violetinuk

Friday September 27th 2019 It's Friday morning at time to repack my suitcase and go home.  It's hard to believe I've been here in the U.K. for 4 weeks.  I've seen a lot in my little Hyundai, driving down the coast of Wales (amazing) and through the Cotswalds (beautiful) and down to the coast to include Cornwall, Devon and Essex.  All superbly beautiful and seen at my own pace, lingering where I felt the urge and moving on when ready to explore more. I've sought solitude and peace in the quiet countryside with grazing sheep, cattle and horses and walked miles and miles through  busy  London streets and subways.  This vacation was a good mix of both worlds and as always when it's time to end my getaway....IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO GO HOME.  I stayed last night with Susie's brother and wife, Steve and Ana in their lovely home in Manchester.  I was invited to come here because their home is just 10 minutes from the airport where I am leaving from today ...

Wednesday Sept. 25th 2019 Yesterday, Tuesday, I decided to get brave and figure out the tube(subway) system.  I bought a ticket that gave me access to the tube and city buses all day.  I walked to the nearest tube station and it was temporarily closed due to signal failure.  So I went to another station almost as close called Queensway.  Once you actually go down into the subway and cram yourself through the door of the train amidst all kinds of people and remember which station you want to get off at, it's not too bad.  I'm sure it's just like any other subway system.  I just don't have too much experience there.  So a trusty map is a must to keep on you. I wanted to take a ride on the London Eye.  It's the really big ferris wheel that on a clear day at the top you can see for 24 miles.  It was very cloudy this day but I took it anyway.  It takes 20 minutes to make one complete revolution.  It moves really slow. Then I went for...

Monday Sept. 23rd 2019 After spending 3 days in Hastings on the coast with a friend I lived with in France 5 years ago, I took the train to London. The weather today was the same as it was when I came for a day last week....rainy and gray.  Everything is gray when the sun isn't out. The hotel I booked in Kensington was more beautiful than anything else on the street.  The outside was full of red, orange and yellow flowers and looked very fancy and regal.  And so did the lobby.  The room was by far the smallest room I have ever stayed in.  It had a twin bed!  And barely enough floor room for my suitcase.  So I went to the bar, had a double Tia Maria and then went out to discover Kensington Gardens across the street.  When I mentioned to people here that I wanted to visit Kensington Gardens they looked at me with an expressionless face with no comment.  I pictured lovely gardens with flowers and GARDENS!  It was merely a large park for...

Friday Sept. 20th 2019 When I heard that what I was looking at across the Solvent Bay area from Hurst Castle was the Jurassic Coast, with the white chalk cliffs, I felt I had to try to get there.  So I found a bus trip leaving from Bournemouth for the next day.  There was an opening.  So I got it.  Next challenge: drive into Bournemouth the city I got lost a couple of times due to excessive traffic and GPS misguidance.  But I got into the city with an hour to spare, so I thought.  No parking at the bus station.  Indoor parking at the station only allowed for a maximum 3 hr. stay.  So I parked the car on the street several blocks away with no signs indicating limited stay.  So I took a chance and walked to where I thought I remembered the bus station being.  No signs.  No buses. But I did jot down that this tour bus was leaving from slot "K" which I noticed with 1/2 hr. to spare.  The bus was actually a van holding about 18 pa...

Wednesday Sept. 18th 2019 Today when the sun came up, 2 hours after I got up, I saw like yesterday a cloudless, blue sky.  With no specific trips planned for today, I spoke to Sue next door to find how I could walk to the Hurst Castle.  After finding out how to get there from here and how simple it was I headed out for a day of walking.  I could have driven down to the marina a couple miles from here and taken a really small boat to the castle.  No challenge there.  So I walked down the street next to the house here, past a corn field and a grazing field with dark brown sheep (2 white) and past hedges of mature blackberries of which I picked and ate several.  I came upon what they call "the shingle spit" which is basically a huge seawall of stone to protect the coastline from further erosion.  I walked on top of this spit down to the castle.  They say it is 1-1/2 miles.  It was a bit tough walking but I had all day and the sun was warm and ...

Monday Sept. 16th 2019 What a whirlwind of a day in London.  Getting off the train at Waterloo Station to a hoard of shoulder-to-shoulder people all going in different directions was a bit of an upheaval.  Where do I go?  Look for exit signs.  Finally got out on the street to find out I had to go back into the station to get a bus ticket that would allow me to "hop on hop off" for 1 day as often as I wanted.  I got the wrong ticket.  It seems there is a big to do with the competition between "hop on hop off" bus companies.  I actually bought an oyster card which allowed me access to any of the city buses which I actually ended up using later.   After walking over 2 hours trying to get to one of the bus stops that takes me around all the sites in Central London, I finally got it straight. I got to see all the main attractions from the top of the 2 story open air bus making note of ones I want to return to next week.  So this run around Lon...

