Catch up.

Have been travelling around quite a bit.  Left St Ives and drove via Exeter to Wells. This is a small cathedral town. Stayed in a B&B for 3 nights. The cathedral is massive for such a small place. It has a beautiful Lady chapel.  Took Harold to evensong. The choir is very good and the music heavenly. What an experience, sitting in stone chairs with stone canopy above you, listening to exquisite music in an exquisite place. Liked it so much we went back the next day.  Visited Cheddar Gorge. It is like a ravine, high cliffs around you with little stoneshops and cottages in the valley. The caves are fascinating. (see video on facebook) and large and damp. I loved them.
Next day chuffed off to Bath. Did the 'hot Baths. (see video on facebook)These are excavated hot spring baths built by the Romans 2000 years ago. It is a great place. Heaps of tourists of course but well worth the visit. We also did the obligatory walk to the semi circle of Georgian houses that are always in those BBC costume dramas.
From Wells went to Oxford. It is not like I expected.  Beautiful, graceful, serene colleges but outside of their walls hustle and bustle. heaps of cars, people, bicycles and buses jamming up tiny, windy streets. The teaching system is fantastic. No lectures as far as I can tell at Oxford. just a couple of tutorials a week where you have to argue your case. No wonder people graduate from there confident and articulate. It is a fantastic environment to learn in.
From Oxford we headed for Alsager. This is where I grew up. I had been looking forward to seeing it again and we had a great time. Walking the streets brought back so many memories. We caught up with Alan Wall our next door neighbour and had dinner in the motel with him the first night. The next night we went round for drinks and he invited Christine , his daughter. She is slightly older than me but we hung around together a lot as children. Four hours passed in minutes. We just got on so well. (after nearly 50 years). Drove around area, visited Congleton where I went to school but don't remember it.
From there we moved onto Southport for the night. Passed through Liverpool to pick up football jumpers and so Harold could visit the family grave. Got horribly lost in Liverpool. Roadsigns are not reliable and half the roads seem to be being dug up anyway.
One night in a B&B in southport. Pretty basic place. A  typical North England  holiday resort.  Sea goes out so far you can't see it. Weather overcast and cold, lots of people walking round the shops cause there is nothing else to do. Heaps of fish and chip shops and souvenir shops selling pink rock, buckets and spades , postcards etc. Aahh the memories of blackpool. (which is like Southport but less posh!)

From Southport headed up to the lake district - via Blackpool. Just drove through Blackpool. - Wall to Wall B&B's, overcast, and masses of roadworks.  At least I can say that I've seen it (again)

Arrived in Windermere this afternoon and staying at 'The Courthouse' B&B. It is a lovely old place on the mainstreet near the lake and next door to the cinema.

Tin mine, lands end and Mount St. Michael

Great day down an old tin mine. The guide was hysterical.  We had a tour around a 300 yr old mine. Had to wear hard hats. Some parts were damp and narrow and we had to bend over to get around.  Will try uploading some video of him.Lands end was - well u have to go there if you are in the area. It was very windy today. On the way to lands end we were driving down a small road and had to stop to let cows pass. - Up very close and personal with them. Mount St Michael is a lovely place. It is close to Penzance. A monestary on top of a large rock just off the beach. You can get there via a causeway. It was full of tourists of course but still peaceful.
St Ives, where we are staying is lovely. Lots of very narrow streetsand quaint buildings. every second shop is either a cornish pasty shop or a cornish fudge shop!The cider is generally very good. I had forgotten how nice cider can be, a bit like beer but not as bitter.
Off tomorrow - but haven't decided where yet. Will work our way up to Alsager by next Friday.

St Ives

Arrived St Ives yesterday it is a pretty place. Just heading off out this afternoon. Will update Blog tonight.

Bangkok

In transit lounge.9 hour flight from Melbourne.  Very pleasant, food nice and lots of free alcohol if you wanted it.Flying over central Australia saw lots and lots of water. It looked like the beach when the tide is out. Ripples of mud and lots of pools of water. Although I suspect the pools were quite large.
2 hour wait now in transit lounge.  Flight leaves for Frankfurt about midnight local time. It is warm and humid in the airport but luckily we get to stay in the special lounge for business class. It is air conditioned and there is food and drink on tap (all free!).  Harold is fine but tired of course.

Begin

Hi, Not left yet. Here is a rough outline of the trip.
4th May - Fly out from Melbourne
5th May - Arrive Heathrow.  Stay in pub in Taunton
6th May - 2nd June Travel UK
2nd June - 4th June  Paris
5th June   Frankfurt
6th June  - 10th June New York
11th June - overnight train to Chicago
12th - 14th June Chicago
15th June overnight train to New Orleans
16th June - 20 june   New Orleans
20 June - 22nd June train to Los Angeles
22 June - 26 June Las Vegas.  Stratosphere Hotel
26th June - Depart LA airport Quantas for Melbourne.
28th June   Arrive Melbourne.