Brussels Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 18th November 2018

When I last wrote, we were about to have our final full day in England, which we spent in Oxford. We caught an early bus there, which gave us time to wander around, before meeting our Chipping Norton friends, Paul & Pauline Jackson, for lunch at The Randolph Hotel. Paul had booked a table within sight of the Martyrs Memorial, as that was the meeting place for our Walking Tour of Morse, Lewis & Endeavour. It was lovely to catch up with them both & I presented Paul with the Collingwood scarf I wore to this year’s Grand Final.

Ever since Paul’s friend, Rob, & I spent a day at the cricket discussing footy, Paul has been curious to learn about Aussie Rules & I have been delighted that he has started getting up early on Saturday mornings to watch the games.

Paul wearing his scarf in the Morse bar at the Randolph Hotel, Oxford & below, Wes, Pauline, Karen & Paul in front of the John Thaw portrait

We were very sorry to leave the Jacksons after two hours, which flew by, but our tour beckoned & we were so pleased we had booked it. Our guide, Elizabeth, was very knowledgeable & had been taking tours like this for 13 years. She had met all the actors & knew lots of inside stories & clever jokes that are part of Lewis & Endeavour in particular.

We arrived back home tired but happy that night, after a lovely, stimulating day in beautiful Oxford.

On Friday, we were booked to catch the Eurostar to Brussels, so rose early, packed, cleaned up our flat as best we could & headed off to St Pancras International Station via South Kensington tube. We had bought Tourist Oyster cards back in September & I put £50 on each, which was more than enough to see us through a week of travelling on the underground.

The Eurostar experience was fun without being remarkable & we arrived at Brussels-midi with the prospect of a 10 minute walk to our Marriott Hotel. 45 minutes later we finally found it! The staff were amazed we walked & when we pointed out that their website suggests they are 10 minutes away, they said – but not with luggage! We had to wait another 45 minutes for our room, but it is well-appointed & quiet & the shower works very well indeed.

 

Leigh & Simon (pictured on the train to Bruges) arrived too late for us to meet up that night, so we grabbed a quick meal & had the best sleep of our trip with an excellent mattress & foam pillows.

The next morning, we met up at breakfast & headed out to The Grand Place to meet our guide for the tour of Bruges. We were a small group of 9, which was very manageable. Our guide, Peter, a Liverpudlian, had a great knowledge of art & history, which made his delivery very interesting. We enjoyed two hours of solid walking around the mediaeval town of Bruges, including the canals. Finally Peter left us to our own devices, so we found a very pleasant café, where we had tomato soup & Belgian fries for lunch.

Wes enjoying our tour of Bruges

Last night we four caught a taxi to Le Wine Bar des Marolles, which Wes had chosen some time ago, as the place to celebrate his birthday. We were all impressed with the staff, the amazing food, the superb wine list & most of all, the effort everyone made to ensure we had a memorable evening.

Stuffed marrowbones & wild duck for two

This morning, we all slept in and met again at breakfast for a debrief & discussion of the day’s activities. We set off to visit the Museum of the City of Brussels, a Gothic revival building which houses the history of Brussels, including artefacts, paintings & tapestries. We enjoyed that very much, before heading off to find the famous statue Manneken Pis. After some more walking around, we headed back to Grand Place for drinks – tea for me, hot chocolate for Wes (which turned out to be cold); coffee for Leigh & a beer for Simon.

We spent some time at the magnificent Gothic Cathedral of Saint-Michael & Saint-Gudula, where I lit a candle for Jessie.

Our final destination was the famous shopping arcades & eating areas. We even found a place advertising Australian Made Ice-Cream! Leigh & Simon went off to have a late lunch & drive back home to Luxembourg, while we went back to our hotel for a rest as we have a concert to attend tonight at the Bozar.

We had a lovely time with Leigh & Simon & are very grateful that came to spend time with us during our holiday.

Leigh & Wes outside the Brussels Town Hall building

London Autumn Dispatch - Thursday, 15th November 2018

We have been making the most of our time in London & trying not to stress about all the downsides of our flat in Chelsea. We are in a great position in many ways, although the nearest tube station is 15 minutes walk away.

