St Albans Visit

On a spur of the moment kind of decision, we decided to visit St Albans, where Susanna’s Mum and Dad lived 40 years ago when they were first married and on their big OE. We got Mum and Dad’s old addy and walked down their old street. There’s a photo of Susanna outside their old place below. Apparently things have changed a lot in 40 years and there place is now an even more enviable address in St Albans.
From there, we walked down into town and the amazing Cathedral with its beautiful rose window and restored decorative nave. After lunch we pottered around the local markets and shops and then headed across the park. St Albans is an old Roman town and there is a preserved Roman Town house and hypocaust that has been excavated at the bottom end of the park. Across the park there is the Verulamium Museum, which tells the story of Roman Verulamium and the subsequent development of the town on the site where Alban was martyred. The museum was set up in a way that gave a really good impression of what life might have been like in Roman times.
On our way back to the train, we stopped again in town at the reputedly oldest pub in Britain, Ye Olde Fighting Cocks. No fighting Cocks now but there were a couple of resident fluffy dogs.....

St Albans

Bridge-on-the-Cam

They say that summer is one of the worst times to visit the University town of Cambridge because of all the tourists. And “they” are right! But we still really enjoyed it. Cambridge is only about a 45 minute train ride from London Kings’ Cross. Once you get to Cambridge station, it is only about a 15 minute walk in to the centre of town so it was really accessible.
Almost as soon as you arrive, you see it’s a university town. People walking round with their college sweatshirts or scarves, and there were bikes chained to every possible pole, fence, wall – some were even lifted off the pavement to sit on top of a wall and then chained to the railings. The other reason that you could tell was that there were a number of graduation ceremonies going on. This was great as we got to see all these people in all their regalia- the only disadvantage was that this meant that some of the colleges were closed – including the famous Magdalene college. Still there is not enough time in a day to see all of the colleges anyway so it made our decisions about which to visit a lot easier. We went to Trinity, St Johns, and Kings – the extra money you pay here is well worth being able to see the famous chapel and, as we did, getting to hear Choir or Orchestra rehearsals. We also walked round the grounds of some of the lesser known colleges, which were equally as pleasant, and cost us nothing!
Earlier we had had a massive lunch at one of the locals and then took to the Cam where we were punted down the river by a fantastic guide who told all sorts of stories and anecdotes about the colleges and landmarks that we passed down the “backs” of. Here are some of the photos...

St John's from the Backs
Punting (or being punted?!!!?) along the Cam

Chariots of Fire, anyone?? Chapel at King's

Plymouth-Banjul Rally Reunion

Now that we have been in London for over 6 months, the rally seems in some ways so long ago and yet, also a bit like it just happened yesterday.... We went down for the launch of the 08-09 rally, which was being held in a paddock in the middle of Devon. The launch party was also a chance for people who had already done the rally to meet up, swap stories, reminisce and just hang out. So that’s what we did. We hitched a ride with a couple of the other guys from the rally and camped out with all the others.

bRIGHT-ON

After having a bit of a break from gallivanting about, we decided to enter again in to the fray with a day in Brighton. We took the train down in the late morning on the last Saturday in June. It was, for once, a lovely day, if a little windy. We spent the better part of the day walking up and down the “beach” along the promenade, and out on to the Pier. Apparently, there is a fundamental difference between going to the beach and going to the “seaside.” Visiting Brighton falls in to the latter category as there are the mandatory tacky shops and a pier, which is lined with stalls selling cheap and nasty sweet things and a funfair at the end, complete with miniature rollercoaster and bucking bull. Also, there is no sand – only pebbles. It was nice though, checking out the wee museum, the art galleries, and all the odd shops in the Lanes around town. In the evening, we met up with some mates for dinner. One of them, Simon, was turning 30 so there were drinks all round and a great meal. Managed to get the last train back to London (left Brighton around 11.30pm) and, what’s more, managed to get a seat. Brighton was definitely different, but a nice jaunt nonetheless. Here are some of the pictures....

Visiting the relatives

We decided we would finally make the trip to Alton to visit the cuzzie-bros down there - Rod and Sarah are our second cousins (I think?) on Susanna's Dad's side and we stayed with their folks, Roy and Barbara, when we
were first in UK.

Alton is a small market town in Hampshire. Biggest claim to fame? Being 1 mile from Chawton, where none other than Jane Austen lived for a while before she died. Susanna was enraptured! We visited Jane Austen's house and wondered around the village of Chawton.

The rest of the time was spent catching up with Family - Sarah's brother, Hugh (another second cousin) was there with his wife Yvie on the Friday night so it was great to see them too. Sunday was a lot of fun as there was a reenactment event, "War on the Line," and the the steam train on the old Watercress line that ran during WWII opened up and there was military paraphernalia etc. It was a great time had by all. Have a look at the pics.