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The Trip and England.

The plan.

Way back in September 2013, we (Raina and Sarah) booked a just released trip on Rhapsody of the Seas from Singapore to Istanbul in 2015. Suez Canal and India were both high up on the '44 gallon drum' list ('cause everyone knows that a bucket list is far too small!) - so of course I had to book it. Looked like it would be an awesome trip! Then Caroline and Tim booked as well. Even better.

But of course many things change in the next 20 months. Sarah got permanency as a teacher at Forrest Primary School so she couldn't come. Celia was getting married the week before in England. So we were now travelling to Singapore via England. How exciting. A great trip and a wedding. Sad for Sarah - but she is now a teacher with a real job!

Tuesday 21st April, I headed off to Watford via London.

Sydney and much of NSW were being slammed by massive storms - they were calling it a Category 2 - and the place was a mess. Half of Sydney was underwater. I was expecting airport chaos. And I got it.

I got to the Canberra airport nice and early. On the way I got the first message re a 60 minute flight delay. They moved me to an earlier flight (that left only 45 minutes after the original flight) and I made it to Sydney.

The flight was on a tiny Dash 8 so was a bit bumpy. But at least I was on the way.

The flight to London was fine - apart from the obvious - 25 hrs in a seat! At least it was Premium Economy. I took a beach ball to put under my feet for elevation and as a soft surface to do leg exercises on. This beach ball was special. It had a Flamingo in it. Many of my neighbours declared that they would be buying beach balls in future.

UK immigrations is so good.  fast and friendly.

UK immigration was so good. Fast and friendly.

I found the correct bus and had a lovely one hour ride to Watford. The bus went around 'the big circle' that surrounds London - but wiggled around to many small suburbs. It was fantastic. Just like a tourist trip. Past suburbs with rows and rows of identical houses. Then acres of farmland, massive estates, walled gardens, huge private schools and more. It was great.

I arrive at my hotel at about 10am, plugged a few things in to charge and got ready for my London Adventure. I did think about having a shower – but knew that if I did, I would trip over and fall into my bed – and then I’d sleep for hours and  the jet lag thing would get me.

So off I went to stay busy and awake for the day. Watford was about a 45 minute train ride north of London. I navigated the overland train and the Tube without Sarah. Genius!  

I headed straight for Abbey Road to see the Beatles' pedestrian crossing. Only three Tube trips. Again - Genius!

And now I have walked across THE crossing- while singing Beatles songs.

I went for a long walk – about 3ks longer than it should have been as I kept going in the wrong direction! But it was worth it. And I did see a Bobby – with a Bobby’s helmet! And heaps of other lovely things.

I planned to walk through Regents Park. But first I had to get there. I only went the wrong way about 13 times and added more walking to my adventure. I jumped on a bus (a double decker bus of course) for about 4 stops as I was now a long way from Regents Park due to my exceptional sense of direction.

It was lovely. The Queen's Garden was also very pretty. London in the Spring is stunning.

The weather was perfect. Just a tiny bit too cold for short sleeves so your arms where a bit tingly. Perfect.

After the Park it was back to Watford. Finding the correct Euston Station was….not fun. NO -----Not Euston Square station, NO ----not Euston something else station. And of course there were massive roads everywhere, so crossing the road took maybe 500 metres and 15 minutes.

But I got there. Then got to the hotel and went to bed at about 6.30pm.

I got up 12 hours later!

23rd April – Harry Potter Studio - Watford, England

Harry Potter day.  I had spent the last month or two re-reading all seven Harry Potter books, then re-watching all eight movies. Now it was time for THE Harry Potter Studios. This is the actual studios - the same stages, green screens etc that were used for making the movies, as well as housing a massive collection of props etc. It was better value for Warner Brother to completely build a new studio for any future projects and to turn this one into an attraction / museum. Sally Anderson took time out from wedding planning and came down to use Sarah’s ticket – sorry Sarah. What a day. We had so much fun.

 I cannot think of enough superlatives to say how good this place was.

