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Category: England

Driving in UK

Driving in UK

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Highways or Byways – that is the question. When traveling around UK one of the many decisions that a tourist has to make is whether to take the motorway or the country road. One of the things that depends on that decision is time, but that can also be ones downfall.
The decision to take the motorway is usually made when we have to catch a plane or ferry when leaving this picturesque country. So hopefully plenty of time has been spent traveling the byways. These A or B roads traverse the country through many a splendid village and nearly always guarantee wonderful scenery.
But if your time is limited, don’t despair. The motorways are not deprived of scenery. They often are set high above country laneways and can produce lots of eye candy. But the desperate need to arrive on time can sometimes be handicapped when traveling on a motorway. They are often called parking lots. The speed that drivers travel on these three to four lane pieces of tarmac is mind boggling for the tourist who comes from a country where one obeys the speed limits.
So if an accident happens, it happens big time. Then the traffic comes to a standstill and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
So before you decide which road to take, do your planning. Give yourself oodles of time, don’t stress, and enjoy the scenery.

Cornwall, England

Cornwall, England

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View from our room. Looking across the bay to St.Austell

Cornwall revisited.

When we were given the opportunity to visit Cornwall again, we jumped at the opportunity. Our timeshare had a week available in Trenython (pronounced Tren – I – thon) Manor which fitted right into our schedule, so we were very happy.

This manor house has been refurbished and turned into a hotel with surrounding cottages for dog lovers and people who prefer a kitchen. A car is a must to visit this area as there are so many little villages tucked away on the waters edge and down narrow laneways. Speaking of narrow laneways, one does have to learn to negotiate narrow lane streets which are actually two way, roads through town that are single lane, so when a delivery driver needs to unload his goods into a shop everyone behind has to wait until he is finished – patience is the required requisite of all drivers.

Fowey

Little towns such as Mevagissey have car parks on the edge of town and visitors are requested to walk the short distance, through narrow winding streets, to the waters edge. And what did we find there? Beautiful white washed houses huddled together around a small harbour of brightly painted fishing boats.

Mevagissy

These boats are either bobbing around on the high tide or sitting solid on the floor of the bay waiting for the tide to come in. This lovely village also houses a shop selling some of the best cornish pasties. A must have when in Cornwall.

The town that is on everyones lips at the moment is Charlestown. This town has a lock to hold the water in during low tide, because its precious cargo is tall ships which are used for movies and various TV shows – Poldark being the flavour of the month right now. We heard the ‘ you should have been here yesterday’ story. Supposedly the cast were there doing filming and the fan clubs were out in force.

Fowey (pronounced Foy) is a larger town which doesn’t loose it’s water at low tide as it is fed by the Fowey River. All these towns began their life around the 1300’s and lay claim to their history of pirates or privateers as they liked to call themselves.

Besides the quaint villages that dot this coastline the whole district has many industries, not the least of which is China Clay which is mined there. This white clay is prized for its purity and has been used for fine porcelain for over 200 years. This product, called kaolin, is now being used in the pharmaceutical, paper, paint and the cosmetic industry as well. So those bitter tablets that you take with a smooth coating to make them easier to swallow are more that probably coated in kaolin from Cornwall.

Behind the township of St Austell one can see very sharp white peaks, which are man made. The locals call them ‘the Cornish Alps’. Kaolin being decomposed granite, is finer than talcum powder and does not come pure from the ground, so for every one ton produced there is five tons of waste, hence the Alps.

But Cornwall is not resting on its laurels, letting its history create the drawcard for all tourists. Two ‘must do’s’ are The Lost Gardens of Helligan and The Eden Project. These attractions go hand in hand. One should not visit one without the other.

Especially if your tour guide is David Hogg of Castle Tours. His wealth of knowledge, having been involved with both projects for many years, is immeasurable. To have a local walk you through and explain how, what, when and why brings it all to life.

