Today we leave the Isle of Wight and head to London again to stay overnight prior to our trip to Lille in Belgium for our 3 day tour of the Battlefields of the Western Front.
We have our usual breakfast, and Avril says she will book us a taxi for 11.00am as our train isn’t until 1.30pm from Southampton to London. We have packed up the bags again, and decide to walk up to Carisbrooke Castle after breakfast to fill in time, and have a look at the castle which is less than 15 minutes walk away.
The walk up to the castle is quite strenuous, but it only takes around 15 mins. And when we get there, find that it isn’t open until 10.00am – so we decide to walk around the outside and have a good look at it.
The walk is quite easy, the castle used to have a moat, and there is still quite a deep ditch all the way around, we meet a number of people walking there dogs in the area as it is lovely and wild for dogs, and there are mole holes for them to explore.
It only takes us 20 minutes to walk around so we have to wait until the gates open – in the meantime a few more people gather waiting to go in.
At 10.00am they let us in and we pay our money, and buy a guide book which has lots of nice illustrations, and then begin to explore the castle – we only have 40 minutes as we need to get back to the Lodge in time for the taxi.
We watch a video presentation on the history of the castle which puts it into perspective, and then have a look at the lovely little chapel, and then the donkeys that live there. The donkeys were used to haul water up, and walked in a wheel contraption – rather like a mouse wheel, and this wound the rope around a spindle and raised the bucket of water. The donkeys don’t have to work hard because they don’t actually haul up water any more – just an empty bucket.
After that it was time for us to return and catch our taxi into Cowes to catch the Red Funnel Red Jet back to Southampton – we picked up some sandwiches for lunch on the train, as the train food is dreadful, and sat back to enjoy the crossing.
Would you believe, as we arrived in Southampton we saw the Queen Mary 2 again – she had arrived that morning from an Atlantic crossing from New York – it was such a coincidence, and we took photos of course.
Off the ferry and on to the free shuttle bus from the ferry to the railway. We got there around 12.20pm, and we saw there was a train due to leave for London at 12.30 so I asked if we could catch that one with our tickets – we could so we raced over to platform 1 and managed to catch the train just before it left.
This meant we would be in London (Waterloo) an hour earlier, which turned out to be a good thing as we had to tackle the underground with our 2 suitcases and other bags which was quite difficult – especially having to change trains on the underground and there being no lifts – fortunately some very kind men assisted Deb with her case up and down the various stairs, and I managed to negotiate mine up and down on my own. We had to get from Waterloo to St Pancras – right across the city.
When we got to St Pancras – we went to the Eurostar terminal, and had a rest and cup of coffee – then Deb went and changed some Pounds for Euros for Belgium and France, and checked out exactly what we had to do in the morning.
Next we got ourselves a trolley, loaded on our suitcases, and then wheeled it all up the street to the Youth Hostel – we had a room on the 6th floor – and no disabled facilities, bunk beds and a communal bathroom – but we just accepted it – Deb needed to have a rest by this time, so she climbed up to the top bunk and I did some laundry, and repacked all the bags again – I managed to get everything we needed in France into one case, all the souveniers and presents in another case, and all the rest of the clothes into the new bigger bag we had purchased previously. We didn’t need the two smaller bags so folded them up and put them into a case.
Then we went out to have dinner – we also needed to find a place that sold alarm clocks as the one I had with us didn’t make a very loud noise, and as I have gone deaf in one ear with the punctured eardrum, we needed something that made a lot of noise to wake us up for our early start.
We decided to go back to St Pancras station as there are many shops there and we thought should be able to find something there – we ended up buying 2 clocks – one from a gift store – I didn’t think it would be loud enough but Deb reckoned she would hear it. Anyway we found a better clock at Boots Pharmacy store – and bought that as well – 3 clocks should do the trick we thought.
Then we headed off to have Pizza for dinner at a place called Pizza Express – we had a really great meal, and then returned to the YHA for the night around 9.00pm – we had our showers as I thought we had to be up at 4.45am in order to be at the station by 5.30am for the check-in – 30 minutes before the train leaves.
After that it was read our books and try to sleep – I had a dreadful night, only about 3-4 hours sleep, but I did hear the alarm at 4.45am and we dived out of bed, dressed and headed off with our huge trolley load of baggage.
Friday 15th May 2009
En route to Lille and Day 1 of Battlefields Tour.
When we got to the station we had to go through security !!! then customs before we could go to the waiting area before being called to the platform where the train goes from.
I saw that there was a train to Brussels at 5.57am and waited for the 5.57am train to Brussels to be called, when we went to go up to the platform, the ticket inspector told us that our train wasn’t until 6.59am – I had mis-read the time on the ticket – it was very poorly printed I might add – and we were an hour ahead of time for our train – so we had an hour to fill in – so we had our breakfast provided by the YHA in a bag, and a cup of tea and sat and waited for our train to be called. Did I feel stupid !!
When we did get to board the train our coach was miles down the platform so it was quite a hike – thank goodness all the luggage was on a trolley – any way we eventually found it – coach 14, threw the cases on board into the luggage area, then went down to find our seats – we had a seat on either side of a table and hoped that we wouldn’t be sharing with anyone else – which turned out to be the case – then the train left immediately on time. Smoothly pulled out and off we went, there was a stop just before we left England to pick up more passengers, then it was off through the Chunnel and over to France – we were due to arrive in Lille at 9.25am. At around 8.15 I decided to turn on the computer and load up the photos from yesterday – I had no sooner got it set up when there was an announcement that we would be pulling into Lille in 5 minutes – there had been no announcement that there was a change in time between England and France – so there was a mad panic as I packed up the computer and we hastily got organised to get off the train with all our luggage again.
We achieved this – and found a trolley for the luggage, and then had to work out where meeting point K was, which was where Rod was going to pick us up for our tour.
We eventually found the meeting point, and Rod – and then we were loaded into his Mercedes 7 seater, and off we went.
We toured an awful lot of the battlefields – and before long I was pretty confused – we managed to take quite a few photos during the course of it all. Rod is very knowledgeable, and told us a lot about the various battles, etc.
We stopped at a lovely restaurant for a 3 course meal for lunch – which was delicious – then off again for more cemetries and memorials to visit – it started to rain during the afternoon – but Rod had 2 big umbrellas – so it wasn’t too bad.
We finally stopped for the day at our hotel – Hotel Ariane in Ieper Belgium – we have very nice accomodation, and went out to the Menin Gate this evening for the evening Last Post service then had dinner with Rod and collapsed for the night.
Today we went to the following places
Day 1:
After picking us up in Lille we traveled to the wonderful Medieval town of Ypres where we will see as much of the Australian battlefield as possible, including Messines Church and Craters, Plugstreet and the Christmas truce site, Hill 60, Polygon Wood, Passchendaele, Tyne Cot and Langemark and in the evening we will dine prior to attending the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate. Overnight at Ariane Hotel, Ypres.
Day 2:
After breakfast we travel to the Somme, visiting on route the Fromelles Battlegrounds, the Australian Memorial to the Missing and the Diggers Memorial. Then we head off to Bullecourt, First Battle of Bullecourt In March 1917, after the battles of the Somme and Verdun in order to shorten their front and make their positions easier to defend. the German army withdrew to the Hindenburg Line. This move was rapidly followed up by the British and empire forces, and they launched an offensive around Arras in early April 1917.
Day 3:
This morning you retrace the footsteps of 1st, 2nd and 4th Aus Division who, in 45 days, launched 19 attacks and lost 23,000 men in an area of about 2 square miles. You also visit Albert, Pozieres village and 'the Windmill', Mouquet (Mucky) farm, Fricourt German cemetery and the Thiepval memorial. Villers Bretonneux and Le Hamel, where the AIF stopped the German advance of 1918, and retook Villers Bretonneux at Mid Night 24th April. The next day was the 3rd ANZAC day. You will see the school and Museum, Adelaide Cemetery, Australian National Memorial, Australian Corps Memorial Park and Le Hamel. You also walk the battlefields where, after Monash`s detailed tactic's resulted in all objectives being taken in 93 minutes. Then we will drop you off at Amiens TGV at 1815hrs to catch your train to Paris .
