Author: travurple

Another weekly blog missed, so this one covers two weeks again!

Monday (27 November) we drove out of Melbourne to Geelong on the south coast. We started by visiting the botanical Gardens, found a lovely spot for our coffee under a tree, unfortunately the recent rain had brought out the bugs and Nic got 5 bites in quick succession! We packed up an headed through the rest of the gardens, which were lovely, really well kept, and headed for the sea lido. It looked bug free ! So we found a place to sit and eat out butties. By now those bites were getting itchy, so on our walk through the town we found a pharmacy and bought antihistamines…. relief for Nic!

We then headed back to Melbourne to visit more friends, and their children, only one of whom we met before, aged 3 months! A great catch up and a super home cooked dinner.

Tuesday, we visited Williamstown, a suburb of Melbourne, had our coffee in another botanical garden before heading back to meet our friend for a gorgeous lunch at Old Man Drew’s Cafe. The Salmon Okonomiyaki was amazing, and huge!

Wednesday, a wet and windy day! We met our friend at her workplace, with our butties for lunch, and again for a quick drink after she finished for the day. It was our final catch up before she left for the UK, very kindly allowing us to use her flat until her return at the end of December.

However before moving to that flat, we are house and dog sitting in Sandringham, so we headed there for dinner, to get acquainted with our charge, and receive useful instructions.

Thursday, the dog owners left in the morning, so we were now responsible for a beautiful house and very cute dog!

Friday, three dog walks a day, we explored the local area, parks and coastal walk. The dog was no trouble, and thankfully left only small ‘presents’ that needed to be picked up, so that was are OK. The dog is used to being off the lead, but as she doesn’t know us well, and we did not want to risk her, we kept the lead on.

Saturday, is a terrible day for the weather, a downpour that lasted all morning, our doggie pal was not happy going out in the wet! Rog finally persuaded her to just go for it, and they had a trot round the block.

Sunday, we visited Rog cousin in Somerville, further down the Mornington peninsula, we can not remember the last time we met, but it must be at least 25 years. We had lovely homemade lime cheesecake. It was really nice to catch up after all that time.

Monday (4 December), the dog owners returned, and insisted on taking us out to a Thai restaurant for dinner, obviously we couldn’t refuse (thank you!) we then said our goodbyes to them, and the dog, and returned to our friend’s apartment in Melbourne.

Tuesday, Rog went for a run, more of a shuffle, the first time in ages, but ‘use it or lose it’ so tried to use it. As this was our last full day with the hire car, and our 20th Wedding Anniversary, we drove to Werribee to see the Victoria State Rose Garden. A lovely garden with over 5,000 roses. Amazing blooms and scents.

Wednesday, started with taking the hire car back to the airport for 9:30, and then headed to a cinema, which is near the tram terminus, back to the city. We watched Marvels, as it was 10am we were the only ones there, so a private screening. An enjoyable film.

We got the tram into central Melbourne, going to Movida for lunch, Spanish tapas to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The food and wine were delicious.

Thursday, we walked from the flat to Royal Park, a nice view of the Melbourne skyline, We were greeted by a very friendly puppy, who managed to knock Nic’s tea out of her hand! No harm done.

Friday, was a hot and very windy day, we attempted a walk but we didn’t get that far, it was not pleasant with all the dust being blown around.

Saturday, it rained over night, we got the tram to Victoria Street Market, a large busy market, well it is December! It had everything food related, fish, meal, deli, fruit & veggies. It also had clothes, homeware and the standard market stuff. All undercover, but as the rain continued we got the tram back to the flat.

Nic decided it must be Christmas, so put up our friend’s Christmas decorations, Christmas, dare we say in the heat (just not today) still feels a little wrong.

We considered going to a carol concert in the park, but the rain continued so we didn’t bother. We heard later that it had been cancelled anyway.