Sunday Sept. 15th 2019 Yesterday was a laid back day.  I did not especially want to get back in the car and drive.  Friday was a bit too much driving in one day.  I don't regret seeing the countryside as I did though.. Postcard beautiful. Yesterday the weather was a 10.  Who knew?  Today is proving to be a 10 as well.  Who knew?  Doves outside hooten and hollerin again.  Love it all. Yesterday I went to the train station in New Milton the next town west of here to possibly get a train ticket to London for Monday.  Travel agencies do not book train or bus tickets for a day; only tours.  The ticket station was closed due to staffing issues.  Internet said they would be open all day.  The ticket machine was not cooperating outside the door and a line of people was forming so I left.  I went back to my studio for yet another attempt at purchasing a ticket online.  Previously I had no luck.  Perseverance and some ...

FRIDAY SEPT. 13TH 2019 IT WAS TIME TO LEAVE THE RUGGED AND WILD COAST OF CORNWALL TODAY.   I had to decide if I would be taking the Southern route down to Penzance and make my way back along the coast through Falmouth.  I decided to take the more Northern route up through the counties of Devon and Somerset.  No big cities to contend with.  Much less cars to run me off the road.  The map showed a nice route,  A39,  going almost into Bath,  a city that many people told me I would like.  So off I go leaving Cornwall at 9:30 this morning. The GPS started me off ok but kept directing me to the more "country" roads like the A39 isn't country enough.  By the way---it is!  So I followed the GPS' directions taking me on the B3223 and the B3224 which are basically farm roads through fields and fields of rolling hills and sheep, cows and a few horses.  If I had any perception before coming here what the English countryside looked like...

Thursday Sept. 12th 2019 Since King Arthur was only a legend, how could he have a castle? Evidence of life in Tintagel during the Dark Ages was found showing the opulent wealth of its' citizens. (400-600AD)  Very little evidence was found aside from a few pieces of pottery and wine flasks; hence Dark Ages when little was left behind for history's records.  During the 13th century, the hugely rich and ambitious Richard Earl of Cornwall and brother to Henry III acquired Tintagel which by then had all but disintegrated or been overgrown with grass.  Nearly all of the castle as Richard knew it fell into the sea by the 14th century.  The sea in this area is very turbulent and has created many caves in the rocks making the land unstable. People in that era loved to hear about "their King Arthur" which was a fictional character created as a culmination of other living and much loved kings.  People back then also loved story telling and story tellers would retell t...

Lest we never forget                      9/11/2019         Wednesday Today was a dark and dank day but what the heck.  Life goes on and so must I to travel to the western edge of Cornwall. Tintagel is a very small town on the Northwestern coast of Cornwall.  It has been written up in many tourist books as a natural place of beauty with plenty of things to do and see so the weather didn't matter.  Spending 4 1/2 hours in the car driving through some cities that I will try to avoid on my return wouldn't have been any worse or better if the sun was shining.  It was just 150 miles. GPS took me into Bournemouth which like yesterday was difficult to get through but once I did it was sort of smooth sailing.  Until I got to stinky EXETER.  I will try to look up what they produce there to make it the most stinky city I...

Tuesday Sept. 10th 2019 I drove to Stonehedge today but not before driving once again through the New Forest. In New Forest I saw pigs!  There was a mom and a few babies digging through the leaves and I guess looking for acorns which is what they're supposed to do. I went on a different road to see different animals and saw the most beautiful horses in the woods and small fields.  But the pigs!  They were right along side the road so close to my car but weren't bothered by me being there. I bought a ticket for Stonehedge admission online and checked off I would be there by noon.  So being 40 miles away I had to leave here by 10.  Driving through Lindhurst although very beautiful takes a long time. I reached Stonehedge at 11:30.  I did a little reading about Stonehedge so I knew what I would be looking at.  After parking my car and walking into the visitor center, I waited in line for the next bus to take me down to the "stones".  A bus left e...

Sept. 9, 2019 It was a rainy day today, so decided to spend it driving through and learning all I could about the area called New Forest. New Forest was established back around 1068 as land taken by William the Conqueror as his personal hunting ground to hunt mostly deer.  As part of his taking of this land, William ousted the current 30+ farmers displacing them, causing them to be homeless.  It has been said that William suffered Divine retribution by loosing 2 of this sons and one grandson in hunting accidents. The New Forest is an area of heavily wooded 260 square miles where  some 700 commoners live within the many towns that make up this unusual but lovely forest.  Within the Forest there lives approximately 5700 animals each owned by a commoner (farmer). Each commoner owns livestock that they are allowed to turn out to graze and live peaceably in the forest after being 'marked' and after paying a small fee for this privledge.  The animals are turned ou...

