Friday 31 May 2013. Imperial War Museum Duxford

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The big Badger cull starts in the UK tomorrow. Apparently Badgers pass bovine TB on to cattle. 
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Today we visited the Imperial War Museum at Duxford aerodrome.

The day as usual was very overcast and in the distance it looked like it was raining but it wasn't so we headed off down those narrow roads towards Duxford. We set both our GPS's to see if they disagreed as the one in the car would not let Mick put in the full postcode.

Things were going quite smoothly with commands in stereo until the free standing one said turn right and the one in the car said go straight on. Lyn said listen to the guy in the free standing one rather than the girl so as we had passed the turn we went back and did a right turn. (Lyn gets very jealous you know as Mick was starting to really like the girls voice!) The girl (inbuilt car one) was immediately happy with this and calculated a new route in concert with the other one. This went on for a while until we reached our destination.

Mick had prepaid our tickets the previous evening on the Net so we avoided the queues and walked straight in after quoting our reference  number. As it turned out as long as we knew the format of the number we could have made one up as the guys on the desk waived us through after Mick quoted a few letters and numbers. We also bought a £5 guidebook.

There were 8 huge hangars at the airfield containing dozens of aircraft. They spanned both military and passenger aviation including one dedicated to American aircraft.

Lyn wanted to see the Concorde, so after a coffee we headed off to hangar no.1 where it was housed with 28 other aircraft including the Tiger Moth, Avro Vulcan, English Electric Lightening, TSR2, Lancaster, Tornado, Jaguar, Canberra, Comet4 etc etc. What a great display.

Mick had a guided tour one on one as he was the only one waiting at the tour departure point and learnt a lot of really interesting information particularly about the spitfire of which many are still flying and can still be purchased second hand at the right price. Meanwhile,  Lyn went to the gift shop but she didn't purchase anything, amazing.

We then worked our way through the hangars being continuously rerouted around barriers put in place because George Clooney was there directing a movie with Matt Damon. This was a bit of a pain but Lyn forgot about the aviation part of the visit and just wanted a glimpse of George and Matt.

Of course we were kept some way from the action as dozens of soldiers in WW2 clobber and 303 rifles milled around. Mick probably could have got some pictures of George and Matt if he had taken the long lens but unfortunately he had left it back at the hotel.

Apart from Hangar 1,  the hangar dedicated to the US planes was pretty special as it contained among many others, the SR71 Blackbird, the only one of it's kind outside the US. That thing could travel at Mach 3+ and it looked the part. Some of the other aircraft in there were the Superfortress and the Stratofortress which are enormous aircraft. It's amazing how they managed to fit them in the hangars.The B-52 Stratofortress has 8 turbojet engines.

As it said in the map brochure..." There's much more at IWM Duxford than most people can see in a day.." and they were right.

We had great day there and on the way home we visited a few villages looking in the little shops before ending up in Cavendish for dinner at The Bull Pub.

The Concorde. Difficult to take a photo of such a huge aircraft in such a confined space.

Mick inside the Concorde. "Quite compact" but hey, it flies (or flew) at Mach 2.

 English Electric Lightening with Avro Vulcan in the background two of Mick's favourite aircraft. The lightening flies straight up vertically to 60,000ft in seconds.

 F111. Plenty of these seen in Australia operated by the RAAF

 F15. Mean looking machine.

 USA aircraft hangar

 Mick with the English Electric Lightening - all engine (two of them).

 Spitfire - legendary, Still many of these flying today.

Avro Vulcan. Mick loves these. We saw one flying at Goodwood Festival of Speed and Farnborough in 2010. Currently only one left flying.

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. This aircraft can fly at Mach 3+ at 80,000 feet. If it detects an incoming misile it speeds up to evade it. Non of these have ever been shot down despite many attempts.

   Army extras for filming

Want to know how to change the oil on your SR71 Blackbird stealth aircraft? Buy a Haynes Manual!

 After a very overcast start, today turned into this! The thermometer in the car was showing 22c ambient. We had a long chat to the elderly lady who lives in the cottage on the right, No 6. This village, Cavendish, has a lot of history with the Cheshire homes organisation and we bought some items from the Sue Ryder shop.

Rape according to the locals. We know it as Canola don't we Margaret? There are acres of this stuff around this farming area of Suffolk.

Thursday 30 May 2013. Dagenham to Glemsford

After a good night's sleep with no one in the room above us, we awoke to another overcast day with puddles everywhere so more rain overnight.

 After breakfast we packed and found our 2 large and 2 carry on suitcases fitted in the Peugeot 308 SW "Estate Car" perfectly so with Mick having worked out the workings of the inbuilt GPS, we entered the Glemsford address and headed off stopping in a lay by for a quick cuppa about half way through our trip.

As we got nearer to Glemsford in Suffolk, the roads got narrower and narrower and as usual Lyn was breathing in . We arrived at the Cock Inn which sits right on the road so if you walked out the front door without looking you would be likely to be bowled over by a car driving past if there were any!

