On the road again - Cotswolds 1

On the road again - Cotswolds 1

Same car... just back to the right side!

Life is never simple ....

So, I packed up all my belongings, and left the building... thinking I had booked a cab to take me to pick up my hire car.  I thought I had allowed plenty of time, but in 5 mins the lady from the taxi company rings back to say there are no cabs in my area and would I like to ring someone else...??? Well, no, because I'm standing here on the street with my suitcases etc... Anyway she gave me some more numbers, so I rang another company and they said "Yes, we can do it and the cab should be there in 5 mins".But 15 mins later I'm still standing there, and the lady manager of my apartment building comes out and says do I want a cab because she has contacts and she can arrange one...  So, what am I to do... apparently there's one on the way, and I wasn't too sure whether this lady's "contacts" were a legit company... anyway, she starts ringing them while I'm thinking about it and says they're on the way... so next things this guy comes along on foot and says "I'm your taxi driver"..

It was all a bit suss, but what could I do...?? He quotes me 12 pounds which I thought was very reasonable, but the only thng was he really didnt know where the place was, and he had to keep referring back to his "base" to give him the "job"!!  When they discovered where it actually was, my quote went up to 26 pounds...!!! But I was in the taxi by now and half way there... so i just said "Go for it" and eventually we got there...  What a taradiddle as my mother would say!

One advantage of this car rental place being so far away from Earls Court was that it was actually on the edge of town and close to the A40 which was the route I was to follow. One other little good thing that happened was I was trying to get my GPS set up on the dash board, so I went in and asked the guys behind the desk for some help and one of the customers said "I'll do it for you", and he got all the bits to go together and he stuck it on my windscreen and its perfect. I'm afraid to touch it now. I usually take it off each night in case it gets  nicked, but I think I'll risk it for tonight anyway.

Sorry - long introduction here..... But it's all part of the story!

Anyway, with  my new setup I only managed to stuff up a few times, and being on the right side of the road made such a difference! I felt like I was so much more in control, and didn't do things like hit the curb or forget to change gears as I did in France!

So after just a couple of wrong turns, I ended up onthe A40 heading for Turville...

Where, you may ask??? Why is she going to Turville...???

Here's the first clue.. see if you recognnize it...???

Or maybe this  one helps more..???

Turville is the setting for The Vicar of Dibley!!! And it was such a pretty place.

The drive in was just spectacular. I felt like I was in an Enid Blyton novel, with twisting lanes surrounded by bushes on all sides...

The road into Turville

And look at that spectacular blue sky. As one of my very good friends would say ... I'm an arsey bitch when it comes to the weather!!! I think it may be changing soon, but today was just superb.

I had lunch at the pub in Turville

Turville Pub

Lovely Shepherds Pie - and look at those veggies!!!

I sat outside because it was so nice and I even considered moving into the shade.

Then I had a walk around the village and took some pics...

Turville cottage

Another Turville cottage. Is this the presbytery?

View across the Church yard

Then I went into the Church called St Mary the Virgin - not St Barnabas as in the series - and found a place to light a big fat thanksgiving candle.

That's mine in the middle!

Side door of the Church

Inside looking towards the front

Towards the back... there's the organ Letitia used to play!

Then I just went for a walk around the village and soaked in the atmosphere... it was just lovely. It was so English!

Cottages

Walking path

Countryside around Turville

Iconic England

More country around Turville

So that was the story of Turville and the Vicar of Dibley!

Anyway, it was time to think about accommodation for the night. For the first time on my journey I didn't actually have any accommodation booked in.... a bit of a scary thought!


I had changed my original plans of going to Cornwall, after listening to the advice of the locals and decided to go straight to the Cotswolds and just wander for a few days.

Audrey had given me some place to go in the Cotswolds and after visiting Turville I needed to firm up  where I was going to stay. One of the places on the list was Woodstock - had a nice 70s feel to it - so I set up Gaby Garmin to take me there, which she did very happily. Trouble was the B&Bs weren't very obvious... Found a park in the main Street of Woodstock and found a pub that looked ok so I went in and it started at 154 pounds for the night.... Hmmmm... bit on the expensive side! The guy behind the desk at that  hotel was lovely and told me of a few other options that might be cheaper, in particular he suggested Chipping Norton (don't you love the names??), and he drew me a bit of map. So it was only 20 mins or so to Chipping Norton so off I went, and once again I couldn't actually find anything. There were a couple of pubs in the main street, but they didn't look like my kind of place.

