Glastonbury 2007

I finally have my photos back and other than the often appearing finger on the edge of pics they came out well and brought back great memories and good to see I included a photo of the corridor of casualties where so many of us fell...

Missing Sis

I miss my sister but I know she's happily back home with her hubbie and dogs and she'd had enough of London. NOT trying to make her miss London with this photo I took years ago from a bus.

I spent the weekend having a Glastonbury clean up in the sunshine. When I opened the tent bag I was overcome with Gastonbury fumes and memories - ah the sweet smell of mud....

It tooks ages to clean up my backpack. Which I blame entirely on the old guy in a suit who threw all the gumboots on top of the packs in the storage area of the coach - bastard!!!

I've washed my Sketchers twice and the mud stays exactly where it was before I tried, what's that all about???

Kylie and I just went over and saw Frank next door to thank him for looking out for Kylie's parcel (which never arrived) dropping a not so stuble hint that we'd like him to do the same tomorrow...

I'll well hooked on Heroes - just over halfway through the series I think. I started to like the character, Peter, the actor who I detested so much in Gilmore Girls.

I have a big meeting tomorrow which I'm sure is going to go haywire, there's just too many things that can go wrong, and no doubt will. I think after work I shall treat myself to something lovely and Londony.

Rye - Sunday 8 July

We drove back to Rye on a much more direct route than we had taken the previous evening and went in search of a place to eat breakfast that was open before 11am.

We finally found a lovely hotel that put us out the back in the bar where I read the tennis section of the sports section and started to stress on Federer's behalf...










We wandered around Rye checking out the open shops (not that many before 12pm) which were mostly 'antique' shops and I saw lots of things I would have purchased if I a) had money, b) had somewhere to put them.


We drove from Rye back towards London stopping in at Hever Castle which was overrun with children and we took off as soon as we finished the castle viewing (pretty much ruined by American taste) and checked out enough of the gardens to realise that there was going to be screaming children everywhere.

We marvelled at the Englishness of driving out to the countryside and picnicing in the parking lot of an attraction.

We drove back to Croydon and aimlessly wandered around until it was time to meet up with Kylie for Die Hard 4.0. YAY - got to love a no-brainer action film - this was just great fun. Nowhere near the appeal of the originals, I was mightly distracted by how white Bruce's teeth were, which reminded me of the only episode of Friends I enjoyed, when Ross over did the teeth whitening and glowed in the dark...

A Walk on the Wild Side - Saturday 7 July

Thanks to Kylie's website ane Anne's enthusiasm we found a great walk (although legs still recovering from Warwick Castle) which led us around the village of Pembury, taking us through many fruit orchards and up and down hills and around lakes (where we got a bit lost) and through forests and tackling lots of mud (Glasto flashback).

We saw a great variety of landscapes and the use of farmland in such a small area.


The view from the top was lovely and well worth the trek, I did try and take a short cut on the way back but Anne wouldn't let me and I'm happy we carried on as we met some nice horses and saw a bit of cricket.

We finished up in the Camden Arms for a quick drink and packet of crisps before heading off the Rye, which was packed so we ended up driving to Hasting to find somewhere to sleep in a seaside hotel on a wonderful angle which meant that when you got out of bed you were propelled downhill to the bathrooom...

We had a nice dinner at a local Italian restaurant where the waiter seemed to know everybody and did his job very well

Penhurst Place - Saturday 7 July

Home, Sweet Home

Well in our dreams anyways.... Anne and I both feel in love with Penhurst Place and it's beautiful grounds. To think that they gardens were first designed in the 13th century.

The family history was very interesting with some members of the family having very distinguished careers and appearing to be good people.

We just missed the market as we arrived a bit late (a common theme throughout our travels). We got waylaid in Royal Tunbridge Wells where there was a great French Market leading into the excitement of the Tour de France, which we had carefully made our plans to avoid... Brought lots of stuff at the market, including spending a ridiculous amount of money on sweets which have since made Ian and I feel very sick.



I would highly recommend that anybody go to this beautiful place. I think we were lucky that the weather came right just as we got there and there were very few other people there so you could easily feel as through you were the only people there, especially with the way the gardens were split into separate spaces.

I made the most of my holidays to have another cream tea, which are never as good as you expect. I remember having a wonderful one in the Blue Mountains many, many years ago and nothing has ever measured up since, not to say that I don't keep trying...



This is Anne's official pose for photos!

Warwick Castle - Friday 6 July

Whilst Lazy Bones Anne was dragging herself out of bed I went and collected the rental car. We packed up whilst speaking to Ma and Gilly who had phoned to see how Anne was getting on in the UK/Europe.

Another road trip - YAY!

We did a very quick drive through Windsor with a quick glimpse of the castle as we drove by...

