London at night

Hyde Park, amazing that this can be in such a big city We dropped our hire car off at Heathrow, and bought Oyster cards for getting around on public transport. We loaded £20 onto each and then caught the train to the nearest station to our AirBnB room in Kensington. It was in a good […]

Even their pigeons were double agents

Bletchley Manor If you’ve seen the movie “the Imitation Game” you will know about Bletchley Park. Nearly 10,000 people were working at Bletchley park at the end of WWII. They worked in three shifts of eight hours around the clock. 3,000 per shift, how did they keep that a secret? As far as the rest […]

The Lakes District

The Derwent Valley The Lakes District is a picturesque area of England in the north west. The roads are even more narrow than the ones in the cotswolds. Instead of being lined with vegetation, they are lined with dry stone walls, which can be a little intimidating when confronted with a car coming the other […]

The home of chocolate

You can walk on part of the old Roman town wall The town of York is very old – it was a Roman provincial capital in 71AD – I don’t know how they coped with the weather after Rome. When the Roman empire toppled, the Anglo-Saxon’s moved in. The Vikings then overtook the town for […]

Picturesque country towns

Chipping Campden The Cotswold’s is one of the most picturesque areas of England. Think beautiful old buildings, country lanes, narrow windy roads, beautiful old pubs and unusual names that come from old Saxon words. No, it’s not a camera distortion, they are crooked Here are some of their meanings: – Lower slaughter means lower marshland […]

10,000 years for the water to boil

How the early buildings were built with stone “rocks” Originally the town of Bath was a swamp. When the Romans invaded for the second time, they stayed and drained the swamp and siphoned the water via aqueducts to the baths. There are now three hot springs in the town. The water that falls on the hills […]

They kiss on both sides of your cheek

The house I’m sitting in a house that is over 500 years old. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The outside walls are made of rough sandstone and it has a thatched roof that must be replaced every thirty years. The windows are hexagonal lead lights with interesting latches and hand forged ‘arms’ to […]