This will be the last chance to update the blog so we will catch up with you all when we get back to Sydney.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Wednesday 13th May 2009
This morning we slept in – first time since we have been away – didn’t wake until 7.30am – so it was have a quick shower and get down to to breakfast room for our 8.00am breakfast.
I took the camera down with me as Avril had said it would be OK for me to photograph the posters and photos in the room. I did this today because tomorrow we pack up again and head back to London – St Pancras YHA, before heading off very early on Friday morning to Lille and our tour of the Battlefields of the Somme.
It was cold and grey and looked like rain, so we decided to take the bus into East Cowes to visit Osborne House, the holiday residence of Queen Victoria.
After breakfast we caught the bus back into Newport, then changed to an East Cowes bus, and asked to be let off at Osborne House which the driver did.
The gardens are incredible, and with many beautiful trees that are very old, and very big – have a look at one of the photos I took of Deb alongside one of them.
We arrived just after 10.00am, and just as well we did, as the place filled up really quickly with visitors. As usual, you weren’t allowed to take photos inside which is a pity, but we figured we would buy the guide on the way out and hoped that it contained some good photos of the interior.
The house is quite incredible, and the Heritage Trust of UK looks after it – the house itself was given to the public by King George V, but all the contents were retained by the Crown, so the Trust has had to have replicas made, or buy furniture to furnish it. A lot of what is owned by the Crown is on display fortunately, so it was lovely to have a look at what it was like to live in the late 1800’s.
There were many portraits hanging throughout the house, and also some family trees and historical charts of the various Kings and Queens of England. It was interesting to see how Victoria had used her children to marry into the many different Royal families of Europe. She did this with the hope of unifying and creating peace in Europe, but this was not to happen given the events of WWI and WW2.
It took about 2 hours to go through the house, and then we went out to look at the gardens. Many of the spring flowers were still in bloom, so it was very beautiful. Much more formal than I had imagined, but not so formal as at Versailles. We had a look at the walled garden which was being prepared for summer, so was a bit bare, then decided to catch the bus on into East Cowes and then find our way to West Cowes by the floating bridge and have lunch and head back to Newport and our guest house.
We had a bit of a wait for the bus, but it arrived eventually, and we headed into East Cowes – which is separated from West Cowes by the harbour. After walking for a while we eventually found what the locals call the “floating bridge” but is actually a “chain ferry” which is used to transport cars, trucks and people across the harbour. This ferry has been in use for many years, and when they considered building a bridge, found that the cost would be exhorbitant, so decided to keep the chain ferry.
When we got to West Cowes, we wandered around looking for somewhere to have lunch – finally deciding on a pub as it was after 2.00pm and some of the restaurants were closing after lunch.
We had a nice lasagne and salad, then some desert and coffee, and after that headed for the bus, picking up some milk, sandwiches and fruit for tea so that we didn’t have to stop off on the way back to Castle Lodge and buy supplies.
Well, the marvellous holiday is very nearly over now – tomorrow is another packup and travel day. We don’t plan on leaving the guest house much before 10.00, and then may go up to see Carisbrooke Castle (which is just up the hill from where we are staying), before taking a taxi back to Cowes to catch the ferry to Southampton, and then the train to Paddington, and then underground to St Pancras. We spend the night at the YHA at St Pancras, and then up very early Friday morning to catch the 6.00am Eurostar train to Lille and our 3 day tour of the battlefields of the Somme.
As I am not sure whether we will have internet access after the YHA, my next blog post may be from Sydney – to wrap up the holiday and let you know how the battlefields tour went. Deb and I hope that you have enjoyed reading about our exploits as much as we have enjoyed doing them – it is hard to believe that we have been away from home for so long, but we are looking forward to getting home to our own space, and the comfort of our own home – there really is no place quite like it.
I took the camera down with me as Avril had said it would be OK for me to photograph the posters and photos in the room. I did this today because tomorrow we pack up again and head back to London – St Pancras YHA, before heading off very early on Friday morning to Lille and our tour of the Battlefields of the Somme.
It was cold and grey and looked like rain, so we decided to take the bus into East Cowes to visit Osborne House, the holiday residence of Queen Victoria.
After breakfast we caught the bus back into Newport, then changed to an East Cowes bus, and asked to be let off at Osborne House which the driver did.
The gardens are incredible, and with many beautiful trees that are very old, and very big – have a look at one of the photos I took of Deb alongside one of them.
We arrived just after 10.00am, and just as well we did, as the place filled up really quickly with visitors. As usual, you weren’t allowed to take photos inside which is a pity, but we figured we would buy the guide on the way out and hoped that it contained some good photos of the interior.
The house is quite incredible, and the Heritage Trust of UK looks after it – the house itself was given to the public by King George V, but all the contents were retained by the Crown, so the Trust has had to have replicas made, or buy furniture to furnish it. A lot of what is owned by the Crown is on display fortunately, so it was lovely to have a look at what it was like to live in the late 1800’s.
There were many portraits hanging throughout the house, and also some family trees and historical charts of the various Kings and Queens of England. It was interesting to see how Victoria had used her children to marry into the many different Royal families of Europe. She did this with the hope of unifying and creating peace in Europe, but this was not to happen given the events of WWI and WW2.
It took about 2 hours to go through the house, and then we went out to look at the gardens. Many of the spring flowers were still in bloom, so it was very beautiful. Much more formal than I had imagined, but not so formal as at Versailles. We had a look at the walled garden which was being prepared for summer, so was a bit bare, then decided to catch the bus on into East Cowes and then find our way to West Cowes by the floating bridge and have lunch and head back to Newport and our guest house.
We had a bit of a wait for the bus, but it arrived eventually, and we headed into East Cowes – which is separated from West Cowes by the harbour. After walking for a while we eventually found what the locals call the “floating bridge” but is actually a “chain ferry” which is used to transport cars, trucks and people across the harbour. This ferry has been in use for many years, and when they considered building a bridge, found that the cost would be exhorbitant, so decided to keep the chain ferry.
When we got to West Cowes, we wandered around looking for somewhere to have lunch – finally deciding on a pub as it was after 2.00pm and some of the restaurants were closing after lunch.
We had a nice lasagne and salad, then some desert and coffee, and after that headed for the bus, picking up some milk, sandwiches and fruit for tea so that we didn’t have to stop off on the way back to Castle Lodge and buy supplies.
Well, the marvellous holiday is very nearly over now – tomorrow is another packup and travel day. We don’t plan on leaving the guest house much before 10.00, and then may go up to see Carisbrooke Castle (which is just up the hill from where we are staying), before taking a taxi back to Cowes to catch the ferry to Southampton, and then the train to Paddington, and then underground to St Pancras. We spend the night at the YHA at St Pancras, and then up very early Friday morning to catch the 6.00am Eurostar train to Lille and our 3 day tour of the battlefields of the Somme.
As I am not sure whether we will have internet access after the YHA, my next blog post may be from Sydney – to wrap up the holiday and let you know how the battlefields tour went. Deb and I hope that you have enjoyed reading about our exploits as much as we have enjoyed doing them – it is hard to believe that we have been away from home for so long, but we are looking forward to getting home to our own space, and the comfort of our own home – there really is no place quite like it.
Tuesday, 12th May 2009
This morning the weather forecast is for rain this afternoon, so we have decided to head off on the bus for Godshill, so that I can see the church where some of the forebears worshiped many years ago. Avril has told us that Godshill is a very pretty village with many thatched cottages as well as the church.
