Windsor Castle

Kelly, Liam and Jonathan, along with Kate took a day trip out to Windsor Castle. The castle is in the town of Windsor, not too far west of London. Windsor is set on the southern side of the River Thames, and across on the north of the river is Eton - the one with that famous college.

The castle is the largest and oldest occupied fortress in the world. As you walk through the town up to the castle it is not hard to appreciate that. The grounds and buildings would have been an ominous site as they were approached from below. These days the castle is the Queen's main residence and it is her most favoured.

We each got an audio guide and did the tour through Queen Mary's doll's house and the State Apartments. The apartments are the public third of the castle, and they have halls, bedrooms and functions rooms such as St George's Hall. Most of these rooms are still in use. The rest of the castle is the Queen's private residence. We didn't get to see St George's Chapel as it is shut on a Sunday.

One of the rooms in the State Apartments was the Queen's private chapel which was destroyed by the 1992 fires. We managed to get through the tour of the state apartments, but just as we were leaving the fire alarms went off. The apartments were evacuated and fire engines could be heard climbing up through the town and into the grounds. We were quickly ushered out of the grounds and back down into the town.

Jonathan, Kelly and I went down to the River Thames to have a look around. The area of the river around Windsor is teeming with birdlife. Mostly there are swans and pelicans, fed by the amply supply of tourist's bread and food pellets. We took a river boat tour up the Thames, which gave a different view of the castle and showed just how prominent and dominating it is over the area.


Click on the photo to see more.

Windsor Castle

Jul 2, 2006 - 13 Photos

Royal Ascot Races

And they're off...

To the Royal Ascot Races - Horses, Hats, Pimms, Bookies, The Queen, Jockeys, and more Pimms.

We went out to Ascot on the last Saturday of the Royal Ascot Races. It is your typical race day except that the Queen and a few other Royals are there. Well, not in our section, but they do ride past in a carriage and give a wave before ascending into the stands.

Not being big gamblers, we didn't have much of a budget for the bookies. And a good thing it was too because we only picked one placing in seven races.

Click on the photo to see more.

Royal Ascot

Jun 24, 2006 - 11 Photos

Bath

Another day trip out of London. Bath is an old Roman town near the west coast of England, just east of Bristol. The bus ride there takes 3 hours. Kate, Kelly and I caught the 7am bus from Victoria and headed west to spend a day out in Bath.

The town is built on the banks of the Avon River - the same one that flows through Stratford-upon-Avon, through the Cotswolds, Bath, Bristol and then the ocean. The town's main claim to fame is that it is built on ancient hot springs that the Romans constructed bath houses on. The main square of the town is focused around the ancient bath house. It seems like a typically Cotswold town with narrow cobbled streets, gothic churches and plenty of character.

We firstly went into the Roman bath house. It has a self-guided tour and it is amazing to see the infrastructure that was built for the baths, the church nearby and the old town square. You can almost get the feeling of being there in Roman times.The town also has a famous author, Jane Austen, who spent some of her life living and writing in Bath, taking inspiration from the country side surroundings. Kate and Kelly spent some time in the Jane Austen house, looking at a history of her life. We walked up towards the northen side of town, up the top of the hill, to the Royal Crescent. The Royal Crescent is a half moon of stately Georgian houses that overlook a park and the botanic gardens.

The arched Pulteney bridge crosses the Avon river and it has houses and shops built on top of it, probably much like London bridge would have looked before its many rebuilds. We stop to have dinner and a couple of beers at a cafe that looks over the river before getting back on the bus for the trip home. It is little wonder that Bath has been listed as a World Heritage Site. The town is a beautiful example of golden sandstone architecture blended with an interesting history and window into Roman-esque life.

Click on the photo to see more.

Bath

Jun 17, 2006 - 14 Photos

Cotswolds

Jill and Karenlea had had a great time seeing South-East England and parts of Europe. We wanted to get out for one last look around, so on the Friday before they left we borrowed the little red car from Karen and drove up to the Cotswolds.

First stop was Shakespeare country - Stratford-Upon-Avon. This town is about 160km north of London and its main claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of Shakespeare. We wandered around some of the more famous sites, Shakespeare's House and Garden, Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried, Anne Hathaway's Cottage, New Nash House and Garden. We had lunch in one of the many pubs and walked along the River Avon.

From here we drove in the general direction of our night's accommodation passing through the beautiful Cotswold country side. Driving through this area is just like the old traditional English country-side you see in movies and on tv; green rolling hills with fields of yellow flowers dotted everywhere, little country towns with tiny country roads, rock wall fences that go for miles, wooden sign posts and so many rabbits.

Our accommodation for the evening was a traditional English Manor house with beautiful views over one of the many valleys. The next day we were treated to a traditional English Breakfast and they do mean traditional! This includes all your standard English favourites, bacon, eggs, toast, baked beans, little sausages, tea, coffee and more tea but it also includes Black pudding. For those of you who don't know what Black pudding is have a look at this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_sausage. Yuk! Yuk! Yuk!

