 England in 1999
We arrived in London on the
evening of Monday 5th April and stayed near Hyde Park, where the
tulips and spring flowers were  absolutely magnificent. We drove
up the M1 to Penistone in South Yorkshire, where we stayed in a
beery pub, but the spacious bedroom upstairs was perfectly fine.
Then to impressive solid Victorian architecture at Huddersfield,
dark satanic mills at Halifax, across misty Keighly Moor to
Skipton with its solid and picture sque castle. We stayed in the
photogenic village of Gargrave, and the next day saw gravestones
of Gomersall ancestors at Kirby Malham Church. We drove across
the Penine Hills and down through ugly industrial South
Lancashire into beautiful Shropshire, where we stayed with
Victor's cousin Rosemary in Lyth Hill. Rosemary and Fred live in
a delightful enlarged cottage perched on the edge of a hill
overlooking a spectacular panorama of the Shrophire countryside. Then we stayed with Victor's Aunty
Stella in Shrewsbury, and enjoyed a lovely walk with her, Uncle
Peter, Wendy and Bryan, by the River Avon, in the Park and
through the Dingle, full of spring flowers. Then we drove to
Coventry and contacted Barbara's cousin Ken Sedgley. We stayed in
a B&B then the next day toured Coventry with Ken and Janet.
Barbara saw her old school, her house, the woods in which she
played, and the steam into which she fell one icy day many years
ago.  We also saw Lady Godiva and
Peeping Tom! We drove toward London and stayed at Stowe Hill, Weedon, on a cold and frosty night. Our windscreen was covered in
ice the following morning. On 14th April we made our way to
Highgate, North London, returned the hire car, took the
Underground to Victoria station, then a train to Dover, then the
ferry over the English Channel to Calais to pick up our hire car
'Cleo'. We toured France and
Spain
for the next 3 weeks. On the 5th May, we parted with
'Cleo' at Hertz in Calais, and boarded the ferry to Dover. 
We stayed 2 nights in Dover at the Tower House B&B, and
started a few tentative job enquiries via e-mail at South Kent College. Then to Canterbury, where we stayed a week at Ebury
Hotel, in a 2-bedroom bungalow in the grounds, and we enjoyed
their heated pool and spa. Canterbury Cathedral is fabulous, we
heard a Swedish choir singing in the knave there, and we lit a
candle in the crypt for Cindy. Canterbury town is very
interesting also. We hired a car for 2 days and toured to Leeds
Castle, the best preserved and continuously lived-in castle we
saw on our whole trip.  Kent's country lanes are simply
exquisite. We also went to Sevenoaks and saw Knowle Park and its
deer, we visited the village of Kemsing and saw the house where
Victor lived from 1973 to 1976, and we took a delightful walk up
through the North Downs. On 14th May we rented a car for one day
to drive to Stanstead Airport, and we stayed overnight at a nice
village B&B in Wareside, and dined on chicken in a basket and
French wine at a village pub "The Chequers Inn". On 15th May we flew
to Frankfurt, where we hired a Volkswagen Golf to tour Germany, Austria,
Northern Italy, Switzerland and France for the next 3 weeks. On 4th June we returned our Golf to Frankfurt airport
and flew to Stanstead, UK.