After breakfast, we caught the bus to Godshill, and it really is beautiful – there were many people visiting the village, and we headed up the hill to where the church was located. There was a church morning tea to raise money for charity, so there were many people visiting the church.
We were able to get some information and postcards about the church, and I took lots of photos of the outside and inside of the church.
Godshill Church is also known as The Church of the Lily Cross – as a medieval wall mural was discovered some years ago, and depicts a Crucified Christ on a Lily instead of a Cross.
We spent a bit of time at the church, had a nice cup of tea and some cake, then headed back down the hill to have a look at some of the souvenier stores before catching the bus on to Sandown.
Sandown is on the south edge of the Isle of Wight, and is a popular beach resort for the population. When we got there it looked like a storm brewing up, the beach was closed, although there were a couple of “boardies” in the surf.
We took some photos of the cliffs and the pier, then went and had a typical fish and chips lunch at a restaurant
We had planned on stopping at Arreton on the way back to Newport, but with the weather changing quite dramatically we decided to keep going all the way back to Newport and then back to the guest house.
We stopped and picked up some supplies for tea, and then returned to the guest house. Avril returned our washing which had been washed and dried – so we have clean clothes again.
Tomorrow we will decide where to go depending on the weather – possibly to Cowes to have a look around of that city.
After breakfast, we caught the bus to Godshill, and it really is beautiful – there were many people visiting the village, and we headed up the hill to where the church was located. There was a church morning tea to raise money for charity, so there were many people visiting the church.
We were able to get some information and postcards about the church, and I took lots of photos of the outside and inside of the church.
Godshill Church is also known as The Church of the Lily Cross – as a medieval wall mural was discovered some years ago, and depicts a Crucified Christ on a Lily instead of a Cross.
We spent a bit of time at the church, had a nice cup of tea and some cake, then headed back down the hill to have a look at some of the souvenier stores before catching the bus on to Sandown.
Sandown is on the south edge of the Isle of Wight, and is a popular beach resort for the population. When we got there it looked like a storm brewing up, the beach was closed, although there were a couple of “boardies” in the surf.
We took some photos of the cliffs and the pier, then went and had a typical fish and chips lunch at a restaurant
We had planned on stopping at Arreton on the way back to Newport, but with the weather changing quite dramatically we decided to keep going all the way back to Newport and then back to the guest house.
We stopped and picked up some supplies for tea, and then returned to the guest house. Avril returned our washing which had been washed and dried – so we have clean clothes again.
Tomorrow we will decide where to go depending on the weather – possibly to Cowes to have a look around of that city.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Isle of Wight
We are on the Isle of Wight now, with only one more leg of the journey to go. It has been a wonderful but exhausting experience, especially for Deb who is fading fast, and only just getting through each day.
She will no doubt take a while to recover from the punishment her back has gone through these weeks away from home.
The bus tour really knocked her about, and we both caught colds which have hung on and are really difficult to shake. I got a perforated ear drum out of mine, and that has made it difficult as the fluid has been leaking constantly from my ear, and drips all over the pillows and my clothes so I am constantly dabbing at the ear – not allowed to put anything in to stop it unfortunately, but I have started taking antibiotics as a precaution to any infection getting in. Not to mention the deafness in that ear !!!
The Isle of Wight is beautiful – we had a wonderful day today, travelled by bus out to a place called Alum Bay where there is a fantastic cliff formation and rock formations called The Needles, we took a little boat ride out to see the cliffs and rocks up close – the colour of the cliffs is amazing – reds, yellows, ochre, mauve – many different shades of these colours. Anyway I have taken lots of photos and video and will try to post them when I get better internet access.
The bus ride out and back was quite hair raising – the little lanes are very narrow and the bus seemed to fly along at quite a fast pace – we have purchased a 7 day pass for ₤20.00 as that is cheaper than buying tickets for every journey, and we will be here for 4 days to use the tickets.
The guest house we are staying at is really nice and the woman who runs it Avril has the most amazing photo display and poster display in the breakfast room, of the Isle of Wight Rock Festivals from 1960s and 1970’s – she said it was an amazing event but had to be abandoned after the 1970 one when there were 750,000 people at the concert – the Island couldn’t cope with the numbers and ran out of food and water etc. Anyway I am going to see if she will let me take photos of the stuff on the walls as it is fantastic. The names of the artists at that 1970 concert included Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and many others that you would know.
They have started having concerts again on the Island, but the number of tickets being sold have been strictly reduced and policed so as not to have the same problem again.
Tomorrow we are going to try to do some family history research and hopefully will be able to fill some of the gaps I have in my research. Deb and I went to the Archives Centre in Truro while in Cornwall and managed to find a few more bits of info relating to my family which was great.
The weather on the Isle of Wight is a bit warmer than what we have been experiencing – thank goodness as we are getting sick of being cold all the time – finding somewhere to do the laundry is also problematic – but we usually can manage the undies – the heavier stuff is more difficult. Just as well we are on the move all the time so that each new place we go to the people haven’t seen us in the clothes that we are wearing all the time.
She will no doubt take a while to recover from the punishment her back has gone through these weeks away from home.
The bus tour really knocked her about, and we both caught colds which have hung on and are really difficult to shake. I got a perforated ear drum out of mine, and that has made it difficult as the fluid has been leaking constantly from my ear, and drips all over the pillows and my clothes so I am constantly dabbing at the ear – not allowed to put anything in to stop it unfortunately, but I have started taking antibiotics as a precaution to any infection getting in. Not to mention the deafness in that ear !!!
The Isle of Wight is beautiful – we had a wonderful day today, travelled by bus out to a place called Alum Bay where there is a fantastic cliff formation and rock formations called The Needles, we took a little boat ride out to see the cliffs and rocks up close – the colour of the cliffs is amazing – reds, yellows, ochre, mauve – many different shades of these colours. Anyway I have taken lots of photos and video and will try to post them when I get better internet access.
The bus ride out and back was quite hair raising – the little lanes are very narrow and the bus seemed to fly along at quite a fast pace – we have purchased a 7 day pass for ₤20.00 as that is cheaper than buying tickets for every journey, and we will be here for 4 days to use the tickets.
The guest house we are staying at is really nice and the woman who runs it Avril has the most amazing photo display and poster display in the breakfast room, of the Isle of Wight Rock Festivals from 1960s and 1970’s – she said it was an amazing event but had to be abandoned after the 1970 one when there were 750,000 people at the concert – the Island couldn’t cope with the numbers and ran out of food and water etc. Anyway I am going to see if she will let me take photos of the stuff on the walls as it is fantastic. The names of the artists at that 1970 concert included Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and many others that you would know.
They have started having concerts again on the Island, but the number of tickets being sold have been strictly reduced and policed so as not to have the same problem again.
Tomorrow we are going to try to do some family history research and hopefully will be able to fill some of the gaps I have in my research. Deb and I went to the Archives Centre in Truro while in Cornwall and managed to find a few more bits of info relating to my family which was great.
The weather on the Isle of Wight is a bit warmer than what we have been experiencing – thank goodness as we are getting sick of being cold all the time – finding somewhere to do the laundry is also problematic – but we usually can manage the undies – the heavier stuff is more difficult. Just as well we are on the move all the time so that each new place we go to the people haven’t seen us in the clothes that we are wearing all the time.
On route to Isle of Wight
No need for a contingent plan to get to the train - the taxi arrived ahead of time.
I woke at 5.00am and Deb fairly soon afterwards, we had a cup of tea to wake up, and then got dressed and re-arranged the room to put the mattress back on Deb’s bed.
It looked like being a lovely day, and we would spend most of it travelling – still that is part of the holiday, and we have found train travel to be very enjoyable.
