The Cotswalds

It was now several months since we had acquired the Iceberg and we had still not really taken him away properly camping for a few days. With the second May Bank Holiday we intended to remedy that with a trip away to the Cotswalds. Not only that but Ian and Amy were going to come along too with Minty. The planning of it all had been a little bit last minute so we didn’t have any accommodation booked, however it was Ian to the rescue with the idea that we join the Caravan Club and then we can use their site just out of Oxford. We flirted with the idea of free camping the whole thing but then sense prevailed and Caravan Club members we became. We each made our own separate ways on Friday night. With the busy Friday night leaving London traffic Marcus had a bit of an altercation with a bollard and unfortunately Iceberg came off all the worst for it but we did manage to make it to Woodstock, just outside of Oxford in one piece where we met up with Ian and Amy who had already sussed out a campsite. To say our campers looked a bit substandard compared to the other people at the Caravan Club site was something of an understatement, but we weren’t there to impress anyone, we were just up for getting some nature into us and having a look around this most English part of England. The night was chilly, so we were thankful that at least we had somewhere to park up and after a couple of drinks and a chat it was off to sleep with a busy weekend ahead.

The next morning, after a round of bacon sandwiches, we wandered next door to Blenheim Palace, the former home of the Churchills, the most famous being Winston. It is a big, beautiful stately palace and gardens which now serves as a museum about the Churchills, and is lived in by the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. We started with a wander around the gardens. We did have to dodge the odd rain shower but overall managed to stay reasonably dry. There is a massive lake out the back of the palace so we took a walk along the shores of that, checking out the birds and plants which were all around. We then wandered back up through the middle of the garden, stopping to smell the roses, before we arrived back at the palace. We stopped for some tea and scones (along with hundreds of other tourists…) but as we didn’t mind sitting in the rain we didn’t have too much trouble getting a table outside. After a bite to eat we took a wander through the part of the palace which was open for public access. It was interesting to see all of the family memorabilia although the amount of it was a little overwhelming.  Instead of doing the guided tour (complete with ghost story) we went across the Vanbrugh's Grand bridge where we chilled out a bit on the other side and were witness to a guy proposing to his girlfriend (awesome). Although the spot he had chosen was a little bit heavy on the duck poo. After that spot of romance we made our way through the palace one last time and got ourselves across to the butterfly house down the road. It wasn’t exactly teeming with butterflies but the ones we saw seemed to be happy enough. Along with the butterfly house there was also a street of mini buildings which we think was supposed to look like the main street of Woodstock`. No stately home is complete without a hedge maze, so we spent some time wandering through there (can you work out what word the letters in the hedge spell?) After being worn out by all that walking we took the token tourist train back to the entrance of Blenheim Palace where we were lucky enough to be able to visit a local arts and crafts fair. Even better this was a proper arts and crafts fair with real artists and artisans showing and selling their wares. There were sculptors and potters and carvers and all sorts of other people showing original interest in art, not just the usual tat. Amy was very pleased with her painters' box purchase. It had been a big day so far but it wasn’t yet over. We took a stroll through the picturesque town of Woodstock. It really was everything you imagined an English Country town to be with stone buildings covered in Ivy and pubs and cobblestones. We decided to head to one of the pubs on the outskirts of town as we had noticed it had a cool water wheel on it. After sampling some local ales and playing a couple of rounds of the new worldwide phenomenon “Stop the Bus” we made our way back to the campsite for some well earned rest. We had some uncertainty as to how the weather was going to hold so we managed to get the awning on the side of the van raised for the first time with a bit of duct tape to hold it all together. It was then an evening of red wine and Backpackers before turning in.