One of his other suggestions was that there was  Crowne Plaza at Heythrop Park, so I headed back towards Woodstock, thinking I should just cough up the money and be done with it, then I saw the turnoff to this  Heythrop Park. It is a Golf club and Country Club, and you had to drive right in off the road. Anyway, as I drive into this place there are cars driving out in their hundreds.... I was not sure what was happening...???? Then when I got closer there were all these men in suits with head pieces in their ears, and I thought maybe it was a bomb scare or something... But the guy who was directing traffic told me to go up to the other hotel and have a drink because they had just finished a conference and nobody was allowed in... I think it must've been pretty high level, because there were cops everywhere and police horses etc.... What had I walked into unwittingly...???

SoI go up to this other place on the same estate  called Heythrop Park

Heythrop Park

My intention was to go to the toilet and have a cup of coffee and then go back to that Crowne Plaza place. But while I was there I thought there was no harm in asking prices...??? But I was pretty sure this would be out of my league!

Anyway, it turns out its much cheaper than Woodstock with breakfast included....

So I'm booked in here for at least 2 nights and probably three.... And it's lovely. After I unloaded my bags, helped by a couple of lovely girls, I went down to the bar for a well deserved beer....

Lovely lounge

And it has really good wifi!

And I had a lovely Roast Pork meal for dinner!

What more could a person want....

So I'll happily stay here for a few days and explore the Cotswolds from here...

Funny how things work out sometimes...

London Day 10 A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

London Day 10 - A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

Well. it's my last day in London. I wonder where I will be this time tomorrow night. I have a few thoughts, but I'm open to just going wherever until I stop. Anway, that's tomorrow. Let's concentrate on today.

Me on Millennium Bridge

My hop on hop off bus was valid for 48 hours and I went past a few places yesterday that I wanted to go back to, but first thing this morning I had to do my housewifely jobs... Washing! Thank God for that machine which at last I mastered with a little help from my friends! Have to do it in the morning... that gives it 24 hours to dry. I have a clothes horse to hang things on, and some of my stuff dries pretty quickly, but I have to allow for the slower drying things. So I wanted as much of my clothes to be clean for tomorrow as possible, because once I'm on the road you don't know where the next laundry will be. In fact I had to buy some Persil tablets last night because I had run out of washing liquid...  I mean, does anyone out there really care whether I'm doing my washing or not..???? I suppose it's all part of my tales from the road!

I also wanted to look at the maps for tomorrow too, so I might have some idea about where I'm going. I have a few things locked in, but the first 4 days are pretty negotiable.

So I didn't leave my unit until about 11.30 which was quite a bit later than usual.

Anyway, the plan was to get back on that blue bus and go back to the places I wanted to go to... that was all well and good, but the bus stop after them was quite a walk back, so I again found myself at St Paul's Cathedral. As we stopped the driver said it was also the stop for the Millennium bridge, so I thought I  might as well walk over that while I  could, and then work my way back to these other places.

View from Millennium Bridge

View from Millennium Bridge

So that took me over to the South Bank, where there were a few more landmarks...

Tate Modern Art Gallery

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

 It was a lovely walk along the South Bank, especially when I came to the part that had all the autumn trees..

Autumn trees on South Bank

So I ended up doing a big loop around the River and came back to where I wanted to be.

The first thing I wanted to see from yesterday was Australia House

Australia House

The other place I was keen to visit was St Clement Danes which is a Church dedicated the members of the RAF who died in the war.

Info about St Clement Danes

More info about St Clement Danes

Outside of St Clement Danes

Inside St Clement Danes

RAF info

More RAF info

I was back into my candle lighting activities here. I hope my Protestant prayers are working. I'm amazed at how many Anglican Churches have images of Mary and candles burning in front of her. I thought Anglicans didn't  do that...? Maybe I need to re-study some of my Church History...

Another attraction about that Church was the fact that its exterior retained the marks of war. The outside wall still showed the pockmarks of the incendary bombs that fell in 1941..

Outside walls showing bomb damage

Outside walls showing bomb damage

Explanation of bomb damage

And the last thing that was unique about this Church was it was the source of the nursery rhyme..

Oranges and Lemons, the bells of St Clements

Nursery Rhyme origins

So... I just  had one more iconic place in London that I was conscious I had not visited, so I got back on my blue bus and took the whole journey around London (which took ages because of that the traffic) and I ended up at...

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

I think the Queen was home because the flag was flying, but she didn't pop out to say hello!

So, I  walked back through St James Park to the Tube, and once again I was surrounded by beautiful autumn trees

St James Park

So, that was my London. I've loved living here at Earls Court where everything is so convenient.