We decided to have a late breakfast at The Ivy, Chelsea, thinking of our cousin, Leigh, & her husband, Simon, who had their wedding reception at The Ivy, Covent Garden in 2013. It was an absolute treat with perfect scrambled eggs nesting in smoked salmon & Jasmine pearls tea to drink. Wes sat watching the beautiful people saunter in & out, including two followed by paparazzi & two who flounced out as their usual table was occupied (shock, horror!).

 

This photo is for Squiz, who joined Wes in rating marmalades on our first trip to England back in 1975 – Wes gives the Ivy’s marmalade a 9/10 – if it had come with its own spoon, it would have gotten the perfect score!

We then attended the Sloane Square Remembrance Day services, which were remarkable, not just for the bells that rang at 11am, for the 2 minutes silence (rigorously observed) but for the cessation of traffic (police stopped all vehicles within cooee & there was complete silence). It was very moving & we were pleased we had decided not to try and be part of the bigger ceremonies going on.

We caught the tube into Covent Garden & spent ages walking around there, before visiting The National Portrait Gallery, which was so hot we had to abandon it after spending time with Rubens & van Dyck. We crossed the road to St Paul’s and said hello to all the famous theatre people commemorated there. Afterwards I sat on John Thaw’s seat to write a postcard to Leanne & hope it returns home before we do!

Writing the postcard & thinking about Morse!

We had time for a cuppa & half a Guiness before our play started nearby at The Duchess Theatre, where we encountered one of the rudest, least helpful Box Office people I have ever met. We were rescued by a security person who advised us. I had bought a special package with our tickets which included a donation & gave us signed programmes, a copy of the script & a glass of wine, but I didn’t know how to redeem any of them!

The Play Goes Wrong is an absolute hoot & we laughed until we cried. Wes particularly appreciated it with his experience in amateur theatre & anyone who has ever been involved in any amateur production would love it. Even if you haven’t, you can’t help but empathise!

On Monday, we set off to Australia House to vote in the Victorian State Elections on the first possible day available. It was a scream – we landed at the main door, where a bored security guard directed us back outside to the third door on the right, push the intercom button & they’ll look after you. We arrived there just as three other people had found the intercom button (not easy) & were gaining admittance, so we saved 5 minutes by joining them. There is room for about 6 in the small area between two self-locking doors & you can’t move out of one area until the other door is shut tight. Security was next & it happened at an awkwardly placed table, which gave no-one any space to put things down or to get out of the way of the one being wanded.

They took us in two at a time, so we chatted to the other couple, who live in Geelong & barrack for St Kilda. We were enjoying our footy chat when another staff member came to explain that the ballot papers hadn’t arrived yet & had to be printed on demand two floors up! Eventually it was our time to go in to a little room, no ID required, just name & address & wait for your ballot papers. The actual voting was the easy part. We then let ourselves out & did the double door lock thing all over again.

Outside Oz House after voting! We were pleased to note that the footy chatting had continued on after we left!

Our next stop was Chinatown where we found a restaurant serving Dim Sum that opened at 11am, so spent some time there refuelling before heading to our favourite London Church, St Martin in the Fields, where we attended a lunchtime concert by the St Martin’s Choral Scholars, who sang superbly & thoroughly entertained us for about 45 minutes.

That night we attended the play, A Very, Very, Very Dark Matter starring Jim Broadbent at the Bridge Theatre.  This is a very new theatre, great box office, food & drink served all day, cloakrooms, toilets, plenty of staff & oodles of room, but not easy to find the first time. We caught a cab, but even then had to ask directions as it is at the back of other buildings. Our taxi driver had just discovered he was going to be a first time father, with the baby due on Brexit Day! We met a couple of Poms in the foyer who have lived in America for the past 30 years, & they, like our taxi driver, didn’t realise that Australia has compulsory voting & that our Government tries to make it easy for us to vote, unlike the UK & USA.

We have no idea what got into the head of the playwright, Martin McDonagh, in his wild imaginings of Hans Christian Anderson, but this very modern play showcased Jim Broadbent & a couple of other excellent actors very well indeed.

Foyer of the Bridge Theatre

We had a free day on Tuesday, so headed back to The Ivy for breakfast again, before catching the tube to Leicester Square & buying tickets to see Bohemian Rhapsody. We spent some time in Jermyn Street admiring the beautiful bespoke men’s shoes & shirts etc. The film was absolutely riveting & we loved every minute of it – beautifully acted, written, directed, cast – stunningly good. Wes took me to afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason’s Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon as a special treat afterwards & what a treat it was. We opted for the savoury delights with Jasmine pearl tea. You can see the exquisite roses on our table, the beautiful tea service & the yummy food.