 The next day we all piled into Minty for a trip further afield into the wider Cotswalds. Our first stop was Chipping Norton which left us feeling slightly underwhelmed. We were able to find some water at the supermarket, so it wasn’t a total write off though…Luckily the town of Moreton in Marsh redeemed any misconceptions we may have had. It is the site of the White Hart Royal Hotel which housed King Charles during part of his time in exile. The Costwalds is a very royalist area. The craft market wasn’t up to the standard of the day before but that was OK, because we treated ourselves to a tasty cream tea before checking out the crazy array of teapots in some of the other tea rooms. There was everything from the standard yellow teapot to the three wheeled van from Only Fools and Horses. We continued along our way to the town of Stow on the Wold, where the wind blows cold. Stow on the Wold is situated on the top of a hill so is apparently very windy. There certainly was a chill in the air. The tourists had heard about it too obviously, as there were plenty around. We checked out the local church, which had a cool looking entrance where the trees had grown all around it. Then it was back into town for a pint at the old pub. Unfortunately they had had it redecorated so only the roof beams were still old but it was nice to have a pint nonetheless. It was then back to in the van and off to Upper Slaughter (via Lower Slaughter) for a short walk through the countryside. We ran into one of Ian’s old workmates who was perhaps slightly over the top in her reaction to seeing someone unexpected but as always Ian played it cool. Our last stop of the day was the town of Bourton on the Water, home of a miniature version of itself. And within the miniature version was a miniature version of the miniature version!! Crazy!! There is only so much excitement you can take in one day so we made our way back to the campsite with plans for a nice pub dinner. However, it turns out virtually everything closes on a Sunday night so we wandered the whole town before eventually agreeing to a curry. They couldn’t fit us in straight away so we went for more of a walk where, purely by chance, we did find a pub that was serving food, and it was decent food at that. Joyously we tucked into our tasty dinners before tucking ourselves in to bed.

We awoke to torrential rain on the last day of our weekend away. Fortunately we had packed most of our stuff up the night before so it was all stowed safely in the vans. We weren’t sure whether we should just pack it in and head back to London, but in true NZ style we carried on and decided to go see the Uffington White Horse, a chalk horse drawn on the hill in Somerset. Different Sat Navs took us different directions but we both got there in the end, although the rain followed us too. We couldn’t really get much of a view of the horse so we wandered across the hills, battling our umbrellas, until we got a close up look. It was pretty cool how the ditches had been dug into the hill and then filled with stones which were covered in chalk. Some brave souls were out touching up the chalk that day but I am not sure how well their progress was going in the rain. We were all thoroughly soaked by the time we got back to the vans. Fortunately the beauty of having a van is that you can get changed into dry clothes straight away! We took in a decent pub lunch at the Fox and Hound before thanking each other for the weekend and making our way back to London, our first proper weekend away in the Iceberg a success.

https://picasaweb.google.com/JessicaLMcMillan/CotswaldsMay2011

May

It was a mixture of social events that kept us going throughout May. The first was lunch for Beverley’s birthday with all the usual suspects at the Flask in Hampstead. We were impressed with the Flask. It was a good English Pub with good food and service. Marcus probably didn’t need to order the sausage platter though. A platter implies you share it Marcus…It was then back to their huge flat in Hampstead for general shenanigans and some old fashioned Circle of Death.

 
We did manage to get out of London in May too with a trip to St Albans, the old roman city and general nice place, just to the north of London. The London traffic meant we probably spent more time getting to and from there than we actually spent in St Albans but at least Iceberg got to go for a spin too. We checked out the cathedral and managed to score some lunch at the cathedral café. We wandered around the park which is where the old Roman city of Verulamium used to be. We didn’t see all the ruins but we looked at the old wall and some cool mosaics on what would have been someone’s living room floor a couple of thousand years ago. Apparently the oldest pub in the UK is supposed to be there too, however after seeing the outside we were not convinced we wanted to see the inside so decided to give it a miss. Probably a good idea when driving anyway. Overall a successful, if brief, trip to St Albans.

We caught up with Ian and Amy at their place for some tasty BBQ dinner. We certainly miss having some outdoor area at our flat and it is always good to burn some meat outdoors and enjoy some good company.