When we got to the station we had thought we would be the only people there at that hour of the morning, but this was not the case, there was a couple of Americans who were travelling on an earlier train than ours, and another few people who got on the train with us.
The train arrived on time, and we got on board the first carriage that was nearest to us – it was a first class one and we were only booked standard – but the ticket inspector told us to sit in the couple of seats which weren’t booked, and it would be OK – what a laugh – nearly every seat in the carriage had a ticket on it indicating it was booked, but during the course of the journey, very few of them were used by people who had pre-booked, nearly everyone who got on after that just paid for their seat as they arrived. I thought it was just a ploy by the Railway company to ensure that the Standard seats were filled first before the empty first class ones – not that the seats are any better in the first class – as we have found.
We had to change trains at Westbury, and the inspector telephoned ahead for us and arranged some assistance with our bags, as we only had 7 minutes between trains.
The journey from St Erth to Westbury was very pleasant, and we had breakfast on board – we started with a hot chocolate when we got on board – then just before they took the food off at Plymouth – had a really disgusting bacon bap, and tea – train food is terrible, and with nothing much else on offer we ate it. The train company has a really strange system of calling over the loud speaker that the food service is stopping before you have a chance to go up and get anything to eat. Probably a good thing as we couldn’t eat much after the “bap”.
Changing trains at Westbury went really smoothly, and the train we had to catch was just a short walk across the platform, and there was a nice man waiting there to help us with the cases.
As we left Westbury we had a wonderful surprise as we were able to see one of the chalk drawings on a hill in the distance – the Horse. I managed to take a couple of photos through the window, as the train was travelling very slowly at the time. Hopefully it will come out OK as it was quite a fair way away.
From Westbury to Southampton Central took an hour and a half, and was uneventful apart from our sighting of the chalk horse.
At Southampton, I picked up the tickets for our return trip to London on the 14th, got cash out of the machine, and then we caught the free bus to the Isle of Wight fast ferry terminal.
At the terminal we decided to have our lunch as we wasn’t sure where we could get anything at our guest house, and we knew once inside, we wouldn’t want to go out for lunch.
After a quick meal we caught the 1.15pm fast ferry to Cowes, then a taxi to the guest house in Newport. Our hostess – Avril Barnes was waiting to meet us when we arrived at 2.00pm, and she showed us around and explained everything before leaving for a family member’s wedding.
Our room is on the ground floor – yes!, and the beds are great – Deb didn’t take long to take off the back brace and have a lie down until 4.00pm when we had afternoon tea. We will have to find somewhere for dinner tonight, and decide what we will do tomorrow later on – Deb is studying the guide books.
Hopefully we will have time to go to the Records Office here in Newport for some more family history research.
We went out for dinner, and found a pub up the road not far from where we are staying – The Eight Bells – we had dinner there, which was enormous – they seem to be following the American way of serving enormous plates of food – much more than anyone can eat. Anyway what we had was delicious, and then we just walked back to the guest house, and then I just had to go to bed and to sleep at 8.15pm – I was absolutely whacked after such a long and tiring day. Deb watched TV for a while and then went to sleep.
Tomorrow we plan to go to see the famous Alum Bay with the coloured cliffs and The Needles.
I woke at 5.00am and Deb fairly soon afterwards, we had a cup of tea to wake up, and then got dressed and re-arranged the room to put the mattress back on Deb’s bed.
It looked like being a lovely day, and we would spend most of it travelling – still that is part of the holiday, and we have found train travel to be very enjoyable.
When we got to the station we had thought we would be the only people there at that hour of the morning, but this was not the case, there was a couple of Americans who were travelling on an earlier train than ours, and another few people who got on the train with us.
The train arrived on time, and we got on board the first carriage that was nearest to us – it was a first class one and we were only booked standard – but the ticket inspector told us to sit in the couple of seats which weren’t booked, and it would be OK – what a laugh – nearly every seat in the carriage had a ticket on it indicating it was booked, but during the course of the journey, very few of them were used by people who had pre-booked, nearly everyone who got on after that just paid for their seat as they arrived. I thought it was just a ploy by the Railway company to ensure that the Standard seats were filled first before the empty first class ones – not that the seats are any better in the first class – as we have found.
We had to change trains at Westbury, and the inspector telephoned ahead for us and arranged some assistance with our bags, as we only had 7 minutes between trains.
The journey from St Erth to Westbury was very pleasant, and we had breakfast on board – we started with a hot chocolate when we got on board – then just before they took the food off at Plymouth – had a really disgusting bacon bap, and tea – train food is terrible, and with nothing much else on offer we ate it. The train company has a really strange system of calling over the loud speaker that the food service is stopping before you have a chance to go up and get anything to eat. Probably a good thing as we couldn’t eat much after the “bap”.
Changing trains at Westbury went really smoothly, and the train we had to catch was just a short walk across the platform, and there was a nice man waiting there to help us with the cases.
As we left Westbury we had a wonderful surprise as we were able to see one of the chalk drawings on a hill in the distance – the Horse. I managed to take a couple of photos through the window, as the train was travelling very slowly at the time. Hopefully it will come out OK as it was quite a fair way away.
From Westbury to Southampton Central took an hour and a half, and was uneventful apart from our sighting of the chalk horse.
At Southampton, I picked up the tickets for our return trip to London on the 14th, got cash out of the machine, and then we caught the free bus to the Isle of Wight fast ferry terminal.
At the terminal we decided to have our lunch as we wasn’t sure where we could get anything at our guest house, and we knew once inside, we wouldn’t want to go out for lunch.
After a quick meal we caught the 1.15pm fast ferry to Cowes, then a taxi to the guest house in Newport. Our hostess – Avril Barnes was waiting to meet us when we arrived at 2.00pm, and she showed us around and explained everything before leaving for a family member’s wedding.
Our room is on the ground floor – yes!, and the beds are great – Deb didn’t take long to take off the back brace and have a lie down until 4.00pm when we had afternoon tea. We will have to find somewhere for dinner tonight, and decide what we will do tomorrow later on – Deb is studying the guide books.
Hopefully we will have time to go to the Records Office here in Newport for some more family history research.
We went out for dinner, and found a pub up the road not far from where we are staying – The Eight Bells – we had dinner there, which was enormous – they seem to be following the American way of serving enormous plates of food – much more than anyone can eat. Anyway what we had was delicious, and then we just walked back to the guest house, and then I just had to go to bed and to sleep at 8.15pm – I was absolutely whacked after such a long and tiring day. Deb watched TV for a while and then went to sleep.
Tomorrow we plan to go to see the famous Alum Bay with the coloured cliffs and The Needles.
Lelant Cornwall
Thursday 7th May 2009
This morning we woke at our usual time, and went down for our breakfast at 8.00am. There are only people from 3 rooms at breakfast, us and a young couple, and a man on his own. The Badger Inn doesn’t rely on accomodation for its income, the main income would be from bar sales and meals. The food is really good, and we have enjoyed ours.
Because I wanted to get some more information and photos of the church of St Uny, Lelant, Deb and I head down the road to the church, and find that it is open. There is a nice helpful man there who tells us about the church and where we will find the records – in Truro! Deb takes lots of photos of the inside of the church, and I buy some of their publications about the church, and then we go outside and take more photos. We walk over to the other small church on site, and talk to the man doing the renovations, and he tells us that he is restoring the inside back to how it looked originally – there is a lot of work to do, but it should look lovely when finished.
After visiting the church we head up the hill again to catch the 300 bus hop-on hop-off round trip from Lelant to Penzance via Lands End. The bus picks us up just up the road from the Badger Inn, and we go upstairs to sit in the open top area so that we can take photos.
We soon find that it is very cold and breezy on top, but decided to tough it out – and have on our coats, beanies and gloves. Deb also has her knee rug wrapped around her.
