Windlesham and Windsor – Our final day in England!

We had a fabulous evening with Daniel and Marysia and a really good nights sleep. The plans for today were to do the walk through Windsor Park starting off at Virginia Waters, and then walk the long mile and end up at the Castle. We woke to a beautiful sunny and hot day. So pleased as it would have been less fun to walk it in the rain. We had planned for Glenda to get to Dan and Marysias place and we go together, but she got stuck in traffic and was running late. So the plan was changed and we met Glenda at the park.

The walk was great and along with the views we had plenty of time to chat and enjoy each others company. We arrived at Windsor Castle just after lunch time so we found a cafe and had lunch together. After lunch we walked down to the river and looked at the swans and the boats. Lots of families were at the river and surrounding parks because of the beautiful sunny day.

We had to catch the 6pm bus back to the gates to Virginia Waters and the Windsor walk entrance so there was time to have a coffee at a cafe near the Castle. We arrived back at Daniels around 6.45pm. Glenda was able to stay for tea so we all went to the local Indian restaurant and enjoyed our last meal together.

What a fabulous time we have had in England! Tomorrow morning at 6am we are off to Heathrow airport to catch our plane to Singapore. This certainly has been a full holiday! It’s hard to remember the details of our whole time away. I will be reading this blog to help jog the memories. Onto the next chapter of the holiday….

Bournemouth to Daniel and Marysias place

After a reasonable nights sleep we were up bright and early to get started on our big trip to Windlesham. We had so much planned. Our first stop was a little pub in Bournemouth for breakfast. We found a park on the sea front and were blessed with amazing views over the ocean. The sky was a beautiful blue and hardly any clouds and the sea was calm. Bournemouth has an amazing beach, and Poole even better. They just don’t get a long hot summer!

Len has family in Tiptoe, which is just north of Bournemouth and in the New Forest. New Forest is very different from other parts of England as it has lots of wide open spaces and also forestry areas. It also has animals roaming free all over. You see horses, deer and cows often and they are very near the road. We travelled through New Forest after having a lovely morning tea with Lens cousin and his wife.

We drove on to Salisbury to have a look through the Salisbury Cathedral. It is a great Cathedral to visit as the grounds are well kept and picturesque, and the Cathedral itself is very tall, big and interesting both on the outside and the inside. We took heaps of photos and decided to have lunch in their cafe as well.

The next place was a place that Judy needed to see. Stonehenge! Len, Robin and I had already seen it, but it was still good to visit again. Once again we took plenty of photos and the added bonus was that we got in free! We brought tickets to the English Heritage when we first left on our tour of England and they have well and truely paid for themselves.

From Stonehenge we had the biggest part of the journey, and that was to get to Henley on Thames to meet up with Glenda for tea. We were so pleased to get there as we were stuck on the motorway for ages as there had been a car accident. Henley on Thames is a beautiful town filled with historic buildings. Glendas place was one of them. We wandered through the town and along the river than had a lovely meal together.

The final part of the trip was to get to Daniel and Marysias at Windlesham. They have such a neat little place and it was so good o finally be with them again. We had a big catch up, had Daniel blow a candle on his belated birthday cake that Marysia had made him, had supper then went to bed. What a very long day…but a very good day as well.

The photos for today were loaded in yesterdays blog by mistake so that is where they will stay until I have time to fix them up. I hope you enjoy looking at them. We have seen some amazing sights!

 

 

Painswick to Bournemouth

What a neat experience staying in our B&B last night. Robin and I slept in a four poster bed that was so high we needed a stool to get up into it. The whole place was centuries old and was in an area surrounded by historical buildings. We all slept really well and even managed to get some washing washed and dried!

Well what a huge day we had today! The list was 1. The Cotswolds 2. Bristol Suspension Bridge 3. Bath 4. Shaftesbury – Gold Hill 5. Burnemouth and tea with Robins family! The distance travelled seeemed like MILES! Both Judy and I are getting a little sick of sitting inthe back of the car. Worst of all is having no control! Anyone who knows me knows that I am a control freak!

But the day was great! We saw so much and loved it all. The Cotsdwolds are very picturesque to drive through. We stopped at a couple of the little villages to look around and see the historic houses closer up. One place was Bibery which had a trout farm and also one of the most pretty streets in England. I will add some photos of this place.

Bristol Suspension bridge was a recommendation by all the visitors guides, so we just had to divert to Bristol to check it out. We weren’t disappointed..it was quite a sight…and long and very high. We stopped under it for some photos but it just didn’t look as good as in real life.

Now Bath!! If you haven’t been to Bath, you have to add that to your ‘bucket list’. It HAS to be done. What an amazingly pretty historic town. Very much built on Roman influence. We included a visit into the Roman Baths this time. I was so pleased as I have been to Bath before so I had seen most of the touristy spots, but not inside the Baths. It was like a museum and very interesting 🙂

We have a photo at home of Barbara (Robins Mum) walking up a very steep hill with Ken and Margater Pittwood. The little houses in the photo are so quaint and old. I have always wanted to go to that very same spot. So that was our next port of call. Shaftesbury! We arrived around 5pm. Parked the car and walked Gold hill looking at the distant views on the way and also those very same little houses as in the photo. Such a great thing to do.

