Wednesday 29 August - day 8 - Best of Britain coach tour starts

Woke up today feeling very sore and sorry for myself.  However, we managed to get our suitcases ready and have breakfast in time for the start of the tour.
Fortunately for us, the tour isn't fully booked and there are a number of free seats.  Paul and I ended up near the back of the bus, but the whole row right across the back was free, and I spent most of the day (while we were travelling at least) in the back seat with my shoe off and my foot up on the seat.
First stop was Stratford on Avon - we saw the church where William Shakespeare is buried (free to go into the church but £2 each to actually see the grave) and the house he was born in.  Unfortunately this was all done through teaming rain - I was very glad to get back onto the bus, and that pattern continued all day.  Although there were times that it wasn't raining - and even a few brief moments of sunshine - any time we left the bus it bucketed down.  Not fun at the best of times, and most definitely not fun when you're staggering around on crutches!
Next stop was Coventry - the old and new cathedrals.  The old one of course is in ruins, pretty much as they were left after the bombing raid that destroyed much of it in November 1940.  I found it to be a really moving experience, even in the dismal rain.
Then we basically travelled to York, with only a rest stop on the way.  Yep, it rained there too, and we had to stay out of the bus for the full 30 minutes because of the rules around rest periods for the driver.  Then it fined up again but on the way in to York it came down heavier than ever - the tour guide said that normally they'd take us on a quick trip around York before going to the hotel, but there was just no value in it today.
Tonight we're sleeping in the biggest bed we've ever had - I think they've joined a double and a single together - those are all full-size pillows!.

Paul is already sound asleep - my accident was really stressful for him and he's also not 100% well - both of us invariably catch a cold or flu early in a trip like this and I think he's getting his now  :-(
The tour promises to be really good though - the coaches are deliberately set up with less seats and therefore more room (Paul couldn't actually reach the footrest!).  The people all seem quite friendly, although I'm quite surprised at the national breakdowns -7 Australians, 4 Canadians, and 15 Americans.  The surprise is the number of Americans - these tours are usually far more biased towards Australians and New Zealanders.  Anyway, we had our introductory dinner this evening, and it was all very friendly.  The Tour Director seems like a nice guy as well, so it's all looking good. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel a little more like taking photos and the blog won't just be my boring ramblings again.....

Tuesday 28 August, Day 7, travel to London and disaster

Got up nice and early and got ready for our trip to London.  Turns out the bus is pretty much a commuter bus - we didn't get to sit together until quite close to the end of the trip.  Not too bad a ride though, and I've realised that the law that says that passengers must wear seat belts on the bus is obeyed about as much as the law that limits the motorway speed limit to 70 miles per hour - ie, not much!
Anyway, we got to London and got a taxi to our hotel, the Thistle Marble Arch.  We didn't get to pick this hotel - it's the start and finish hotel for all Insight tours from London.  After reading the Tripadvisor reviews I was a bit concerned - it gets a broad range of reviews from poor to excellent, which often means that some of their rooms are very ordinary.  However, they were happy to check us in early, and our room was quite good, apart from a malfunctioning toilet which we didn't report actually due to the drama of the rest of the day.
We checked in with the Insight Tours lady onsite, then went out to look around London.  It was a beautiful day - we started by looking at Marble Arch then wandered past Hyde Park and down to Buckingham Palace.  We then started walking around St James Park when disaster struck - I turned around to look at something, and I was standing right on the edge of a pathway.  I twisted my ankle and immediately fell down.
I dragged myself over to a park bench and took stock of the damage - I've taken skin off both my hands and have huge scratches all over my left leg, but the worst is my ankle which immediately swelled up to around double its usual size.  And, the worst thing is that with all the barriers up for the start of the Paralympics, there was no way to hail a taxi.
I was so impressed by the helpfulness and concern of other people - a nice French man rescued my glasses which had fallen off (and I doubt that I'd have noticed otherwise) and at least three other people stopped to ask if I was ok at various times.  I wasn't really, but there wasn't anything they could do.  I basically kept on staggering until we got to Whitehall, where Paul managed to hail a taxi and we went back to the hotel.  The hotel people suggested either going to the hospital (but we'd have to find our own way there) or they could call in a private doctor.  The private doctor was hellishly expensive, but I couldn't bear the thought of going out again, let alone going and waiting in a queue at a hospital - so, private doctor it was.  He eventually came and prescribed some anti-inflammatories and antibiotics.  Quite a good idea really, because I realised later that the scrapes and cuts are full of dirt from the fall.
Anyway, Insight organised a wheelchair in case I needed it; Paul managed to buy a pair of crutches for me in case I could manage that way, and I spent the night trying not to move too much.  Not the way we wanted to start the trip.
Only one bit of (possibly) good news - I hadn't mentioned to this point but in the drama of our arrival in Cambridge, the remote control for Paul's hearing aids went missing.  We were fairly sure it had fallen off in the storm and was floating down a river miles away, but we contacted the bus company on the off chance that it had fallen off in the bus.  Good news - it had.  Bad news - it's at their lost property office in Bedford, and we have absolutely no chance of getting back there without changing flights etc etc.   I've asked them to send it to the hotel in London where we're staying again for a night at the end of the tour, but I haven't heard yet whether they'll agree to do this.

