Moving onto English soil - Yay!

 

Finally we are on our way to English speaking, English signs, driving on the same side of the road (can't count the number of times I have nearly been bowled over by a car because I looked the wrong way!), menus we can understand, and food that makes sense!

The day started well enough - train from Arras to Calais 6.45am - arrived in Calais one hour before due to be at the ferry terminal. HOWEVER - a warning to anybody else silly enough to do this - the Calais main railway station we arrived at is 10km out of town, in the boondocks with just bleak paddocks around it. It is 8am and NO TAXIS. We found the taxi park, (reasonably small railway station to negotiate) and you have to phone one of three phone numbers on a sign for a taxi, which Dave does. But they all answer on answer phone in French! So back inside, no one wants to help us, hardly anyone around, so Dave asks the cleaning lady with little English, who kindly dials the numbers for us but no taxis avaliable. So Dave gets onto Uber hoping it is not in French and comes up long wait for them all. Panic sets in. We ask a train porter who suggests a bus or train into town, but they don't leave for another hour, time we don't have. Very stressed out. There are literally no cars coming into our out of the station area - it is deserted. So Dave tries Uber again while waiting at the bus stop, an lo and behold a taxi comes pass, empty. I frantically wave and it stops - yay! the taxi drives like a maniac to the ferry terminal, and we are half an hour early. My god - a gin was needed at 9am in the morning. It was the worst experience of our trip.

Anyway - the ferry terminals, ports at Calais are huge. Trucks lining up everywhere and organised like precision clockwork. We are foot passengers (only 15 of us) and we get taken by bus to the customs and security place, back onto the bus and the bus goes into the ferry before any cars, trucks etc go on, and drops us off INSIDE THE FERRY. Imagine the interislander doing that! the empty bus then drives back out. Easy as that part, up to the lounge, get pick of the comfy chairs with the best view. In the meantime the cars, trucks go on in 3 lanes, one for each deck. Quick as.

The ferry is a bit smaller than ours but lots of room. Hardly any people up where we were. It was the so-called fast ferry and took 1 1/2 hours to get to Dover. The day was cloudy, windy and cold but still no rain, and the channel was 1 metre swell so not bad conditions really. We see lots of other ferries and cargo ships along the way.

WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER - easlily spotted half way across and go for a long way along the coast.

This is the ferry terminal at Dover, much smaller that Calais and they come and go throgh that small hole in the sea wall.

Dover castle, high up behind Dover on the white cliffs.

We stayed at a B & b type hotel with lots and lots of stairs and no lifts. We were kindly up-graded to 2nd floor huge room for free and Dave was having to lug 2 huge bags up to the 4th floor initially and the lovely lady could see we were tired! This was our breakfast the next morning, she could tell Dave needed feeding up - right!

The stairs were lots of and narrow. 

That night we went to the local nearby pub for a beer where Dave had lots of converstations at the bar with the locals, leaving me to my own. We moved on to a reccommended eatery where this is my steak and ale pie and mushy peas and gravy.  This was a place big enough to have 4 tables, a bar below for drinking, and a wall full of different whiskeys. You need to go there John Malcolm. Beside our table was a lovely elderly American couple from Pittsburgh who love walking and hiking. They had walked along the White Cliffs road which goes along the top of the cliffs for miles. We got talking while eating and got into a political discussion (they hate Trump but love Jacinda) and then a yound German couple came in to the table on the other side of us and they joined in so the whiskeys and wines flowed and it was a great night with strangers. God I love England!

This was the local pub we went to first. It was small, low ceiling but the walls were decorated with peoples names and dates and times in marker pen, marking when and how long it took them to swim the English Channel to Calais! Apparently before Covid they had a yearly relay or solo swim race to Calais (and back if you were so inclined) and recorded the names on the wall for prosperity. Cool as.

Dave contemplating the 'local' beer,

Dover is a small place and we walked around it a few times. We went to the local museum and it was the first English place Julius Caesar landed when he first thought to conquer UK, Then it became the roman main landing place for goods, soldiers etc from France.

