The Midlands and the South West

In the words of Diana Sidaway (Dave's Mum) who was a fantastic guide for our roadtrip around the midlands and the South West - thanks Di

Met the boys at Heathrow having driven in leaving 5.15am and then not finding a park at terminal 3 which is an awful dump, left it illegally only to be called back on the loudspeaker and had to go miles and get a bus back so missed the great moment of them walking out!! Bearded and cheerful we piled into Harriet (hopefully my beard doesn't show as much!) and wended our way thru Mon am traffic in S London to Wimbledon luckily the day after the tennis finished and got the key then on to Renee's super flat in Worcester Park. Some discrepancy over pronunciation by boys of latter and am teaching them English!! After unpacking we explored the street that is Worcester Park identical to so many other S London high St's but has everything they need and station 10 mins walk and 1/2 hr to city.Dane cooked a delicious meal and bedybyes me in the car park in Harriet.

Next morning just after 9 we got a day ticket for £6.50 for London. Arrived Waterloo station and walked miles to Jubilee line just opened with glass doors like Singapore all along the platform. A couple of stops to London Bridge where we went to Guy's Hospital and walked all round my old haunts with the boys laughing about my canoodling spots! Went up 30 stories in the surgical block and looked at the view then walked passed the operating theatre museum to be inspected later to Southwark Cathedral which is a friendly church. Walked through the old cobbled streets of the wharf through converted warehouses and the Clink prison to the Anchor Inn by the river which Shakespeare and I frequented in our youth and pointed out the way to the Globe theatre and the Tate Modern then we got a coffee and found a seat by the river and watched the traffic on the river which actually was quite quiet apart from pleasure boats..usually barges carrying all sorts of stuff and police boats zooming up and down.

We walked on along beside the Thames with good views of the Tower of London on the other side and a few photo stops where I was baffled with Dane's camera ,something I haven't lived down! We had our picnic looking atTower Bridge and as we arrived on it it began to rain. We had a look at St Katherine's dock and walked round the tower with me spouting information about Traitors Gate etc and on up to Tower Hill station, which for future reference is miles up steps!! Went one stop and I went on strike re steps so we walked all thru the city in the rain up Cheapside etc to the London Museum which is very swish but only really goes up to fire of London and putrid pestilence of the Black Death,1665/ 1666 as the modern part is to be opened next year which is what I wanted them to see..however we walked on to St Pauls and got a no 8 bus down Oxford St then down the Haymarket to Trafalgar Sq watching the population's umbrellas from front seat upstairs.
Had a look at Trafalgar Sq and nice clean Nelson but weird with no pigeons. Apparently all the buildings have spikes on and it has done the trick. Had a cuppa in the National Gallery and then the boys walked up the Mall to Buckingham Palce thru St James Park which is all green trees and very pretty..past all the palaces etc while I took a shortcut thru Horseguards parade and past Downing Street which is all fenced off and the war memorial and the balcony where Charles 1st was beheaded and the new war memorial for Woemn in the wars which is lovely and the centotaph to Westminster Abbey which closes at 3pm!!

The boys watched the changing of the guard at the palace and as they started down Birdcage Walk with only the odd tree for shelter we had the most incredible thunderstorm! I have NEVER heard such claps of thunder and the rain was a deluge...was in all the papers and on TV apparently! I was sheltering in the doorway of the Abbey and was glad I was handy to a house of God! The boys eventually arrived absolutely soaked! They had jackets of course as this is England! I did an acrobatic walk along the railings by the gate to avoid a puddle which Dane said we should have charged for as so many people watched me! We paddled to the underground admiring the houses of parliament as we went and big Ben and they experienced just 1 stop of the rush hour in the tube! They fought their way out and said that was enough!

We finally got back after a very cheap day out about 7pm and Dane cooked another yum meal! He has been pining to cook!

The next day we packed up and drove to Windsor where the boys explored the castle which is huge and has the state apartments etc too, lots of foreign school trips. You wonder how much they remember... It was £15 to get in which i think with the royals taxpayer stuff is a rip off! I waited in the car park avoiding the vulture like traffic wardens. Have been told I am way over when I arrive 3 mins late! Drove on through the Countryside into the rolling downs of Wiltshire. We stopped in Marlborough a lovely old town with a long long street with the market and had a cream tea at the Polly Tea rooms which have been going for hundreds of years and are famous. On again and walked all round the Avebury stones 5000 years old and then through the pretty village. Drove on up hill and down dale through very wooded pretty countryside to Bath.
Here we found the boys a hostel and they explored the city in the lovely late sunshine seeing the Crescent and the Circus and all the golden stoned streets and buidlings while I collapsed at the camping ground!

Thurs morning they went round the Roman baths and we met up and then drove thru the S Cotswold countryside to cuzzie Tom and Katies farm where we changed into little Midge the Seicento Fiat. They managed to fold themselves in and we drove to Birdlip my home village through the lanes past Caudle Green which is my favourite village with a big green in the middle. The boys have loved the red phone boxes and here I remember Renee years ago, taking a photo of the mailbox embedded in a wall of a house. Then down through Cheltenham, sadly missing Jane and Nick who were out and thru the town down the Promenade with its chestnut avenue and white Regency houses and on thru Winchcome and up into the hills to Snowshill Manor which had a nice garden and lovely manor house and I though would be a stately home but apart from the cottage in the grounds where Charles Wade lived while compiling 22000 bits of memorbilia that is all the house is full of and I hated the claustrophobic feeling. There were some good bits like all sorts of bikes from penny farthings up. We luckily got in free by chatting up one of the National Trust ladies!! We then went a couple of miles to see the lavender farm which is what I wanted to see and it was AMAZING! fields of deep purple just about to be harvested.