Monday 27 August, Day 6, IWM Duxford and some thoughts about Cambridge

We're still in Cambridge, but today we went to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford.
I think we walked approximately 1000 miles each, but it was well worth the aching feet and sore knees.
We got there on the shuttle bus which is astounding badly advertised.  It's obviously meant to be a money-making venture - it's run by the company that does the local hop-on, hop-off tours - but there were only four passengers on the way out there, and only the two of us on the way back.  More on this later, but for now, some of the best sights at the IWM.

Concorde - I'm so sad that I'll never get a chance to fly in it, but at least I got to step on-board one:

Nose to nose with a B52 bomber:

1940 Operations Room, still set up as it was then:

Messerschmitt Bf 109E

A Pickett-Hamilton Fort, aka Canberra Bus Shelter  :-)

Tiger Moth coming in to land - it's an operating airfield and you can go for flights in a number of old planes:

Paul took LOTS of photos and I expect he'll be posting them separately.


Now, back to Cambridge - I have reached the conclusion that they don't really want tourists here.  It was almost impossible to get details about the shuttle, and what we could find was contradictory.  For example, we caught the 9:22 shuttle to Duxford - quite definitely mentioned as the first shuttle of the day on their website, quite definitely NOT on the list of upcoming departures at the bus stop. There's also this very 'Canberra-like' set of assumptions at work - that you can just mention the name of a place and people will know where it is.  The bus from Milton Keynes the other day came into 'Parker's Pierce' - that's the sum total of the information provided - but Parker's Pierce is a huge open field with streets all around.  Same when we leave tomorrow - no information at all about where the coach leaves from.   The shuttle this morning - left from 'Silver Street' - with no indication of where in the street we needed to be.  The other people who caught the shuttle this morning were waiting at the railway station and no-one in the station could tell them anything about where to wait for the shuttle even though they knew the bus stop number.  As I said, they don't want tourists here. It's a nice place and I don't really regret coming here, but we won't be coming back.

Sunday 26 August, Day 5, Cambridge and surrounds

Today Paul's friend Neale came to meet us at the hotel - he lives in England and had kindly volunteered to show us around Cambridge, so we got to see quite a few places we would never have seen, and with the sort of explanations and detail that you never get if you visit a new place by yourself.

If the tour guides on our upcoming coach tours are even half as well informed, and half as good at explaining what we're seeing, we will have an excellent time on those tours!.

King's College
First stop was the chapel at Kings College.  The ceiling just soars above you - it's 80 feet high! - and the craftsmanship in it and in everything else is just astounding.  Here's a couple of pictures, although they really can't do it justice:

Oliver Cromwell's House

Next stop was Ely, where we first did a tour of Oliver Cromwell's house.  It was quite nicely done - no pictures here as we were too busy listening to the guided tour.

Once you've done the tour, you get to vote on whether you think Cromwell was a hero or a villain.  Votes are running at about two-thirds hero, but I still can't make up my mind.

Ely Cathedral

A short walk from Oliver Cromwell's house is the Ely Cathedral.  Wow.  Again.  They call this the Ship of the Fens because of the way it appears on the horizon.  It's an astounding place (yep, clearly that word is going to be in constant use on this blog for the next 10 weeks, so get used to it!!)  - far out of scale of anything you could imagine was needed for a cathedral for the number of people who lived here, then or now actually.  To quote their website though, it was always about glorifying god; the church came first and the town of Ely grew up around it.

A few more photos - although again, you really need to be there to see just how huge and glorious it actually is:

Anglesey Abbey

After lunch at Ely, we decided to go to see Anglesey Abbey.  As it turned out, half of Cambridgeshire also had the same idea  :-)   Well, maybe not that bad, but they have a seriously big car park and it was pretty much packed.  Anyway, we found a park and went though the house and gardens. The house is interesting - although it's a permanent display it really does look and feel like someone might live there.  The gardens have all sorts of contrasts - immaculate lawns with formal flower beds, a herbaceous garden with huge hedges all around, but then some almost overgrown forest areas.