Sunday, walked up the Moonee Ponds Creek trail, to Queen’s Park for coffee. We sat and watched them take down the stage for the concert that was cancelled yesterday! Then walked back down Mt Alexander Road to the flat in Travancore. In the evening the local church of St George’s held a carol service, so in the spirit of getting even more Christmassy, we went along.

Another late blog, too busy enjoying ourselves to be writing blogs on time, but here goes….

Monday (20 November), we did a little bit more gardening, before heading out for lunch with friends. That night Nic went out with our friend on the milk delivery round, as this is New Zealand, the milk round took 7hr including driving to Dunedin an hour away, finishing back home at 3am.

Tuesday, we left our friends and drove to Lake Tekapo, via Lake Pukaki with a viewing point for Mt Cook / Aoraki. We stayed at Lake Edge resort on Lake Tekapo. We had a dinner picnic sitting on the side of the lake, a beautiful spot. As Lake Tekapo is a dark skies reserve, Rog got up in the middle of the night to go star gazing. It was a clear night and you could easily see the Milky Way, but as this is the southern hemisphere the only constellation Rog could recognise was Orion, all be it upside down.

Wednesday, another glorious day, so we hired kayaks on the lake for an hour, we were the only people on the lake to start with, it was lovely. In the afternoon we walked along the side of the lake.

Thursday, we checked out and called at The Church of the Good Shepherd, before leaving Lake Takepo behind. On the journey, we stopped in Geraldine for lunch, and some retail therapy, Nic bought a Possum wrap (the wearing kind rather than the edible kind). We stayed the night at The Ashburton Hotel in Ashburton, a hotel on a race course, but no racing today. We had drinks and dinner in the hotel sports bar, Rog discovered jugs of beer!

Friday, we drove back to the car hire depot to leave the car, yes we did go back to the correct one, got a transfer to Christchurch airport for our Jetstar flight to Melbourne, Australia. Before any airport announcements Revolut (our credit card company) pinged us with a lounge access pass, which meant that our flight must be a least 1hr delayed, sure enough 10 mins later the airport updated the screens with a 2 hour delay. So we spent time in the lounge partaking of the free food and drink, unfortunately we were picking up another hire car in Melbourne, so less drink! Checked in with the Hire Car company, discovered they close at 8pm, so we’d probably miss them, hooray, time for a beer!

Got to Melbourne a couple of hours late, then had to run the gauntlet of the airport passport and border control, which gets the prize for the most disorganised we have been to lately. Inconsistent signage as to whether we had to use the electronic passport gates or the staffed lanes? We were told to use the E Gates, but before then we had to queue up to get a ticket? After baggage collection it was on to Bio security section, which entailed back tracking the long way around the baggage hall, to join a queue, then as we had been on a dairy farm recently we had to talk to another member of staff, before being given the all clear to enter Australia. All this meant we had definitely missed collecting the hire car. So we got an Uber to our friend’s place, and would go back for the car the following day.

Saturday, we got an Uber to the car hire depot, they were happy to change our booking by one day, so nothing lost! Apart from the Uber fares.

We then headed off to visit friends of friends for whom we are dog sitting next week in Sandringham, a Melbourne suburb.

We then checked into our Airbnb, a little way out of the city, but it’s cheap and only half an hours drive from friends. Nic and a friend then went to another friend for afternoon tea, followed by dinner back at our friend’s flat.

Sunday, after a lovely home cooked brunch at our friends flat, and a short walk around the local area, we headed for an early pre theatre dinner at a Nepalese restaurant, then watched a performance of a Christmas Carol, with more friends joining in. It was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit, quite tricky for us in the warm weather! It was another really enjoyable evening.

Monday (13 November) we left our friends in Northern Auckland and drove back to the airport for a short flight down to Christchurch on the South Island. Got the bus transfer to collect a car hire, which turned out to be the wrong hire company, Rog had cancelled that company’s hire car and got a much cheaper deal (saving about £100), so after some confusion and apologies, Rog was just working out how to deal with it when the chap offered/insisted on giving us a lift to correct car hire company. A very kind gesture!