Needless to say we couldn’t eat all this & when they offered us slices of cake afterwards, we declined, but were given a very elegant doggy bag to take home with us.

I was talking to a woman on the tube who had been to see her new dentist that afternoon – her previous one was called Mr Butcher & it was appropriate; the new one is named Mr Cure & her teeth were all fine – great story & one she no doubt enjoys sharing often.

We are finding the weather fine – temperatures of 13˚ or 14˚ most days & the London humidity makes it seem warmer than that. The big problem is that once you get indoors the heating seems to be in the 20s & we are quite hot & find it very stuffy.

Yesterday was another special day. We headed to the Victoria & Albert Museum (within walking distance of our flat) where we were meeting our friend, Andrea Spencer aka Bilby. We first met in the Northern Territory in 1996 & have enjoyed infrequent get-togethers ever since. Bilby caught the train from Maidenhead to London & we were most appreciative. We arrived before her & were able to lose ourselves in 1600s Europe art, sculpture, wall hangings & musical instruments for an hour or so. We then spent about 2 hours in the café chatting & catching up & it was wonderful.

We eventually had to go to Leicester Square to pick up our tickets to our final play, The Height of the Storm, starring Dame Eileen Atkins & Jonathan Pryce. This was an excellent play with superb acting, as you can imagine with those two leads. When I bought the tickets a couple of months ago, I took advantage of a package available which included afternoon tea at Browns, which is just behind the theatre. It was the perfect way to finish the day debriefing & enjoying the ambience.

 

We arrived back to our flat feeling tired but stimulated after our day. Bilby had suggested a film on Netflix that we might enjoy called God’s Own Country, so we settled down with a glass of red wine & watched it.

Today we are up early as we are off to Oxford for the day, starting with lunch with our friends, Paul & Pauline Jackson. This is the lunch that didn’t happen last week & we are so pleased they were able to find another date that suited.

After that we are off for a walking tour of Morse, Lewis & Endeavour, which should be a fun way to finish off our visit to the United Kingdom.

England Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 11th November 2018

We were sorry to leave Dartmouth on Wednesday morning, but very excited to be visiting Nether Wallop again. On our way, we stopped at a few places, including Lyme Regis, famous for many reasons and more recently the place where much of The French Lieutenant’s Woman was shot. We were fascinated by The Cobb, the old canons & anchors & amazing old buildings. Not so thrilled by the beach!

We also visited Weymouth, but didn’t get out and walk around as it was raining. Wes tells me this is the English Riviera! It reminded us both of St Kilda or Brighton in Melbourne.

We drove through a beautiful Georgian village called Blandford Forum, before finding ourselves at Puddletown & Tolpuddle – very historic places indeed.

Finally we followed the signs up a little track to find the Chettle Village Stores & stocked up on fruit, juice & bread for our stay in The Little Trout. Imagine our surprise when we pulled up at our beautiful accommodation, to discover that it used to be the Wine Shop that we had seen last time we were here. Our host was rather chuffed that we remembered it. Sadly, the pub, the Five Bells, that drew us here the first time, is now closed & has been for the past five years. We wonder what the squire & his Labrador do for a late afternoon drink these days.

Our accommodation was spacious & comfortable with the best bed & doona of our trip, an excellent bathroom with a timer in the shower, lots of heaters & a well-stocked kitchen. We couldn’t wait to get out and explore the next morning, but watched the Oaks Day races first!

Outside The Little Trout

Beautiful brook over which we crossed to visit the 11^th Century Church – St Andrew’s, which captivated us back in 1975.

Belfry & bell pulls for the six bells of St Andrew’s

We spent ages in the Church looking at all the frescoes that have been recovered & restored from earlier times, as well as admiring the age of this incredible building.

We took as many Footpaths as we could & crossed numerous stiles, said hello to horses, skirted by the aerodrome, where bombs were dropped during the war & walked along the High Street, looking at the houses that just scream Miss Marple. We were lucky enough to see a couple of men restoring a thatched roof as we walked by.

