Day 39

Windsor Castle was our target after we checked out of our High Wycombe apartment.  Nice and close and we got there early to have our pick of the car parking spots.

Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world and one of the residences for Her Majesty the Queen.  When in residence her personal flag flies above the ‘round tower’, today it wasn’t.

We watched the Changing Of The Guard ceremony from good vantage points. How do those Sentry Guards manage to keep straight faces and put up with tourists like us standing beside them having our photo taken? The military and their training I guess?

A walk around this massive Castle still had Caroline going look at the history in this place, look at how it has stood the test of time, weather, wars, preservation of the art including Tapestries, Paintings, Carvings, stone work the list goes on and on. This side of the world really knows how to do the tourist thing very well. We walked around the castle with our own audio unit available in many languages, staff with a sense of humour when Caroline asked for Australian the guy just said “…well, turn the unit upside down or listen to it on your head”??

Adventure of a lifetime coming fast to an end and how well to end it with….the car being clamped!!! We returned 15 minutes past our ticket time and we were clamped make a call and pay   £120. When the guys came to unclamp us we wee just chatting about finishing our holiday on a hi note, they laughed and said that the fine lasted until 9am tomorrow so we cold stay in the park for free and go shopping if we wanted!!!! We left, good thing Wally says ‘cos now Caroline is rethinking the staying here idea.

Day 38

We woke to a lovely sunny day but it was not for sightseeing as it was just a day for a drive from Middlesbrough to High Wycombe near London.  Twas unfortunate but planning meant we had to forsake the 24 degrees outside temperature for sitting in the car for a substantial part of the day.

Despite the odd whinge about rain and cold we have enjoyed the windless days and nights here.

Before we left the apartment we took a photo of Callie in her “closet”, well it was so small you couldn’t call it a bedroom.

The new apartment is a pleasant one unlike our previous, overlooking a large green or playing field, lots of trees around and many gliders finding the thermals above us.  The nearby airfield must have been busy as there were at least 4 airborne at once that we could see.  Likewise the innumerable birds were also finding thermals and winding their way in circles ever upward. 

Braedy was entertained by a guy doing his gym workout with his stretchy weights on tree right in front of her while she was trying to learn her lines for the Crucible, she came back to the apartment, this place does have some weirdos.

We added another adventure to our already enormous list. We went to the supermarket, no adventure there you say, well I beg to differ. We went to Sainsbury’s in this place you can swipe your credit card take a gadget that sits in a special spot on the trolley, as you shop you scan your stuff, we are not sure what happens when you have finished. This supermarket was HUGE, it had two levels, food, off licence, pharmacy, magazines, technology downstairs and clothing etc upstairs. That’s not all the car park was also amazing, again you say it’s only a car park but again you are wrong. In Australia we drive in and drive around, around and around and hunt for a spare spot eventually find a park and go shopping, here you drive in, look up signs tell you how many spaces and how many are left, not to advanced you think but the super advanced bit is a small green light indicates all the vacant parks and a little red light means it is used, how cool is that?

Day 37

Rain again and 12 degrees so we decided on a train trip on the NYMR (North Yorkshire Moors Railway) from Pickering to Grosmont via Goathland.  Travelling along the valleys between the rolling moors this is a travelling museum on how railways used to be but is also well used by locals as there transport route down to Whitby, consequently the trains are jammed packed with locals and tourists alike – 7 large carriages full to the brim with passengers hauled by a fabulous British Railway steam loco. Because the train was so full coming back and because we were standing up the conductor sent us to the First class carriage at no extra cost…. Bonus!!

By the time the rail journey was over the weather had cleared so we ventured to see Robin Hood’s Bay.  Parking was impossible so here I let Caroline out of the car with the camera while the rest of us drove around for a while. She had been recommended to go see this amazing classic English fishing village, very steep descent so apparently she did not go all the way down but still appears to have got some OK shots to give the idea. So many great places here, so many villages with such old buildings, Australia has nothing against here.