We drove back through Bourton on the Water and walked round the village and over the bridges, it was early evening and mercifully hardly any tourists...on to Lower Slaughter so pretty with cotswold stone cottages rose bestrewn, sleeping in the late sun in a row the other side of the brook with little bridges across and willow trees and ducks.

Came back to Painswick and dumped their bags at Damsells Lodge their B&B and on to Dane's first pub The Butcher's Arms Sheepscome right down in the valley through green treed tunnel lanes just wide enough for 1 car. Dave last went to that pub when he was 14 months with Grant and I! All hanging baskets and beams...then on to Downbarn farm where cuzzie Katie gave us a lovely meal of lasagne and lots of chat and at 9.30 was just getting dusk.

Friday morning the boys enjoyed their B&B and yum breakfast and we walked round painswick village Queen of the Cotswolds so picturesque then on to the George Hotel where we walked through the cathedral like arches of a beautiful beechwood to The Peak a landlocked headland with great views for miles around and I was able to point out May hill with it's clump of trees on the top miles across the Severn Valley and Gloucester in the misty distance where we were going next. Dane did very well as it is a good hours walking and he only had flip flops and socks as he has awful blisterfs from cheap Thai shoes! We had a coffee at the George to recover and down the very steep Roman road of Birdlip hill to Gloucester which we bypassed just seeing the tall lovely Cathedral tower above the buildings.

We went on to Lonton a wee village where my parents lived and are buried in the churchyard in the shelter of the spire of the pink Hereford stone church. A very friendly church which we looked at and Dave's said hello to the granparents...the lavender I planted is blooming madly and looks lovely.
We dumped our stuff with Janet and admired the pretty garden. She very kindly put us all up and the boys admired the view from the bedroom I lived in for 6 weeks.
We went on through Ross on Wye and on to Symonds Yat where we had out bacon sammies, cooked in Harriet first thing! Apart from the lovely view of the Wye river going in both directions from this very high cliff we enjoyed the competitive chatter of the Twitter bird watchers assembled there with telescopes dangerously swinging round.

On to Monmouth and into Wales where the boys loved wth Welsh signposts. Over the Wye through the ancient town and on to Abgavenny or I Fenny..then branched up miles and miles gradually going up and up a narrow hedge lined lane thru a big valley past several places where you can have riding holidays through the border country which is very pretty. Finall after coming out on moorland very high up we saw the incredible views from Hay Bluff and Lord Hereford's Knob!
It was fortuitously very clear...Dave ran up the knob a bit and back then we drove thru the town of Hay which has a famous pony sale but is mostle famed for the whole town sellling second hand books from all the houses which are shops etc.

Found Woodseaves the hamlet my father's family comefrom and saw the White House and the Great Oak over a 1000 years old and hollow and then explored the wee graveyard at the back of the chapel which is now a house. Dave was able to say hello to his great, great, great grandparents and great great aunt Nettie who went mad and burnt all the family memorbilia in a garden bonfire!

We went back thru the outskirts of Hereford in the rush hour with Midge making awful grinding noises which Dave said was a vibration and Dane a whistle!! Luckliy it stopped and we got back to Upton Bishop to have a typical English meal in a country pub where the food had been recommended and we found it was in fact a Gurkha restaurant! The food was lovely but Nepalese! Dane was so disappointed so we went back to Janet's and had apple pie for pudding! She made us so welcome and we were very comfy.

Sat morning we went across the road and met my friend Pat who had a Welsh Mum and is wonderful at Welsh cakes. We had a cuppa and sampled a few and admired her garden and the wonderful view and had a few belly laughs she is so hilarious then back to Gloucestershire to Slad and swapped vehicles and off to Salisbury. We managed to drive past Stonehenge for Dane and were as close as the 1000's walking round! We walked round Salisbury pass the New Inn which was new in the time of Elizabeth 1st. All round the beautiful cathedral in its green close and then on to Southampton.

Cousins Jenny and David made us very welcome and Cousin Rose came over for a lovely chicken casserole. The next day after an inspection of Rose and Tony's estate with dogs and cat and fish and poutltry and barn and stables and field and beautiful garden..David drove us to Portsmouth and we had a yum fish and chip lunch in paper at an old pub on Spice Island a very old part of Portsmouth and an a fascinating hours trip on a boat going round the harbour with all the warships etc. We meandered thru all the cobbled streets to the huge shopping centre built in old warehouses under the white millennium tower which is like a spinnaker and 170metres high which you can go up and look through a glass floor...ugh! Dane managed to buy some good sneakers at 70% off and we came home through the villages and had an explore and back home where Dave and Dane cooked us a lovely meal.

Monn we had a haphazhard tour of Southampton seeing the Roamna wall and the shops and docks in the distance with the cruise liners and past the park David had a swing on when he was 13 months when we came to see where Grant had been a lifeguard at the Southampton pool in his youth and found it built over! Then we drove on the M3 into Surrey to Virginia water where we had a salad at an exorbitant price with a frightening waitress and I saw the boys off on the train to London and they obviously arrived safely.