Sunday, 7 January 2007

August 2000 (Trip to England)

Well I am back from England and I had the most fantastic time. It was only a 5 day trip but I got to see sooooo much in those 5 days. I was totally exhausted when I got back.

We caught the ferry from Hoek van Holland early Thursday morning and talk about a great ferry. It is a car ferry and up top it has everything. We had breakfast on board and it was a full English breakfast with juices, tea, coffee, bacon, eggs, sausages, everything. Followed by lounging around in the Panorama Lounge at the stern of the ship. In the panorama lounge there is free tea and coffee, leather seats, newspapers of your choice to read etc. Real luxury. Also on board is 2 or 3 cinemas. On the way they were showing Stuart Little and a couple of other movies. On the return trip they were showing 60 seconds and The Gladiator. There is a Mc Donalds on board and also a casino, New York Pizza, and a disco area showing non stop video clips. All this and the crossing from Holland to England only takes 3hours and 40 minutes. It was a good trip. Also, travelling by motorbike meant we were privelleged and put on and off the ferry first before all the cars. There were a lot of motorbikes on the ferry.

We arrived in England at about 11.30am and it was a fair drive to Worksop. Over 300 km. Totally exhausted when we arrived but loved the scenery of England immediately. It was exactly what I had expected from TV shows and that sort of thing. The houses were gorgeous and old. The first town I saw was Harwich where the boat landed and I immediately fell in love with the town. Exactly what I always imagined England to look like. Travelling on the roads is a little confusing though with everything being in miles instead of km.

Arrived in Worksop just after seeing my first glimpse of Sherwood Forest and as you drive past, you can just imagine the people of the middle ages as they wandered through the forest with their bows and arrows J. It is quite thick foliage and probably hasnt changed in the last so many centuries. Worksop itself is a very old town by the look. Where we were staying in a bed and breakfast place anyway. Very typical English. And I got the full English breakfast both mornings I was there, that was included. The next morning I wandered across the street to this little tiny shop that I thought was a newsagent but it had a bit of everything. It definitely reminded me of that TV show “Open All Hours”. On Friday, before the wedding we had to attend, got to explore some of Worksop including this really old church just around the corner from the Guest House. We wandered through the cemetry there looking at how old the graves were. A lot of the stones were so worn from the weather that it was impossible to read anymore. All the writing was long ago worn away. The earliest one that I could read was about 1740. That was years before the English even came to Australia. Amazing.

Saturday morning it was time to hit the road for the very long drive to our camping site at Bath. First we went for a drive through Sherwood Forest to the nearby town which has a lot of the history of Robin Hood and a visitor centre. We did stop for a few minutes at the visitor centre but it wasnt open that early and we didnt have much time to stay so we then went off to the town to get a few Sherwood Forest postcards.

Then it was on the road again to see a place that we really wanted to see and that was Warwick Castle. And was it fantastic or what. The bad thing was that it wasnt traditional English weather that day but instead it was very hot and sweaty and sunny and we got sunburnt. The other bad thing was the place was really crowded and we had to stand in line for probably nearly an hour just to get the tickets to get in but it was definitely worth it. The oldest part of the castle was built by William the Conquerer in 1068 and that is The Mound which we walked up to the top of. Also saw The Kingmaker display which shows all the processes that go into preparing for battle and the Great Hall and State rooms were spectacular. Also walked down into the dungeon and saw the torture room. We missed 2 displays but that was ok. The gardens of the castle really are something else. There is the Victorian Rose Garden and also the Peacock gardens where shrubs are shaped like peacocks and the gardens are just so tranquil. It is like stepping back in time when you visit Warwick Castle. And the weekend we went just happened to be a jousting weekend. So on the river island was a medievil fair with all kinds of games from medievil times like throwing wet sponges at somebody in the stocks. In the ring these knights came out on horses and actually played knight games and jousted. It was fabulous. Everybody was in period costume and they had all the period tents and accessories. It felt like you were actually there in that time. I really loved Warwick Castle and you can spend all day there. It is run by Madam Tussauds so all the figures in the displays are so life like.