I know we’ve only scratched the surface of Cornwall, didn’t even make it down to Lands End, but one can only absorb so much information and see so many sights before the brain starts screaming – ENOUGH! Give me a break – please!

Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England

Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England

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Our Hotel – Tudor House

Tewskesbury is another small town on the Severn that has a large collection of medieval houses. However, rather than the protecting its heritage there is a combination of old, new and tired side by side, street by street. Some of the old tudor, and earlier, houses are the best I’ve seen. But they are littered amoungst some pre-war, post-war and new builds, none of which are very inspiring.

The population appears to be very aged, but that doesn’t appear to stop them from being out and about. Walking sticks and zithers are abundent. I felt slightly undressed to be walking without support of some kind.

We went for another ‘cruise’ on the Severn. This time a luncheon cruise of fish and chips. Big mistake. We had done a very entertaining and interesting cruise on the Severn at Shrewsbury which set the bench mark too high.

Other than having an interesting Cathedral and some remarkably old buildings, Tewkesbury didn’t do a lot for me. However, all is not lost. We stayed at the charming Tudor House Hotel with it’s lovely staff, good bar and friendly locals.

Good stop over on our way to Cornwall.

Burford to Shrewsbury

Burford to Shrewsbury

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Burford to Shrewsbury was supposed to be a two hour journey. We woke up to a rainy day, just the perfect time to leave town. Had spent the last few days saying fond farewells to great friends, one such day including a movie afternoon at a friends house. Such a great idea, don’t know why we don’t do them at home. Lots of food, lots of laughs and great entertianment. We watched Whisky Galore – great movie. After getting our washing done, packing up and checking the route to Shrewsbury we were convinced we had it all sussed. What we didn’t take into account was the over night rain which left the roads very slippery and the low hanging mist added gloom to my ability to read road signs far enough in advance.

What England regards as normal, we found difficult to understand until we got adjusted to the fact that there are just so many more cross roads in UK than Australia. What I’m talking about is the round abouts which are everywhere, including on the motor ways. No sooner does one creep out of the town, onto the local B road to slip onto the M motorway as one is confronted with a roundabout and sometimes a double roundabout. You have to be vigilant to ensure you are in the correct lane to be able to extract oneself at the correct exit without suddenly having to change lanes within the roundabout and confuse not only yourself but every other driver in the adjoining lanes. If you change lanes you don’t have to place the sign ‘tourist’ on your back window – they know.

The other issue that confronted us was that the navigator wanted us to take the toll road, but we didn’t know if we should or could or how the system worked. One bit of prior research we had stupidly skipped. So whenever we ignored her instructions to exit the roundabout onto the M6 toll road and carried on to the adjoining A road her sweet voice spent the next 10 minutes trying to find a side road to turn us around to get us ‘back on track’.
But despite all our protestations about too much reliance on computerised navigation, we got there. The truth of the matter is, it is hard to get lost in UK. If you miss the right turn, there is sure to be another just down the road that will get you there as well, albiet a minute later, or sometimes maybe two.
Once we arrived in the medieval town of Shrewsbury, the birthplace of Charles Darwin, we then had to navigate the old one way narrow streets to find our hotel. This time we gave our navigater her head and she landed us right at our front door. Even though we had passed within a couple of metres of our hotel a couple of times we couldn’t turn into the one way street until we had almost circled the inner town area twice. But the feeling of stepping back in time was well worth the tour. 14 & 15th century rambling houses leaning into the streets with their black, brown and white frames and lead light windows.
So we’re staying in Oliver’s place, a 15th Century old pub, with sloping floors, doors we have to duck to get through and panelled walls – just oozing with old world charm. Of course it’s called Cromwell’s.

Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England

Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England

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Costa Coffee Cafe inside medieval building

Shrewsbury in Shropshire District is an interesting town that I really hadn’t considered visiting other than as a stop over point between The Cotswolds and North West Wales.