After collecting the correct car hire, we drove to the local supermarket for supplies for the week. We then set off on a 3 1/2 hr drive to the west coast, via Arthur’s pass, to a place called Hokitika, into a yellow weather warning for Heavy rain. Most of the drive was dry, with only the last half hour in the rain. We stayed at the 252 Beachside motel. Another place that the only real description is cheap and clean!

And it did rain heavily overnight.

Tuesday, more rain, we drove south along the coastal highway, via Franz Joseph glacier to Fox Glacier, the rain continued most of the day, so we didn’t stop very often for the views, just kept driving. Tonight we had booked a bunk house room (the cheapest option), at Top 10 holiday park in Fox Glacier. When we checked in we were informed that the bunk house was not open, so we got a free upgrade to a cabin!

We booked the hot tub for 30mins, which was lovely with a view of the cloud obscured mountains.

Wednesday, a much better day for the weather, we continued our drive south, managing a 5km walk to see the Fox Glacier, and stopped on the road side to see Bruce Bay, Knight’s Bay, Haast village to refuel, Thunder Creek falls, then Fantail falls. Our accommodation for the next two nights was at Wonderland Makarora lodge.

Thursday, we walked towards the Blue Pools, but unfortunately the bridges of the river were closed, the sign said that they had “come to the end of it’s operational life”, so not sure we’d have wanted to walk over it anyway! A nice walk as far as the bridge.

We also walked the first part of the Mount Shrimpton track, the whole track is 3hrs, so we did about 1hr, another enjoyable forest walk, the path was more natural than some of the more touristy routes.

Friday, we drove, in the rain, to Wanaka. Had a wonderful brunch at the Federal Diner. Rog had kedgeree and Nic had amazing Eggs Benedict.

Did some shopping, whilst driving out of the car park, a guy stopped us to tell us that our back tire was looking a bit flat! Bugger! So we stopped at the garage put some more air in it and hoped! (Update – Sunday – car tire is still OK).

We continue our long drive in the rain to Otago, which is back in the east coast of the south island, to visit friends on their farm. We have not seen them in person for 24 years.

Saturday, friends had a stall on a local market in Kakanui, when we say local…. it’s New Zealand, so that is a 35 mins drive away. So went to see the market, then drove on to Oamaru, which was having a Victorian festival. Lots of people dressed in Victorian costumes, a nice place to wander around and soak up the atmosphere.

On the drive back to the farm, we stopped for fish & chips in Moeraki village, at the Fish Wife, really good fresh fish and chips, we shared a butter fish and sole, and obviously chips!

We visited the Moeraki Boulders, on the beach, strange balls of rock.

In the evening, we headed out for dinner and drinks at the Arc Brewery, nice beer but unfortunately the food truck had stopped serving food, so we only managed one beer and headed home for dinner. Lots of homegrown produce, so delicious and no complaints from us.

Sunday, we helped out with some gardening, then went with our friend to visit the gold mine where he works, he gave us a fascinating tour, but essentially it’s a big hole in the ground with lots of big toys!

Monday (6 November) we finally arrived in Auckland, 2pm local time (1am Monday UK time).

Through passport control and bio security, then the airport bus straight to our hotel, we managed to have an early dinner, and kill some time, before an ‘early’ night.

Tuesday, woke up early, got an Uber to pick up our hire car from “Bargain Car Rental”, the only issue we had was when the chap tried to find the hire car we’d just filled in the paper work for, he came back to the desk three times to check the registration number as he couldn’t find the car, he eventually gave us a different car, a small hybrid thing with 142,000 kms on the clock. All that can be said about it was that it goes, and stops, so all good.

We had a 3hr 30 min drive up to Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands. We stopped at the Omeru Reserve for coffee and a walk to the Waitangi waterfall. Checked into our AirBnB, an easy check in, the door was open and the key on the table. Our hosts turned out the best from the North East of England, they were very welcoming, and the accommodation was great.

