Brunei, Ireland and England

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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
Around Ludgvan - Marazion.
June 24, 2015 in England ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
Back to Marazion for lunch but we couldn't find a car park so ended up at the Hotel Mounthaven where we sat on their deck drinking wine, eating fish and chips, and enjoying an amazing view of St Michael's Mount (island).
Drove to the beach and had a good long walk out on the causeway and along the water's edge. Then back to the lovely shops at Marazion where we had an icecream and bought cornish pasties which we ate back at the B&B whilst watching television.Read more
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
Fowey and then Winchester.
June 25, 2015 in England ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
Cleaned up & packed before setting off towards Devon. Today's destination is Winchester.
Stopped at Fowey (pronounced Foy) for lunch. Fowey is in a beautiful cove at the bottom of hills covered in old cottages and narrow lanes etc. Had cornish rarebit with bacon and salad which was so, so, nice.
Briefly broused around the shops (Cornwall was the home of Daphne du Maurier) and the lovely harbour. Got the town bus down and back as this place is on a gradient of about 15 degrees!
Drove on to Winchester. It was a long drive as the traffic was very heavy all the way. Found our B&B and checked in. The house backs onto a golf course, so although in suburbia, the views were good.
Our host, Chris, suggested a local pub, The Bell Inn, for dinner and said we could walk there through some fields if we didn't want to drive. We did this and thought it was quite a long way. After a lovely meal, we returned by taxi.Read more
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
Winchester - Cathedral and town.
June 26, 2015 in England ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
We decided to stay around Winchester as we had such a lot of driving yesterday.
Lovely later full breakfast served by Chris. It was the best so far and cooked with care not volume. She is an interesting lady who has travelled widely - particularly to developing countries. The decor in her home reflected this.
Went in to Winchester via the Park and Ride. We walked towards the Cathedral. On the way we passed an archeological dig site. This was the site of Nunnaminster, forerunner of the present Cathedral, dating back to 903.
At the Cathedral, we found they were holding a celebration of flowers and they had stalls in a marquee. Bought a lovely pink scarf and John chatted to a lady who was sent to Australia during the second world war. She went to MCEGS or Merton Hall and was delighted to find someone who could relate to her life.
Window shopped and had cup of tea and half an eccles cake, which was served with the most sensational chocolate each.
Then off to Andover to find something for Simon at a specialist hunting shop. This shop had closed some years ago! Ended up buying magazines and hope we find something later.
Back to Winchester after taking a wrong turn going out of the Andover. We bought Peter Roberts some Guinness socks, a blue jumper for me and two small cushions with deer pictures on them.Read more
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
Winchester - dinner and school prom.
June 26, 2015 in England ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
Had a sensational seafood dinner at The Fishhook which was an Indian inspired newly opened restaurant. Rick Stein is in the process of opening a restaurant here, but it's not ready to open yet.
We watched all the young adults arriving for their prom at the town hall. They arrived in style. There were the most amazing vintage vehicles and one group arrived in a horse and buggy. They looked great and looked like they were going to have a terrific night.
A drink at The Bell Inn - at our regular table - and then home for a pretty early night before heading out to Sittingbourne in the morning.Read more
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
Winchester to Sittingbourne.
June 27, 2015 in England ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
Had a walk before breakfast around the streets of Oliver's Battery then had a lovely breakfast cooked by Christine and a wonderful chat before leaving. Christine might come to Australia and would like to keep in touch.
Drove west to east to Sittingbourne to avoid weekend summer traffic commuting to the various beach resorts. Pretty good run and we stopped at Newick for lunch at a most gorgeous pub, The Royal Oak.
Then hit the heavier traffic as we were closer to London. Guest house very nice and host lovely but Sittingbourne is pretty battler class. Had pub meal in a local pub "The Billett" listening to east end accents.Read more
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
Sissinghurst Castle Gardens.
June 28, 2015 in England ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
Started the day with a visit to Sissinghurst Castle Gardens, Cranbrook.
The garden was created by Vita Sackville-West, poet and writer, and her husband, Harold Nicolson, author and diplomat.
Sissinghurst was bought by Sackville-West in 1930 and she spent the next 30 years working with, and later succeeded by, a series of notable head gardeners.
She died in 1962 and the estate was donated to the National Trust.Read more
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
The tower at Sissinghurst.
June 28, 2015 in England ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
Vita Sackville-West married Harold Nicolson in 1913. Their relationship was unconventional, with each pursuing multiple, mainly same-sex affairs. After breaking up with her lover in 1921, she became increasingly withdrawn.
She wrote to her mother that she would like to live alone in a tower with her books.