OXFORD 

This was the next day, a straight line from Dover to Oxford was supposed to take 3  hours. We left with lots of time to spare. Dave had picked up our rental car and they had up-graded us for 50 pound extra to a MG SUV so comfort abounds. The roads out were motorways with lots of trucks due to the ferries, and traffic flowed quite nicely until we hit the London Orbital road (which is large motorway which goes around the outside of London). Then it was congestion after congestion with traffic stop starting etc and Dave getting more and more frustrated. It was very hard driving, and we had to be in Oxford for a free walking tour I had booked. It took us 4 and half hours and we had to find a carpark building (Oxford CBD is narrow roads and no parking at all) and get to the meeting place. Thank god for Sat Nav and we arrived 10 min to spare with Dave in a foul mood and frustrated. A great start!

The walking tour is taken by students or ex-students who take you on a tour of the town and university for 2 hours and basically you tip them at the end. Our girl was great, told us many funny stories about the different colleges and students antics. I wanted this as my 'uni fix' after having seen so much about the place on TV, movies etc. So yes we walked and listened for 2 hours (even Dave was mildly interested). The place was so crowded with students (some in gowns which they have to wear to exams which were on), families, high school kids tours, bus tours etc. That I did not expect, having to push my way through small narrow streets amongst a jostling crowd. Apart from that the day was once again gorgeously warm, and pleasant.

There are 9 seperate colleges in Oxford with each one seeming to specialise in a subject area such as philosophy, and if you get into a college you eat, sleep and study there. Some colleges go back to medieval times when it was first started as a college to educate clergy in religion.

Graffetti from students on walls from 1786 - some things don't change!

This is the college of our guide who loved it and it is joined over the road by a 'bridge of sighs' bridge to the rest of the college over the road.

This is the old library which (with the newer one over the road) holds more than 13 million books. It has a history as back in Henry 8th days it held lots of books to do with Catholism due to it being a mainly clergy school. Henry when he was getting into protestantism demanded the Catholic books be burnt (which they did) so it had to start building up its collection again. Some high-up person who was into the new printing presses got a law passed that any new book published in England (UK?) one copy of it had to be sent to Oxford for its library! It still happens!

Statue of Earl of Earl of Pembleton who Shakespeare was half in love with (Shakespeare went to Oxford and this statue looks like him)

Around the inside square of the library were all these doors with signs like this to show you where to find books about different areas. They are in latin. Can you guess what areas they house?

This building is where they still hold their graduation ceremonies. The ceremonies still start off in latin and end in latin (ancient rituals).

The oxford church where it all started.

This pub is older thatn the university!

Below is Christ Church college which boasts to having produced 17 Prime ministers! It has a beautiful garden you can walk around.

So it was late by the time we finished and low and behold we were in the middle of Oxford rush-hour at 4.30pm! Once again stop start congestion to get out  of town, where everyone was doing the same. The place had the most gorgeous houses and gardens as we drove past. 

We are heading for Stratford-upon- Avon for the night, one hour away. And what an hour it was! Peak hour traffic all the way (I kid you not) as people were heading back to their lovely villages through the express ways and roads. One thing we have discovered is that they love big roundabouts, which are governed by traffic lights on the edge of each roundabout to control the traffic.Very frustrating for stop-go driving. Lots more swearing from Dave! Took two hours to get to our destination, which also had congestion. When we arrived at our gorgeous tudor style hotel, Dave said 'I need a beer! it was the worse day of driving in my life!)

STRATFORD -UPON- AVON

Not a good start to our stay (no parking at hotel - full up so Dave had to find a car-park bulding) but the hotel is so Shakespeare themed. This is our bed - a four poster that was high I needed a lift to get on it! The rooms each had a name like 'The Othello Suite". 

I notice people were going to a show, so I looked up the Royal Shakespeare Company and discovered they have shows going on at the Swan theatre. Fully booked up unfortunately (tho I think Dave was quietly pleased!). My fault as I thought they performed at the Globe in London, but lately they have come up to do a few shows here.The next day was a walking tour I had booked with a lovely lady called Grace who was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about her town. It took 2 hours but was longer and we went all around the old parts that had to do with Shakespeare. It is a pretty little place on the Avon, with a park and canal with canal boats. Apparently you can go by barge all the way to Birmingham from there on a barge!

There were lots of Tudor style buildings, with some had been plastered over. 

One side was the origional and one side fake (done in 1930's).

Where his daughter lived with her husband. The husband was a rotter (already had a wife hidden away with a child) so Shakespeare wrote him out of the will.