Wednesday, we drove to the Waitangi treaty grounds, where a treaty was signed in 1840, so it is seen as the birthplace of the country of New Zealand. The experience was very well done, including a tour, a Māori cultural ‘show’ and a couple of museums.

Thursday, we walked along the river in Kerikeri to the Rainbow falls, a beautiful forest walk and an impressive waterfall. We then visited Kerikeri mission station, which is the first permanent western settlement in New Zealand.

Friday, we checked out of the AirBnB and drove back south towards Auckland, stopping for coffee in Cafler park, Whangārei, and lunch at One Tree Point. Where we watched a chap launch a boat from a slipway, then leave a 5 yr old holding it against the wind, whilst he dealt with and finally drove off with a 2yr old, all while the 5yr old held the boat, until he retuned 5mins later.

We stopped at Brick Bay Wines in Matakana to get supplies for friends we were visiting for the weekend in Auckland. We spent the evening eating, drinking and catching up, as we have not seen them for far too long.

Saturday, we walked from the house to Long Bay beach, with the family dog. In the late afternoon, early evening we headed in to Auckland for drinks and dinner. A lovely meal in “White & Wong” an Asian fusion restaurant

Sunday, we drove across the island to the west coast, Muriwai Beach, for another beach walk, a black sand beach, with lots of surfers. Followed by coffee and cake.

Monday (30 October) an early start, check out of the AirBnB and on the first metro train at 5:37 to Gare de Nord to catch the Eurostar to London. They tell you to get there early, so dutifully we arrived an hour before our train was due to leave, at 6.56 however they had not yet opened up, and as there are three trains an hour there were a lot of people waiting.

Got to the French passport scanners, Nic’s passport scanned OK, so Nic had to move through the system (the UK passport scanners and then security), however Rog’s passport wouldn’t scan in the French scanners, so had to join the manual line, then the border control guy, scanned the passport, studied his computer, looked around and left his station, came back, still not having said a word, used the phone, nobody answered. Told Rog to stand aside and wait! Finally someone arrived in full security gear, bulletproof vest etc, took one look at the passport and said ….. “everything is fine, I’ll just get your passport stamped” phew that was a little worrying for a couple of minutes. UK passport scanner and security then worked fine.

Eurostar was not too busy, and a pleasant journey. For our train back up to York we used the Seatfrog app to bid for a 1st class upgrade, and won for £9 each. We had two hours to kill in Kings Cross station, so used the 1st Class lounge, and got our money’s worth of tea, coffee and biscuits before even boarding the train. Once on board we had even more tea, coffee, biscuits, then sandwiches and beer! £9 well spent.

Monday afternoon, we unpacked, started the washing and began the repacking process.

Tuesday, more washing and repacking!

Wednesday, lunch out to celebrate a family birthday, and a little retail therapy at Monks Cross shopping centre in York.

Thursday, lunch out again in Burnby Hall Gardens, nice to see the autumn colours. Catching up with more family in the evening.

Friday, we had a booked train at 14:02 back to King’s Cross, but at about 11am the train was showing as cancelled so we headed to York station early to solve that issue. We managed to get an earlier train, but ended up standing all the way to London, what a contrast to Monday’s 1st Class experience!

That night’s accommodation was the Premier Inn in Hampstead, 6 mins on the tube from King’s Cross, and a third of the price of the King’s Cross Premier Inn. The reception and restaurant had a newly refurbished feel, and it was well worth the short tube journey.

Met with family at the Nell Gwynn Tavern on The Strand, a real proper London boozer, then on to The Port House for tapas, a lovely meal.

Saturday, checked out of the Premier Inn, and headed to Heathrow for our flight to Auckland, New Zealand via Zurich and Singapore. All the flights were OK, we managed to get seats together, despite not paying for reserved seats. On the Zurich to Singapore, our seats were just behind Premium Economy, and had loads of leg room. Result!

