brazil scored their very first rugby world cup try, the crowd went nuts!!! So, so supportive of the underdogs and thoroughly enjoying women's rugby!  Rosie tested out the MVP back drop before Braxton Sorensen-McGee had her turn!

The next day was spent catching up with one of Grant's friends in the lovely, seaside town of Teignmouth in County Devon.   On one of the town centre streets, we just happened to come across the filming of Bergerac, Series 2 with the actress Zoe Wanamaker, acting out a scene.  That was quite cool to watch for a bit.

It was also good to breath in some sea air and eat some yummy homemade scone with jam and clotted cream!

Also had a look at another seaside town called Torquay, which is where Agatha Christie was born.  If you don't know who she is, do a bit of googling.

And that is just the start of another week, more exciting adventures await us as we enter the month of September, yay Spring but here in the UK, Autumn!  A lot of sad children around now as they are back to school this week after a couple of months Summer holidays!