England and London
Evening of 6th May, Castleside, near Newcastle
upon Tyne.
Apart from nearly being written off by a car overtaking us in the face of
oncoming traffic, we had an uneventful journey from Golspie. Although the
May Day holiday ended yesterday we're certain that many people have taken
extended leave, as the roads were very busy today, with lots of caravans.
We came through the Cairngorms, now a holiday skiing resort, but there was not enough snow there, we thought, for skiing. Our journey through Northumberland took us along about fifteen miles of old Roman road, now tarred, which was very like a rollercoaster, but absolutely straight. There was no cutting through hills in those days!
We're at another farmhouse B&B, but unfortunately there is an ex-Zambian staying here too, and he is a thorough racist and a thorough bore!
7th May, Spalding.
It's been quite a long day! We set off from our B&B and made for the North
Yorkshire Moors which were covered in mist, but we managed to see quite a bit.
First we visited Wade's Causeway, a stretch of Roman road, and incidentally saw
some big white radomes, golfball-like early warning structures some distance
from the road, with "Ministry of Defence Private Property" signs prominently
displayed.
Fylingdales early warning station.
Wade's Causeway, a Roman road on Wheeldale Moor.
We then went on to Rievaulx Abbey, the remains of a twelfth and thirteenth century Cistercian abbey, the first to be established in Northern England.
Above and two photographs below: Rievaulx Abbey, 12th century.
Then on to the A1 heading south in the pouring rain. It had cleared a bit when we reached Lincoln. We parked the car and walked up a long, steep road called "Steep Hill", up to the cathedral which we wandered around. We were rather sorry that we didn't have longer to spend in Lincoln which struck us as a very interesting city. We then set off for the bulb fields of Spalding. They were very pretty, but, in the cloud and fading light, were nothing like as lovely as those of Holland. We were also looking unsuccessfully for a B&B, but eventually found one which turned out to be our most expensive so far.
Lincoln Cathedral.
Interior of Lincoln Cathedral.
Tulips at Spalding in Lincolnshire - 'Little Holland'.
8th May, Oxford.
Before leaving
Spalding we had another look at the bulb fields, and Holland's are
definitely better. We then made our way to Coventry, mainly to look
at the cathedral. It really was well worth the effort. The centre of
the city is a big shopping complex with the spire of the old cathedral,
destroyed by bombing in the last war, as its focal point. The spire is
about all that stands of the old building, and adjoining it is the new one,
consecrated in 1962. This has a vast interior with magnificent windows,
large plaques on the walls with passages of scripture and a huge tapestry behind
the altar, all contemporary. There is also a magnificent organ which,
unfortunately, we didn't hear.
Mustard growing in Leicestershire.
Bluebells in a forest.
Then on to Oxford, where we managed to buy one of my 'unobtainable' set books reasonably cheaply. We telephoned the R.S.C. at Stratford to find out what was on there and it turned out to be Romeo and Juliet, and the only tickets left were £8 or £10, a bit out of our league. We then phoned Margaret and Mark and have spent the evening at their new cottage in Woodeaton. It's a lovely old seventeenth century building. We chatted mainly with Margaret as Mark had to go out. We are staying at the same B&B in Oxford as we used on our first night of travels with the Daveys seventeen months ago. At that time there was ice all over the place, a petrol shortage, and, to top it all, the car wouldn't start the next day. That was all very different from our present happy circumstances: beautiful weather, a reliable new car now giving us 50 m.p.g., and as much petrol as we want.
Farmland next door to the Charnocks, near Woodeaton.
Mustard fields and an inquisitive lamb near Oxford.
You may wonder why we are not staying with Margaret and Mark, and they did say we would be very welcome to sleep on their spare beds, but they are still very much in the process of moving, with Margaret and the furniture having arrived from London only ten days ago. We thought it far too much of nuisance for them; also Margaret has a very early start on the days she commutes to London. They both seem very happy in Oxford, though I'm not sure how Margaret will stand up to three days' commuting each week, with four hours' travelling each day.
9th May, South Ealing, with the Kings.
We set off early
from Oxford and did a tour of the Cotswolds, a very pretty area, most wheat
farming. Spring is very well advanced now and nearly all the trees are
out. So pretty, the different shades of green and, of course, blossoms.
Lower Slaughter in the Cotswolds.
18th century mill at Lower Slaughter.
St Mary's Parish Church, The Slaughters.
We managed to get back to New Malden in London to hand over the car with only one wrong turning, which was easily corrected by going twice around the roundabout, a very useful trick we have learnt when unsure of the way. Then it was off to South Ealing, where we arrived at about 3.30 p.m., rather too early as Frances gets back from work at about 6.00 p.m. - so I had the brilliant idea of visiting the nearby laundrette to do our accumulated washing, which took us up to about 5.30 p.m. By the time we got back to Queen Anne's Gardens it was about 6.00 p.m. and we had only a few minutes to wait for Frances. We found four letters waiting for us, three from Wantage, one from Hatfield, all with good news, especially that about Albany!
10th May.
