Footsteps in Freddy's history

HMS Warrior in Portsmouth Harbour

The blog has had a break for a few days as we came into England – we actually had to post the remaining Ireland posts which is why there were a number of posts on the same day. The other reason for the hiatus is that there has just been so little time for blogging during our time in the UK.

Our impressions of England (and today a very brief entry into Wales) are that it is very expensive, very busy with far too many people and frustrating to drive around. We are hoping this will improve. Having said this we probably have to say that we were spoilt in Ireland.  

On arriving at the airport in London it cost the equivalent of $100 Australian to get the train out to collect the motorhome – a journey which was not even all that far (we will not complain about the Brisbane Airtrain again). We collected the motorhome and then headed out of town to prepare for our next adventure.

The Australian flag flying on the highest
pole in Portsmouth Harbour - not
even sure what building it is.

Portsmouth was the first port of call the following morning for Elizabeth to check out Freddy’s birthplace. We eventually found a place to park the motorhome where we could get the appropriate photos and get a sense of the city. We headed to the historic part of the city and found the HMS Warrior from 1690 and the old port where the children used to wallow in the mud finding coins that people would throw for them. As times were tough the spare change would help out the family budget. On departing Portsmouth it was time to head to Highclere Castle to check out setting for Downtown Abbey. This was the start of our jinx – we found it quite easily which we thought was an accomplishment only to discover that it was closed to the public for the day. We weren’t the only ones caught out as a steady procession of people arrived only to turn around and journey on. We decided to overcome the disappointment by heading off to Stonehenge which was just amazing once we eventually arrived. Our trip to Stonehenge was our first real experience of gridlock England style. We crawled our way to Stonehenge and were rewarded with sunny weather although it was blowing a gale which ensured it was cold. Stonehenge was just amazing and another example of creating your own explanation of what it is all about. The strong wind created amazing wave like patterns across all the surrounding pasture. After Stonehenge we headed to our accommodation to find that a diversion was in place so again we sat in gridlock with everyone else. This was the first of a number of diversions so far – some where they just close the road and send everyone a different direction for 35 weeks or with one to start in June for 65 weeks! Beats dropping everyone down to 40km/hr like they do in Australia I suppose, although the roads that you get diverted to are generally narrow and winding.

Thermal water entering the pool at
Bath

Thermal spring at Bath

We ventured to Bath and again dealt with horrendous traffic to be rewarded with the amazing ruins of the Roman Baths. The whole experience is so well done to give you the whole sense of what the baths would be like during the time of the Romans. The curse notes which they have found were great – complaints to the Goddess Minerva mainly about things that have been stolen. It really is quite interesting that it is not necessarily the ‘famous’ people of history that you hear about – it is the ordinary people from history whose notes have been found and recorded. The traffic out of Bath was not quite as bad and we thought we would escape gridlock only to find that even their Motorways can’t cope with the congestion. Travelling along the M5 we were reduced to a crawl not because of accidents or roadwork – just because of traffic – something that happens all the time apparently. It would do our head in – we can only hope that as we get further north things thin out a little.

Bath street scene complete with
telephone boxes

Today we were again beset by the vagaries of roadwork as we were trying to head to Stokesay Castle. Again we found the castle only to be diverted off the road 2 miles short of the destination. Our diversion of some 12 miles brought us back on to A49 (the road Stokestay Castle was on) would you believe 1 mile north of the castle. All these castles in England and we could actually get to the ones we wanted to see. To make up for it we headed to Wales and managed to walk through Powis Castle which was fantastic. The castle was left to the National Trust with all the furniture in 1957. It basically was like walking through Downtown Abbey and the gardens were again amazing. It was just amazing the ‘social’ aspect of the estate – where the privileged guests would arrive for a weekend of hunting and banqueting. Quite mindboggling actually.

Tomorrow we head up to Snowdonia National Park.

Love to all

S&E