Sunday, on a plane and/or in an airport! We wouldn’t get to New Zealand until Monday.

Singapore Airport was incredible with a fountain coming from one of its ceilings, and a butterfly garden to visit to pass the time.

Monday (23 October ) spent a quiet day getting over the excitement of the weekend, including the excesses of food, drink, walking, rugby and generally enjoying ourselves. Published last blog, did some washing, checked and double checked all the plans for our next ‘big’ trip, see next week’s blog for more details on that!

Tuesday, looked like the best weather forecast of the week, so we decided to head to the Palace of Versailles, this involved a metro journey then an RER train. At Versailles we decided to only visit the gardens, and not the Palace itself, the queues for the Palace were crazy, and it was not cheap! In actual fact, having walked all the gardens, including the musical fountains, neither of us was up for walking any further, so the Palace and gardens may well have been to much to take in on one day! Well that’s our logic and we are sticking to it.

Wednesday, the weather was not great, we managed a short walk and a visit to the local Aldi supermarket to do some shopping, this travelling lark is not all glamour, you know.

Thursday we walked from the flat to Montmatre and the Sacré-Cœur basilica, a nice arty part of Paris with a lot more tourists, so plenty of people watching as well.

Friday, another walk, this time to the Park de la Villette, at one time it was the home of the Cattle markets of Paris, now a technology and science park. We then wandered back, via the St Martin canal and the Place de la Republic, without the protesters of Sunday.

Saturday, Rog was feeling a little worse for wear, a bit of a cold (man flu) so didn’t go out today, Nic went for a walk to the local park, one of the highest points in Paris, so a nice view over the city.

Sunday, after the rain stopped, we went to the Pere Lachaise cemetery, a large old cemetery still in use. A few interesting famous people are buried there, including Jim Morrison.

Back at the flat, we packed for an early start a 5:37 metro to Gare d’ Nord for our Eurostar.

Monday (9th October), a travel day, moving from Widnes to near Alicante, Spain. So starting with a lift to Widnes station for a train to Manchester Oxford Road, and then change trains to Manchester airport. All nice, easy and civilised.

The airport security had no queue, almost unheard of, but true. Once through to the terminal it was fairly busy, as you’ll remember our original flight was from Liverpool, which was cancelled by Ryanair, so we switched to Manchester, it appeared that a lot of people had done the same, so our flight was full.

A uneventful flight, passport control was easy with no real queue, no baggage to collect, so straight to pick up our hire car, again an easy process, then a 30 minute drive to our friends place!

All in all the day was pleasant travel experience, we wish all travel could be this uneventful, but that would make for boring reading !!

We spend the rest of the week, walking the family dog early before it got too hot, pool time, generally relaxing, eating, drinking and watching the rugby quarter finals. On Saturday we visited friends in Elche for lunch, at a lovely Latin American restaurant.

Monday (16th October) we left our friends and drove to Barcelona a 5 & 1/2 hour drive, not too busy, and most of the road was good quality! We dropped off the hire car at Barcelona airport and got the bus into the city, followed by a 10 minute walk to our accommodation. It was a hostel, a private room with share facilities, it was pleasant, clean and cheap (for the centre of Barcelona). We were rudely awakened, at 6am, on our first morning, by raised voices of other hostel users. As well as the aggrieved voices, there were some calm ones trying to settle things down. We left them to it and tried to get back to sleep.

We had planned this visit to Barcelona, as we didn’t make it there last year, when we had the issue with brakes of the Motorhome.

In the evening, we had a wander around the Gothic quarter (where the hostel is) had amazing carpaccio & pizza in a small Italian bar. Chatted to a fellow diner, who had just managed to get out of Israel, and was still waiting for her parents to get a flight out, it put everything in perspective!

She also recommended a ‘free’ walking tour. So we signed up for the following day.

Tuesday, we enjoyed the walking tour, around the old parts of the city, our tour guide was from Argentina. Obviously there’s no such thing as free tour, a tip is expected, but worth it!