Robin Hood Bay

Whitby 

Nearly time to come home, currently the ratio  is 3 to 1 ready to get back, 1 who just loves it here and we have to distract her big time to get her on that plane!!! Oh well better start saving to do another trip, sooner rather than later.

Day 36

It is easy to see how the scenery could inspire JRR Tolkein to write the Hobbitt and The Lord Of The Rings when living in England.  The rolling hills, the moors, dales, mountains, fields, forests and woods are not only beautiful but you can just picture the magical stories that this man wrote.  The woods especially are so, the trees are so densely foliaged that only a small amount of light reaches the ground.  How great they would be to explore.  Today we added mist, rain, fog and 12 degrees temperature so the feeling closed in around you even more – magic (but cold). We had to hold Wally back so we did not lose him in the dense woods, they truly fascinated him, Aussie bush hah!

For most of it we drove around the North Yorkshire Moors enjoying the narrow, twisty roads, magical views but mostly keeping warm and dry.  This area of North Yorkshire features many really steep descents and steep hill climbs.  Buses and trucks slow our progress but still good driving.

One stop was the little village of Goathland, setting for the town of Aidensfield in the British TV series “Heartbeat”.  Checked out the village shops, post office, Bernie Scripps Garage and of course the Aidensfield Arms pub.  This is one of our favourite shows on TV so now we will be able to say been there seen that!! The train station was also one of the locations for the first Harry Potter movie.

Off to Whitby for the best fish and chips in England, from the Magpie Café.  All four  us enjoyed thick, luscious cod (even Wally who cant normally eat sea food) and lovely fluffy chips.  Caroline has always reckoned they are different and we now all have the proof.  Better than Anges’ at Drysdale??? We can’t wait to get back home and try them out again. 

The area also abounds with references to Captain James Cook as he was born and raised in before his fascination began with the sea in Staithes and later Whitby where he served his seaman’s apprenticeship.

Day 35

Today was planned as a bit of a drive up to North Yorkshire, but was to be interrupted by a couple of stops.  First up was The Donnington Collection which happens to be the largest collection of Grand Prix cars in the world.  The collection is magnificently presented with histories on the cars, on drivers, on races – anything connected with Formula One Grand Prix racing.  1930 model Auto Unions, Ferrari’s, McLaren’s, Williams’ cars from all different years.

After we continued initially aiming for York but we thought of a change and decided upon Scarborough.  All well and good but the darned satnav thingy went to sleep (just froze up and didn’t update after a certain point), we therefore had a longish drive on some average roads following two tractors and lots of very slow drivers. 

We therefore arrived at the sea side city of Scarborough very late for lunch but the chosen destination ran out of food – so we had a quick look around the once magnificent castle, now in ruins and continued on.

Scarborough Castle

Scarborough beach, it is 20 degrees outside and there are people swimming in the North Sea.  Summer in the UK is so strange!

Sleep tonight is at Walworth Castle which was originally developed around 1150ad.  It is developed into a smallish, specialist hotel but the rooms are decorated to retain the feeling to some degree.  
We are on the third floor of the turret and as you can see Caroline & I have a 4 poster bed, much to the girls disdain they are on camp beds in the living rooms, at least they are seperate because in a lot of places they have had to sleep together and fight over the doona!!!   They are a little worried cos a story told in Stratford Upon Avon yesterday explained that four poster beds got there lids so that people did not wake up eating mice or birds that had fallen from the thatched roof. They are concerned un necessarily because we actually have a plaster roof. Anything to try get the parents to give up the 4 poster bed... as if!!!!

Day 34

Today we wandered the streets of old Warwick town and met with cousin Barry, his wife Naomi and of course Aunty Irene.  Barry chose The Art Kitchen which is a restaurant owned and run by close friends of his.  We spent about an hour just chating before they left back for home while we walked back to our apartment and got the car so we could drive to Stratford Upon Avon.