Being the home of Charles Darwin it boasts an exceptional school called the Shrewsbury Sixth Form College whose fees are mind blowing. One mention was that one wouldn’t get any any change out of 45,000GBP for term fees. Ouch!

 

The medieval township of Shrewsbury has grasped the modern and the old. The old black timber framed buildings which were originally filled with white wattle and daub infills to lean precariously over the streets as each floor gets larger as the building goes up.

The town also boasts an interesting round church, St Chads. A very pretty town and lovely gardens. And of course there is a castle.

We cruised the river Severn which at 220 miles (354 km) is about the longest in UK starting in the mountains of Wales, traveling east in England and then back south west. The old township of Shrewsbury sits within an almost closed loop of the river. So a cruise takes you from the west of the town around the the east and back again.

 

The old brewery turned into up market apartments

The accents are thick with some words sounding almost Welsh with a very sing song style.

It brings to mind that Moccona commercial.  They say ‘Highyah’ rather than hello. Very pleased we chose this place for a stop over.

Burford in the Cotswolds

Burford in the Cotswolds

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The Neighbours

Our first two weeks have passed and we are almost ready to pack our bags and leave Burford. We’ve been down the pub, eaten and drank and laughed with the locals, but the subject is still the same as when we left two years ago – Brexit. It still splits the nation. It’s almost becoming a taboo subject unless one is prepared for a heated argument.

Shakespears went to College here as the son of the towns Mayer.

Went for a drive up to Stratford upon Avon. Interesting town but a bit over marketed. Busy cashing in on being the home of Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway. Plenty of tourists, nice drive through The Cotswolds to get there, but there are plenty more interesting towns in England that I would visit before going there again.
Speaking of driving through the Cotswolds, doesn’t matter where you go the scenery is beautiful.

Main street Burford.

When we drive from small hamlet to country town what I see is lovely houses, beautiful gardens, bountiful farms and lots of money. But no ostentatiousness (is there such a word). Just gentile country folks who like their Jags and their dogs.

An aside note for the girls, as we left Australia at the end of summer and arrived here at he beginning of spring I’ve noticed there is little change in their fashion to ours. Even the boys haircuts are the same, short back and sides longer on top.

Went to Oxford to do some shopping and visited their brand new shopping centre. Absolutely lovely with lots of clear roof over the central arcade sections and all the restaurants are on the roof with spectacular views over Oxford and all it’s chapels. Don’t think we have anything like that in Aus. The locals are divided whether it belongs or not. There is always those who don’t like change and their idea of change is from one century to the next. Not years or decades like ours.

The Cotswolds and surrounding areas love their quirky, but descriptive, town names, Morton in Marsh, Chipping Norton, Chipping Camden, Stratford upon Avon, Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water and the list goes on. And one of (the many) things that I do like is the unique and parochial nature of the local stores. Chain stores are for the cities.

Singing fruit!

As to food the English still love their Indian curries and their Chinese restaurants. We went with friends to a lovely Asian restuarant with a various menu and when the evening was over the owner presented us with a platter of (silent) singing fruit as a surprise.

We were also invited to two dinners which clashed. It was a hard choice as both were offering a great Indian curry for dinner, but the one that won was walking distance as opposed to the other that required driving. No contest really. The other thing that influenced our decision of where to eat was that the invite was from our landlord whose wife was Australian. Had to ask the question ‘what’s nice girl from Reservoir doing in a place like this?’. Answer was simple of course – ‘came here for a gap year & met Barry’ – end of story.

London to Burford

London to Burford

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After three days in London we picked up our hire car from St Pancras so we could drive to The Cotswolds. Went through the usual deal, pay more, we can upgrade you, can do a much better deal than the one you’ve booked… Blah! Blah! blah! Please just take our money and give us a car. After much tooing and froing we ended up with a Skoda Rapid, nice four door auto with sat nav. And no it’s not pronounced Raapid as we Aussies would, it’s pronounce Repiiid.