It was an absolutely fabulous day and I was really exhausted when we arrived at the campsite in Bath about 7pm and then had to pitch a tent. The campsite was really beautiful. The tent was beside this lovely little stream and wooden bridge on one side with a bushwalking track on the other side and everything was so green. The camping grounds also had a hotel on site and a restaurant which opened at breakfast and went until 10pm. So dinner was at the park restaurant. And suprisingly, there werent too many people there either and it was summer vacation time. It was very peaceful. I absolutely adored the countryside around Bath. Very green hills dotted with very old and historic buildings and homes. The city of Bath itself is in a lovely valley.

Sunday it was sightseeing time again. First it was a reasonably short drive over to Avebury, famous for its stone circles like Stonehenge, its crop circles, and its white horses on the hills. During the drive I got to see one of those white horses and also I saw a couple of crop circles from the road. And I really loved the countryside there in Wiltshire. The rolling crop plains. The scenery was fabulous. Avebury itself is a very tiny town and the stones circle the whole town. Each stone is huge.


After lunch in the lovely little English pub in Avebury, it was off to Salisbury. I would have loved to spend heaps more time in Salisbury. It was beautiful. But I did get to see the Salisbury museum where all the Stonehenge exhibit is and it is a fascinating museum. It has prehistory, middle ages, and lots more. They have the actual 4000 year old skeleton found at Stonehenge displayed in the exact way he was found as are other just as old skeletons found in the area. Across the road from the museum is the Salisbury Cathedral and boy is it a sight to see. Spectacular really comes to mind. And it also houses one of the original 4 pages of the magna carta.

From Salisbury it was time for Stonehenge itself and I just cant describe the feeling as you drove over the hill and see it for the first time. It is something I will never forget as long as I live. All you can do is gape. It is so massive and impressive and you cant take your eyes off it. It really is one of the greatest sites in the world. The highlight of my trip. We didnt pay the 4 pounds each though to go inside the fence cause the roped off area is only a couple of metres from the fence and you can see it just as well from the footpath. I spent the money saved on books and postcards instead. But Stonehenge will be with me forever.
Although totally worn out by the time we got back to Bath at about 6.30, the Roman Baths were open to the public till 10pm so a quick change into dry clothes as it had been pouring down all day, and then it was into the city. The Roman Baths are something very special too. They have been preserved very well and the floor you walk on is still the original stone. As the guide pointed out, the baths were built only about 30 years after the crucifixtion so you could be standing in the exact spot as somebody who saw Jesus alive. Very inspiring site. The floor of the bath is still the original lead floor and in just as good a condition and just as watertight as when it was built nearly 2000 years ago. The water now though is uncovered and very very dirty with blue green algae as well. They have original carvings and know a real lot about the lifestyle of those days. There was a number of altars and grave stones also from that period of history that have the original roman writing on them. It was fascinating.
Before leaving for England, we also went to the Tilburg fair which was unreal. As mentioned in earlier letters, the fairs here are in the streets and this one is the largest in Europe. It wound its way through the streets of Tilburg for kilometres. It was a real cultural difference to walk through the streets with housing units, European cafes, and old historic buildings on one side of you and the real carnival atmosphere on the other. They had all kinds of rides and side show attractions and I went for a ride on the biggest ferris wheel I think I have ever seen. I think it was about 50 something metres high and could see the whole city. They had all kinds of other rides including a flume ride where you get wet but we didnt fancy walking round in wet pants for the rest of the night. The fair was a lot like sideshow alley at the ekka but about 10 times the size or more.

The weekend before leaving for England I also got my first taste of Germany. We went for a drive across the border to a couple of German border towns and they are an immediate contrast to Holland and the countryside too as the countryside in Holland doesnt have the rolled hay stacks and all that. In fact, Germany looked a lot more similar to England and completely different to Holland. Will explore Germany more later and at the moment we are now concentrating on planning a weekend trip to Luxembourg.

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