After lunch we drove to nearby Stockbridge, where cars can park easily in the main street & where we picked up some fresh salmon for dinner at a fabulous deli.

Wes was in the mood to cook & did an excellent job of poaching salmon with fresh tomatoes & avocado. We couldn’t fit in the interesting cheddar we had bought, so it came with us to London. We slept well that night & knew we would we sorry to leave on Friday morning.

We set off after 9am giving ourselves plenty of time to get to Croydon to return the Avis hire car. Wes had planned our journey to London & it went like clockwork. There was a light rail running behind the Avis area & we caught it to Wimbledon. It was clean, quiet, quick & self-driven! Our next move was a train from Wimbledon to Elephant & Castle, then a short walk to our London flat. We arrived to find an empty key-safe & rang our Airbnb host, Will, who claimed no responsibility initially, before agreeing to investigate & ring us back.

Will eventually confessed he had given us the wrong address & obviously uses the same key-codes to all his flats. We caught a cab to our correct address as we couldn’t work out how to get there by tube. And what a disappointment it is here. This is obviously a bachelor pad which desperately needs TLC. It is on the 6^th floor & looks out over a park, the bedroom is spacious with plenty of storage, but everything else is a disaster & we have to keep the windows open as it is so hot. There are no cooking knives, one roll of toilet paper to last us a week, stained couch, a pantry without outdated left behind foodstuffs, old stained towels & rickety chairs. We couldn’t sleep on Friday night until we sent Will an email outlining our concerns & to date he hasn’t replied. As far as I’m concerned that’s the end of Airbnb overseas!

Yesterday morning, after some fresh fruit that the hunter had found, we set off to Harrods & spent a delightful time there. I needed to replace my Mason Pearson hairbrushes & my Harrods bag. We achieved both of those & then saw a sign for modern Chinese food. We followed the signs to Chai Wu & enjoyed a wonderful exotic dim sum with a pot of exquisite Jasmine tea ball. This restored our good humour!

In the afternoon we saw the first of our 4 plays – The Wild Duck – a modern version of Ibsen’s famous play. It was stunning & we loved it. The Almeida Theatre is very like the Malthouse & even though we were in the circle, we felt close to the action. Two well-known actors, Nicholas Farrell & Nicholas Day were part of an excellent cast of eight. We experienced our first heavy rain of the trip, but our clothes are nice & dry this morning as Wes worked out how to turn the heated towel rack on – not easy.

England Autumn Dispatch - Tuesday, 6th November, 2018

When I left you last we were in Falmouth, Cornwall, not enjoying our AirBNB. We were pleased to leave on Sunday morning & drive to Dartmouth, Devon. Our first stop was Penzance, where the Saundrys lived for many years & some still do. However, the newsagent that they ran has been taken over by W H Smith, much to my disappointment.

This plaque is in Market Jew Street, Penzance, and there are three Warren’s bakeries all with .5km of each other.

We stopped also at a tiny town called Cripplesease, where our Daylesford friends, Bill & Sue Longley, lived & sold their pottery for some years before coming to Australia. The town is at the top of a hill, which might explain its politically incorrect name!

We stopped for a hot drink & iced gingerbread cake at Kernow Mill in Saltash, then caught the ferry at Torpoint, which took us to Plymouth and saved us an hour’s driving for under $3.

Eventually we arrived at Dartmouth to the best accommodation of our trip. Not through AirBNB, but Trip Advisor. We have 4 rooms, 2 skylights, a brilliant shower & plenty of power points, storage space & lighting. Our hostess, Angela, lived in Australia for 20 years, and it shows in the bathroom. Bliss!

View from our lounge overlooking Dartmouth.

Of course we were too late in the season to take the ferry to Greenway, Agatha Christie’s house & it appeared the steam train/boat combination was also on holidays.

We walked in the rain to find somewhere to eat on our first night & ended up at The Windjammer Inn, a rather quaint little spot with an excellent hostess, some crab cakes & seafood chowder. I was taken with the vases of fresh flowers.

Wes wasn’t feeling too well yesterday, so we opted for a quiet day in comfortable surroundings. We had witnessed the aftermath of an awful accident on our way to Dartmouth, where one car had jack-knifed & ended up on its side in the middle of the road. This added 45 minutes to our journey, which meant too much driving I suspect. The English drivers are very responsible, once they realised what had happened, one lane moved to the extreme left & the other to the extreme right, thus allowing police, ambulance, fire brigade etc a clear, safe path through.