American War Cemetery

Our final stop for the day was the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial.   Almost 4,000 american service-men were buried here, although many of their bodies have since been repatriated home.  A very formally set out cemetery and memorial, although with some definitely American touches - for example the doors of the chapel are decorated with tanks and other military equipment.

We finished off the evening with dinner at an Italian restaurant - we both ate far too much but it was absolutely delicious.

Saturday 25 August - Day 4 - Cambridge - OMG!!!

Today's plan was meant to be quite simple: check out of the apartment in Manchester, catch a bus - well two actually, one to Milton Keynes and then another on to Cambridge - then find and check into our hotel.  Easy.

It all started out quite ok.  There was a bit of concern because our street was supposed to be closed in preparation for the Gay Pride parade, but although lots of barriers were already set up there was no problem getting to the coach station.

The first bus ran a bit late because the traffic on the motorway was held up because of an accident, but we still got to Milton Keynes on time.

Unfortunately, the second bus was exactly on time - I say "unfortunately" since just before we pulled into our stop in Cambridge it started raining.  Not the light sprinkle we've been getting every few hours in Manchester, but a torrential downpour including hail.

Fortunately the hail had stopped by the time the bus stopped but it was still absolutely teeming with rain.

And, there was absolutely nowhere to shelter and the driver wouldn't let any of us stay on the bus.

Luckily I had decided to carry a (small) umbrella in the backpack, and we also eventually managed to get a raincoat out of the backpack while standing there being pelted with rain.  Seriously, this was tropical storm level rain, complete with thunder and lightning, so it was quite a challenge.

And of course, my instructions to myself on how to get to the hotel were just written in a notebook, so it was another serious challenge trying to get the notebook out without getting it drenched.

We managed to find our way to the hotel - getting wetter and wetter all the time, as practically none of the buildings has any sort of awning over the street.

Once we got to the hotel, we discovered they're having problems of their own - chunks of the ceiling in the main restaurant have fallen in, and there's water running down through at least one of the light fixtures.  And our room wasn't ready, even though it was more than an hour after check-in time.  Anyway, they found us a room, and we went upstairs to check the water damage which in the end wasn't as bad as we feared.  I had visions of waterlogged computers (eek!) but in the end we've basically got a few wet items of clothing strewn across the spare bed, our suitcases and backpacks are fairly damp, but nothing got permanently hurt.

So, by the time we sorted that out, we decided to duck out and find a shop to pick up a few odds and ends - by this time the sun was shining.  We decided to stroll the long way back and found a Gourmet Burger Kitchen, so we decided to go back there for dinner after dropping off the shopping.

And on the way back out, another storm hit, if anything heavier rain than the first one.  We spend about 20 minutes huddled under the umbrella in the doorway of a church while this storm raged - teeming rain and more hail.  We were only about 5 minutes walk from the restaurant by this, but we would have been completely drenched if we had tried to go out in it.  Finally it died down, so we made the brave attempt, only to be attacked one final time - this time, just hail.  Not nice.

Fortunately the food was excellent, and there was only a tiny amount of drizzle on the way back.

Before this holiday, a few people warned me about English weather, but no-one suggested that tropical downpours were on the cards  :-)

Friday 24 August - Day 3 - Manchester

Today we went to try to see if we could find any trace of Brelsford ancestors in some village cemeteries.
First we caught the train to Hadfield - an experience in itself actually.  We got to Glossop which was supposed to be the station before Hadfield, but then the train started back in the direction we just came from - we thought we had missed something and were on our way back to Manchester!  However, a little way up the tracks it veered off onto another line to Hadfield, so, we got there ok.
Then we walked to the Glossop Cemetery.  Quite a steep walk actually, a bit steeper than Google Maps led me to expect.  However, we got to the cemetery without too much complaining.  We didn't find any Brelsford graves, but we did find a couple of Rowbottoms - Paul's great great great grandmother (or maybe I missed a great) was born a Rowbottom.  I'll do some research later to see if they're relatives or not.

Then, we kept walking along to Glossop, which made us really glad that we had decided to walk up the hill from Hadfield and back down to Glossop, because the walk up from Glossop to the cemetery would have been even steeper!  It's about two miles from Hadfield to Glossop, so a nice bit of exercise with some lovely views.

Then we had a look around Glossop - looking for amenities and a shop to buy some water - then got a taxi to Hayfield.  Yes, a different place from Hadfield and also the nearby Padfield!
We had a look through the Hayfield Cemetery - as much as we could given that it's on the side of a really steep hill (I've no idea how they actually dig the graves) and that they clearly can't afford to keep it mowed.  In fact, they've got a sign up saying that unless the community objects, they're going to borrow some sheep from a local farmer as a way of keeping the grass down.  Sounds like a fine plan to me.  I hope sheep like to eat nettles, because as my leg can attest, there's plenty of nettles in there too!  Unfortunately we didn't see any family names in that cemetery.

