I've never seen so many black t-shirts in one place!

Day 10 - South Bristol

A&L had invited us around for breakfast so we arrived at their house mid morning for a coffee, then went for a walk past the allotments and through some fields (not paddocks). Everything was very dry and crisp. but there were a lot of ripe blackberries and plums growing wild so we tried a few along the way.

After leaving A&L's  we drove into Bristol, hoping to find somewhere near the harbour to enjoy the sunshine but it was so busy and we couldn't find anywhere to easily park the car so we gave up and drove back to our hotel.

Our hotel was in the grounds of an old private estate and school, with manicured gardens and terraces, and there was a wedding reception underway when we arrived, We sat outside and had a some drinks and a snack, then got ready for what M had been looking forward to for some time. 

Just after 6pm we hopped in the car and drove to the the ArcTanGent music festival at Fernhill Farm, the main attraction being to see the Cult of Luna with Julie Christmas, who were closing the festival with a performance of their album Mariner, The festival was very well organised with huge big top tents, lots of food and drink and (to K's surprise) clean toilets!

Once the sun set it became quite chilly and we headed back to the car for more clothes. In a sea of black t-shirts and nose rings K was pretty confident she was the only one wearing a soft pink New Zealand alpaca wool jumper and a mink hat. We had a drink and watched a couple of the lead up bands before venturing into the main tent to see the headliners.

The performance was as excellent as M had hoped it would be, and if you want to see what it was like here's a sample:

Once it all finished at around 11pm we were a little concerned it would take some time to get out of the car park, but it was all pretty painless and we were back at the hotel by midnight,  

This is not the time for a cheesy joke

Day 9 - Frome to South Bristol 

We said goodbye to Frome and started our drive to Bristol. We had a couple of things planned for that area, including a visit to our friends A&L in Backwell.

We went via Cheddar Gorge which was very touristy with many shops that of course sell cheddar cheese, along with lots of fudge and ice cream. We decided that the entry fee to visit the caves was a bit rich, instead M climbed the 274 steps of Jacob's ladder and then up to the highest point at the Pinnacle, which had a good view of Cheddar town and reservoir. 

We made a short lunch stop at some cute tea rooms in Ashbridge before arriving at A & L's. On our previous trip to the UK in 2011 we had stayed in their summer house in their garden and used it as a base to visit other places in the UK

After a nice catch up with we left to check in to our hotel in South Bristol for the next three nights, then driving to the nearby village for an excellent dinner at The Congresbury Arms.

Look, no wires

Day 8 - Frome

We woke to rain, something very welcome in England at the moment, which continued as we drove to Lacock. The ran stopped by the time we started walking around the abbey that is famous for being the site for the TV show Downton Abbey as well as the cloisters for the early Harry Potter movies. We then wandered around the National Trust owned village which is very popular for period filming as it has no overhead wires.

Our lunch stop was at Bradford on Avon where we walked over the 13 century bridge to have cake at The Shambles, a short shopping street dating back to the Middle Ages.

The final stop of the day was the stunning gardens at Iford Manor.

We made it back to Frome in time to visit the last few shops K wanted to see before they closed for the day.

Hare Hare Hare Krishna

Day 7 - Frome

At last night's dinner we were given some good advice on towns to visit in the area, so we started off by driving to Wells. It was market day so we had to stop by a few carparks until we finally found one with space. We strolled around the town, visiting the Wednesday market, the cathedral and Bishop's Palace.

We drove on to the "hippy" town of Glastonbury, known for the music festival but apparently also a place where westerners can pretend they are religious Indians and sing about Hare Krishna. There were lots of shops with crystals and potions, men with pointy beards and pony tails and women with kaftans and pink/blue hair. 

It was a nice sunny day so we had lunch, then walked around town for while, viewing the ruins of the abbey from the outside and with the Glastonbury Tor in the background.

Back in Frome we walked the steep cobbled streets, checking out some of the local shops, followed by a quick drink at a quaint local pub which seemed to have a nice authentic atmosphere. 

Winchester Cathedral, you're bringing me down

Day 6 - Winchester to Frome

M took an early walk through the Winnall Moors nature reserve before returning to pack up and check out. We left the car at the hotel and explored Winchester, including a look at the cathedral, which we have since learnt is the longest in the world, though it wasn't obvious to us at the time. 

We drove on to Southampton and stopped at the waterfront (where the Titanic left from) to watch huge ships being towed by small tugs to start their ocean journey.

Our next destination was Old Sarum outside of Salisbury, though we had a little trouble getting there as we always seems to be in the wrong lane and ended heading off in the wrong direction, and the traffic didn't help, getting caught in a traffic jam along the way.

Old Sarum was built around 400 BC, the massive circular earthworks served as an early defensive hilltop fort. William the Conqueror built a royal castle here around 1070, and a cathedral followed. Not much of it is left, there are some excavated stone walls and drawings to help you imagine the original buildings and rooms, but much of the stone was removed to build other forts and castles in the area.

We made it to Salisbury Cathedral where we joined the 2pm stonemasons tour, a behind the scenes look at the restoration work being done at the cathedral. The cathedral is home to Britain's tallest spire, oldest working clock, and an original copy if the Magna Carta from 1215. The tour included a visit to the stonemasons' workshop, where they seemed to be working in what seemed to be dusty and potentially unhealthy conditions. After the tour we had time to look at the Magna Carta and wander through the very impressive cathedral.

Finally we drove to Frome, our home for the next 3 nights. We spent a lovely evening with K's Spanish teacher from Barcelona and her friends at one of the local pubs, though it seemed they'd lost our food order but made up for it by offering us free drinks.

It's so dry

Day 5 - Brighton to Winchester

This morning we woke up at a regular time, hopefully our time adjustment is now sorted. 