Our alarm woke us at 3am today, to get ready to watch the Melbourne Cup. Sadly we couldn’t connect our laptop to the TV, but had a perfect view via racing.com. It was an amazing win by Cross Counter flying past Marmelo & A Prince of Arran just before the line. We had picked horses 2 & 3 in our quinella & put $5 E/W on A Prince of Arran, so weren’t out of pocket. Facebook was immediately full of all those who had picked the winner happily skiting about their success. In a field of 24, it is always tough to get it right & Cross Counter was a good bet at $12 win.

We went back to bed after 4.15am & tried to get some more sleep or at least rest! We went for a walk into Dartmouth city centre & harbour. Our accommodation is in a 6ft wide road, but fortunately has a garage with room for our car. We then climbed 8 steps to the gate & a further 24 steps to our unit, which is attached to the main home, hence our lovely views.

Wild mushroom omelette at the French bakery & café

I managed to get my nails done at the end of our street at lunchtime and afterwards we headed off to visit a few places that were on our agenda. First stop was Greenway, Agatha Christie’s home, and to get there we had to catch the Higher Ferry, rather than the Lower Ferry. This was a very expensive 5 minutes, costing about $10, but fun. We drove through some beautiful countryside & very narrow lanes to Greenway, which is closed, and were unable to get close enough to get a photo. We did appreciate that it is in a lovely spot.

Greenway House from the National Trust’s photos

Next stop was Torquay, for a walk along the beach in Agatha’s footsteps. We hated Torquay instantly, and the heavy rain made it impossible to walk anywhere, let alone the beach, so we abandoned that plan & drove to Ashburton, where Sherlock Holmes allegedly stayed during The Hound of the Baskervilles. There is a pub which has named itself after the book, there are dark & threatening moors, very suitable to the book, but our main impression after a quick walk around, was of an affluent town, with lots of lovely shops & very little sign of unemployment.

Finally, we drove back here to Dartmouth & went in search of an early dinner. We liked the look of the Seven Stars, Darmouth’s oldest pub, and were warmly greeted by the young landlord. Dinner was grilled gammon & chips for Wes & scampi & chips for me. We agreed this was easily our best pub meals of the trip.

Wes enjoying the pub!

Pub open fireplace

Wales & England Autumn Dispatch - Saturday, 3rd November 2018

 

We spent 2 nights in Cardiff, mostly because I wanted to see Glenmorgan Cricket Ground! We left North Wales early in the morning after I sent the last Dispatch, thinking we had a 4 hour drive to our accommodation, a B&B in the university area, not far out of the city centre.

So we started off in a leisurely fashion, detouring to Harlech, where the castle didn’t look as impressive as Beaumaris, so we popped into a little café instead for hot drinks & a piece of toast for Wes. I had pocketed the large slice of bread that came with dinner the night before & smeared it with Vegemite for my breakfast that morning. Wes declined all offers to share.

Next stop was Corris (meaning female dwarf), which was a Welsh slate mining town. We were intrigued by signs to King Arthur’s labyrinth, but when we stopped it was basically a boat ride for children, so we moved on!

Our final stop was Cardigan, because we had read some weeks ago that the owner of the bookshop, Book Ends, had decided to raffle his business, and it was won by one of his favourite regular customers. Fortunately it was the last week for the owner & he was thrilled that we knew about him. We bought a couple of books & wished him well in retirement.

We finally arrived at our B&B on Newport Road; about 15 minutes walk from the city centre & were underwhelmed by the standard offered. We have a king size bed, a terrible shower & not much else. Then we realised that what we thought was costing us $140 per night, was actually $70, but we still hate the shower!

That night we had dinner at a local Italian restaurant, Gardineria di Sorrento, where we were overwhelmed by courtesy until we had spent about $140 there having olives, pasta & profiteroles!

Chocolate for him & lemon for me!

After I was stuck in the shower & had to be rescued, we approached breakfast with some trepidation. However, the large jar of Vegemite allayed our fears & we enjoyed fruit with muesli & yoghurt, followed by toast. Wes always tries the marmalade in honour of our first trip to the UK, where we met our dear friend, Squiz, and the two of them rated every marmalade at every breakfast place we visited together.

