A childhood revisited

The home of a Princess - 82 Broadway, Duffield, childhood home of OUR Princess

Chatsworth House - home of the Duke & Duchess of Devonshire.

The grand staircase at Chatsworth with our hosts, Kay and Steve

The sheer opulence of the Devonshire household is amazing.

The Drawing Room

The Lounge

Table set for regal visitors

Garden fountain - fed by pressure from a reservoir on the hill

A Wedding in Hampshire

Well, what a hectic few days we’ve had.  We arrived in Portsmouth on Friday afternoon and checked into our B&B in Southside – The Birchwood.  The area is a little seedy and rundown, but there is much activity with renovations going on everywhere.  The Birchwood is a fully and beautifully renovated 3 level terrace and the owners, Ken and Heather are rightfully proud of what they’ve achieved.  They have spared nothing – the bedrooms are comfortable and well furnished, the bathrooms are beautifully finished with power-showers and plenty of space and lots of hot water.  We explored the area for an hour or so and decided where we’d eat that night – lots of little pubs around with good menus.  Later we had a main course at “The Florence” of Three Little Pigs – 3 ways with pork, lots of chips and veges – the black pudding was deep fried and oily but the rest was great.  Saturday was a day off – Jules and Kate were off to the hairdresser & I walked to the D-Day Museum and thoroughly enjoyed some time out for a couple of hours.

Sunday dawned fine and clear – a great day for a wedding and in the early afternoon we drove to The Tithe Barn in West Sussex.  The Tithe Barn is quite spectacular – “tithe” means tax which is the crop tax paid by farmers on a rented property and stored in the barn of the landlord.  It is beautifully restored and converted to an events venue.  The groom, Dan and his two brothers Matt and Paul were ready & waiting whilst champagne was served outside, then we all (some 70 guests) were ushered inside for the arrival of the bride, Emma and mother Kate, who both looked fantastic – I heard a little catch in the Princess’s throat.  The wedding went off well and the luncheon was amazing – catered by the company both Dan and Emma worked for when they met – Dan being a chef and Emma an events coordinator.  The after-party and dancing was excellent and the food kept coming – a great day.

The following day, the drizzle began again and kept up and the planned BBQ at Kate’s was moved indoors (as is often the case in the UK) and the party started all over again.  Dan’s parents and brothers and a sister all attended with partners and another great day was had by all.  After two days of partying, we needed an early night, so we said our good-byes at a reasonable hour and drove back to Birchwood.

Tuesday morning we retrieved our car from street parking some hundreds of metres away – parking is a major problem in Portsmouth, in fact in most places – and headed off north to Coventry where we visited the cathedral, which has been built and destroyed a number of times – first by Henry XVIII when the Benedictines were tossed out in the early 1600’s, then during WWII when the re-built cathedral was destroyed by bombing.  There is now a new and spectacular cathedral on the site next to the bombed predecessor, but the remains of the old cathedral have been kept as a memorial.  It is quite a moving sight and old timbers from the bombed cathedral form the cross in the old alter space.  After a bite to eat we returned to the road for our drive to the Princess’s birthplace – Derby – and our visit to childhood friends, Kay and Steve.

Dan & Emma's Wedding

Amazing table decoration - catering by "Vanilla"

The calm before the storm! 

The beautiful bride Emma arrives with mother Kate

Wonderful ceremony in an amazing venue - The Tithe Barn.

The Vows are made!

The legalities are completed.

Old Friends

More good friends!

Happy to be here.

A few days in London

London is an exciting, vibrant city with a history unmatched by most major cities of the world.  It is also very crowded and extremely busy, with a major traffic problem in almost every area we’ve been.  Whilst the tube is efficient and (mostly) on time, the buses are constrained by the congestion, although the bus routes are amazing, with hundreds of buses criss-crossing the city. I still can't figure out how the drivers manage to manoeuvre those double-decker buses through the tiny, crowded streets.  Today we took the bus from Westminster to Chelsea on the way home, a distance of only 20km or so, and it took us an hour or more. 

 

Yesterday we visited Churchill’s War Rooms, expecting to be in and out in an hour or so, but it was so absorbing  and interesting, that it took us 2 and a half hours to take it all in.  If visiting London, this is a must-visit site.  Along the way we’ve visited St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey (enough religion), the Eye, Changing of the Guard, and today we took a boat cruise down the river to Greenwich, where we visited the Observatory and the Maritime Museum.  The Royal Observatory is a most interesting place to visit as the site of the Greenwich Meridian and a fascinating look at the amazing minds of those who originally conceived and eventually proved, the theory of the round earth and the longitudes and how time is measured in various parts of the world.  Another day gone – three days in London is nowhere near enough and it’s fortunate that we’ve both been here before.