 Back in England, we hired a Ford Fiesta and drove to Bishops
Stortford where we booked an 11 day trip back to Austria on 19th
June. We had trouble finding a hotel, and so after this we used a
mobile phone 'Talking Pages" service to locate and book
ahead whilst roaming in England. We visited the Cotwolds, and
Stratford on Avon, in pouring rain.  We stayed in
Stratford, slept in a four-poster (but with about 1 foot
clearance to the walls all around!). We dined at the ancient
Garret Inn. The next day the sun came out, and we really enjoyed
the Cotswold village of Iling.  We drove up via Evesham
(rain) , then to Sedgley near Warwick, in search of Barbara's
ancestors. Unable to find any family tombstones in Sedgley
Church, we went north to Sandbach in Cheshire, and stayed at a
B&B beside the canal, in a pretty, countrified and unspoilt
spot. Then we went to Preston, Lancashire, and visited the house
in Hutton were Victor lived as a boy from 1954 to 1962, and his
school, Hutton Grammar School.  Here the Deputy Headmaster
Mr. McNeil,
and Parent Committee chairman Howard Atkin very kindly showed
Barbara and Victor all over the school and described its current
status and recent successes both academic and sporting. We then
went to Blackpool, seaside holiday haunt of Barbara's childhood,
and walked alongside the donkeys along Blackpool beach in
wonderful sunshine.  We then drove
up to Keswick in the Lake District and stayed at a B&B
"Glaramara". The next day we drove around Derwentwater,
climbed Cat Bells, and visited Buttermere, Crummond water, Bassenthwaite,
Grasmere, Rydalmere and Windermere. We left the
Lakes for the Lincolnshire seaside town of Skegness, a fairly
unattractive place but educational for us none-the less. On 10th
June we left our Fiesta at Stanstead and flew to Sweden with Ryan
Air. Then on Thursday 17th June we left Sweden and flew back to Stanstead, UK.
Again briefly in UK, we travelled by bus to a B&B at Smallfield, near Gatwick Airport, for 2 nights. We walked around
the pretty countryside despite the incessant noise of aircraft
right overhead. We had a misadventure with 22 young bulls when we
beat a hasty retreat over a style out of that field. On Saturday 19th June we flew from Gatwick to Salzburg in Austria,
to spend 10 days at Zell-Am-See. On 30th June we flew to Gatwick, UK.
We drove to Bournemouth, and stayed at a B&B overlooking
"The Needles" on the Isle of Wight. We experienced a
typical British seaside atmosphere, the pier, the prom, fish and
chips, the lot! We then continued west to a lovely farm B&B
near Teignmouth in Devon, where the farmer proudly offered us his
home made cider, and we joined him and his wife for a dinner of
game pie at the local pub. In drizzly weather we toured Devon,
visiting Torquay and then Totnes, and near there we stayed at
another farm B&B, this one with a large dairy herd. We saw
Dartmoor and its famous wild ponies, and Widicombe village as
celebrated in the folk song. Then we drove via Launceston to
Boscastle Cornwall, where we stayed at yet another beautiful farm
B&B.  The harbour and chalky cliffs
at Boscastle were straight out of a picture book, magic! Then we
visited Tintagel, allegedly King Arthur's seat, then drove out of
Cornwall along the north coast, visited picturesque Clovelly, had
a picnic lunch at Bude, which is an English "surfing' beach
We stayed at a B&B at South Moulton in Somerset. We then
headed north leaving rain in Somerset for sunny warmer weather as
we reached Shropshire. We stayed at a nice B&B at Carding
Mill Valley, right on the edge of the Long Mynd, in Church
Stretton. Here we climbed the Mynd for lovely views over this
pretty region. We then re-visited Victor's Auntie Stella in
Shrewsbury for a wonderful lunch, then we once again stayed with
Victor's cousin Rosemary at Lyth Hill. Rosemary and Fred
organised a BBQ in their garden, where we met some of their friends. We shopped in Shrewsbury and after a quiet afternoon, had
dinner with Rosemary and Fred at a nice pub down a country lane
behind Lyth Hill. On Friday 9th July we went via Watford (picking
up luggage from Carole's parents' house) to Cambridge, where we
enjoyed a fantastic long weekend at St.John's College.   We punted along
the Cam, met Anthony Dove, Victor's room mate from 1964, had tea
in the Master's garden, attended choral evensong in the chapel,
and a magnificent dinner in hall. On Sunday in Chapel the choir
and Orchestra sang Mozart's Coronation Mass.  We left
Cambridge after lunch in hall, and suffered a terribly slow drive
to London, 4 hours to Hillingdon near Heathrow. On Monday 12th
July we flew from Heathrow back to Australia, and we arrived home
in Drysdale on Tuesday 14th July.
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