UK Trip 2007

Sat 4 - Home!

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 14:00:00 GMT

We thought we got an exit row from Japan to Bris..but when i looked at the ticket and saw we were in row 70 I had my doubts. After sitting in Japan airport for 7 hrs (lots of sleeping on chairs and reading) they called rows 50-67 .. hmm...intersting.

We go through ok..so there must be a row 70..as we get on the plane we realise we're upstairs..nah..can't be..isn't that first class? So we wander upstairs to find it is indeed economy (doh) and we have an exit row (yippee). Unfortuantly it's an old plane..so no personal video..and only 1 movie showing the whole way.

We get home early (yippee) and about to get the dog but john's car battery is dead..so we go get my keys to discover my battery is also dead. Pretty sad seeing that we've only been away 3 weeks! So we call subaru and racq respectivly to get our cars going.

Made it only till 11am before we crashed out and then couldn't get to sleep till like 4am...hopefully sunday is better.

Fri 3 - Heathrow to Japan airport

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 14:00:00 GMT

Well I experienced Heathrow on Thursday. It wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected after all the stories. As we got there early for our flight we were the first to check in and scored emergency exit row. You go through normal bag scan..but they're a bit anal about having only 1 carry on bag which means you keep putting things in and out of your bag so you can show your passport an/or boarding pass. You do passport control which is basically someone lookng at your passport..no questions, no scanning and then shoe scan. So Aus and US is worse.

We found the "additinal seating" room where i pulled up 2 wooden benches and crashed. Exit row on the flight definaltly made a difference. Watched 3 moves and crashed out...none of them particularaly great. The emergency exit row has the screen that folds out of the arm which is much better for getting it in the right spot for glare etc.

So now we have a 5 1/2 hours left in the airport. We've found our gate and sets of 3 seats and are hogging them so john can get some shut eye. 14 hours to go till we're back in Bris.

Thu - 2 Aug - On our way home today

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:00:00 GMT

So today we start our long journey home. In Berkhamsted we've been stayint at Berko's B&B. We've found it really good. We stayed in the flat which had it's own bathroom and kitchen. They also have a cafe so you wake up to a range of cooked breakfast choices. Another couple of pluses - they have wireless internet and 1 block down the road is a coin operated laundry.

So after lunch today we're off to battle Heathrow with a 7 hr stop in Narita Airport in Japan and then off to home to see my dog.

Thu 26 - Off to Wales

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 14:00:00 GMT

We picked up our hire car today and off to Wales. They all have their little scams...to have an additional driver (me) they wanted to charge an extra 25 pounds a day! Which is mighty expensive when the car hire for 4 days was 85 pounds in total...coulda got 2 cars cheaper..weird. So armed with our Peugot..off we went.

The day was pretty bad weather wise...but we crossed over to Wales and eventually found somewhere to stay. Was a bit surprised everywhere was full on a Thursday night. We stayed here which was nice but really expensive. We got suckered by the bed, breakfast and dinner package..where you get a 45pound allowance for dinner which was very, very average.

Friday 27 - Wild Wales tour

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 14:00:00 GMT

Today is a bit overcast..so not game to do a hike in fear of being rained on so we're off to do the Wild Wales Tour. A longish drive across wales with a 2 way road the width of 1 car and grass high enough to be annoying so you can't see cars coming.

Wales is soooo green. We end up at Devil's Bridge which has a bit of a waterfall. We're almost at the west side of Wales but John is determined to get his jacket back from the hotel in Shrewsbury so we drive for about 5 hours across wales to grab jacket and down to Aberganavy to our hotel.

Sat 28 - Bristol

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 14:00:00 GMT

Today we went to Bristol and caught up with Elspeth and Jeremy. I'd spotted a jousting festival at a local castle but it had been cancelled due to the floods :( So we went on a wander around the town and through the Bristol festival, stopping for lunch and drinks along the way.

Then it was off to the butcher, wine shop and supermarket to buy ingredients for a roast chicken and veg dinner..mm...yummy. The guys did well considering they are still jetlagged from being in Aus.

Sun 29 - Stonehenge

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 14:00:00 GMT

This morning we left Elspeth and Jeremy's place to have lunch with John's uncle (John) just outside of Salisbury. Had a huge lunch and then went for a side trip to Stonehenge. It was a lot smaller than i expected and there was soo many ppl there.

Then it was back for some more food before we left to take back the car.

Coupla weird things over here...

They drive on the left (normal) but ppl tend to walk on the right side of the footpath
No Limit sign doesn't mean No limit (like in NT) - it means max speed for the type of road you're on .. very lucky someone told us that one!
Street signs are usually on some place on a building which makes it fun to work out what street you're on.
Direction signs aren't consistent..one roundabout it might point to the more major road e.g. M4 with a major city name and the next will use a smaller road say A4041 with some little town. It'd help if when you turn off they consistently had NSEW next to the exit. Approaching exits will have M4 (N) etc. but when you hit the exit with both N&S options the direction is removed and a random town indicated.

Wed 25 - Working in Berkhamsted

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:00:00 GMT

We've spent the last 3 days working out of Tricky's office along with Neil. It's been good to have everyone in the same place to go through a few things. So we've got a few spare days so we're going to go exploring so will probably be offline for a bit.

Booked in a hire car and bought a map..it's like a scrapbook that has all the major roads for like 3pounds..pretty sweet. So we'll see how lost we can get and how good we are at avoiding all the flooded areas and hope for fine weather so we can do a bit of hiking. Should be catching up with Elspeth on Saturday, maybe see Stonehenge and have Sunday roast with John's uncle.

So just over 1 week left before we start the journey home.

Sat 21 - Trip into London

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 14:00:00 GMT

Today we ventured into London and met up with Linda. Everyone here seems to hate the underground and public transport. I found it awesome! It's quick and it has great frequency. We jumped on and off trains all day/night and never had to wait more the 3 mins.

We wandered around the middle of London, checked out the Natural History Museum (cool building), the science musuem and spent the night (what there is of it) taking night pics. Not many came out too well cause of ppl putting there heads in shot, or being on a moving platform :(

Big Ben during the day. This bridge is packed with people. It rained a bit during the day (big surpirse) and it was umberella city...very dangerous for your eyes as most ppl are fairly short.

The London Eye at night. This pic was taken very close to midnight and the sky was still very light. How freaky is that? We thought about going on it during the day but it was packed. There was a Star Wars exhibition next door that i had to stop myself from going.

Sun 22 - Richmond Park

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 14:00:00 GMT

Today we caught the train out to Putney to catch up with Graham and Roanne. They took us out to Richmond Park. It's MASSIVE! and so close to London. It's full of wild deer which we were lucky enough to see.

We sat around the pub for lunch and then ventured back to London, then to Berkhamsted. It was a good way to see a non-touristy side of the place.