We walked into the City Centre & started our visit with a tour of Cardiff Castle, which is most impressive. The audio really helped our understanding & because we have been to the Island of Bute, we appreciated all that the second & third Marquess of Bute have done for Cardiff, even if their wealth came from mining!

I walked the steep stairs up to the highest point of the Keep & saw Wes below listening to the audio

Our next move was to take the Hop On Hop Off bus, which provided us with the most comprehensive tour & commentary of Cardiff. It didn’t encompass the cricket ground, but the bus driver was very happy to give us very clear directions after he couldn’t persuade us to look at their rugby stadium instead!

Next stop was the Museum, which houses a large art gallery as well. Much of the art was donated by Gwendoline & Margaret Davies, grand-daughters of David Davies, who spent their wealth acquiring art for Cardiff.

Renoir’s Blue Lady

We walked around the City Centre again looking for an early dinner, with no luck & ended up at The Four Elms pub about 2 minutes from our B&B, where we had fish & chips & scampi & chips – total cost $20 as we ordered before 5pm. I was very keen to avoid Halloween at all costs – I have not embraced it!

We left our B&B & drove to Glastonbury. As happens frequently, road-works added 45 minutes to our journey. We stopped at the Abbey Tea Rooms, a café that celebrates 30 years in business next year & enjoyed tea & crumpets.

We decided not to visit the Abbey as we had lost so much time & went for a walk around the town instead. It made us think of a mediaeval Nimbin. We visited the Norman Church of St Benedict instead & had a couple of lovely chats with local ladies there. Wes read about the lepers’ window but neither of them knew where it was. We found it later when we went outside.

We then had a long drive to Falmouth in Cornwall, where we are now. There was no-one at our AirBNB & we hadn’t been given the key safe code, so spent 90 minutes sitting in our car waiting. Wes rang AirBNB help & they were extremely helpful. Eventually the cleaner arrived in a taxi & opened the door for us. However, Deborah, who controlled the heating from next door, didn’t get home until after 8pm, by which time we were freezing cold. She was very apologetic, but had no answer for why she hadn’t read our messages over the past two days asking for the key safe code.

Our accommodation has a spacious bedroom/sitting room, long galley kitchen & the tiniest bathroom ever. Deborah promised to leave the heating on all the time for us, but we woke cold again this morning and the heaters didn’t come on until 7.30am, by which time we had watched all the Derby Day races, consumed hot drinks & put lots of clothes on to stay warm.

Yesterday we drove to Port Isaac, home of Doc Martin, which is just as pretty as it looks. We had fun wandering around the winding streets, looking at the shops & finally having Cornish cream tea with heart-shaped scones in the Chapel Café, recommended by Terry Borg, who has friends living in Port Isaac.

Wes has been wonderful, doing all the driving on this trip. I am in charge of Glacier Mints supply, working out parking machines, reading signs & interpreting the Tom Tom, when it isn’t immediately clear what she wants us to do.

Our next stop was Tintagel, home of King Arthur’s Castle, which, of course, was closed for renovations. However we did see the beautiful old Post Office, which made up for the disappointment.

Our final stop was Mullion Cove, where Wes has traced the Saundrys (my maiden name) back to the 16^th century, where they lived for about 100 years. The car park operates on an honesty box system!

Last night we had a meal without chips! Hooked was our choice of restaurant & it was wonderful. We shared a dozen Cornish oysters, yum, and Wes tried the local marwong with kale & mushrooms, while I enjoyed seafood linguini.

This morning we walked into the city centre for breakfast at Fuel, which opens 364 days a year for breakfast, lunch & dinner. I chose kedgeree, while Wes had a Falmouth breakfast of Cornish sausage, bacon, mushrooms & poached eggs. We wandered along the roads marvelling at the number of good quality galleries & clothes shops here, before I popped into what I thought was a hair-dresser with two bored girls chatting. It turned out to be a barber, but the delightful Estonian girl who charged me $5 to trim my fringe, was a find.

We are spending the rest of today getting up to date on my Dispatch, Trip Advisor, emails & messages, as well as washing & reading & relaxing. We have bought vegan Cornish pasties for dinner with a local brie for afters.