It was Ian and Amy’s place again for the “Murder at the Deadwood Saloon” murder mystery evening. Marcus was Gambling Jack, he was successful but that success didn’t all come honestly, and Jess was Bonnie the Banker, the wife of the banker, although we all know who really controls the money. It was a great night of fun, confusion, tacky costumes and bad western accents. Ricky was particularly good. By the end of the night between us we had managed to collect no clues and really had no idea what was going on or whodunit but it was excellent fun and we would highly recommend it to anyone who gets the chance.

The next night we made the journey down to Wandsworth to catch up with Anna and Perry. Perry is Canadian so he was drumming up support for the Canucks who were on the road to their first Stanley Cup. There was a good crowd of Canadians and Kiwis there and although we don’t know much about Hockey we still had fun. Unfortunately Perry was looking a bit scratched and sore. This was the first time we had seen him since Yum Cha. Alas, upon returning home from Yum Cha he found he had locked himself out of their flat. Instead of bothering Anna at work he decided to use his ninja skills to scale the wall and enter the first floor window of their flat. Suffice to say he was not successful and ended up in a hospital bed rather than his own. Luckily all is well again although next time he will probably just call Anna.

https://picasaweb.google.com/JessicaLMcMillan/May2011

Ireland

Having only just arrived back from Scotland, we weren’t going to waste another four day weekend in London. Although the Royal Wedding of William to Kate was the event of the decade we decided to get out of town and instead visit the Emerald Isle of Ireland. Our trip to Dublin had left us thinking there must be more than the Guiness factory to see. We took off on Thursday night on the train to Leigh on Sea where we were spending the night with Karla and James and Harry before departing from Southend Airport. It was really good seeing them all and finally managing to check out their new house. Karla was concerned that James’ constant renovations would mean that the place would be in a shambles but from what we could see it was coming along well. Lucky James can live on only two hours sleep a night. After a few drinks, a few chats and a massive Chinese meal for dinner we tucked ourselves in to bed ready for the start of our next adventure the following day.

Staying at Leigh meant a civilised start to the morning watching the preparations for the Royal Wedding before James dropped us at the airport. Southend Airport is aiming to the be main airport for the Olympic Games with people being able to come in and head to east London without having to travel through central London. If you have ever been to a provincial airport in New Zealand then you will get some idea of the layout of Southend. A shed a desk and a door. I think it has some way to go before 2012. Nonetheless we managed to get on our flight to Galway with reasonably little effort and we landed in a splendidly sunny Ireland. We picked up our rental car at the airport. Not as nice as the one we had had in Scotland but at least we had wheels. It was then a drive into Galway itself to have a look around. We stopped for some tasty fresh fish washed down with some Bulmers cider (called Magners in the UK. Bulmers is different in the UK. Confused?) We then wandered into the town of Galway itself. It is a very pretty city. It has a river which flows in from the port which we wandered along before meandering back through the town centre. There was plenty of stone and it felt old fashioned while still having all the modern conveniences. There were plenty of people about just lazing around enjoying the sunshine. However, we had much to see before the end of the day so it was back in the car again and down the coast to the Cliffs of Mohair. They are a series of sheer stone cliffs which (once you get through the hordes of flies) provide a dramatic and spectacular outlook over the Atlantic. Like any of these sorts of places, tourism means that they have now been quite heavily developed, so what was once probably a relatively isolated walk to the cliffs is now a paved path with shops and a museum. We had a nosy at the museum and checked out some of the local legends about maidens and monsters before it was back into our car and onwards to the town of Bunratty, our first nights accommodation. Upon arriving we were very impressed with the country manor B&B which Marcus had booked. We wandered down the road and found the local restaurant who served us up some tasty dinner, washed down by a Guinness and then crossed the road to the local pub, which had a good set of low ceilings and pokey rooms to qualify as a quality Irish establishment, before making our way back to our room for some sleep.