The next day we visited two of England's most beautiful country towns - Upper and Lower Slaughter. It was a beautiful quiet town with an old stone church, a little creek with a mother duck and her ducklings and sweet little houses. From there we drove to Bourton-on-the-Water to see their famous Model Village. It is an exactly miniture model of the town complete with tiny furniture, gardens and shop signs.

We took a quick drive through Bristol stopping to see the Clifton Suspension Bridge and then out towards the coast to see a beach. The beach, although not quite what we were expecting (see photo of sign), was kind of 'interesting'. From here we decided to start the long trip back to London. On the way Kelly got distracted by another potential historicial site. After a quite a trek from the main motorway, a section of dirt road and a hike through a sheep paddock (nothing unusual about that for us sheep farmers in-training!) we finally made it to the White Horse at Uffington. It is a chalk out line of a horse on the side of a hill. It has an amazing history - http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/majorsites/uffington.html. We also saw the site where St George slayed the dragon.

All in all It was a fantastic few days and a nice way to end Mum and Jill's trip to England.

Cotswolds

May 27, 2006 - 23 Photos

Leeds Castle

Mum, Jill and I spent a day exploring Leed's Castle. It is considered one of the prettiest castles in England set in some beautiful English country side.

The grounds include a duckery, 2 mazes - one with a grotto, aviary - with a large range of birds from Toucans to Vultures, a huge herb/vege garden, what seems like a million swans, a dog collar museum (no I am not joking!), lots of formal and wild gardens and of course a castle with a moat.

Click on the photo to see more.

Leeds Castle

May 25, 2006 - 7 Photos

Brighton and Beachy Head

After a few months of sight-seeing around London, we managed a weekend away out of the bustle of the city. It seemed fitting that after breaking the shackles of winter that we take a trip to the seaside. We borrowed the car from Karen (many thanks!) and went for a drive down the Brighton.

The Brighton Pier.
The pier has its charm, but with an overpowering waft of tackiness. Think of the Sandgate Pier... now add your local country show's side show alley (including the ball-swallowing clowns, ring toss, etc) at the end... put a fish and chip restaurant in the middle... add some souvenier shops... oh, don't forget the fortune tellers. It does, however, have a good view of the coast.

One of the more bizzare sights of Brighton. I'm not sure how the van made it here (if anyone wants to make suggestion, leave a comment), but it has recent Queensland plates. It is also an Australian model, so it drove here somehow.

The boys school in Brighton.
It is a lovely old building that is perched up on the cliffs, overlooking the Brighton harbour.
Brighton beach.
The beach mainly consists of rocks, there are no waves, at least not on the day we were there. The rocks drop off quite quickly, so it may not be the best place for a swim.
More Brighton beach.
This time from the pier.

The Royal Pavillion.
The pavillion was built by the Prince Regent George, son of George III. He used it as a party palace for all of his friends. The palace is decked out with the most decadent taste. The outside has an Indian influence while the inside decor is all East Asian influence.
William IV also used the pavillion as a royal residence. Queen Victoria didn't like the gaudy palace so much, so she sold it back to the Brighton town in 1850. Before handing it over though, she did strip it of all furnishings, which took 143 wagons to transport back to London.

Brighton beach rocks and boats.
You can see the West Brighton Pier in the background. Obviously no longer in use, since a fire ripped through it.

Beautiful old church building on the side of a cliff that overlooks the Brighton region. We had to drive along a sweet little english country road to get there.

Lewes Castle.
The main tower gates to Lewes Castle.

Lewes Castle
Our first English castle. There is not much left these days, most of it is in ruins. The town surrounding the castle is like an English version of Maleny.

Beachy Head.
This stretch of cliffs is similar to the Twelve Apostle's region of the Great Ocean road. Much of the cliffs is unfenced and, unsurprisingly, there are a few places that are more dangerous than others.

Understandably there are signs showing the dangers of the cliff edge. Strangely though these are at places where there is also a fence. Along most of the cliffs there is no fence and also no signs. The cliff edge errodes away at approximately half a meter a year.

The cliff edges have quite a sheer drop!

The Beachy Head lighthouse is quite amazing. It stands dwarfed by the cliffs and with waves pounding it.

Us and the cliffs!

Well here it is - Pooh Corner. On the way back from Brighton, just off the A22 there is a town called Hartford. This is Pooh Bear country - where him and all his friends were created - not Disney Pooh, the real one. The shop in the photo is full of original style Pooh parphenalia. Unfortunately we were coming through on Sunday night so it was shut.
We had also hoped to find the Pooh Sticks Bridge, which is a few fields away. It was getting quite dark though and after running through unknown fields for 20 minutes we decided to head back to the car while we could still find it. We'll find Pooh Sticks Bridge next time.