Our room had a lovely view over the ocean which K enjoyed while M went for a walk, heading away from the beach through some parks then along the beach and down to the water's edge.

After that we went across the road for a decent flat white at one of the cafes on the promenade by the pebbly beach, followed by a wander through The Lanes. 

We then walked to The Royal Pavilion where the gardens had been burnt to a dry crisp by the heat waves and drought that's hit England this summer. The Royal Pavilion was built for King George IV and has distinctive Indian architecture with bulbous domes, minarets and arches. Apparently the interior is decorated with a Chinese influence, talk about a cultural mix.

We left Brighton and drove on to Worthing, stopping in the pretty village of Arundel for lunch by the river with the very impressive Arundel Castle up the hill.

Our next stop was Portsmouth, where we stopped at Gunwharf Quays which was a huge shopping centre which reminded us of Docklands, very modern with lots of shops. From there we walked to Spice Island and the historic waterfront area of Old Portsmouth which was more interesting. Walking through the ferry terminal we followed the edge of the harbour, finding a pub where we had a quick drink while watching the huge ferries pass by.

We drove on to Winchester, our stop for the night, relaxing for a drink in the hotel garden before heading out for a delicious Nepalese meal.

Woosh Woosh

Day 4 -  Dover to Brighton

We woke up around 5am, not quite having caught up with the time difference yet, so we decided to visit the Dover cliffs before the crowds arrived. Getting there around 7am we basically had the place to ourselves with only a couple of locals walking their dogs. We followed the cliff path admiring the chalk cliffs and the huge port below us, and we could faintly see France in the distance.

Our early start meant we had more time up our sleeve than we'd planned so we drove to Margate, the opposite direction of our originally planned route, to visit the Shell Grotto. The grotto is a series of 21 metres of underground tunnels discovered in 1835. It's unknown when it was built, by who and for what purpose. It's decorated with 4.6 million shells all over the walls and ceiling.

Our lunch stop was at the very busy Harbour Arm in Folkestone for lunch where the pebbled port and foreshore area had been developed into a very popular entertainment area.

From there we followed the coastal road through Rye and Hastings to Eastbourne where we found ourselves driving through crowds who were there to see Europe's largest seafront airshow! There were road closures, detours, traffic queues and lots of buses. We seem to have a talent for finding ourselves in cities during major events that we had no idea about, like when we were in Budapest during the Red Bull airshow. As we drove through town we could hear the woosh of the planes overhead but couldn't see them from inside the car.

After Eastbourne we took the coastal drive which takes in the striking chalk cliffs of Beachy Head, Birling Gap and Seven Sisters. We stopped at Birling Gap to walk to the lighthouse along the cliff edges with their sheer straight drops down to the ocean. The edge of the cliff was roped off for safety but that didn't stop people from standing near the edge for photos.

The coastal drive from there took us through Seaford to our hotel on the Brighton foreshore. We checked in then explored the Lanes area behind the hotel. It was a little quiet as it was Sunday night, but there were plenty of eating and drinking places open.

You can't build a sandcastle here

Day 3 - Helsinki to Dover (England) 

Our body clocks weren't in sync with the local time zone yet so we were both wide awake at 4am. We headed down for a very early breakfast, surprised to find there were already lots of people up and eating.

It was only a two minute walk from the hotel to the departures terminal where we checked in for our flight. We were flying into Heathrow for the first time, the only other time we've been to the UK we flew in and out of Bristol.

The flight was only three hours, we landed around 9am, retrieved our luggage then walked for about ten minutes through a long underground walkway to collect our rental car. Of course they didn't have the car we had booked, but we resisted the attempts to convince us to pay "just a little bit extra" for a larger car, finally walking away with the larger car and no increase in price! After finding the car the next thing we had to do was google how to put the car into reverse, it turns out the controls were on a stalk on the steering wheel!

Traffic out of Heathrow was very busy, so figuring out a new car while working out where to go was a bit tricky, but we finally were on our way to Dover for our first stop in the UK. 

We arrived in Dover a while before we could check in so we decided to visit the White Cliffs, only to find that the car park was full. So, we parked the car, dropped off our luggage, and spent the afternoon walking along the promenade, watching the ferries crossing the channel and wondering how people could lie on such a pebbly beach!

We were pretty tired so had a very early dinner at at a nice Italian restaurant with water views, before going to bed around 7:30pm. 

How long has it been?

Day 1 - Melbourne to Bangkok 

Yes, it's been a whole 66 days since we returned from our last trip. Must be a record, right? Maybe - but only if you don't count M's short trip to South East Asia that he returned from just 13 days ago!

Enough of that, time to get this blog going again.

We took off for the first of three flights to England, first leg Melbourne to Bangkok. A civilised departure at 1.30pm had us arriving around 8pm local time, for a stopover at our usual airport hotel.

Day 2 - Bangkok to Helsinki 

With what's been happening in the world we weren't keen on getting to Europe via the Middle East, so from Bangkok we opted to fly to Helsinki, taking advantage of some reasonably priced business class fares, which made the 13 hour flight slightly more tolerable.

We were looking forward to visiting Helsinki again after our visit four years ago, but by the time we made through the incredibly slow and inefficient border formalities we ended up having an early night at the very convenient Clarion Hotel at the airport.

Back to the cold

Day 28 - Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to Melbourne (Australia)

Our flight ticket allowed us to use the Malaysia Airlines lounge, so after an early start we were able to have a reasonable breakfast (nothing special, but at least the coffees weren't made in a machine), before our uneventful flight home.

Our next trip isn't too far away, but we will have to endure more of Melbourne's cold winter weather than we'd like before escaping again!