The Lakes

Window at Beatrix Potter's farm Hilltop

Arrived in Keswick in the North of the Lake District by bus today (beautiful trip through the top end of the Lakeland fells)...Keswick reminds me very much of Shimla (funny that) without the Indians and shabbyness of course....and it is FULL of tourists (I have to keep reminding myself I am one also)...and every second shop seems to be a camping/outdoor shop and every other a cafe and/or gifty shop!

Have just spent ages driving the tourist information centre ladies mad with my public transport needs(they are substantial.)... I will (fingers crossed) manage to re-visit my childhood reading by touring Lake Coniston (Arthur Ransome) and Beatrix Potter's Hilltop Farm and feed my topiary fetish at Levens Hall....whilst heavily subsidising the Lakes bus services!

Topiary at Levens Hall

Will try to insert photos tomorrow...as this is the first internet shop I have found to enable me to do so

Kathxo

PS Back in London today hence the photos via Ben's computer (14/8/10)

Still in the North

Still in Newcastle and having the darndest trouble hiring an automatic car so will have to modify my plans and bus it to The Lakes and give Yorkshire a miss.

Yesterday went with Michelle and her mum to the Workingman's Club in Wallsend and played bingo (yes I really did do this) and then into town for a pub lunch (a Sunday ritual) and the a walk round the Quayside (the trendy part)...new art galleries and performace space....great to see this sort of stuff happening in the North which traditionally draws the short straw.

Off to Alnwick Castle today and will leave here in the morning tomorrow probably to Keswick...I am getting to know the inside of buses quite well (sigh).

The news on the election does not bode well for our future...hope those swinging voters come to their senses by polling day .

Kathxo

The North

This is Hadrian's Wall

Internet access is not so easy up here so this is the first chance I have had to do an entry on the blog since leaving London.
I am in Newcastle-upon-Tyne library so photos will have to wait and as Michelle is waiting for me it will be brief.
It is great up here despite the weather (wet and cold....yes it is summer) and the people are just great.
Hadrian's Wall was AMAZING although I had set a huge task evey day so the Hadrian's Wall bus came in very handy to minimize the daily trudging. The scenery across Northumbria and Cumbria was breathtaking....more later as my time is up on the computer.
Kath

A good time was had by all in London and the South Downs

The Tower of London was not grim at all as I expected ....the sun was shining and it was packed to the rafters with tourists so was not the dark and sad place it probably should have been considering what went on behind those walls...after having stood in a queue (mind you this is the norm for most things) to see the crown jewels and getting in there only to find the crowns had all the jewels removed (it was news to me that the royals were into recycling..but maybe the austerity measures David Cameron had laid upon the country have hit them hard?)I was pretty peeved especially since I had paid a lot of £ to get into the bloody place!
The Dickens Walking Tour and High Tea at the Chesterfield Hotel and then on to the Apllo Theatre to see an Arthur Miller play starring David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker...truely astonishing performances!!!! How I manage to fit all this into one day is beyond me...well I do admit to being just a little weary.

CHARLESTON

Next day (Saturday) another long and challenging trip to the country without a car...we managed (at great expense) to get to Charleston.........WOW I FINALLY MADE IT......it was WONDERFUL and again it was as if Vanessa,Duncan and Clive had just stepped out for a stroll....the poms are sure good at keeping their heritage intact...........the garden and the house are perfect!!!! Then a cab to Monks House as the trials of getting there meant we had no time to walk between the two houses...it too was wonderful ...Virginia's glasses still on her desk in her room (of one's own) at the back of the garden. Dinner in Lewes opposite the house where Tom Paine was a lodger before we headed ak to London n the train.

GARDEN AT HAM HOUSE

Today was a trip to Richmond on the Thames to Ham house and Marble Hill (both historic (very) big houses)...walk along the Thames Path and then the ferry back to London (2 hours) .....How long can I keep up this cracking pace...Hadrian's Wall shall seem like a well eaned rest after this week....off to the north tomorrow morning.