She achieved this in the tower at Sissinghurst where only her dogs were regularly admitted.Read more
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
More of Sissinghurst
June 28, 2015 in England ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Views from the top of the tower, one of which shows some of the wildflower meadow being re-grown.
The message on the blackboard explains about the loss of meadow and the attempts to re-grow it. The decline came about because, after WWII, all available land was taken over to grow much needed food.
This attempt to regenerate meadow land is happening nationally.Read more
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
Biddendon for lunch.
June 28, 2015 in England ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Biddenden looked like a nice little village, so we stopped for lunch.
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
Leeds Castle - outside.
June 28, 2015 in England ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
We chanced upon Leeds Castle as we were driving. On the spur of the moment, we decided to go in. We weren't disappointed!
It was a very expensive entry fee - $40 each. It was explained the the ticket remained valid for twelve months and we could return as often as we liked. Not much good to us as we would be flying home in a few days.
When we came out, we bought an ice cream. While we were sitting eating it, there was a young family nearby. We gave them the tickets.Read more
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
Leeds Castle - inside.
June 28, 2015 in England ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
A castle has stood on this site since 1119. Perhaps its most famous inhabitant was King Henry VIII. He 'did up' the castle for his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, in 1519.
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
To London.
June 29, 2015 in England ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
Janette not well. All morning was taken up getting to see a doctor and finding a chemist.
In the afternoon we headed towards London and Heathrow Airport. We returned the hire car to the Europcar depot and got them to organise a taxi for us.
The taxi took us to Chris and Hazel's in Ealing. We took our bags to our room - we had the third floor.
We could then relax in the back garden with a glass of wine and Hazel cooked dinner.Read more
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
A day in London town - Harrods.
June 30, 2015 in England ⋅ 24 °C
Had a liesurely breakfast with Chris and Hazel before heading to London City. A fairly short walk to the Ealing Common station and then our impressive trip on the tube. We arrived at South Kensington in about 40 minutes.
Went shopping at Harrod's first as the V&A did not open until 10.00am. Harrods is seven floors of everything you can imagine but probably even dearer than you imagine.
In the centre of the store are escalators from floor to floor in one huge 'well'. It is all gold coloured and has an egyptian theme. At the base of the well is a tribute (shrine) to Princess Diana and Dodi Fayad.Read more
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
A day in London town - the V & A.
June 30, 2015 in England ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
The V&A was crowded. All the exhibitions were amazing. We had a juice in the courtyard watching the children play in the pool, fully clothed as it was such a hot day.
We then walked to King's Road for more shopping and lunch. This is where all the designer shops and the beautiful people are.
We sat in the "Chelsea Potter" pub on King's Road watching the world go by and loving it. It was about 33 degrees which, for England, is very hot. The girls and guys still dress in the latest and the atmosphere is great. Promenading is alive and well in Chelsea.
Everyone was carrying lots of shopping bags and speaking in that beautiful tone - except our waitress who, after telling us "no worries", we discovered is from Bendigo. There are plenty of backpackers and "muttons dressed as lamb".
It was so hot there were no passengers on the open air top part of the hop-on-off buses. The buses compete with the lorries, cars, motor bikes and push bikes and it gets quite noisy.
We walked to the tube station at Sloane Square and were home very quickly - perhaps 30 minutes. Chris and Hazel are so well located.
We took Cris and Hazel to a lovely Italian Restaurant for dinner - we walked there and back. Chatted on the back terrace and finished our holiday with a lovely balmy evening in London.Read more
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
Last day.
July 1, 2015 in England ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
Really hot day. Chris took us to a large park which is part of an estate in West London where we walked the dog, Hughey. There were beautiful lakes and the dogs were permitted to swim in them which Hughey did. We then walked through the park to the mansion gardens and had a cream tea. Chris lent us their National Trust passes and we did a tour of the house which was full of beautiful paintings and set up as it would have still been about 100 years ago or maybe longer as it was built in the late 1500's.
Then home in Chris's Saab with interesting local commentary all the way. Time now to get showered and packed ready for the long journey back to Aus.
Chris dropped us off at Heathrow at 2.30pm and we checked through with minimal fuss. Did some shopping at Harrod's and other nice stores at the airport.
Three eight hour flights (or near enough) which, whilst we didn't sleep much, we did manage to get through much better than expected.Read more
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Brunei, Ireland and England Janette and John
Looking back.
July 1, 2015 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 2 °C
This blog and, subsequently, this book were compiled in 2020, five years after the holiday. They were made possible by two things:-
*there were lots of photos to select from
*Janette had kept a really good daily diary during the trip.Read more
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Trip end
July 1, 2015