This is his birth place. His father was a glove maker and had a shop at one end. Shakespeare inherited it when his father died, but when he went to London to make his fame and fortune for 10 years he left his wife and 3 kids living here for all that time.

During the 1600's there was a major fire in the city due to lovely wooden houses (there is Ardern forest nearby for wood) and thatch rooves. The town big-wigs decided that all thatch rooves must be replaced by tiles except for this one still standing and gets it thatch replaced every year.

Interestingly this is called the Harvard House, due to a guy from America (but had a relation who owned this building) who inherited it. This Harvard was the man who started Harvard Universtiy and he gave the building to the Harvard University who still own it. The Shakespeare Trust took it over and use it for running semminars etc.

This church was where Shakespeare's father was an important man, and it was a Catholic church with Catholic paintings on the walls. Henry 8th told the town to paint over the paintings which they duely did but not willingly so you can still see some vague outlines of the paintings on the walls.

This was the grammar school Shakespeare went to  and is still operating today with lots of its sudents going onto Oxford.

The main daughter who inherited Shakespeare's money lived here with her husband and mother (Anne Hathoway) after Shakespeare died. He also live here when moving back from London having made lots of money.

This gorgeous church is where Shakespeare was baptised and buried here in a crypt inside the church. He had heard stories about grave robbers so wanted a to be buried a long way down inside and made a curse to anyone who disturbed his bones! However somehow his skull had been taken (discovered by high-tech x-ray machines of 20th century) so no skull but someone was terribly cursed! There was a wedding going on here while we walked around. Apparently you have to book years ahead to get a day here for a wedding.

The Royal Shakespeare Company set up this small theatre for small shows to the public (snippets of parts of plays etc). It is call the Other Place a reference to one of his plays (Othello?) where he talks about the other place as hell.

So this is the Swan - the RSC theatre, and now seeing it I am kicking myself for not realising it was operating.

It is on the edge of the Avon and a barge went past as we walked along the river. So gorgeous.

This is High Street, closed off to traffic, still got Coronation banners up, and very busy.

WALES - HERE WE COME!

Basically we drove across the country towards Wales. After Dave's high drama with traffic yesterday I was rather worried but it all started nicely. 3 hours to our destination from Straford, bypassing Birmingham this time. the traffic moved nicely, Dave was happy and all good. HOWEVER the motorway by-pass cut into two, and Dave went on the wrong off-ramp and onto another motorway towards Birmingham and loads of traffic! it was Friday afternoon and people were heading off for places unknown for the weekend. So darling SAT NAV took us on a long route which covered 4 hours, but it was absolutely through the back wops, narrow roads, stone walls, forests and farms, streams, just gorgeous! Slow driving due to the roads not the traffic, so you had then English. It was rather fun trying to pronounce them - all double letters and long names. So we arrive about 6.30pm. but they have long days already and it is light till at least 10pm,

BARMOUTH

I hear you say - where??? why???? Well it is the reason for a lot of our trip across the country. It is the town where Mum was born  and it is in north Wales, on the coast beside an estuary going out to the sea. Has a normal population of 2500. Not sure why Mum was born here, but her Dad was Welsh so maybe this was where his family was (lots of questions I want to research now). Coming into it on a Friday night and there were bars and pubs open all flowing onto the footpath full of people, the place was humming! What a cool place was my initial thought as we drove through it to our self-contaned airb&b which was up on a hill looking down on the beach and close to town (1 minute).

Views from our place looking over the town.

The next morning and we went for a 3 hour walk discovering the sights.It was another lovely day (22C) and hardly any wind. Firstly was the stone/slate houses kept up beautifully.

Below is the area where Mum was born, on one side of Barmouth by the sea.

Me outside the house. 3 story and part of a street of similar houses.

There was a school opposite.

Just over the road past the school was the beach. This part was stoney at the top and then onto lovely yellow sand with some sand dunes. We walked along this back to the main beach.

The water was freezing but everyman and his dog (lots of them) were coming out to enjoy the sunshine.

Looking back from the beach. The tide goes out a long way with lots of wet sand before you get to the water.

We carried on past the main beach and round the side was the marina at the side where the river comes out to the sea. Small boats get stuck on the mud when the tide goes out.