Stratford is quitre a beautiful little town on the river Avon (obviously) but has famous landmarks such as William Shakespeare’s house, Ann Hathaway’s (William’s wife) cottage, etc.  Wre cheated and did a bus tour so we could get some commentary about the history of the place.

Stratford is also along one of the canal systems so there were many canal boats in the marina and along the canal.  There is even a restaurant canal boat and one that serves ice cream and another that is a floating art gallery. 

The evening Thai meal at The Art Kitchen was delightful and scrumptious before our short walk back to the apartment.  It was a great location.

Day 33

“Welcome To Silverstone” the sign says, ah yes but the tricky bit is actually getting there….

We set off in the morning for a leisurely drive to Silverstone Raceway and it was nearly so.  When we turned on to the last motorway 4.8 miles from Silverstone we were confronted with a motorway jam packed with cars and trucks all completely stopped.  With nowhere else to go we had to join the mess, turn off the engine and wait, and wait and wait….  After about 15 minutes we moved (about 200 metres) and turned off the engine again.  It had to be an accident blocking the motorway but eventually we crawled to the Silverstone turn off but no, it was just people going to the race meeting, once we made the turn off the highway the last 1 mile was up to speed at 40 mph and no hold ups what so ever – how can nothing bring a motorway to a complete standstill – no accident, no blockage, nothing.

Noting that this was only a “Classic” meeting one can only imagine what traffic chaos the Grand Prix would cause with at least 10 times the number of people travelling!

The only notable thing about the last 4.8 miles was the number of dead old sports cars lining the road, clearly they couldn’t take being stuck in the traffic jam.  We must have passed 20 E Type Jags, AC Cobras, Allards and the like most with their bonnets up and the drivers out discussing how they are all going to get to the track.

Once parked we tried to buy our tickets but the ticket office had run out of children’s tickets.  Which meant no one with children could get in until more had arrived – silly you know, they give you a bit of paper so some yobbo at the gate tears it in half.  Welcome to Silverstone indeed! This was such a contrast to all the other events we had been to, if you had pre booked tickets you could jump the queue and go through another gate, you could here also but as a gentleman found out who stood in the queue for ages his entrance was “over there” but of course was not clearly marked!!

Our first stop was Stowe Corner where Nigel pulled off a fabulous pass to win the British Grand Prix in 1987.  The racing was good but a number of the programmed cars were no-shows so a bit disappointing.  All the Formula One cars for the “Grand Prix Masters” race were from the period 1971 to 1982 and all powered by Cosworth 3 litre engines.  A March 751 won but for much of the race was closely followed by a McLaren MP4 however its engine sounded rough at the end and was passed by a Tyrrell 009.  Best car there in my opinion was the ex Carlos Pace, Carlos Reutemannn Brabham BT44.

Other races we saw were for pre 1966 rear engine cars, Group C Le Mans sports cars, pre 1961 front engined GP cars which were great to watch the drivers sawing away at the steering wheel trying to keep them roughly in a straight line.  The most entertaining driving was in the Masters ‘Gentlemen Drivers’ Pre 1966 sports cars, some of those were really chucked around, the E Type Jags especially.

For E-Type Jaguar freaks it was the 50^th anniversary and over 700 E-Types were on the track during a parade run.

Was it worth it?  Well it was overpriced and there were long gaps between the races, so there is nothing wrong with the Aussie Historic racing which is better priced and (seemingly) better organised.  And no trouble getting to the tracks either.  Cars were good though.

We all got to taste what rally car action is like by a couple of laps each in the navigators seat of a Group N MG ZR car – light weight, 200 horse power engine, big brakes, very sideways, fun stuff.

You can guess who wrote the stuff above cos Caroline would say, race car, four wheels on the ground, very loud but there is nothing like being at the race to enjoy the atmosphere. Braedy said “Boy this is cool much better than watching it on the telly!!” We all concur.

So this is Summer in England? Suzie Quatro was in concert at the race meeting but Caroline was shivering in the cold so we left and missed it. Oh well we did get to hear 10CC for a while against the noise of the Le mans cars.