Wednesday 23 May 2012
The garden plots that our friend's house looks over at the back.
These garden plots are leased from the council on a yearly basis and you can have your own quite big area to garden or to just sit on as some old guy does. Our friends pay about 18 pounds for the whole year and their plot is bigger than the size of a single garage. They grow fruit trees and veges on theirs.
11th May - Friday - London
Today we are going to visit a lovely couple we met on our cruise who live at Barnes which is not far from Heathrow. We were to meet at their house around 4ish for dinner so we set our earlier for the usual trek around London. As I missed seeing Harrods on my last visit that was our first stop for the day.
Thursday 10th May - London - Abbey Road
Today we went to have lunch with some friends that lived in walking distance (so Peter thought!) to Jess’s place. An hour plus later we arrived via GPS walking instructions. We did walk backwards and forwards for a while waiting for the gps to catch up! Anyway we did pass the famous Abbey Road crossing made famous by the Beatles.
London - Hampstead
This is Jessie’s place – her unit is on the very top (NO lift and 4 heavy suitcases and 4 floors!!). The turret is the bathroom. A very nice unit and very comfortable and we will be back!
Tuesday 22 May 2012
The mountain pass we had to drive up.
Luckily there were not many cars on the road as the pass was very narrow and very windy.
A leafy drive
Peter loved driving through these streets with the new shoots just budding on the trees creating a soft canopy of cover.
7th May - Overnight trip to the Lakes District with Caz
The scenery in and around the Lakes District.
Sunday - 6th May - Manchester
Today we hit a bit of a wall so had a lazy day. Caz went off to work at 11am. She works at Old Trafford in the VIP area for the Manchester United home games. Fortunately we were able to buy some tickets so went to see the game which was about 4pm. The game was very exciting with a crowd over 70,000 people. It was even better that they won the game. The weather was actually quite nice so much so that we were slightly over dressed.
The Salford Quay area
Caz’s unit is in the building on the far left. Great location and overlooks the very modern Lowry Theatre.
Manchester City
We went into the city on Saturday night for dinner in a beautiful Thai restaurant which is one of Carolyn and Grant’s favourite haunts. Before our dinner Caz took us on a walking tour of the city highlights narrated from a Lonely Planet book. I couldn’t believe how many people were sitting out in beer gardens drinking and socialising as though it was a beautiful hot sunny day. Brrrr give me an open fire!!
5th May - Manchester
Going on a walk with my sister. This is in front of their unit which is on Salford Quays in Manchester. A very modern area which is quite close to the Old Trafford football ground.
South Parade, Llandudno
This was a very busy area as this was a long street with a very wide promenade along the beach with lots of people walking around in the freezing cold conditions. It was the Friday before a long weekend so there was a lot of action around the place. There is also a wind farm out in the sea!! All the properties along the waterfront were of similar architecture but painted various pastel shades which looked very nice.
Snowdonia National Park
This mountains were just covered with shale. You can understand why everything is made of shale when you see the extent of these hills of shale.
4th May - Barmouth to Manchester
Today we headed for my sister’s place in Manchester… not the quickest way but the scenic route!!
Purple flowers
Not sure what this purple flowering shrub is but it is in flower everywhere you go in England and Wales… just beautiful with so many variations in colour of the purple flower.
Civilisation at last!!
We got lost on one of Peter’s shortcuts across country. We winding around and around little tracks that were getting narrower and narrower!! Some of the “roads” had not had traffic over them for some time from the leaves, twigs and branches strewn all over them plus there had been a lot of rain in that area before we arrived so was thinking that we may come to a river crossing that was flooding the rain but thankfully we seemed to avoid these. We drove to gates that went into a property so in we go and thankfully went out the gates on the other side before the dogs noticed us. Eventually we came to this little clearing and signs of civilisation that was a huge relief so we sat for a while and studied the directory to find our way back to the proper road!! You can imagine the conversation in the car at the time!! I think it might have been about then I announced that I was never going on another road trip like this again….
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)