London now has a congestion tax of £11 in the CBD and the road we were using to leave London skirts the boarder of the CBD for most of the way out of the city. Great advice from the rental car staff was  ‘don’t turn left’.

Managed to crawl our way out of town, onto M40 then crawl past Oxford to arrive at our destination right on time.

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2018 Brisbane to London

2018 Brisbane to London

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It’s 2018 and we’re off for another adventure. All packed, with only one suitcase between two of us this time and one carry on. Got the art of packing sorted. Out the door, walk to tram, transfer to train, exit to international terminal. And that’s where the fun stops, almost. Transiting through security is so smooth now, no forms to fill out. Flying Emerites for first time. Very impressed. Staff great, seats comfortable. But nothing and no-one will convince me that 21 hours in the air, plus plane change on the way is in anyway comfortable. Plane travel just isn’t for me. I like to look out the window and see scenery. But we will live in the great southern continent, cut off from the rest of the world. Growing up in the best country in the world does have one or two draw backs.
Landed in London on bright clear day, albiet a bit chilly, hopped Piccadilly line on local train to Barens Court. Checked into our W14 Hotel in Kensington which is a combination of three Georgian terraced houses renovated into a modern hotel, but still contained our first reminder of the age of buildings in UK. Small steep stairs and no lift. So as we dragged our suitcase up from ground floor to our room on second floor I took a mental note to check out this problem with our other accommodation.
As we had spent sufficient time in London before we chose to forgo the requesit ‘must do’s’ in London. Day one we went to Camden Markets, hopped a narrow boat and took a leisurely trip up the river to Little Venice and back. A little reminder of the many many canals wriggling their way around London, once the main form of transporting goods to London Dock.
Day two with another sunny day saw us hopping the District Line to Kew Gardens to check out the newly reopened Temperate Pavillian which has been under renovation for the last five years. This glorious structure, designed by Decimus Burton and opened for the first time in 1863, has been stripped out, stripped down to bare metal, reglazed, repainted and now replanted with 1,500 plant species from the temperate regions of the world which includes Australia and New Zealand.

It’s our last day in London so was very pleased to spend it relaxing, rather than the usual ‘hitting the ground running’.

The gardens themselves were a picture of new season growth and blossoms and plenty of wildlife.

Met up with a squirrell who thought I was bringing him lunch and a peacock who thought that he could hide amoungst the bluebells.

All said and done it was just what I needed after waking up with the a heavy cold. No suprise after being stuck in a tin can full of coughing passengers and and screaming kids for hours on end.

London

London

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Well there were more things to do in London than there were hours in the day to do them.  We had various kinds of weather from cold rain to hot sunny.  When the clouds blow away and the sun comes out it is amazing how fast the Brits head off to Hyde Park, strip off and bask in the sun.We’ve hopped on & off busses; cruised the Thames, walked and walked and walked, visited the Queen (who wasn’t home), joined the madding throng at the Changing of the Guard  and went ‘one more time ‘round Piccadilly Circus’  before heading off to the West End to see the show Jersey Boys.   This is my third visit to London over the last 20 years and despite having  just had the Olympics games there didn’t seem many signs of change. Don’t get me wrong – the city has had changes which stand out quite dramatically which include the Gherkin, the Shard and of course the London Eye.

Another striking change is that London cabs are not black any more- they are now every shade of the rainbow and covered with advertising.  Such a pity to see this British icon joining the marketing industry and becoming a never ending billboard.

On a lighter note – even though we are in a city with all its concrete and stone, flowers of every colour of the rainbow are everywhere.  In window boxes, hanging from lamp posts, in wire baskets next to front doors.  Pansies, petunias, geraniums, cyclamen, lobelia, tulips, polyanthus and lots more varieties – all beautifully colour coordinated and displayed.  It’s as if the whole city attended gardening classes together where they learnt “how to design the best autumn displays”.  Especially the high class hotels.  You’d think there was a competition running.