Then, we wandered back into the village and found the bus station - we got a bus back to Glossop and then a train back to Manchester.
Even though we didn't really find exactly what we were looking for, we got to see some lovely scenery and just being there made the names we have been searching for seem more real.  Now when we see the name Hayfield or Glossop when we're hunting down details of one of the relatives, we'll be able to picture the actual places.

Thursday 23 August - Day 2 - Manchester (and Nottingham)

I had a plan today - I was going to catch a bus to the Trafford Centre and also go to a couple of other places on the same bus route, including an outlet mall and the Imperial War Museum North.
Trouble is, I never made it past the Trafford Centre.  Depending on how you measure it, it's either the second biggest, or the biggest, shopping centre in the UK.  I spent hours just walking around, looking at the shops and buying the odd thing.  By the time I was finished there, I was completely exhausted!  So, I'm afraid the other places are going to have to wait until another time.
Paul's trip to Nottingham was a success - he got lots of stuff he wanted and at a much better price than he would at home.  Of course, we actually have to get it home, so tomorrow we're going to find out about posting things from the UK!
Now that I've actually been in Manchester for a day, I've decided I like it here - there's just a nice atmosphere about the place.  Paul and I have agreed that we could easily come back here again and stay a bit longer.  Of course, we'll probably end up saying that about most of the places we go to  :-)

We've made it to Manchester!

What a very long day of travel - about 29 hours from when we left Canberra to when we arrived at our hotel.  However, it all worked out really well - no major disasters and a lot of plans came together as expected.
Airline
Well, this is a little difficult.  I was going to be extremely positive about everything to do with the flight, until my brother pointed out that Emirates is a major sponsor of Collingwood!!  However, I'm going to forgive them for that, because the flights really did go very well.
The food was excellent for airline food, and the service was also great.  It is a little disconcerting to wake up to the sound of an inflight announcement and sit there dazed for a few seconds thinking you've lost your mind before you realise that they're actually speaking Arabic - but my poor confused brain worked it all out eventually  :-)
Also, the people who say that jet-lag is much worse going east to west rather than west to east are completely correct.  This was a MUCH longer flight than our previous ones to Los Angeles and yet we're both fine - Paul has crashed now, but he has to be up at 5am to catch his train to Nottingham, so it's probably for the best! - but I'm here just feeling the normal amount of tired that I'd expect to be feeling at 9pm.
About the Airbus A380 - I've said it before but I'm going to repeat myself - what an excellent plane. The inflight entertainment is really good - lots of choices of movies, TV shows, games or just simply watching the flight progress on one of the three external webcams.  There's lots of options for staying in touch - there's a satellite phone in every seat and although I'm not sure  that I'd want to pay the price for phone calls, you can sent an SMS for $1 - not cheap, but not hopelessly expensive either.  Apparently there's over 300,000 SMS messages sent from / received by Emirates passengers in flight each month!  And on some flights they actually have wifi running - price is better than cruise ship prices (so, still not cheap!) but I can confirm that it does actually work.
The best thing though is that there seems to be something about the way the seats are set up that makes long flights actually bearable.  Usually within an hour or so on a plane I'll be getting sore and aching muscles - thighs especially - but no such problem on either the Qantas or Emirates A380s. I have a dream of being able to afford to fly business or first class one day but to be honest on the A380 cattle class is pretty much acceptable - much better to spend the extra money on the holiday rather than on getting there!
BTW Adam - you know all those times we have seen Air Crash Investigation episodes where the Auxiliary Power Unit saves the day - well, it's a good thing we didn't need one last night because according to the captain we flew all the way from Sydney to Dubai with the APU out of order.
Dubai airport
This would be the one down-side of flying with Emirates.  I've never seen so many people waiting for so many planes in such a small area.  Comparatively small that is, it seems to be quite a big airport - eg we were leaving from gate 231! -  but it was so crowded.  I wouldn't recommend flying through Dubai unless you were either doing a quick transit like we were (2 hours between flights - and even that seemed like a really long time after a 14 hour flight and without a spare seat in sight) or otherwise staying in Dubai for a couple of days. If I had thought about this before the holiday had grown into a 10 week monster, we might have given it a go, as I'd love to see the Burj Khalifa.
Arrival in the UK
Well, as others have said, it really is enough to make you wonder what the Commonwealth actually means.  What it certainly *doesn't* mean is any sort of preferential treatment on arrival - we just get lumped in with the rest of the world while EU citizens get the same 'tick and flick' entry that UK citizens get.  However, having said that, we did get through Border Control etc fairly quickly.  Wandered out and found a taxi - which was actually more like a little minivan - and he got us to our hotel with no dramas, for about the price that the wonders of the internet led me to believe I'd pay.
Scottevest
Well, this might sound like an advertisement for Scottevest but their travel vests really are a miracle.  I bought them because we carry so much electronic stuff with us on holiday that we were having trouble making the carry-on weight limits, and I knew that Emirates has a reputation for being particularly strict about that.  However, I always assumed that I'd take the vest off as soon as I got on the plane as it wouldn't be comfortable.  Not so, I wore it the whole way, complete with all of these things hidden away in various pockets:
an iPod, an iPhone, a camera, my purse, my passport in its folder and my reading glasses in a solid case.
 It's really good not having to rummage through the backpack for these sorts of things, and of course the amount you can keep out of your carry-on allowance is just amazing.  If I had been desperate to save carryon space or weight - my ultrabook actually fits into one of the pockets!
Here we are at home just before we left - both vests are loaded up with electronics:

Manchester
We haven't really been here long enough to really comment.  However, a number of people - including the nice young lady at Border Control - have told us not to expect too much of the weather.  Really, they're completely mistaken - how can you complain about the weather in a place that has so much of it?  I swear we went through the overcast - rain - overcast - sunny - overcast etc etc cycle at least 5 times in the first two hours!  But actually, we've found it to be quite comfortable so far - the rain hasn't been enough to even really get you damp, and the temperature is just right for two refugees from a Canberra winter. So far, everything has been completely easy - we've picked up Paul's train tickets for tomorrow (we prepaid for them last week but had to pick them up at a ticket machine), bought a prepaid internet package (a MiFi so we can have internet access pretty much everywhere), found all the shops we needed, etc etc, all without the least trouble or drama.  Although, actually, that's not quite correct, there has been one minor drama.  Any new place you go to the traffic signals (among many other things!) seem to be just a little different from what you're used to.  An obvious answer is to follow the 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do' theory.  Take it from me, if you're in Manchester and you're having trouble working out just when the street lights are telling you that it's ok to cross the street, do NOT try to copy the locals.  I swear I've seen at least 10 people walk out directly into oncoming traffic - some of them jumped and ran when they realised what they'd done; others just kept on strolling.....
Hotel
We're staying at Roomz Aparthotel - an old bank building I think, that has been done up into apartments.  Really good so far - we arrived early (and desperate for a shower) and our room was ready and waiting.  That alone would have been enough to make me happy even if it was a bit of a dump, but it's actually a nice studio apartment with plenty of power points - important when you're carrying around as much technology as we are! - and all the usual things you expect to find in such a place, but done just a little bit differently.

For example, the big TV screen you can see is of course a TV, but it's also linked up to an Apple iMac that we can use as we wish while we're here.  Nice.

All packed and ready to go

Well, almost.
I have done the on-line check-in for the Emirates flight to Dubai and then Manchester.  I don't think it had really sunk in until today just how much further this is than a flight to Los Angeles - yes, I know, a simple look at a map would have shown me.  However, it's quite clear to me now - 14.5 hours on the plane, then a bit over 2 hours in transit in Dubai, then another 7.5 hours.
The good thing is that I'm told now that flying this direction is much less draining in terms of jet-lag than flying towards Los Angeles.  We've never had a huge problem with jet lag anyway, but this time both of our long flights are in the 'less bad' direction.
Nothing more to say now - I'm going to try to post again in Sydney, then again from Dubai just to prove that the holiday really has started!

Only a few days now

Last time I posted there was 40 days to go, and I was in a minor panic about getting everything done.  Today, there's 8 days to go and I'm pretty sure at last that it's under control.  The to-do list is still fairly long, but it's almost all 'last-minute' things - the big stuff is all done.  We're now down to little decisions like just how many pairs of shorts to pack, or which phone Paul should take.
After wasting a couple of hours looking through the shops in Woden and Civic for the last few new items of clothing I wanted to buy - a nice formal outfit, some shoes and a few other bits and pieces - I've decided it's a lost cause.  Even at its best Canberra doesn't have a huge range of shops.  And, there's plenty of shopping in Manchester, including a shopping centre with 240 shops that's just over 600 metres away.
So for me, day 2 in Manchester has been set aside for shopping.   And, shopping of the best sort - aka on my own - because  Paul has decided to go to Nottingham for the day (apparently it's the wargaming hub of the UK and well worth the 120k trip each way!!)