After the tour, we set off on our own walking tour, heading around the Gaudi buildings, they have still not finished La Sagrada Familia.

Wednesday, we had a restaurant booking at ‘Los Caracoles’, fulfilling a family challenge to visit and have lunch on table 2. Following in the footsteps of family since the late 1960’s.

Unfortunately nobody told us they had more that one table 2, so we started with a drink at the wrong table, consulted the old family photos, asked a waiter to take a photo, worked out we were on the wrong table, but managed to move to the correct table 2! A great meal!

Wednesday, was an early start, back to the airport for a 9:05 flight to Paris Orly. It was a busy flight, but we did manage to sit together, despite not paying for reserved seats.

The trip into Paris takes a bit more organising to get to the right side of Paris for us, so we got a local bus to a Juvisy station, then a train to Gare d’Austerlitz, followed by a 15min walk, a little bit far dragging our bags, but we got there.

We had come Paris for the Rugby World Cup, semi finals, Rog attended with his brother (Friday & Saturday evenings).

Friday, we walked to all the major sites in Paris, Notre Dame, The Louvre, Place de la Concorde, Les Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides and the Pantheon, we walked about 13 miles! With a few coffee and lunch stops!

The boys headed out to the Stade de France for the match, New Zealand v Argentina. The girls when out for dinner and drinks.

Saturday, a bit more walking, but not as much as Friday. The girls went on a evening river cruise.

The boys were back out to the Stade d France for England v South Africa, “we was robbed!” South Africa won by 1 point!

After the match, there was a heavy police presence around the stadium, and one of the two railway stations was closed, so not sure what was going on.

Sunday, checked out of the hotel, again went for a walk, this time around La Marais and Bastille districts.

Before heading our separate ways, family heading back for the Eurostar, and us heading for an AirBnB in the Belleville district.

We got off the metro near La place de la Republic, to find some sort of demonstration in progress, and another big police presence. We chose a route heading away from the action, and once again Rog dragged our bags towards our accommodation. On arrival, our host was still cleaning the flat, so asked us to wait a few minutes outside. We stood in the doorway, dodging several men coming from an upstairs apartment, with, what looked like, most of it’s contents, which were then being piled up in the street. Those few minutes felt quite lengthy due to the vibe of the area being, what can only be described as colourful ! (The last place we described as colourful was Naples).

Once we had checked in, we did a quick supermarket run, to get provisions for a pasta meal, followed by an early night.

Monday (2nd October), still on the Isle of Man, went to the Calf Sound to see the seals, whilst watching the seals, a bus tour turned up and the passengers got in the queue for the cafe before us, so had a little wait for coffee and cake, but they are always well organised, so not a long wait.

Tuesday, we went out for lunch with lovely friends to The Shore, on Gansey bay, a lovely meal, ate far too much for lunch, but it was all good!

Rog went out in the evening for drinks, again catching up with friends!

Wednesday, yep, you guessed it, more lunch and drinks out catching up with a good friend. Plus a quick visit to the manx museum to fill in time before lunch! Rog’s second visit to Winedown in less than a week.

Wednesday evening, watching the weather forecast again, it looks a little bit dodgy for the Manannan (fastcraft) to Liverpool for Thursday afternoon, but Steam Packet would only say that disruption /cancellation was possible, but no final decision would be made until 12noon on Thursday! So we had to make a decision! We changed our crossing to Thursday morning to Heysham on the new Manxman ferry! And hoped the trains were working, following strike action.

Thursday, with hindsight, we made the correct call as the Mannanan was finally cancelled! The new Manxman ferry was a pleasant crossing. The trains did work down to Warrington. More welcoming friends, and lots more food and drink!

Friday, we went to Speke Hall, a national trust property just outside Liverpool, we joined two tours around the hall, a Victorian and a Tudor one. Both very interesting tours giving different insights into the different eras for the halls history by very engaging guides.

Saturday, a boozy lunch followed by the Rugby.