The ride is quite exciting and we soon find ourselves heading off down narrow roads, and hair-pin bends – not just exciting, a bit scary also.
I take many photos all along the route, and try to take a bit of video as well – not sure that it will be worth watching due to the bouncing of the bus.
The ride takes 2½ hours, and when we get to Penzance we are in need of a toilet break and somewhere to warm up – so we head up the main street of Penzance, and find a nice warm restaurant for lunch.
After lunch we spend a little time looking around, and then head back to the bus terminal to catch a bus back to Lelant.
Back at the Inn, we have a rest before dinner – tonight we decide to just have starters and desert – a good choice, then off upstairs to watch TV – read our books, and sleep. Downstairs it is quiz night at the Inn and the place is full of people.
Friday 8th May 2009
The usual morning – breakfast at 8.00 – the owner of the Inn told us last night that he would be away on holidays from today and his son would be running the show. We arranged with him for his son to carry our bags down early Saturday morning as we have to catch a train to Southampton at 6.58am and will need to leave around 6.30am – we hope that we can get a taxi to turn up and convey us to the train station at St. Erth.
After breakfast we take the little train that goes around the coast from St Erth to St Ives and return the same way. The views of the coast on this ride are really quite beautiful, and I take photos and video to record the event.
After our return to St. Erth we transfer to another train for the trip to Truro. We plan to do some family research at the Records Centre there.
The train ride is really quite good – only 4 stops and about 30 minutes ride. When we get to Truro we have no idea where the Records Centre might be located so ask a taxi driver and he told us that it was just up the road about 100 yards – so off we went in search for the office. We quickly located it, and were told that we should have booked an appointment first – but – we were lucky, as many people who had booked had not shown up, so we were allowed in to do some research.
I had found a clue for a marriage date for my GG grandparents, and a Parish – so Deb started searching for that first while I started on another line.
Would you believe we spent only 3 hours at the centre and found and got copies of 2 records – that marriage certificate, and another one for the parents of my GGG grandmother as well as her baptismal date and details. Talk about lucky – hopefully we will be as successful in the Isle of Wight.
We left the Record Centre at 2.00pm and headed back to the railway where we picked up some sandwiches and coffee for lunch and caught the next train back to St Erth.
We had more luck when we arrived, as we were able to share a taxi back to Lelant, where we had a rest, wrote up the blog, and started packing to be ready to leave in the morning. I arranged a taxi for 6.20am – so hopefully it will come – not sure how to come up with a contingent plan if it doesn’t arrive as we can’t walk and drag our cases to St Erth – and there are no buses !!
This morning we woke at our usual time, and went down for our breakfast at 8.00am. There are only people from 3 rooms at breakfast, us and a young couple, and a man on his own. The Badger Inn doesn’t rely on accomodation for its income, the main income would be from bar sales and meals. The food is really good, and we have enjoyed ours.
Because I wanted to get some more information and photos of the church of St Uny, Lelant, Deb and I head down the road to the church, and find that it is open. There is a nice helpful man there who tells us about the church and where we will find the records – in Truro! Deb takes lots of photos of the inside of the church, and I buy some of their publications about the church, and then we go outside and take more photos. We walk over to the other small church on site, and talk to the man doing the renovations, and he tells us that he is restoring the inside back to how it looked originally – there is a lot of work to do, but it should look lovely when finished.
After visiting the church we head up the hill again to catch the 300 bus hop-on hop-off round trip from Lelant to Penzance via Lands End. The bus picks us up just up the road from the Badger Inn, and we go upstairs to sit in the open top area so that we can take photos.
We soon find that it is very cold and breezy on top, but decided to tough it out – and have on our coats, beanies and gloves. Deb also has her knee rug wrapped around her.
The ride is quite exciting and we soon find ourselves heading off down narrow roads, and hair-pin bends – not just exciting, a bit scary also.
I take many photos all along the route, and try to take a bit of video as well – not sure that it will be worth watching due to the bouncing of the bus.
The ride takes 2½ hours, and when we get to Penzance we are in need of a toilet break and somewhere to warm up – so we head up the main street of Penzance, and find a nice warm restaurant for lunch.
After lunch we spend a little time looking around, and then head back to the bus terminal to catch a bus back to Lelant.
Back at the Inn, we have a rest before dinner – tonight we decide to just have starters and desert – a good choice, then off upstairs to watch TV – read our books, and sleep. Downstairs it is quiz night at the Inn and the place is full of people.
Friday 8th May 2009
The usual morning – breakfast at 8.00 – the owner of the Inn told us last night that he would be away on holidays from today and his son would be running the show. We arranged with him for his son to carry our bags down early Saturday morning as we have to catch a train to Southampton at 6.58am and will need to leave around 6.30am – we hope that we can get a taxi to turn up and convey us to the train station at St. Erth.
After breakfast we take the little train that goes around the coast from St Erth to St Ives and return the same way. The views of the coast on this ride are really quite beautiful, and I take photos and video to record the event.
After our return to St. Erth we transfer to another train for the trip to Truro. We plan to do some family research at the Records Centre there.
The train ride is really quite good – only 4 stops and about 30 minutes ride. When we get to Truro we have no idea where the Records Centre might be located so ask a taxi driver and he told us that it was just up the road about 100 yards – so off we went in search for the office. We quickly located it, and were told that we should have booked an appointment first – but – we were lucky, as many people who had booked had not shown up, so we were allowed in to do some research.
I had found a clue for a marriage date for my GG grandparents, and a Parish – so Deb started searching for that first while I started on another line.
Would you believe we spent only 3 hours at the centre and found and got copies of 2 records – that marriage certificate, and another one for the parents of my GGG grandmother as well as her baptismal date and details. Talk about lucky – hopefully we will be as successful in the Isle of Wight.
We left the Record Centre at 2.00pm and headed back to the railway where we picked up some sandwiches and coffee for lunch and caught the next train back to St Erth.
We had more luck when we arrived, as we were able to share a taxi back to Lelant, where we had a rest, wrote up the blog, and started packing to be ready to leave in the morning. I arranged a taxi for 6.20am – so hopefully it will come – not sure how to come up with a contingent plan if it doesn’t arrive as we can’t walk and drag our cases to St Erth – and there are no buses !!
Saturday 2nd May 2009
Both of us have heavy colds, and don’t feel much like doing anything. We slept quite well at the YHA – even though they have turned off the heating in the rooms. We have a four bedded room which means we can use the duvets on the other two bunks for additional warmth.
We find out that the rail lines are out in a number of areas again due to maintenance schedules – so we head over to Surrey Quays by bus to post another parcel home, and pick up some supplies, including another bag for our gear – we are going to take our excess baggage to the YHA at St Pancras on Monday because we have planned on just taking the 2 suitcases on the next 2 legs (Cornwall and Isle of Wight) so that we only have to manage one pull-along each. I will pack the computer into one suitcase, and our clothes etc. into the other.
When we get to Surrey Quays we go to the big Tesco store and find what we are looking for. Deb has decided to go back to the YHA with the shopping and then rest for the remainder of the day, and I will continue on into the city to do some more sightseeing.
When I get into Waterloo station, I walk down to where the Florence Nightingale Museum is located behind St. Thomas’s Hospital – not easy to find either, as it is very poorly signposted.
I spend around an hour and a half looking at the exhibit, which is quite interesting, and naturally focuses on Nightingale’s early life as well as her time in the Crimea and later in setting up training schools for nurses. There was quite a lot of memorabilia on display which was good to see also.
As with all museums, you finish up in the shop, and there I purchased a book for Deb and a bookmark for her new hobby of collecting bookmarks from everywhere we go.
After visiting the museum, I decided to walk across Westminster Bridge again, and try to take some photos of Westminster Abbey from the front as there was lovely sunshine, not rain like the last time we visited it.
