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Taking Off
This postcard starts with a plane flight from Sydney to London - a totally new experience for me. I have long lived with an intense terror of plane flight, not being one of those people who understand the force of lift, and how it can keep a 2 billion ton Jumbo Jet off the ground. I think it was with quite a sadistic smile that Brand (the MD) gave me a plane ticket as a reward for 10 years of service! Luckily I had the services of Virginia, whose nursing skills were enough to get on the plane (including a wonderfully prepared cocktail of Valium and Temazapam). I wanted to be worried and nervous, but it just didn't seem to happen. The whole plane trip was a bit of a blur, but I was concious enough to think that I didn't mind it too much. We even had an aborted takeoff in Bangkok just to see if I was really cool about flying now. I landed at Heathrow thinking that this was easy...of course it is now 2 months later and I have to fly to Ireland on Saturday and, luckily, I still have a bit of Valium left.
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London in Winter
Our first travelling experience was a week in London, staying in some budget accommodation. We stayed at first in the posh Regent's Park for a few nights and then moved south to Pimlico (here we saw some places that reminded me of the Bill's JasmineAllen estate). The first thing that hits you about London is how expensive everything is - yet the place is packed with people spending money like there is no tomorrow. Admittedly it was the post-Christmas sales, but I could certainly find no bargains. Anyway, it was a real buzz to see all those Monopoly board places and pageantry that some prehistoric imperialism has drummed into my subconcious. The weather was very mild - it reminded much of a typical Canberra winters day - sunny with a bit of crispness. I was expecting much worse - after two months here I still haven't worn the flash new raincoat that I bought specially for England. perhaps Ireland...
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Worcestershire
After London, we headed off to the countryside - we had a couple of cottages booked for two weeks while we tried to find some more permanent accommodation. Before leaving Oz we had put a random pin in the map somewhere in the middle of Worcestershire, I'm still not sure why. Everyone did say that it was nice though. Anyway, we spent a stressful time looking for houses - they had to be rural and charming and rustic, yet comfortable and not too far away from the motorway, you know how it gets. Needing a furnished place really cut down our options, and needing somewhere within two weeks added to the stress. Anyway, we finally found somewhere that we both liked immediately, and so rushed in. We're now living in what they call a "barn conversion" on a farm about 10 miles west of Worcester (see the contact details page). The older barns in England seem to be built out of stone and are two stories high, which makes them ideal to convert into houses. We have an upstairs which is all one room (lounge/dining) which looks out over a large amount of the county, with kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom and "office" downstairs. We were certain the place was right when we found it had two telephone lines. The only thing missing is the shower.
Around Worcestershire
We now have explored just about every nook and cranny in these parts, having also bought a zippy little Ford Escort. We are reasonably close to the Welsh border here, so there are heaps of castles about. This is because it has taken quite a long time for the English and Welsh to get on with each other. The Welsh coutryside is so perfect, I can understand them not wanting to let a bunch of AngloSaxons in. Quite a lot of the castles are ruined, but it is something you don't see in Australia. It is mid-boggling to think that they built these places 800 years ago, particularly as we don't seem to be able to build anything nice these days with all our wonderful technology. Anything built in this century usually looks an immediate candidate for bulldozing. We had a couple of friends staying with us at this stage, Pat and George, who helped us settle into the English countryside. The visit to Warwick castle had some interesting exhibits, some of which you could even get your hands on.
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We're also very near to the Cotswolds and have spent a fair bit of time checking that out. This area consists of about 20 or 30 incredibly cute little villages, with houses built of a characteristic yellow stone. Probably every house was build before Australia was invaded. The countryside in between is divided into millions of paddocks, each with a dry stone wall around it. They obviously haven't they heard of redgum and wire over here.
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| Stream in Naunton | Bridge at Bourton-on-the-Water |
Further Afield
We have also managed to fit into a couple of extra trips away - one in Bath, one in Cambridge and another in the Exmoor National Park near Dunster. We are still fortunately in the low season - it is horrible to think of what these places will look like in summer. Bath had a really impressive audio tour of the ancient Roman baths, and we indulged ourselves in a Victorian "high tea" in the pump room. The atmosphere is similar to Mt Victoria in the Blue Mountains - I had to practice controlling the little pinky whilst drinking my cup of tea.
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| Maureen taking in the audio-visual tour at Bath | Bridge of Sighs in Cambridge | Dunster Village |
Cambridge was similarly uncrowded - we managed to get into Kings College to hear the little boys sing in the choir. This was quite breathtaking for a rock-n-roll troglodyte like me. We also did the mandatory punt down the river Cam - although I wimped out and let someone else do the hard work. It was Valentine's day after all.
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Even Further Afield
The travel industry in England is perhaps one of the biggest, with about 10 travel agents down the "high street" of every city and town. This does mean that there are quite a few bargains to be had, and we couldn't resist a special on 3 days in Paris. We travelled on the EuroStar train which goes underneath the channel - making it a three hours between London and Paris. Paris was an incredible experience for me - there is so much happening there, and it is so confronting that you have to react to it. I was pretty cranky with it on the first day - why can't they talk English like everyone else, why do they drive so stupidly, why are all the chairs facing the one way, why do you have to pay extra to sit down, why is it so really, really expensive, why do they bother putting a television in my room?, why can't you get something hot for breakfast, why am I here? By the second day, I started to get into the flow, realising that this what travelling is about. I soon realised that I was never going to be cool in Paris, so I might as well inflict my atrocious French on them. This started to work, although I still couldn't work out why you would pay $5 for a tiny cup of coffee. We bought a three-day museum card, and then proceeded to try to get as much value as possible from it. This ends up being a bit silly, as you end up racing past countless pieces of art and architecture, feeling mainly dazed by the quantity of it. You start looking for the good Raphaels and Canaletto's! By day three, I was starting to think French without translating it all the time, although I'll never be able to speak it well. We starting to find hidden delights like buskers on the Metro, couscous restaurants, the open-air food markets, the crepe vendors, etc. I must go back there soon.
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| The Louvre | Some sculpted fugures on Notre Dame | View of a park in Paris from the Eiffel Tower |