William Morris to Henry VIII

The trek and "great" it was....2 buses,a train and a taxi (4 hours in all...the librarian(this proves what good people they are) helped me hire a cab as they seemed to be all booked out and Lechlade,the end of the bus run, was only a tiny Cotswold village) to Kelmscott Manor in the Cotswolds was sure worth the trouble and expense (£48 for a 1 hour return train ride). It was the most beautful house I have ever been in and of course William's amazing eye for colour and talent for design made it so enticing (and familiar) and you could just tell what a great bloke he was. It was as if he, Jane and the girl's had just stepped out for a stroll..if only! His coat was even still hanging behind the door. I also managed to visit their graves in the tiny church yard just a stroll from the manor down a lane little changed in 4oo years. The house receives no government funding so is run by an army of very proper English ladies and they do a great job....the memory of that day will stay with me forever....and still 2 William Morris sites to go but they will have to wait until I get back to London after my time in the north.

Yesterday it was Henry's turn...as Marion and I went to Hampton Court Palace in Surrey....a great Tudor pile with massive English baroque additions by Christopher Wren on behalf of William and Mary.
The extensive gardens looked after by 40 gardeners and of course in full summer glory (winter by now a distant memory)...the rose garden was massive and the scent overwhelming....we hooked up with a very absorbing garden history tour and managed to observe the gardeners hard at work trimming the topiary(of which there is tons) and yes I seem to be correctly trimming my own (which now looks rather pathetic).

Dinner last night with Ben and his Australian friend Louise at a wonderful quirky restaurant in Portabello Road called First Floor (opposite the travel bookshop from that movie with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant).. and realised yesterday that I had been walking past a Banksy on my way to the station!

Steeling myself for the onslaught of the tube today as I head to the Tower of London and it's grim history.

Hope the Julia/Tony show is not getting too silly or tedious (although without a doubt it is)....

Kath

KL TO KENSINGTON

Arrived tired and relieved to be off the plane and out of airport terminals..the 2 hour delay at Kuala Lumpur Airport in the middle of the night was very tedious...it did not help that the bloke in the front of us had 3 seats to himself and slept the whole flight in a prone position and could not help himself but to gloat over his good luck.
 It was a great idea to break the flight up with 24 hours in Kuala Lumpur and at least get a good night's sleep in a BED....KL not at all what was expected.. they seem very taken with high-end capitalism and conspicuous consumption and the throngs of young Malays at the nightclubs belie the fact that Islam is the dominant religion.

 LP descibes as the last bastion of Malay culture in the CBD  Kapmpung Baru where we manged to have a great meal of Goreing for $2 and not a touristor chandelier in sight...hope it manages to hang on.

Still here were are....Ben managed to get us through the labyrinth of the underground and thousands of commuters running you down....It was great to see him looking so well and happy in London...and it only felt like yesterday since I had seen him last not 2 and a half years!

Despite the lack of  sleep we went to St Pauls and climbed to the top for a breathtaking view of London and then to the crypt ..a very opulent homage to the glory of The Empire and all the men and one woman (Florence Nightingale) who helped get her there...Horatio's tomb was particularly over the top....The mosaics adorning the walls are pretty stunning...even this athiest was impressed..
Then orf to the Museum of London...with so much stuff that had been dug up it took your breath way and made all those broken bits of pottery and tile that Time Team go gaga over look somewhat pathetic...

Another bad's night sleep but it's all a few tube stations away so up and out into the fray.....

Cheers
Kath

 PS George Orwell's house just around the corner and I have to pass it on the way to the tube...as is Portabello Road (such a hardship it all is!)

Packing

A few days to go and panic has set in...will I be able to go to work, get in the store of duck and cat food....more to the point will the garden,animals et al survive my 10 week absence?? All will be ok i'm sure and as I'm pretending to be a Roman legionary trudging along Hadrian's Wall through mist and rain will any of this matter...no I don't think it will!!!

Day 1         Batu Caves Malaysia

Days 3-10  London

Day10         Newcastle-upon-Tyne 

Days 11-14 Hadrian's Wall

Days 15-19 Cumbria and Yorkshire

Days 22-36  Ireland/London -voting at Australia House

Days 36-39  Barcelona

Days 39-42  Madrid

Days 42-44  Toledo

Days 44-46  Cordoba

Days 46-48  Seville

Days 49-51 Granada

Days 51-62 Tangier to Marakesh

Days 63-65 Paris

Days 65-70 London

Day 71        Kuala Lumpur

Day 72        Home