We sat on Hagrid’s motorbike, sat in the Weasley’s car, I rode a broomstick, we drank Butter Beer ………

It was then a train to Milton Keyes for dinner with Tim and Crackers and the Andersons, at their house. We went for a tourist drive and saw, among other things “Bletchley Park”. THE place, where the code breakers cracked the Enigma Code. The actual buildings that they lived and worked in. Funny as I had just watched the movie on the plane. We also saw a big camp of 'Travellers' – aka Pikeys / Gypsies. And a paddock full of their most beautiful 'Gypsy Vanner horses'. Stunning.

Friday 24^th April  -  Bedford.

A slow morning. then a pub lunch. It made me laugh that the lunch deal at the local pub, was a meal and a beer – BUT cost 30p extra if you wanted to 'upgrade' from a beer to a coke!

Then afternoon tea - or ‘cream tea’ was with scones cooked fresh when we ordered them, and jam, lemon curd and clotted cream. And of course bottomless pots of many different teas. Lovely!

That evening we went to the church to help set up for the wedding. It was in the old Crayola (crayon) factory. The church part looked like any other church that uses school halls. The reception was in the factory part - a huge shed type room with great high ceilings and a trendy industrial look.

They had lots of decorations to make it look lovely. We erected gazebos (the Aussie’s rocked that job), wove vegetation onto various items, set up tables, hung lights and fabric as decoration. We left at a reasonable time as Laura and James had flown in that morning. The Poms had to keep setting up.  

Dinner was a to a lovely gastro pub. Of course there were many dogs in there.

Saturday 25^th April – Wedding Day.

 Every one scattered in different direction for different jobs. Hair, dry cleaning and so on.

There was a Boer War monument near our hotel, so I was able to do my own ANZAC day thing. That was good but I really missed watching Andy march – especially on the 100 anniversary.

The Saturday markets were great. The fruit and veg in this country are super. I bought a tub of strawberries. I’m sure they pump sugar into them. They were amazing – I scoffed the lot! A punnet was 1 pound.  

I had my hair done and I was awesome!

The wedding was lovely. Celia looked awesome. Richard did too! The room looked very trendy, light industrial with the soft lighting, fabrics and all. Everyone danced the night away. We had fun.

Sunday 26th April - Bedford, England

A bit of luggage sorting and shuffling, and then a relaxed start to the day.

Then a bit of a wander around the streets.

During WWII the BBC would broadcast from “somewhere in England”.  It was from right here in Bedford, from the Spire of the Church. The Germans never found them.

Our hotel ‘The Swan’ lived up to its name with many huge white swans resident in the river across the road.  Very pretty indeed. Even the dog poo bins were quite fancy.

We had an after wedding lunch for the travellers and got to spend time with Sally’s Irish relos, all the Andersons and others.

I then bid farewell to all and venture off to The Netherlands and Brussels via London. I would meet up again on Thursday at Heathrow for the flight to Singapore.

Will Gort and I travelled by train to London and had a fun time laughing at many things. I then negotiated my way from Kings Cross Station to the correct station. I didn’t even make a mistake and go to Platform 9¾ to head off to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Mind you, that would have been lovely!

The train system advertises journeys as being “a Good Service”. Not sure if some are bad or if it means they were on time.

When I purchased my ferry ticket to The Netherlands there was an option for a few quid more to get rail tickets for the day in England and the next day in Holland. Total package with a private room was 80 quid. Lucky I decided it was a good investment. My ticket Bedford to London would have been 19 quid and London to Harwich 32 quid.  And then another 40 Euro in The Netherlands. Didn't have to pay for travel until I got to the Belgium border.

Yep – I made a good choice.

London Marathon was on this day and the trains – both the Tube and the country (Overland) trains were full of marathon runners. There were 38,000 runners so it made sense. Heaps were wrapped in foil blankets for their trips home. One lady was in my carriage, with her support team of about 10 family, their champagne and all their fun. She came in the top 28,000. Brilliant. She ran 42ks. When we arrived at her stop about 50 min out of London - she couldn't walk at first.

The train trip through Essex was very pretty. The soil was so rich and brown and everything was SO green and lush. Saw lots of rabbits and sheep that were so fat and lazy they were lying down to eat.

There are dogs everywhere even a dog and a cat booking onto the ferry for their trip to Spain.

Getting onto the ferry was painless. My room was great.  Single bunks and a lounge, TV, Air Cond, bathroom. It’s great. So much like a cruise ship.

So now it’s off to Holland or the Netherland’s.