However, London is changing!  It’s busier, more crowded, more frenetic and much more expensive than is reasonable.  A 3 bedroom apartment in the Chelsea area costs between 10 and 15 MILLION pounds!!!!!!!!  Amazing!  And the cars – Aston Martins, Maseratis, Benzes, BMWs, Porsches are  de rigeur in this area and they seem to be very evident in most of central London.  There must be enormous amounts of money in the city.  I’ve seen more Aston Martins in one day here than in 12 months at home.  The plan is to visit the Aston Martin Museum near Wallingford (Oxfordshire) when we’re there for the second wedding on our schedule.

We were treated to a wonderful dinner in Mayfair on Thursday night, by our friends David & Gerry.  The restaurant – Wild Honey – was very elegant, service was impeccable and the food was amazing.  We’ve tried to eat as simply as possible so far, to try to maintain some semblance of a balanced diet, but the range of cuisine available is extensive and sometimes the prices are too.  But Wild Honey was something else – fantastic.

Friday morning we said goodbye to our hosts in Chelsea and caught a ride to Heathrow to pick up our hire car.  The rigmarole was complicated and time-consuming but we eventually drove out in a Vauxhall Mokka – a small diesel SUV.  Relatively simple but necessary to fit our bags in for the next four weeks in the UK, where we’ll cover quite a bit of territory.  Lunch with David and Gerry again, in Winchester this time, along with David’s mother Joan (an old friend of Julie’s) was really good and it was great to meet Joan after hearing so much about her.

So that brings us to Portsmouth, where we have a room in a lovely B&B in Southsea, quite near to the harbour.  The girls are having their hair done this afternoon for tomorrow’s wedding and I plan to walk down to the harbour to the D-Day Museum.  More about that later!

Tourists in London

London eye

Just a couple of tourists

Houses of Parliament

Buckingham Palace

Princess on Westminster Bridge

They're changing guards at Buckingham Palace

An impressive sight

OMG - How I love a Parade!

Westminster Abbey

Old London Town

Apart from the 23 hour trip – only 1 1/2 hours in Doha on the way – we had a great journey back to Old London Town.  It’s been the best part (or even a little more) of a decade since either of us have been here, but it feels familiar.  Both of us had a good sleep on the plane and we can’t thank Qatar Airlines enough for the fabulous service and great food, but it does help that we had lie-flat beds.  There was more food and drink than we could possibly have used, although we gave it a good shot.  It helps that the meals didn’t come in plastic containers with tear-off lids, were served on proper crockery and helped along with whatever we wanted to drink.  Imagine breakfast starting out with Bloody Marys! 

We’re staying in a lovely guest house in beautiful, elegant Chelsea, a short walk to Fulham Rd and a short bus ride to all the major sights in central London.  There are an enormous number of pubs, restaurants and shops along Fulham Rd and we explored a little of the area once we’d unpacked and showered.  We couldn’t believe what the cost of staying in London is these days – it’s a very expensive city, not only for accommodation, but also for food and drinks.  The weather is wonderful – we arrived Monday to a fine, clear day in the mid 20s and we’ve been out and about today, Tuesday, when it has been overcast but around 20 – quite humid.

Today we visited the Victoria & Albert Museum – mostly the British section – then off to Hyde Park then St. Paul’s Cathedral – amazing!  We then walked across the Millenium Bridge to the Globe Theatre and a beer at the Swan pub.  Another walk across the Southwark Bridge and caught the tube back to Fulham Broadway, which is next to the Chelsea Football Club stadium.  This is about 2km from our flat and one of the closest stations on the tube, from our accommodation.  Lots of buses at either end of our street, which are also very convenient.  Tomorrow we’re off to the London Eye and Churchill’s War Rooms and then we’ll decide on the run, how much we can fit into our day.  Today we walked approximately 15km, according to J’s pedometer, so we’ll be exhausted by the end of the week, when we’re off to Hampshire.

Our beautiful street in elegant Chelsea

Sculpture hall in Victoria & Albert Museum

A walk in Hyde Park

St.Paul's Cathedral

The Shard - spectacular

Millenium Bridge

Introducing Sargent Pepper

The new addition to our family, Sargent Pepper, arrived in mid-March and was immediately nick-named - "The Terrorist"!  He has very rapidly become Bonnie's "attachment" - meaning he is almost always attached to her ear or her tail or anywhere in between.  However, he is gradually settling down and becoming a good boy - no accidents inside after the first few days and now will sit, wait and come on command - mostly!  He eats like a machine and is becoming quite comfortable on the lead, walking with Bonnie and enjoying a run on the oval when off-leash.  With us away in UK & Europe for 9 weeks, we're hoping that he's even better when we return - we'll certainly miss the two of them.