Here's the view out of my window showing how close the trains are...

And here's a view of Earls Court Rd just near the station..

Earls Court Rd

It's been so good to just be living in one place for 10 days. But now the wattle wanderings moves on... hopefully to more adventures and more learnings.

Thanks for sticking with me up until now!

London Day 9 Landmarks and Evita

London Day 9 Landmarks and Evita

Well, my luck had to change and today it was raining! Not big heavy Perth rain, but light drizzle Malbourne type rain.
 
My first plan for today was to go and see a show in the West End, and as it was raining and it was Wednesday that seemed a good plan! One slight problem it's half term so the kids are on holidays, but that didn't stop me.

So  when I was up and dressed and ready I set  out for Leicester Square so that I could buy a ticket for the  afternoon Matinee. Earls  Court is on the Piccadilly line, so it was a direcct journey on the Tube. So I just rocked up to the half price tickets to see what was available... Sad but true many shows were already booked out, but I was able to get into Evita  ( I have always loved the music  from this show) and I was able to get a great seat half way up the stalls on the aisle in the middle for 25 pounds.  More about the show later...

So... what to do with  the morning...??? I had a list of things I still wanted to see...

• St Paul's Cathedral
• The Monument
• Westminster Abbey (Grrr....!)

So while I  was standing just out of the rain while I  was thinking about it (having just bought my theatre tickets) a very persistent tour bus operator offered me discounts on their bus tour, so after looking at the sky, I succumbed and  bought a 2 day ticket which allows me to go back tomorrow. I'm back on my Oyster Card now which charges me for each journey so I figured all the places i wanted to go on my checklist were on this bus route, and it was raining... and I might as well go for convenience....

So it was not the Original bus tour, but a blue bus, but I didn't care as long as it got me there.

So first stop to hop off was St Paul's Cathedral..

St Paul's Cathedral

It was going to cost me something like 18 pounds to get in so I just looked in through the door then moved on...

The next section of the journey took me through the places involved in the Great  Fire of London and we passed through many streets of signifiance including Pudding Lane where it  all started in 1666 and Fetter Lane where they eventually blew up the houses to stop the spread of the fire.

The next stop  was The Monument which was built to commemorate the Great Fire of London. If it was laid down horizontally it would actually touch the place where the Fire started

I got back on my blue bus, but the driver informed us that it was going to Royal Victoria - where we went yesterday for the Cable Car. So, had to change buses again and force my way through the throngs of people around the Tower of London. Couldn't  believe  how many people there were. They were literally at a standstill because there were so  many.

Eventually found my right bus and ended up at Westminster Abbey. Had a quick bite of lunch at Pret a Manger then took the plunge and eventually did that tour of Westminster Abbey. Was wondering if I had enough time, because my Show started at 3 pm, but I figured if I didn't do it today, I might never get to do it...

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

As I was lining up I noticed they had a senior rate, so thought I might as well ask, and she said if I had some ID I was good to go... so out comes the passport and I saved myself 3 pounds... yee haa.. first time ever I think!

I loved the Abbey and it was worth waiting for. There are soooo many tombs of famous people inside. Once again we had an audio guide, and once again we were not allowed to take pics inside...

I loved listening to all the history  about various people who were buried there. My one regret was that I was a tiny bit rushed as I had one eye on the clock for my show.

As we moved out of the Abbey I was able to take a few more pics...

The Chapter House

Outside area

Outside area again

Cloister

I was cutting it a bit fine time wise, and although I had a map where my theatre was I didn't really know and it was raining, so I figured the easiest way to get there was a cab. So  it got me to the Theatre with 15 mins to spare.

As I mentioned earlier, I had chosen Evita. Even though my choices were restricted  I was very happy to go that Show, because I have had the tapes for  ages and often used to sing along with it.

I really enjoyed the Show. Here's yet another opportunity for me to rise above my Pleb status and enjoy the culture that London has to offer... The music was wonderful and the lead character (Che)  was played by Marti Pellow who was the lead singer of Wet Wet Wet.

It was a fantastic  experience and an excellent way to spend a wet (wet wet) Wednesday afternoon.

Then to finish a very pleasant day I had arranged to meet Karys for dinner. We had originally planned to go to Camden Markets, but they closed at 6pm.  So we went for a walk to see Piccadilly Circus at night...

Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus

As were walking, walking, walking. Karys said "You're going to put this into your blog, aren't you, about all this walking??"

So, yes you're right Karys... we walked and walked and walked, and it is in the blog!

My last day in London tomorrow... where have those 10 days gone..???