Turns out we were just down the road from Bunratty Castle and historic village. So after a full Irish Breakfast (which was similar to the full Scottish breakfasts we had enjoyed the week before) we wandered down and had a look around. If you have ever been to Shantytown on the West Coast of the South Island it is along those lines. They have taken the castle and some nearby manor houses and churches and built a village around it in the style of old Ireland. Although it sounds quite cheesy it was quite well down and there was enough information to keep you reading but not so much that you got bored. Slim Dillon even got to have a look around at this one. After taking a nice stroll around and coming out better informed we carried on to the city of Limerick. Limerick felt a bit like any other city. There was a river and there seemed to be a castle down the way, but the city centre was full of the chain stores and other places that make it normal. It is a place where people live. For us it wasn’t a place which was exciting to visit. However, we did find ourselves some sandwiches for lunch before continuing south to the town of Killarney, the start of the Ring of Kerry. We could see that Killarney could be a pretty town, if somewhat touristy. Unfortunately it was the site of a car rally that weekend so chav boy racers from all over Ireland had descended on the place and were doing laps around the city centre and haunting every street corner and pub in the place. This was not our idea of a good time so we grabbed some food and then made our way into the reserve on the edge of town. There was an old manor house there but it was pretty run down and obviously under repair but a walk further into the reserve was very pleasant and a nice way to spend the afternoon away from the boy racers. We assumed the bars and restaurants would be full so thought we would try fish and chips for dinner. We weren’t quite sure where to look  but found what turned out to be a fish restaurant serving fresh local catches. It wasn’t fish and chips but it definitely was tasty.

The next morning we travelled backwards around the Ring of Kerry because we had heard there were some good walks around a nearby lake. We stopped and went for a wander up the hill through the forest and past a waterfall. A bit of local nature is always well appreciated. It was then back in the car and off the other way for a drive around the Ring of Kerry. So called because it is around the Kerry peninsula. There were plenty of hilly areas, and views out to sea. Although it didn’t blow our minds it was still very pleasant. I think we are a bit spoiled with that sort of thing in New Zealand. It was certainly reminiscent of some parts of New Zealand at times. We stopped off along the way for photos and a breath of fresh air. We had a particularly nice walk around the beach and grounds of Farraniaragh after deciding to take a random road where we weren’t quite sure what we were going to find at the end of it. We finished up our day coming into the town of Kenmare which was a bit like Killarney but without all the boy racers. Our trip to the local stone circle left us questioning whether the whole thing had only recently been set down there, although the French hippies seemed to be convinced as to the authenticity of it all. A hunt for dinner proved somewhat difficult. The place was full of restaurants, but they all seemed to think it was reasonable to charge 17 Euros for chicken. We felt if all we were getting was chicken we would be better of going for the local fish and chips, which we did.

 

It was an Irish/German breakfast as the B&B we were staying at seemed to be owned by Germans, so that was a slight change on the morning routine. Also (it had had to happen), the rain had finally arrived. We made our way towards Blarney in the hope that the rain would lift. Unfortunately the rain continued to pour but this did not deter us on our visit to Blarney Castle. It is a funny place, Blarney Castle. It is clearly a tourist trap but luckily the rain had kept many of the tourists away today. The grounds and gardens were beautiful and we enjoyed wandering around them in our rain jackets. We weren’t entirely convinced as to the authenticity of the druids’ cave and witches’ staircase but we played along anyway. The kissing of the Blarney Stone, at the top of the ruin of Blarney Castle, was again one of the those things that you do but, unlike the American tour groups you wait in line with, you never feel quite like you are getting a true authentic experience. However we both lined up and we both kissed the Blarney Stone so now we should both have the gift of eloquence. We shall see how that one plays out over time. As the rain continued to fall we jumped back in the car and continued on our way to Cork. Cork is a mixture of both modern and old fashioned. We were able to discern that much through the rain. However it being Easter Monday and Ireland being a strongly Catholic country Cork was largely closed. With the rain pouring and the city closed we eventually relented and drove out to the airport to await our flight back to London. Much like New Zealand, you don’t get an Emerald Isle without a lot of rain. To be sure, to be sure…

https://picasaweb.google.com/JessicaLMcMillan/IrelandApril2011