Next thing was piling into the car and driving as fast as we could to get to Bournemouth. The only trouble was the roads were very narrow, windy and hilly! The trip took much longer that we thought. But we also saw some very good views the whole trip. We arrived in Bournemouth at 8.15pm and booked into our B&B! Went to KFC and brought the worst tea of our whole holiday….yuck! But we didn’t have time to do anything different for tea as we had to take it around to Ken and Margarets place and eat it there. We are running out of holiday time very fast! But, we did have a lovely evening with the Bournemouth Pittwoods (well 3 of them) and had a pretty late night. The internet was useless at our B&B, so once again I could update my blog or load any photos.

My goodness have we stayed at some interesting places, seen some amazing things and had lots of laughs….so good for the soul 🙂

 

Fishguard to Painswick

There’s not a lot to say about today as we were catching the Ferry then driving on the motorway for most of the day. Not a lot of photos taken either, so I will load them up with the next days photos 🙂

I overate last night and suffered a very windy tummy all night. So it was a restless night for me! The tea was so nice though. I think it was all the garlic in the gravy! When the alarm went off at 6am, I wasn’t very happy. It was way too early to get up, but we had a ferry to catch. During the night I decided not to eat any breakfast but when we got down to the dining room and I saw the food…and I ate it all up! Our accommodation was great and the owners were very friendly 🙂

We got to the ferry terminal within about 5 minutes as it was just down the road. The boat trip lasted 3 hours and was a pretty calm sailing (thank goodness). We had a bit of a distance to travel so we got on the road only stopping for a quick lunch and a drink later on. When you drive down the M4 you don’t really get to see much scenery, so when we got closer to our Bed and Breakfast we left the motorway and travelled down the country roads for more views.

As we got closer to our B&B the roads got narrower and narrower until it was just a single lane. We really wondered if the tom tom was leading us wrong, but eventually we got to the place and found out that we had come through a back road. It was quite an experience. I booked our B&B through last minute.com while we were on the ferry, so I was a little bit worried that it wouldn’t really be suitable. There weren’t many available so we couldn’t be fussy. Thankfully we are all very happy with it. It is a historic building that has been done up and converted into a B&B and it is so nice. We haven’t stayed in anything like it before and we feel really blessed to have the experience!

We had tea at the restaurant downstairs which is run by a lovely Romanian couple. Another super meal! After tea we went for a walk to have a look around the local area. It is full of historical buildings with narrow roads. We love it! We have taken some photos but it was getting late and they are a little dark. I will add them anyway when we get internet next. Only 3 more nights in the UK after tonight. Sadly we are getting to the end of this fabulous holiday, but we have so many memories and thousands of photos 🙂

Leeds to Windermere

WOW!! What a big breakfast! No need to stop for lunch today 🙂 I am sure I have doubled my weight!!! Today we left Leeds to travel to the famous town of York…and we were not disappointed! What an amazing place. We took the on/off bus to see the main sights of the city and then got off to view some places closer up. York Minster is huge and fabulous…we loved it! I have put up some photos from the inside and the outside. We also did the Viking museum but haven’t added photos as it was too dark inside. It was really interesting! From York we travelled to Haworth. Now that is a must visit for everyone who travels these roads! Just getting to Haworth was an ecxperience. It’s roads were barely wide enough for one car let alone two. Haworth has one street filled with shops that you have to walk up…and down. It is at about a 45 degree angle if not steeper and has very cute shops and cobblestone roads. I was in awe of it…such a neat little place. We ended up at Windermere which is a lakeside place. A very pretty town and also a must see ! Unfortunately for us it started to rain…well continued to rain. But we had a neat place to stay so who worrries about a little water.

 

And we are off…..

Now it is just us four together! The expert driver Daniel is now back at work and Robin and Len have taken over the driving. Today we headed for Leeds, stopping at Nottingham and a few other places. Robin did great with the driving! We only had to go around a couple of round-a-bouts again to get to the right exit…just a few scary moments! We arrived at Leeds and our accomodation is great. The man running the place was really friendly and helpful and we all had a good nights sleep. So if you are looking for a good place to stay the Boundary Bed and Breakfast would be a great choice.

Last days in Poland and Germany

Well the 10 days with Daniel and Marysia went way too fast. Before I knew it we were back at Windlesham and packing for our holiday North! But we had an amazing time and have fabulous memories of our holiday. And….boy did we travel some miles! Have a look on a map and see just how far it is from Windlesham (near Windsor), England to Poznan in Poland! We went there and back in 10 days!!! Below are the last few photos of those days 🙂