The city was full of tourists, and it was interesting to note that the majority spoke a foreign language rather than English – so it would appear that most of the visitors were from European countries like France, Italy, Spain and Germany.
When I got to the front of Westminster Abbey, I ran into a couple of Aussies who had been on the bus tour with us – talk about a coincidence – then I thought I might go inside the Abbey and have a look. There was the usual queue, and I noticed that the closing time for Saturday was 1.30pm and it was 1.20pm already – when I got nearly inside, I discovered that there was a ₤12.00 charge just to go in, and of course, no photography. So I decided that I really wasn’t that interested in going in, and headed off again. By now I was ravenous – so grabbed at hotdog – yuck – then found a Tesco store, and was able to buy a nice healthy sandwich and a bottle of water, and decided to head back to the YHA as I was getting very tired.
When I returned, Deb had been resting for most of the day, but had also done the washing for us, and said she was feeling a bit better.
We decided to have dinner over the road from the YHA at a pub called the Old Salts Quay at 7.00pm when it opened for dinner, so had a rest until it was time to get ready and go out for dinner.
The dinner we had was very nice, but as usual, the serves were enormous, and we couldn’t finish our main course, and didn’t even consider desert. Around 8.30pm we tottered back to the YHA for an early night.
Sunday 3rd May 2009
Well, I don’t know what happened to me during the night, but I woke around 1.30am, in absolute agony – every joint in my body screamed with pain – from my neck to my ankles and thumbs. The worst were my knees, and I found it hard to understand why these were causing pain due to them being artificial. Worse – I could barely move and found it extremely difficult to get out of bed and go to the bathroom, and even more difficult to get back into bed. I was very scared I can tell you, as I thought that I had some terrible disease, and maybe even the “swine flu’” – I didn’t wake Deb as she needed to sleep, but at 7.00am when she woke, I told her what had happened, and at that stage I was still in absolute agony and could barely move. Deb, gave me one of her powerful pain killers, and I increased the dosage of my anti-inflammatory drugs to see if that would help. I had visions of having to call an ambulance, and pay a visit to hospital to see what was wrong with me.
Deb looked after me all day, went down and brought me up some tea and toast at breakfast time – I had absolutely no appetite – in fact was quite nauseous. I spent the day in bed – unable to do anything except lie there, and try to sleep.
By the afternoon, Deb thought I should try to get up and take a hot shower with the hope that may ease the pain, and we decided that if I was no better by Monday – then we would have to see about finding a doctor. The shower helped a little, and I used some “heat rub” on all the joints to try to ease the pain, and along with double doses of Mobic, Panadol Osteo, and Glucosamine (and Deb’s pain killer) I was getting a little movement back in my joints. The knees were the worst – and I had to use Deb’s stick to get around.
Deb had bought some soup and supplies during the day while I rested, and she bought me up soup and bread for dinner, and then it was back to bed.
Sleep that night was still very painful, and it was still very difficult to turn over, but I managed to get some sleep.
Monday 4th May 2009
Today we had planned to take the extra luggage to the YHA at St Pancras for storage, so it was important for me to be able to help Deb get the bags over to St Pancras – I felt a little better in the morning, and managed to get down to breakfast, although didn’t feel much like eating.
Deb had packed all the excess stuff in the bags, and had distributed it between the 2 small handbags and the new larger bag. We decided that, to hell with the cost, we would go by taxi, and drop of the bags, and then, have lunch at St Pancras station, check out our access etc. for the morning that we would be taking the Eurostar to France, and then return to YHA for the night.
We did all this, and the people at the YHA were great, and advised us to go and purloin a trolley from the railway before we go to the YHA on the 14th so that we can wheel everything to the station – it is really only a couple of hundred metres to where the station is, but with the number of bags we have, it would be difficult to carry them on our own – so we found out where the trolleys are kept, and how much they cost (₤1.00) – so that we have coins when we get back from the Isle of Wight.
We returned to the YHA by public transport – which was interesting for me, as I found it difficult to sit and stand with my knees, and had to keep refusing offers of seats by the kind public on the trains, as it was easier to stand rather than go through the agony of sitting and trying to stand again.
Back at the YHA, we rested, packed up the remainder of our gear, then had a nice dinner than Deb had organised from the Tesco take home range, and watched TV until around 8.00p.m. in the lounge before going to bed.
I was on the improve, but still not 100%.
Tuesday 5th May 2009
When I woke, I was feeling a lot better, although the knees were still quite sore, but not so stiff. We had breakfast, checked out, and waited for the taxi we had booked to pick us up at 8.30am to take us to Paddington station.
At 8.30 the taxi had not arrived, so I got the YHA staff to telephone the driver to find out whether he was on the way or not – he was 15 minutes away – at 8.45 he still was there, and we were getting pretty agitated, as we had to catch to 10.06am train from Paddington to St Erth and it was right across London from where we were to the station.
Anyway, he finally arrived, just as we were about to try and hail one outside. Then we were taken literally “for a ride” – this guy took us, on what seemed to us, to really be a circuitous route to the station it was 9.30am by the time we got there, and we were nearly beside ourselves with anxiety at the prospect of the missing the train. I might add that the fare was ₤30.00 – but we didn’t quibble and paid up – this was a famous London Taxi and was on the meter but we still think we were had.
Anyway – we successfully caught our train to St Erth.
While we were travelling first class – the seating was not great for Deb’s back – even with her cushions and back pillows. But it was a quick and scenic trip from Paddington to St Erth via the following stops: Reading; Newton Potter; Exeter St David’s; Plymouth; Liskeard; Bodmin Parkway; Par; St Austell; Truro; Redruth; Camborne; Hayle; to St Erth.
We had been advised by the conductor that the Station at St Erth was a short one, and that we would have to move all our luggage and ourselves up two carriages towards the front of the train so that we would be in a carriage that opened onto the platform.
When we got to St Erth, we found that we had to go up a flight of overhead stairs to get out of the station – fortunately for us the taxi driver we had arranged to pick us up was waiting for us, and carried Deb’s case up the stairs and over the bridge – I dragged the other case over, and hoped that the wheels wouldn’t fall off in the process.
The taxi driver was a woman by the way, and had indicated that she would come back for the second case if I left it for her, but I didn’t think that was fair on her.
Anyway, around 3.15pm and after a reasonably short drive we arrived in Lelant at our accommodation for the next few days – Badger Inn.
The manager carried the suitcases up the stairs – many – to our room (number 5). The room seemed small, but the bathroom was nice with a shower, etc. and it wasn’t long before I had unpacked the suitcases and put our gear into the wardrobes, so that I could put the empty case on top of the wardrobe and out of the way.
Deb needed to lie down after the long train journey, so I decided to go out and explore a bit.
The barmaid told me that the Uny Lelant church was just down the road, and as this was one of the places that I wanted to visit for family history, I set off. It was really cold, my knees were working a lot better than a few days ago, and the walk was down hill for about a kilometre.
The village of Lelant is really quaint, the streets very narrow, and the houses built on the sides of the hills. I wasn’t able to find any evidence of any shops, but did find the church, and took some photos, then had a wander around the church graveyard – I had hoped to find someone who could tell me whether there were any records available, but unfortunately, the church closed at 5.00pm, and when I looked at my watch it was 5.15pm – damn just missed it. Anyway I will try to get down again when it is opened.
Wandering around the graveyard was a bit hazardous, as the graves were very close together, and not a lot of path to walk on, so I had to be really careful not to trip over. Most of the headstones were illegible due to the weathering and the amount of lichen growing on them.
I returned to the Inn, and bought a couple of drinks to take up to our room, asked the manager whether he could turn the heat back on in our room as we were freezing, he said he would, then it was back up to the room to wake Deb up.
We went down for dinner at 7.00pm. The menu was quite extensive, so we decided to have a starter and a main course – bad decision – once again the food was delicious but the servings enormous – neither of us could finish the main course which was a shame as it was delicious, but tomorrow we will know better.