The big thing is to go crabbing off the pier (buckets tied to rope and thrown into the water  - saw some quite big crabs!)

Beersie time at the marina!

At the main beach it is chaos! Apparently it is the last weekend of mid-term break for schools and they had all come to Barmouth to partake in some sea and sunshine, there were cars eveywhere, parked on kerbs etc and kids walking onto the beach with their bucket and spade. Mum and Dad laden down with rugs, food, etc. but no beach umbrellas! By the road to the beach were donkey rides - yes just like in the books. But this time only for kids so no heavy weight breaking their backs poor things.

Big day so fish and chips at the beach for tea- I had chips with gravy (yum) and Dave has curry sauce for his chips (yuk).

The next morning was the start of another glorious day. A walk to the marina where the tide was in. We were going to catch a little ferry across to the other side and walk back across this cool railway bridge but the tide was too high.

So we walked across this bridge and back. Lots of people running, cycling, walking dogs.

From the bridge.

Snowdon National Park

Our Welsh golfing friends had said to go to Mount Snowdon when they heard we were going to Barmouth, and go up the mountain on a train. I tried and tried to book the train but very popular, until managed to get 2 tickets (cancellation booking?) so happy. So we went there after our walk. Over an hour away along the coast initially through some lovely little villages that had streets so small you had to give way  to the other drivers coming towards you by pulling over into spaces. Everyone gave the little one finger flick to say thanks - very courteous.

One surprising thing about this area of Wales is the beaches! All lovely and sandy.

We turn off up into the mountains along more narrow roads. People were parked up in odd places to take hiking paths up the  hills etc with dogs!

Spot the cyclist trying to go up the hills.

The hills are very craggy with lots of slate (rock) slides everywhere, barren with some grass. Along the valleys were trees and streams and lakes. Very, very spectacular.

Dave had a local Snowdonia Ale before the railway!

It is a cog-railway with small diesel and steam engines running. They push one carriage up the mountain and pull it back down. It has been going since 1896! By the way the mountain is the highest mountain in Wales.

LLanberis is the Welsh name for Mount Snowdon, bloody English!

It is very slow going, initially through forest then out into sparse hillside, with sheep and lambs on them. The sheep seemed to be the self-shedding ones that don't need shearing.

There are pathways, beautifully kept, that go up the side where the train goes for the intrepid types.

The sheep get on the tracks and it took a lot of tooting the horn for them to move from their warm cosy spot!

This is part of the way up, looking down on a farm house.

The walkers blew me away! the numbers of them, lots! And some had dogs which meant a long walk for them.

The scenery changed after 20 mins to bare rock with a bit of green.

Small lakes on the side.

We could only go three-quarters of the way up due to new rails being put down for the summer influx, so we stopped and had 30 min to take photos and admire the scenery. It was cold up there and windy. We had jackets thank god. the views  were amazing, at 880m high. Dave and I talked about this as I thought it would be way higher. Salamanca (Spain) we went to was the same height above sea level, Waiouru is 790m so really in our NZ books not all that high for a mountain!

We could see a rescue helicopter hovering beside the sheer cliff face of the mountain opposite, hardly moving. Maybe it was rescueing someone, but it hardly moved for ages.
This is looking down on the road we came in on.

On the way back to Barmouth, we passed Harleck Castle perched high up on the side of a hill.

It was late by the time we got back to Barmouth and discovered their hidden secret! A pub right under our noses called the Royal. You missed it when you walked past, however now it was Sunday evening, all the tourists had gone back to where they came from, so the locals came back out ..... to the Royal! it was buzzing! Dave was so happy - beers were the cheapest we had found, and there was Sunday roast on the menue. Roast beef, yorkshire pudding, lots of different veges, mashed potatoes plus roast potatoe, all on this huge plate! The yorkshire pudding was so big, it was on top of it all - oh and lots of gravy. I could not eat it all. There were dogs in the pub with their owners (allowed and well-behaved) and they could sniff my meal! Happy ending to Barmouth!

So thoughts on Wales - love it! Wild and scraggy, little towns well-kept - lovely beaches such a surprise. Barmouth was a blissful stay with relaxing and walkig by the beach, warm weather and nice people who say 'good morning' as you go past. Dogs, dogs and more dogs, everywhere, which I loved. Very proud to had some of Wales in my DNA - thanks Mum!