We also played a game of ‘spot the Pom’.  Wherever we went, to the shops – the trains- the busses or just walking down the street we listened to the conversations going on around us.  And do you think we could hear any British accents.  They were either French, Russian, American, Australian or Kiwi.  I think the Brits must have seen us coming and headed for the hills.

London here we come!

London here we come!

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Time to leave Burford so us and a couple of million other commuters drove into London with clear skies and a hot day.  We were stripping off the layers the closer we got.  Checked into our unit and found where all the police are – they are walking the streets booking everyone in sight.  Whilst we were unloading our bags in a legal loading zone we were asked three times by various parking officers how long we were going to be.

So without a moment of regret we handed the car back to the rental company and began the rest of our journey on foot – and bus – and train – and maybe boat if we can.

Talking of parking cars, they have a very good system here.  You can park facing any way you want.  Often in narrow streets you can only park on one side of the road which keeps the traffic flowing without having to weave in and out of parked cars.  Also if you have a smart car it’s even better. 

Sunday saw us and most of London in Hyde Park enjoying the sun.  Walked from Kensington through Hyde Park to Buck Palace – on to Trafalgar Square to say high to Horatio, then on to Covent Garden’s markets.  Whew – tired, warn out and exhausted we went back to Charing Cross station – bought an Oyster Card and hopped the double decker red bus back home to Kensington.  In all that we missed the changing of the guard.  Well we’ll see that another day.

The ceiling in Harrods food hall

It’s Monday now and raining so it’s indoors touristing today.  Harrods sounds good – and it’s just around the corner.

Burford

Burford

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The Mill Stream
Main Street, Burford

With a beautiful autumn sunny day we packed our bags and headed south to the beautiful Cotswolds arriving about 4.00pm.  Our accommodation here is the refurbished Burford old mill.  We are on the second floor above the water fall overlooking the surrounding houses and mill stream.  Burford Churchyard was the scene on 17 May 1649 where three soldiers were executed on Oliver Cromwell’s orders. They belonged to a movement popularly known as the Levellers, with beliefs in civil rights and religious tolerance.

Burford (voted England’s most perfect place to live by Forbes Magazine),has a very pretty High Street, which is unusual for towns of this vintage.  Most towns are built around the main square.   After wandering the main street we turned into our street & decided to stop off at the local pub (one of many in town) for a pint on our way home.  Well! That was our intention anyway.  Seems every man AND his dog decided to do the same thing.  Got caught up meeting and chatting with locals whilst stepping over their sleeping dogs.  Several hours later we ambled home.  One of the many interesting guys we met, Robert Burnside, was in the same trade as Ken’s father and his father and his father before him – shoe making.  Robert makes winkle pickers.  www.19-60.com – ex Succhi ex Giorgio Ferrari.  Needless to say the conversation included words like lasts, clickers, hides etc.  After more than one pint we all rambled off to our various abodes to get some well earned rest so we can start scouring this famous country side.

Sunday – it’s raining!  Hmm wonder what time the pub opens?

Monday still raining but none the less we headed off to Bath.  It’s a beautiful city with its grand Georgian architecture.  Did the obligatory red bus tour (only two couples on bus so had personalised tour) then walked around city and across the Putney Bridge.  Love the curved streets with the curved house facades to match.

Our local
Fig clinging to side of building

Whilst meandering our way home we found an Aldi – YEH!!!  Did a week’s shopping – butter, yoghurt, fruit, veggies, juice, bread, cereal, meat etc. plus a bottle of wine for £28.00, really brings home how much we get ripped off in Australia.  So before settling down to cooking, we wandered to the end of the street, to our local, for a pint.