After dinner, we went back to the room, watched TV, before going to sleep. I crashed around 8.30pm – Deb watched TV a while longer.
During the night I woke up because I could feel and hear bubbling noises in my left ear – then I had a bit of pain in the ear, and noticed that there was a lot of fluid leaking out – a perforated ear drum!! I found some Panadol Osteo to take for the pain, and tried to go back to sleep.
Wednesday 6th May 2009
I woke around 7.00am – Deb had had a dreadful night – the bed was way too soft for her back and she was in agony, so we decided that we would need to put her mattress on the floor tonight so that she could get better support for her back.
We went down to breakfast at 8.00am, and had a really nice breakfast of porridge, toast and jam and tea – Deb had scrambled eggs with hers – I’m still not very hungry with this cold, etc.
After breakfast we ask how to find a doctor, and are told there is a medical centre in St Ives where we should be able to see one. So we take a taxi to St Ives where the medical centre is located, check in, and are told that my appointment will be at 11.30am, as it is only just after 10.00am we go for a walk down to St Ives to see what’s what. We walk along the promenade, take some photos, as the tide is out, and check out where we might have lunch later on. We also found the tourist information centre and picked up some brochures of where we might explore over the next few days.
We walk back to the medical centre by 11.30, and I see the nurse practitioner – who checks my ear, says she can’t see anything because of the bubbling fluid in my ear, and then has to consult with a MD – this takes some time, but eventually he makes himself available, and says that it probably isn’t much point in prescribing antibiotics as my ear isn’t infected – no pus coming out. Anyway they suggest coming back if the pain gets worse, or pus appears. Deb and I go back down to the town, and decided to check the library to see what family history records they might have – nothing, but they suggested going to the St Ives Historical Society – which is quite nearby – so we do so.
The historical society has quite a lot of information about St Ives and Lelant, and we delve into the information trying to find relevant stuff for my family history.
I found one binder or really relevant information – which has just over a 100 pages – so I ask if it can be photocopied for me – and yes they can do it today. So we go out and have lunch – a Cornish pasty which actually tasted like the one’s Mum used to make, and a berry crumble with Cornish ice-cream – and coffee – all really delicious.
We go back to the Archives, and continue researching but don’t find anything else that is relevant, but I collect all their internet addresses as they will do research for on-line requests and I will check out their on-line resources from home.
The Archives closes at 4.00pm, so we leave at 3.30pm, and take a taxi back to Badger Inn.
We spend the rest of the afternoon resting, and Deb organises her mattress so that it is on the floor, and has an afternoon nap while I write up this blog.
We go down for dinner at 7.30pm, and just have soup and a desert, as we don’t want much to eat. There is a very nice couple at the next table who we get chatting with, as they recognised the accents and wanted to know more about Australia as they plan to visit next year.
Tomorrow we plan to either take the scenic train ride around the coast to St Ives, then do some walks around St Ives, or we will take a bus ride around the coast to Lands End and then Penzance before returning to Lelant – depends on the weather. We well then do the other trip on Friday – then it is pack up and get ready for an early train ride to Southampton, and the Isle of Wight by ferry on Saturday.
We find out that the rail lines are out in a number of areas again due to maintenance schedules – so we head over to Surrey Quays by bus to post another parcel home, and pick up some supplies, including another bag for our gear – we are going to take our excess baggage to the YHA at St Pancras on Monday because we have planned on just taking the 2 suitcases on the next 2 legs (Cornwall and Isle of Wight) so that we only have to manage one pull-along each. I will pack the computer into one suitcase, and our clothes etc. into the other.
When we get to Surrey Quays we go to the big Tesco store and find what we are looking for. Deb has decided to go back to the YHA with the shopping and then rest for the remainder of the day, and I will continue on into the city to do some more sightseeing.
When I get into Waterloo station, I walk down to where the Florence Nightingale Museum is located behind St. Thomas’s Hospital – not easy to find either, as it is very poorly signposted.
I spend around an hour and a half looking at the exhibit, which is quite interesting, and naturally focuses on Nightingale’s early life as well as her time in the Crimea and later in setting up training schools for nurses. There was quite a lot of memorabilia on display which was good to see also.
As with all museums, you finish up in the shop, and there I purchased a book for Deb and a bookmark for her new hobby of collecting bookmarks from everywhere we go.
After visiting the museum, I decided to walk across Westminster Bridge again, and try to take some photos of Westminster Abbey from the front as there was lovely sunshine, not rain like the last time we visited it.
The city was full of tourists, and it was interesting to note that the majority spoke a foreign language rather than English – so it would appear that most of the visitors were from European countries like France, Italy, Spain and Germany.
When I got to the front of Westminster Abbey, I ran into a couple of Aussies who had been on the bus tour with us – talk about a coincidence – then I thought I might go inside the Abbey and have a look. There was the usual queue, and I noticed that the closing time for Saturday was 1.30pm and it was 1.20pm already – when I got nearly inside, I discovered that there was a ₤12.00 charge just to go in, and of course, no photography. So I decided that I really wasn’t that interested in going in, and headed off again. By now I was ravenous – so grabbed at hotdog – yuck – then found a Tesco store, and was able to buy a nice healthy sandwich and a bottle of water, and decided to head back to the YHA as I was getting very tired.
When I returned, Deb had been resting for most of the day, but had also done the washing for us, and said she was feeling a bit better.
We decided to have dinner over the road from the YHA at a pub called the Old Salts Quay at 7.00pm when it opened for dinner, so had a rest until it was time to get ready and go out for dinner.
The dinner we had was very nice, but as usual, the serves were enormous, and we couldn’t finish our main course, and didn’t even consider desert. Around 8.30pm we tottered back to the YHA for an early night.
Sunday 3rd May 2009
Well, I don’t know what happened to me during the night, but I woke around 1.30am, in absolute agony – every joint in my body screamed with pain – from my neck to my ankles and thumbs. The worst were my knees, and I found it hard to understand why these were causing pain due to them being artificial. Worse – I could barely move and found it extremely difficult to get out of bed and go to the bathroom, and even more difficult to get back into bed. I was very scared I can tell you, as I thought that I had some terrible disease, and maybe even the “swine flu’” – I didn’t wake Deb as she needed to sleep, but at 7.00am when she woke, I told her what had happened, and at that stage I was still in absolute agony and could barely move. Deb, gave me one of her powerful pain killers, and I increased the dosage of my anti-inflammatory drugs to see if that would help. I had visions of having to call an ambulance, and pay a visit to hospital to see what was wrong with me.
Deb looked after me all day, went down and brought me up some tea and toast at breakfast time – I had absolutely no appetite – in fact was quite nauseous. I spent the day in bed – unable to do anything except lie there, and try to sleep.
By the afternoon, Deb thought I should try to get up and take a hot shower with the hope that may ease the pain, and we decided that if I was no better by Monday – then we would have to see about finding a doctor. The shower helped a little, and I used some “heat rub” on all the joints to try to ease the pain, and along with double doses of Mobic, Panadol Osteo, and Glucosamine (and Deb’s pain killer) I was getting a little movement back in my joints. The knees were the worst – and I had to use Deb’s stick to get around.
Deb had bought some soup and supplies during the day while I rested, and she bought me up soup and bread for dinner, and then it was back to bed.
Sleep that night was still very painful, and it was still very difficult to turn over, but I managed to get some sleep.
Monday 4th May 2009
Today we had planned to take the extra luggage to the YHA at St Pancras for storage, so it was important for me to be able to help Deb get the bags over to St Pancras – I felt a little better in the morning, and managed to get down to breakfast, although didn’t feel much like eating.