Sunday, more Rugby including the Fiji v Portugal match, a good game and the best result, Portugal won their first ever World Cup game, but Fiji got a losing bonus point, therefore qualifying for the quarterfinal against England, ahead of the Australians.

Monday (11th September), left the Lodge (‘North’) and drove the hire car back to Liverpool, the weather was not great, but the traffic was not to bad, so an uneventful drive.

Returned the hire car, walked to the train station to get a train to York, our train was cancelled again! But as we were at the station early we managed to get the earlier Trans Pennine Express train to Leeds (rather than direct to York), so we had to change trains in Leeds, but we still got to York sooner than we originally planned, and managed to get an earlier bus back to Pocklington.

Spent Tuesday unpacking and repacking! Rog was the ‘IT Helpdesk’ working up to Parents upgrading their phones. Had Flu jabs in the afternoon.

Wednesday, Rog spend the morning dealing with travel plans and the associated admin, New Zealand electronic Travel Authorisation (not Visa ??) and the Australian equivalent, buying travel insurance, checking all the baggage allowances on our flights to ensures we pack the right size and weight of bags! Booking a hire car whilst we are in Spain. It all takes time!

Thursday we went out for lunch with both sets of parents to celebrate 2 birthdays. We went to the North Star at Flambrough, a lovely lunch all round.

Friday, we drove south to Kent (‘South’) to see Nic’s brother and family, and yes, surprise surprise we spent the weekend eating, drinking and watching the rugby! We did also get out for a walk around Knole.

We were watching the weather forecast for the Irish Sea, and after chatting with our friend on Island, we decided to swap our ferry booking for Thursday, and booked a flight from Manchester instead!

Back to Pocklington (‘East’) on Monday (25 September).

Tuesday we had our fifth Covid jab! Spent Wednesday doing a couple of jobs to help out.

Isle of Man Steam Packet, still couldn’t decide if the ferry was going to sail on Thursday, so they offered to change our booking at no cost, so that’s what we did! By keeping the ferry booking for our journey to Liverpool, and booking a return to the island for next June.

Thursday, back to York train station, by bus with a very jovial bus driver, who had a selection of rubber ducks displayed on the dashboard.

Then the train to Manchester, an interesting journey! Our reserved seats were right behind a group of young women, who had started drink at 12noon and were really enjoying themselves, very loudly. Unfortunately they were also going all the way to Manchester.

We walked from Manchester Victoria station to Piccadilly station, for a train out to the Airport.

The flight was uneventful to the Isle of Man (‘West’) and our friend was there to meet us.

Friday, we started the day with a visit to the dentist, all good!

Rog then met a friend for lunch, and Nic also met a friend for lunch and a bit of retail therapy.

The evening was spent with friends, having a few drinks, a takeaway, and some Harry Potter film watching in honour of Micheal Gambon!

Saturday saw us meeting more friends for brunch. There is a theme to the week emerging! Then after a lazy afternoon, and a nap for Nic. It was off to the pub for a few drinks and a very good Pizza at the Restaurant next door.

Sunday, a leisurely day, a good home cooked brunch, a walk to Fleswick bay and saw Seals. More sport on the telly, horse racing and rugby.

Monday (4th September), we drove back up north from Norfolk, through Lincolnshire and over the Humber bridge.

Tuesday, Rog and his parents went to see Yorkshire play Derbyshire, part of the Scarborough Cricket Festival, it was the 3rd day of a four day test. Yorkshire spent most of the day batting and declared at 520! Derbyshire then batted but held to a very slow run rate. A nice day, with nice weather

Nic declined the cricket, and went out for lunch with a friend in York.

Wednesday, We went to Scampston Walled Gardens, free entry with our Burnby Hall membership, an stunning walled garden and grounds.

Thursday, a packing and organising day!

Friday, Nic set off to Manchester to see some friends for the weekend. While killing time in Manchester she went to the Art Gallery and the John Rylands Library. The Library was built by Enriqueta Rylands, in memory of her husband, and then it was given to the people of Manchester. It is one of Manchester’s hidden gems, open to all and free!