Although not a weekend day, Warwick Castle was very busy, filled with screaming childen, an inappropriate band and lots of Americans.

Exploring Warwick Castle

We started by visiting 'The Kingmaker' attraction which recreates the mid fifteenth century world of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, Kingmaker. Pretty naff, highlighted by the fact that they put real people in as models which was quite startling and my favourite bit was the moving cat's tail which squeaked alarmingly.

We watched 'Winged Warriors', the birds of prey performance which had a wide selection of birds such as eagles, vultures, owls and hawks.

We also saw the dungeon, which interesting tourture equipment, followed by 'The Royal Weekend Party. In 1898, Daisy, Countess of Warwick hosted a weekend party at which the principle guest was the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, which is reenacted in a style (Versace overblown style that is). Rather wonderful in a very tacky way...

Next we scrambled up Guy’s Tower which was built in the 14th century. It is twelve-sided, stands 39 metres high and has five storeys and our thighes felt it for many days afterwards!

Next up was 'Dream of Battle' where you can experience the drama, noise and adrenaline-charged terror of mediaeval battle through the dreams of William, a 12 year old squire, as he sleeps the night before setting off to fight for the Earl of Warwick in the most decisive battle of the Castle’s history. You may have guessed that I pulled that explanation straight off the website...

Next up was the Chapel, Great Hall and State Rooms. The Great Hall is the largest room in the castle and throughout history has been its heart and is truely magnificent and looks like the brainchild of the NRA.



The Hall was first constructed in the 14th century. It was rebuilt in the 17th century and then restored in 1871 after it had been badly damaged by a fire which swept through part of the castle.

Sir Fulke Greville, the first Lord Brooke, authorised the building of the small chapel in the early 1600s. It may be on the site of another chapel founded as long ago as 1119.

Retaining portions of the mediaeval Castle of the 14th Century, the State Rooms have been extended, altered and embellished during virtually every century since to lavishly entertain the noblest of guests, and to display the family's most prestigious possessions.

Again, very gaudy and wonderfully OTT.



We checked out the pump house and gardens on our way out as well as stopping off to have a quick chat to the guy that manages the birds of prey. I found the pump house history very interesting, amazing how we take electricty for granted.

We drove back to Streatham in preparation for the second leg of the road trip.

Hampton Court Garden Show - Thursday 6 July

Anne, you again...

Did well making it here - had to change trains at Wimbledon, but knew i was on the right track by following the ladies in their designer gumboots. The show was huge - 13 acres of displays and stalls, the crowds were also large and it made it hard to see some of the display gardens. I unfortunatly might not have any photos of this as although i took the camera - it didnt have a battery in it, so have taken quite a few on the phone but as yet have not been able to get them out of it - watch this space! Anyway trust me it was great, and the gardens of Hampton Court were beautiful.

Wednesday 4 July

Anne - over to you again

Today I headed to Oxford Street again - but with a mission, I wanted to crash an auction at Sothebys. So with a slightly better state of dress and a determined attitude a followed the distinguished looking ladies and gentlemen who had just been dropped of by their chaffeur driven Bentleys up to the auction room. The place was very fully so a stood down the back and for an hour watched 10's of thousands of £'s being bidded for old masters drawings. The highest price was for a Reubens that went for £30,000. I then went round the corner to Hamleys - 4 floors of toy store. Lots of fun with all sorts of toys being demonstrated by very enthusiastic sales assistants. Spent about an hour deciding to buy a rather georgeous collectable teddy bear. Finished off the other end of Oxford Street, and then managed to time it just right so i had a bus full of school kids on the way home.

Tuesday 3 July

Anne this one's for you!

Today I hit the high street - Oxford and Regent Street that is. Quite a shock! I had to cue just to get in the changing rooms in the first shop I went in to - which i later found out was quite usual for Primark (cheap tho). I only made it about 3/4 up the road before calling it a day about 4. So shopped till I dropped!

Vienna day 3

YAY - finally saw the horses of the Spanish Riding School in action. They were amazing. Changing leads on every stride, don't know how they train them to do that, let alone the jumps although I could sort of tell how they trained them to do that (I think...).

Today has been very warm and after the SRS performance we hid out in the museum which was equally amazing. The Egyptian section alone was well worth the entry price and then the Roman section was very good too. After lunch we tackled the paintings, not a huge amount of variety but still very enjoyable.

Next we crossed the square to the natural history museum, which was in a twin building but that's where the similarities ended. OMG it was pretty awful, more like a junk shop masquerading as a museum. Although it probably didn't help that we did it back to front, although all the good stuff was at the start/finish with the prehistoric animals, of which they had quite a good selection.

Have now tottled back to the hostel for the evening, a chill out session. Hopefully our journey home won't be too bad with the UK under maximum security.