The ensuite bed-sit was clean and comfortable and as per the description has a flat screen TV which unfortunately is a 320mm rather than 32in.

In the afternoon we went out for a drive around the village which took no time at all. We couldn't find a shopping centre but put the on board GPS through it's paces with a female voice to guide us home.

This evening we had dinner at the pub. Our accommodation is on the same block and just a few paces across a driveway. We were the only guests in the dining room so had really good service.

Off to watch Springwatch.

After our trip today the Trip Computer showed 52.2 miles per gallon out of the 1.6l diesel engine. 5.41litres/100klm

The Cock Inn. Our digs are down the drive on the left

Road sign at the bottom of the street

Wednesday 29 May 2013. London Zara visit/pick up car

Today, on an overcast and slightly drizzly day, we went to the London City Airport to collect our rental car. 

The Ford Focus they offered us had a 1 Litre, 3 cylider  engine but he said it had twin turbos and 123hp. Mick turned his nose up at that as he imagined it would resemble a sewing machine to drive so the man said he could do a  VW Golf diesel for an extra £1 a day.  Lyn said we have a lot of  luggage and it may not fit so we ended up with Peugeot 308 diesel SW Estate Car (station wagon). Black of course - the Brits love their dark coloured cars.

It has SatNav for free but even the staff couldn't show us how to put an address into it.

On the Woolwich Ferry our Peugeot 308 SW Diesel front view.

 On the Woolwich Ferry our Peugeot 308 SW Diesel rear view

We then headed off to Weybourne Nursing home in Abbey Wood to visit Zara (Mick's cousin) who we stayed with 3 years ago when we visited London. Zara has a form of Alzheimer's called Frontal Lobe Dysplasia and cannot verbally express herself. She was showing symptoms of this during our visit 3 years previously.

The nursing home was on the other side of the River Thames so we had to cross the river on the Woolwich Ferry.

We arrived at about 1pm and since we had phoned the day before to tell them we were coming, Zara had been advised of that. The manager said that he had probably made a mistake telling her we were coming as she had been waiting by the window all day and was so excited to see us. She grabbed Mick and starting touching his face affectionately so she certainly recognised us. She jumped up and down with excitement.

We spent about 2 hours there and we had a cuppa, biscuits and cake we had taken which Zara seemed to enjoy. We did most of the talking as we weren't able to understand anything she said. We generally nodded when she was "talking" and she would occasionally start crying. Most of the words she spoke appeared to have been made up.

We had a long chat with Terry, the 76 year old manager. He said she had been admitted on 1st March as she had been going out from her home and getting lost. The police had to return her home several times.

The nursing home has 40 beds and is being replaced with a new one in Plumstead which will have an 80 bed capacity. When that occurs Terry will retire. He was a very likeable chap and we chatted with him  for quite some time.He appeared to have a lot of time for Zara and she responded to his kindness.

Zara has 3 daughters and Terry said that the two that lived nearby visited once or twice a week. Zara's third daughter lives in Scotland.

Lyn and Mick left the nursing home quite depressed to see Mick's cousin, who was previously a vibrant active person and a brilliant musician, in such a condition. There but for the grace of God..........................

We leave here tomorrow heading Northeast.

Weybourne Nursing Home in a fairly quiet traffic area

Tuesday 28 May 2013 - London. Kensington Palace

This morning we awoke to rain beating on our hotel window. Mick had us booked for a tour of Kensington Palace the current home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge AKA Will and Kate. It had recently had a £12 million refurbishment which still appeared to be going on.

Mick used his travel pass to get us 2 for 1 tickets so after breakfast out came our wet weather gear that we had brought with us and we headed off. We didn't have umbrellas but that soon changed as Lyn went into M & S to buy one as soon as we arrived at the High Street Kensington tube station. Mick declined as he thought we had enough to carry already.

We left the station in the pouring rain and took the 15 minute walk down the road and through Kensington Gardens to the Palace.

Due to the rain, photography outside was impossible so we didn't manage to get any photos of the building from the outside or during our walk through the immaculately kept grounds which were extensive.

After getting our pre-ordered tickets we headed to the very nice restaurant for a coffee fix before starting the tour.

Each of the areas of the palace had guides who were conversant with the history of the area they occupied and beyond.

We found the rooms far too dark for our liking making it difficult to see the displays clearly so we used our phone torches to examining some of the intricate work in the displays. Flash photography was not allowed so most of the pictures Mick took sans flash, which was all of them, suffered from camera shake.

It was an interesting tour and obviously restricted to the areas not currently being lived in.

After a couple of hours we headed home and having found a volunteer at the front door with a battery powered people mover, got a lift to the front gate and then a bus for two stops to the underground station.

Unfortunately it was still pouring with rain.

Seen in a shopping centre. A machine to give your phone a 15 minute charge for a £1.

 Some overground trains have a Quiet Zone carriage where no mobile phones and loud talking are allowed. A pleasure to be in these days. Why is it that mobile phone users think everyone else is interested in their conversation.