Rog also met an old friend who he knew from the Isle of Man.

Saturday, Rog watched his nephew play rugby, then watched England play in the Rugby World Cup.

Nic enjoyed catching up with her friends from Uni, on a day out in Stockport. Who knew it had a lovely market an old streets to explore! Followed by cocktails and a lovely Italian meal.

Sunday, Rog was getting a lunch time train to Manchester to met up with Nic, but headed in to York early to see the Flying Scotsman, as it was leaving the station for a day trip up to the Settle to Carlisle railway. To continue the train theme Rog visited the Railway Museum, before getting the £7.20 trains to Manchester via Leeds!

Nic enjoyed a bite of lunch with a friend in Manchester before meeting up with Rog at the Station.

Overnighted in the EasyHotel in Manchester, not a bad hotel for £40! Had drinks and food at the Wolf in the Wall bar.

Monday (11th September) checked out of the EasyHotel, had breakfast over the road at Ezra & Gill, headed for Manchester Piccadilly train station, walked over the canal, stopping to watch the narrow boats, bringing back memories of 2021, then a boat came in to view, looking a little familiar, it was ‘Life in Slow Motion’ the very same boat we had!! What are the chances. We stopped to talk to the current crew, who were on board for 3 1/2 months, waiting for their new house to be completed in just outside York, yes in Pocklington!! They would not believe that we were from Pocklington. It is a small world!

Got the train to Liverpool, Rog did a little retail therapy! Looking for a new baseball cap, ended up buying 4!! ‘When cheap caps fit buy them!’.

Because we got a good deal, we hired a car from Liverpool for the week, to make the trip up to Ulverston easier, we had initially planned to due the whole trip by public transport, but got the Car for £107 for the week!

Stopped in Leyland to visit Nic’s family, Tea/coffee and lovely cake! It is always nice to catch up with family.

A very good friend has allowed us to use their Lodge near Ulverston for the week, a lovely place to spend some time (Thank you!!)

Tuesday, we had a walk around Ulverston.

Wednesday, the weather was a lot better than originally forecast, so we drove to Windermere and Coniston. The Lake District is a stunning part of the world!

Rog had to deal with a flight in October, that Ryanair has cancelled! At least they gave us a month’s notice, so we have just moved the flight from leaving Liverpool to now leaving Manchester, 20 mins earlier than originally planned. We also managed to book a cheap hire car for whilst we are in Spain, as the trains were proving trickier than expected.

In the evening, we attended a presentation by Dr Catchpole from Cambridge University on ‘The latest views of our universe with the James Webb Space Telescope’ hosted by the local Institute of Engineering and Technology. A very interesting and informative technical presentation, we can’t say we understood it all, but really enjoyed it.

Thursday, we walked along the coast another beautiful area. We had our coffee sitting overlooking the estuary, marvelling at how fast the tide comes in. It is opposite Morecambe, renowned for tricky tides.

Friday, we visited Barrow in Furness, as part of heritage week, Barrow town hall was open to the public, so we visited! A stunning gothic building.

Saturday, another walk along the coastal path, this time to the cafe at the Buddhist centre, really good flapjack, especially as the server said ‘wherever there is a Buddhist, there is flapjack’.

Watched some more rugby! Samoa v Chile and most of Wales v Portugal.

Went out to the lantern festival in Ulverston, fish and chips at ‘Priory Plaice’, it was very busy so a long wait, but well worth it, very good freshly cooked.

The lantern festival consisted of four processions of people carrying home made lanterns on the theme of “into the garden”, so there was everything from snails, flowers, birds, bees to watering cans, garden sheds and even a generous smattering of Unicorns.

All the lanterns ended up at Ford park for a firework display. We love a firework!

Sunday, a lazy day, didn’t do a lot except watch World Cup rugby. All 3 matches!