Mid West England

Mid West England

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Having organised to visit a friend today we decided to take the long way around – as one does when on holidays.  Driving from St Annes our first port of call was Liverpool to do the Beatles thing – or Beatles experience they call it there.  Like Newcastle NSW Australia- the foreshore of the river Mersey, which was once heavy industry is now being reinvented.  Old disused factories turning into smart apartments and a huge new entertainment centre has been built.  But there are times when they just shouldn’t mess with the important things, wanting to catch the “Ferry Cross the Mersey” – our navigator  went via a tunnel under the river.  Now you drive along and £1.50 later you pop out on the other side.  Hmmmph!

Next port of call was Chester – now there’s a remarkable town.  Drove into town, down into the first car park we saw, walk into the shopping centre above and asked the attendant at the information desk where the beautiful Tudor buildings were that this town was famous for.  He looked at me as if I was mad and nodded to over my shoulder.  If I had turned around before asking I would has seen a magic street of well maintained stylish black and white buildings.  Just gorgeous.  Sorry Clitheroe but Chester has stolen my heart.

Drove further on down, crossing into Wales and the land was getting flatter the further south we went – but still pretty as a picture everywhere we go.  Headed back to have a great afternoon with our friend including a visit to a local micro-brewery. Eventually we had to head home so we tucked some bottles into our car and competed with the locals in the afternoon rush hour.  When the traffic is so congested that it gets down to 40mph or even to a standstill they are not happy chappies.

Thursday night saw “goin doon tu tha lucul fa a pint”.  And that’s exactly what they did.  The old pub called ‘Taps’ with its wooden floor and bare brick walls had so many types of beer on tap it was hard to choose.  With a pint in our hand we tucked ourselves into a corner table and watched as a continuous flow of locals came in, had a pint, chatted, then left.  Interestingly enough there were no youngies – average age of well dressed business men and women would be about 50.

North West England

North West England

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The ‘beach’ in Blackpool covered in jokes.

So we’re packing up in Scotland and shipping out.  Well driving actually.  After filling up the tank at $2.24 a litre for diesel with 7% bio we said goodbye to Edinburgh and decided to head to Glasgow.  It’s only 40 miles.  Well Edinburgh might be the capital and where the parliament is but Glasgow is the industry, the high rises, the hub bub of a big noisy city.  We drove out of there as fast as we could and headed south through the Lakes District and on to our next stop at St Annes on the west coast.  The scenery on the way was far more appealing to the eye.  Pleased we hadn’t planned to stay in Glasgow.

The beach side towns of Lytham, St Annes, Clifton & Blackpool are all side by side each other as you travel down the coast and couldn’t be more unalike.  They range from Lytham, lovely up market leafy suburb on to Blackpool, full of its roller coaster, Ferris wheel, casinos, night clubs, fish & ship shops and every other type of shop you expect to see at a carnival – including fairy floss stalls.

We feel we’ve stepped back in time.  Even our apartment is in a time warp with floral Axminster carpet, chintz curtains and frills on our pillows. There’s even a bone handled bread knife that has to be 100 years old in the kitchen draw.

Headed off to Marks & Spencer or M&S as they call themselves now, to stock up on groceries and found most the refrigerated section full of prepared meals – or TV dinners as we used to call them.  Bit sad. Found groceries in general a bit cheaper than at home but the choices more limited – and of course no Vegemite to be seen.

Hopped up early next morning and headed out of town to just drive around the country side.  Went to the local Booths to stock up on a few groceries before hand and found some Vegemite.  Yeh!  Guess what I’m having on my toast in the morning.  Food prices here a reasonable.  Australian wine is cheaper here than in Australia.  Beer varieties are endless.  They definitely have less brands on the shelves.  I would say less American products.  More local products – which is good.

Anyway enough of the housekeeping.  Headed off to Clitheroe after being given some advice from our host about the local butcher there.  And it was well worth the journey.  What a beautiful town.  I would say it is the quintessential English village – without all the touristy stuff.  Lovely buildings, local shops AND it has a castle – albeit voted the most smallest castle – but it’s a castle.