Deb had packed all the excess stuff in the bags, and had distributed it between the 2 small handbags and the new larger bag. We decided that, to hell with the cost, we would go by taxi, and drop of the bags, and then, have lunch at St Pancras station, check out our access etc. for the morning that we would be taking the Eurostar to France, and then return to YHA for the night.
We did all this, and the people at the YHA were great, and advised us to go and purloin a trolley from the railway before we go to the YHA on the 14th so that we can wheel everything to the station – it is really only a couple of hundred metres to where the station is, but with the number of bags we have, it would be difficult to carry them on our own – so we found out where the trolleys are kept, and how much they cost (₤1.00) – so that we have coins when we get back from the Isle of Wight.
We returned to the YHA by public transport – which was interesting for me, as I found it difficult to sit and stand with my knees, and had to keep refusing offers of seats by the kind public on the trains, as it was easier to stand rather than go through the agony of sitting and trying to stand again.
Back at the YHA, we rested, packed up the remainder of our gear, then had a nice dinner than Deb had organised from the Tesco take home range, and watched TV until around 8.00p.m. in the lounge before going to bed.
I was on the improve, but still not 100%.
Tuesday 5th May 2009
When I woke, I was feeling a lot better, although the knees were still quite sore, but not so stiff. We had breakfast, checked out, and waited for the taxi we had booked to pick us up at 8.30am to take us to Paddington station.
At 8.30 the taxi had not arrived, so I got the YHA staff to telephone the driver to find out whether he was on the way or not – he was 15 minutes away – at 8.45 he still was there, and we were getting pretty agitated, as we had to catch to 10.06am train from Paddington to St Erth and it was right across London from where we were to the station.
Anyway, he finally arrived, just as we were about to try and hail one outside. Then we were taken literally “for a ride” – this guy took us, on what seemed to us, to really be a circuitous route to the station it was 9.30am by the time we got there, and we were nearly beside ourselves with anxiety at the prospect of the missing the train. I might add that the fare was ₤30.00 – but we didn’t quibble and paid up – this was a famous London Taxi and was on the meter but we still think we were had.
Anyway – we successfully caught our train to St Erth.
While we were travelling first class – the seating was not great for Deb’s back – even with her cushions and back pillows. But it was a quick and scenic trip from Paddington to St Erth via the following stops: Reading; Newton Potter; Exeter St David’s; Plymouth; Liskeard; Bodmin Parkway; Par; St Austell; Truro; Redruth; Camborne; Hayle; to St Erth.
We had been advised by the conductor that the Station at St Erth was a short one, and that we would have to move all our luggage and ourselves up two carriages towards the front of the train so that we would be in a carriage that opened onto the platform.
When we got to St Erth, we found that we had to go up a flight of overhead stairs to get out of the station – fortunately for us the taxi driver we had arranged to pick us up was waiting for us, and carried Deb’s case up the stairs and over the bridge – I dragged the other case over, and hoped that the wheels wouldn’t fall off in the process.
The taxi driver was a woman by the way, and had indicated that she would come back for the second case if I left it for her, but I didn’t think that was fair on her.
Anyway, around 3.15pm and after a reasonably short drive we arrived in Lelant at our accommodation for the next few days – Badger Inn.
The manager carried the suitcases up the stairs – many – to our room (number 5). The room seemed small, but the bathroom was nice with a shower, etc. and it wasn’t long before I had unpacked the suitcases and put our gear into the wardrobes, so that I could put the empty case on top of the wardrobe and out of the way.
Deb needed to lie down after the long train journey, so I decided to go out and explore a bit.
The barmaid told me that the Uny Lelant church was just down the road, and as this was one of the places that I wanted to visit for family history, I set off. It was really cold, my knees were working a lot better than a few days ago, and the walk was down hill for about a kilometre.
The village of Lelant is really quaint, the streets very narrow, and the houses built on the sides of the hills. I wasn’t able to find any evidence of any shops, but did find the church, and took some photos, then had a wander around the church graveyard – I had hoped to find someone who could tell me whether there were any records available, but unfortunately, the church closed at 5.00pm, and when I looked at my watch it was 5.15pm – damn just missed it. Anyway I will try to get down again when it is opened.
Wandering around the graveyard was a bit hazardous, as the graves were very close together, and not a lot of path to walk on, so I had to be really careful not to trip over. Most of the headstones were illegible due to the weathering and the amount of lichen growing on them.
I returned to the Inn, and bought a couple of drinks to take up to our room, asked the manager whether he could turn the heat back on in our room as we were freezing, he said he would, then it was back up to the room to wake Deb up.
We went down for dinner at 7.00pm. The menu was quite extensive, so we decided to have a starter and a main course – bad decision – once again the food was delicious but the servings enormous – neither of us could finish the main course which was a shame as it was delicious, but tomorrow we will know better.
After dinner, we went back to the room, watched TV, before going to sleep. I crashed around 8.30pm – Deb watched TV a while longer.
During the night I woke up because I could feel and hear bubbling noises in my left ear – then I had a bit of pain in the ear, and noticed that there was a lot of fluid leaking out – a perforated ear drum!! I found some Panadol Osteo to take for the pain, and tried to go back to sleep.
Wednesday 6th May 2009
I woke around 7.00am – Deb had had a dreadful night – the bed was way too soft for her back and she was in agony, so we decided that we would need to put her mattress on the floor tonight so that she could get better support for her back.
We went down to breakfast at 8.00am, and had a really nice breakfast of porridge, toast and jam and tea – Deb had scrambled eggs with hers – I’m still not very hungry with this cold, etc.
After breakfast we ask how to find a doctor, and are told there is a medical centre in St Ives where we should be able to see one. So we take a taxi to St Ives where the medical centre is located, check in, and are told that my appointment will be at 11.30am, as it is only just after 10.00am we go for a walk down to St Ives to see what’s what. We walk along the promenade, take some photos, as the tide is out, and check out where we might have lunch later on. We also found the tourist information centre and picked up some brochures of where we might explore over the next few days.
We walk back to the medical centre by 11.30, and I see the nurse practitioner – who checks my ear, says she can’t see anything because of the bubbling fluid in my ear, and then has to consult with a MD – this takes some time, but eventually he makes himself available, and says that it probably isn’t much point in prescribing antibiotics as my ear isn’t infected – no pus coming out. Anyway they suggest coming back if the pain gets worse, or pus appears. Deb and I go back down to the town, and decided to check the library to see what family history records they might have – nothing, but they suggested going to the St Ives Historical Society – which is quite nearby – so we do so.
The historical society has quite a lot of information about St Ives and Lelant, and we delve into the information trying to find relevant stuff for my family history.
I found one binder or really relevant information – which has just over a 100 pages – so I ask if it can be photocopied for me – and yes they can do it today. So we go out and have lunch – a Cornish pasty which actually tasted like the one’s Mum used to make, and a berry crumble with Cornish ice-cream – and coffee – all really delicious.
We go back to the Archives, and continue researching but don’t find anything else that is relevant, but I collect all their internet addresses as they will do research for on-line requests and I will check out their on-line resources from home.
The Archives closes at 4.00pm, so we leave at 3.30pm, and take a taxi back to Badger Inn.
We spend the rest of the afternoon resting, and Deb organises her mattress so that it is on the floor, and has an afternoon nap while I write up this blog.
We go down for dinner at 7.30pm, and just have soup and a desert, as we don’t want much to eat. There is a very nice couple at the next table who we get chatting with, as they recognised the accents and wanted to know more about Australia as they plan to visit next year.
Tomorrow we plan to either take the scenic train ride around the coast to St Ives, then do some walks around St Ives, or we will take a bus ride around the coast to Lands End and then Penzance before returning to Lelant – depends on the weather. We well then do the other trip on Friday – then it is pack up and get ready for an early train ride to Southampton, and the Isle of Wight by ferry on Saturday.
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