We had two main outings today. First of all Frances and Alan took us to
friends who have friends who run a stall in Portobello Road. We had a
delightful morning there wandering through the market, although we didn't buy
anything. We were, in fact, fascinated by not only the goods on sale but
also the people buying and selling: purple, pink or green punks; buskers in
profusion; and a seething mass of humanity, many in very outlandish attire.
Portobello Road.
The Thames at Lechlade.
A Goodyear blimp flying over Ealing.
We spent the afternoon relaxing in the sunshine, as it really was a lovely day. In the evening we were off to see Handel's oratorio Saul, which was a fine performance by a suitably sized group of singers and players.
11th May.
Yet another lovely day - the weather has been very kind to us! We had a
late breakfast and then set off with the Kings in their car to the Chilterns
where Frances and Alan often go walking. After parking the car we went on
a very gentle four mile walk, stopping in a little wood for a picnic lunch.
It was a most enjoyable outing, and the countryside is lovely at this time of
year.
A village in the Chilterns.
Above and below: our walk and lunch in a Chiltern forest.
We came back here, had supper, and then off to another concert, the details of which I'll leave to Ray.
We all enjoyed the London Philharmonic Orchestra's faultless playing and also had great fun following the programme notes to Strauss's Don Quixote, as series of episodes in the hero's life. The other works were by Dvořák.
Wednesday 14th May.
We spent Monday 12th May shopping and came home to find Mum's letter with the
dreadful news of Margaretha. We were terribly shocked, to say the least.
On Tuesday we had a very pleasant lunch with Margaret Charnock, and then
finished our shopping - my most impressive buy was a very nice all wool coat for
£45, which I thought a bargain. We did not expect to be able to travel
into town today (Wednesday), but in fact the tube has been running pretty
regularly. We spent a lovely morning in Kew, which we found very changed
in the three weeks since we were there at the start of our holiday.
Above and the next two photographs:
Rhododenron Dell, Kew Gardens.
Lilacs in Kew.
Azaleas, Kew.
Then it was home via Ealing Broadway to shop, as we are doing supper tonight. Frances was home already as they had been advised to go when they could in case the tube was not running.
Just to explain about the transport problems: the T.U.C. has ordered a day of strikes today to protest against the Conservatives' policies. Most services in London have continued uninterrupted, but thank goodness we leave only tomorrow, when things should al be back to normal.
15th May, Heathrow.
We had a very leisurely trip to the airport, but still, a very tiring one.
The suitcases weigh about 38kg, and they seemed to weigh about 100kg by the time
we had walked from the Queen Anne's Gardens to the underground. I made a
quick trip into London this morning to buy a pair of trousers and we had lunch
with the Kings. It's now 3.00 p.m. and our check in desk opens at 4.00
p.m. Once again, it's a clear, warm day, but they still have the central
heating on, and it's unbelievably hot inside.
16th May, Las Palmas.
Our departure from Heathrow was delayed (how unusual!)
by heavy air traffic over Spain - at least that's what they told us. We
had a pleasant and uneventful flight to Las Palmas, where we refuelled, but
nobody was allowed off the plane. We took off, but about an hour later we
had to return to Las Palmas on only three engines as one of them had failed
completely. S.A.A. has put us up at a five-star hotel, as we just happened
to be in the same bus as the first class passengers. It was 3.30 a.m. by
the time we got to bed. We haven't yet been told when we can expect to
leave, although rumour has it that they are flying out a spare engine or another
plane from Johannesburg, in which case we are unlikely to be on our way any time
soon and we will likely have to spend another night at S.A.A.'s expense in
Johannesburg.
I must say it was rather nice to pick up the phone a few moments ago and ask for two continental breakfasts to be sent up. The Marais family is also here, and we were rather surprised to see them as they were due to leave London this evening, and the Head had been annoyed when he learnt that they were going to miss the Staff Meeting and had asked them to try to get back. So in London they had changed their bookings; but I strongly suspect that none of us is going to make the meeting now, anyway!
10.00 p.m., Flight SA258 to Johannesburg.
We're now waiting to take off from Las Palmas. We had quite a pleasant day:
it was about 10.00 a.m. when we had breakfast in our room and then
went on a brief walk down the beach. We had a snooze when we got back to
the hotel and at about 3.00 p.m. we were finally told we would would be leaving
the hotel at 6.45 p.m.
Above and below: The beach Las Palmas.
We had a delicious lunch of melon, sole, gâteau and cheese upstairs in the restaurant with a lovely view of the dock area. After that we had another walk around the town which looked pleasant and well run. We watched some sail-surfing and then retired to the hotel for another rest before being called for our bus to the airport.
The docks, Las Palmas.
Fishing off the rocks, Las Palmas.
We had quite a pleasant meal meal at the Las Palmas airport with a Bulawayo woman and her sister. Small world - there are twelve people on our flight doing the London to Bulawayo journey. We are on this particular flight because it was diverted from Frankfurt especially to pick up 120 of our passengers. The remainder will be picked up by three other diverted flights between 2.00 a.m. and 12.00 noon tomorrow. So we won't have a free night in Johannesburg after all, but we will still miss the Staff Meeting tomorrow!