Headed home a different way driving on “A” roads.  Meaning narrow with hedges on both sides – didn’t slow the school buses and the trucks down though.  Everyone drives here so fast.  When out on the motorways or “M” roads the speed limit is 70 mph – that’s 112 kilometres per hour.  We put the cruise control on 70 mph and get into the left lane – watching everyone drive past us like we are standing still.  I would guarantee some cars go past us at over 200 kph.

Heading off to see Blackpool’s Illumination tonight where the streets are decorated with 711,000 kilograms of lighting.

Good English Breakfast to Cod, Chips & a Bit of Butty for Dinner

Good English Breakfast to Cod, Chips & a Bit of Butty for Dinner

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After being served a Good English Breakfast at our B&B – bacon, egg, tomato, baked beans & sausages – washed down with a pot of tea – we headed south down the coast to Whitby. The town had lots of character and charm, but was overrun with tourists who were visiting all the touristy shops that the beautiful old buildings had been turned into.

Couldn’t get out of town fast enough.  Kept heading south to Scarborough, very pleasant beach area on the north side, but again the original township has been turned into one great big amusement parlour.  So we drove around and didn’t even get out of the car.  Headed west towards York but it was running and a bit late so got as far as Malton then turned north to drive up inland.  Passed through some lovely country side and beautifully maintained old stone villages.  Much more interesting.

On our return journey the navigator told us to turn off a perfectly good motorway into an industrial area.  We followed it dutifully thinking it must be a shortcut.  We came to a dead end with an enormous high bridge with a gondola hanging underneath it.  There were no cars waiting and the gondola wasn’t moving, so we turned around to head back to the motorway.  Ever tried to tell a navigator that you don’t know where you’re going but you don’t want to go that way.  Turns out the bridge “The Tees Transporter Bridge” was closed for renovation, but the navigator wasn’t told.

When we arrived back in Hartlepool in the early evening we strolled down the beach front to the local fish & chip shop The Almighty Cod for dinner.  We figured it must be good as there was a queue out the door and down the street.  When we were almost at the head of the queue we asked the couple in front if they could recommend what to buy.  Without hesitation, in their broad Hartlepool accent, they said ‘O I yu’ll ave cod & chuups an a bit u butty’. Didn’t know what the butty was but we decided to give it a go.  Before they left they put our order in for us and for ten pounds we had two of the biggest serves of fish & chips with the scraps of batter that they scoop off the top of the oil on top, two slices of white butter bread (butty) drowned in large splashes of vinegar and salt.   We went sat on a seat at the beach while the sun started to settle behind us to enjoy our meal.  Incidentally, we only made it through one serving.  The second one went into the freezer for another day.

Hartlepool

Hartlepool

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Drove down to Hartlepool – pronounced Hart-le-pool.  Great b&b facing the water.  Lovely pub next door which had great steaks.  Hartlepool is a combination of a little seaside resort surrounded by heaps of heavy industry.  Another wind farm was under construction just off shore in the North Sea.  Seems very logical place to put them.  England is suffering just like us with soaring electricity prices and unsustainable fossil fuel burning power stations they were buying the electricity from Russia when we were there.

There a local legend about hanging a monkey.  Which leads on to another story which must be told.

A French ship was wrecked off the coast back during the Napoleonic Wars and no locals had ever seen a Frenchman.  The only survivor was the ships mascot a pet monkey.  He was found wandering along the beach dressed in his sailors uniform.  As no one could understand him they assumed his screeches when captured that he was speaking French.  So seeing that the Brits were at war with the French they hanged him.

But the legend doesn’t end there.  In 2002 the local elections were on for town mayor.  The local football team had a mascot whose costume is a monkey suit.  This monkey ran for mayor on the platform that he’ll give every child a banana.  Well, he got elected didn’t he and again in 2005 and 2009 and he almost kept his promise.  As there was not enough bananas schools were supplied with fresh fruit for a year for free.