Monday 27 May 2013 - London. Thames Barrier & O2 Arena

Another sunny morning with a cool breeze and we headed off to see the Thames Barrier, a closeable flood barrier located on the Thames River downstream of London, which was completed in 1982. It is designed to prevent the floodplain of all but the eastern boroughs of greater London from being flooded by very high tides and storm surges moving up the river from the North Sea.

It is an amazing structure 520m wide and cost about £534 million to build. Although the gates are tested regularly, it has only been used in anger twice, once in 1988 and once in 1993.

There is an information centre and cafe on the south side of the river at North Greenwich where we visited and watched very informative videos of the  construction of the Thames Barrier.

As we sat with our coffees outside in the pleasant surroundings overlooking the river, Lyn was thrilled to see a Robin searching for scraps under the tables.

Real time readout of the power generated from Solar Panels on the roof of the Thames Barrier learning centre.


We then caught the bus to The O2, a large entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsular. At the centre of The O2 is a huge, multi-purpose arena (O2 Arena) which was used for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. During the Olympics it was known as The North Greenwich Arena.
It is now one of the most popular venues in the world for concerts and family shows.

View of the O2 from the Thames Barrier

We had a look at this TV at a Sony display shop inside the O2 Arena. The picture was very detailed. The 3840 x 2160 Triluminos display offers almost four times the resolution of standard 1080p HD TVs, and will upscale most HD content.

Sunday 26th May 2013 - London. Just wandering

As it was Sunday we had a lay in until about 8.15 then rang the kids in Australia before having breakfast.

After breakfast we went into London and wandered around Westminster (the Abbey was closed to visitors), the Victoria Embankment, through St James's Park to the Mall and down to Buckingham Palace stopping to have a seat by St James's Park Lake which was absolutely beautiful as the sun was shining and it was a lovely warm day. This is the first day we have been able to leave our big coats at home.

The Bupa Westminster Mile race was on so the roads around the Palace were closed to traffic for the event. There was racing for all ages including children and wheel chair races. Looked like they were having fun as the weather was perfect for it..

Then it was off home to catch the 90 minutes replay of the Monaco F1 race at 5.35pm. The BBC is only broadcasting a few of the races live as Sky Sports has the rights to the rest.

A nice relaxing day so Lyn was happy. And Mick was happy as he managed to get away with only having to buy a £1 pencil from the Westminster Abbey souvenir shop!

 St James's Park on a lovely day - the sun does shine in England
 

 The tall building in the background is the Shard. The Shard, also referred to as the Shard of Glass, Shard London Bridge and formerly London Bridge Tower, is a 72-storey skyscraper in London. Its construction began in March 2009and it was completed on 30 March 2012 and inaugurated on 5 July 2012. We decided it cost too much to go up at £30 a head when the ride to the top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai only cost £23. The Shard reaches a height of 309m and has 72 floors whereas the Burj Khalifa's height is 830m and it has 163 floors

A Nissan what? There is a very large Nissan manufacturing plant in the UK

Saturday 25th May 2013 - London. Lords, Portobello Road

Today we toured the oldest and most famous Cricket ground in the world, the home of cricket, Lord's.
Lord's is owned by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of the Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board and the European Cricket Council. It cost £9 each for the tour as seniors (£15 for adults so that was quite a saving). The tour took 2 hours.

No photographs were allowed anywhere inside the buildings. There were many portraits of famous players hanging on the walls of the rooms in the old pavilion including "The Don".

The place is steeped in tradition, so when a couple of the Indian members of our tour group put their feet onto the turf to get their photos taken by their mates all hell broke loose. The whole group had been clearly told that is was sacred ground and not to touch it. Fortunately, standing next to the grassed area  for photos was the last event on the tour itinerary as the tour leader screamed at them and said the tour was over and they had ruined it for future tours as they would now put a fence up to keep people like them from doing such a thing again.

Apart from that the tour was excellent. Because there were no matches on we had access to all areas and the tour guide was passionate and very knowledgeable about all things cricket and particularly the Lord's ground.

One of the light towers. The area around  the ground houses lots of posh people like Doctors and Barristers who took Lord's to court to stop them putting up the light towers as they claimed it destroyed their view. After months of court cases a compromise was reached whereby the light towers had to have telescopic extension stands at great expense so that they could be lowered when not in use.

Lyn touching the grass cuttings from cut from the oval.

Lyn overlooking the ground with the Pavilion in the background

The new Media Centre

The cost of fuel in the UK. Obviously it varies slightly between petrol stations as it does in Aus. The price is in pounds and pence equivalent to $2.15/L  for regular unleaded at 62p to the $A.

After Lord's we headed off to the St John's Wood tube station to catch the train to Notting Hill Gate which is just down the road from Portobello Road. Portobello Road is famous for it's markets and we wore ourselves out walking through the streets looking at all manner of goods. Lyn found many stalls to her liking and made the odd purchase so we had to walk home!

After the markets we decided to do something different for tea and grabbed a burger at Maccas before heading off to the tube station for the journey home.

We had a great day and the weather was much warmer than yesterday which was freezing cold, raining and windy and caused us to stay home all day.