Sunday Sept. 8th 2019 When I got up this morning and saw the cloudless blue sky, I knew it would be a good day to go on the ferry to the Isle of Wight. Now that I am back in my studio I can easily say it was a perfect 10 day. The ferry leaves from Lymington just 5 miles from here and the boat ride itself only takes 40 minutes.  You can take a hydrofoil for a 10 minute ride.  The ferry moves super slow because of the many sailboats and yachts in the harbor here and at the IOW. The ride reminds me of the Block Island ferry as it approaches the island.  The town of Yarmouth is the port town with many shops and restaurants.  And Dogs!  I think everyone brings their dog here on a leash but still all are welcome inside bars and restaurants.  I saw mostly Black Labs.  And all are well behaved.  No scuffles between dogs.  No peeing and pooping and no sticking their noses where they aren't welcome.  All dogs were perfect.  I was especia...

September 7th 2019 I just got settled in to my new place for the next 2 weeks.  It's a studio apartment attached to the main house where Bob and Sue live.  They are the owners of this "Beaches Cottage" as it is called. There is a patio out back where I can sit and gaze upon the Isle of Wight.  Depending on how I feel,  I will take the 40 minute ferry out there for a day of site seeing. While waiting to meet Bob here today, I drove 4 miles to Lymington as they were having Market Day where all the shop owners bring out there wares and sell them on the sidewalk.  I just wanted to go to the book store there as I misplaced the book I brought and was 1/2 finished with.  I think it's back at Harlech.  So I strolled up and down the market street to get to the book store.  I got 3 books so that should be enough while I'm here.  Throughout the market they were selling everything from socks to windows; from fresh bread, cheese, veggies and fruit to ...

Thursday Sept. 5th 2019 I'll do my best at describing today despite the bad news back home of hurricane damage to our home and vehicles ok.  Apparently Mells is NOT considered part of the Coltwalds.  The buildings, roads and surroundings all resemble the Coltswalds but that said I embarked on a fabulous day trip through the infamous COTSWALDS. I can honestly say I have mastered the left handed shifting and the extreme numerous entrances to roundabouts.  If I could give an educated, near accurate guess of how many roundabouts I went through today, I would say in excess of 100.  For most of my trip, the roundabouts came sometimes every 1/2 mile or so.  When there was a 2 mile break between 2 of them, I said "oh good".  A couple of times I would see a 6 mile stretch until the next.  That was great! I started with setting my GPS for Stow-on-the-wold, followed by Bourton-on-the-hill and Moreton-in-Marsh.  Chipping Norton  was next.  Th...

Wednesday Sept. 4th 2019 Well I didn't think I'd make it here without incident and I was right. The road trip from Cardigan on the coast of Wales to Mells in the Cotswalds in the U.K. was difficult at best.  The tiny, tiny roads that brought me to the highway were nerve wracking to say the least so once I reached the M4 highway on my way towards Bristol I breathed a breath of fresh air until I read signs that the bridge on the M4 was closed.  This is a major bridge over the Bristol Channel connecting Wales and England.  So I was rerouted around to the next major bridge and the traffic was bumper to bumper and stop and go...mostly stop.  When I finally made it across the bridge, the GPS which until now was spot on, led me into an indoor parking garage in Bristol.  After pressing HELP on the keypad at the entrance of the garage so they could just let me drive around and out, I found myself in Little Afghanistan (or so it seemed).  Most people were dressed...

Tuesday (I think) Sept. 3rd 2019 Last night it stopped drizzling while still light so I went for a walk on the beach down to the little stone church.  They still use it by traveling priests.  I could look in but not go in. My agility was tested when I had to hop across rocks like I used to do so many years ago .  I had to hop onto big, smooth, slippery rocks to get to the sand part of the beach for easier walking.  I was good at this but that was 50 years ago.  It was nice to get out in the warm breeze and just walk on the beach. I told Sheila I'd be back shortly as she was making me dinner.  For dinner Sheila made local, recently caught from off this beach, Sea Bream.  We each had a whole 6 inch or so fish with the head on and all of its' bones.  In U.S. bone-in fish is seldom served I think because Americans don't want the inconvenience of de-boning something on their plate.  It was delicious along with the rice with caramelized leek an...

Monday September 2,  2019 Oh dear.  This car.  It's a small Hyundai which is good.  I knew I'd have to drive on the left, stearing on the left and shift a standard with my left hand---5 speeds.  That took a little getting used to.  I mean the first 4 times I got out of the car and went to get back in, I automatically went to get in on the left side. Getting out of Manchester was crazy.  Once I reached Wales on the West coast, the roads got narrower and less traveled.   I think all of Wales is made up of stone.  Stone walls and beautiful ones at that, on both sides of the road; some covered with trimmed hedges.  These trimmed hedges scrapped my car more than once due to the narrowness of the road and the super fast drivers coming at me on my right. I hesitated looking at the car once I stopped but after seeing the scratches from the front to the back and my left side mirror pushed against the side, I really looked forward to get...