Arrived in UK

We had a wonderful flight considering it wassome 13 and 1/2 hours.   We had a smalldelay leaving as a Doctor, not sure if he was medical or professor, misplacedhis passport and could not fly, so his luggage had to be off loaded.  So after sitting around for that many hoursand eating 2 meals, which I must say are very amazing, much better thanprevious airline food I have turned my nose up at.  We arrived at Heathrow, could not believe the number of peopleracing to get through customs.   It tookus about an hour, no event to report.  We then sat back had a coffee, which Eddie gave his stamp of approvalto, the coffee shop is AMT Coffee, got our heads around what we needed to do,worked out the Underground and then proceed to our  B & B for the next two nights.

Josephines B & B is very nice oldEnglish 3 storied home in Chelsea, which is very close to tube and busservices.   We had a fax waiting for usfrom Pat and Harry, couple we met on cruise to NZ in Feb of this year.   Gave them a call, no time for a visit,just had a catch up on the phone.  Eddie rested for the day so that he could get over the flight, I wentfor a walk around the area to get my bearings.   Always like to check out what is in the neighborhood.  We have a Bar and Restaurant across the roadfrom B & B that looks like the place to eat our evening meal.   Gave my nephew Geoff a call and after muchdiscussion we have arranged to see each other after our show tomorrow, whichwill be great have not seen Geoff for around 8 years.

Wednesday 28th May

Today is rather overcast and looks likerain, we can live with it, its not the Gold Coast, it is England afterall.   At breakfast we decide to takethe no 211 bus and go and have a look at Westminster Abbey, we don’t have much timetoday so this seems the best option.  The bus does pass Buckingham Palace Gardens, Hyde Park and St James’sPark before arriving at Westminster Abbey.  Amazing cathedral, we could also see Big Ben and the London Eye.   So while it was a quick visit, we can saywe have seen it.   We have tickets for amatinee at the Dominion Theatre for “We Will Rock You”, the show of music ofQueen by Ben Elton.   Show was awesome,we had great seats, I had booked these on the internet back in earlyMarch.   This show has been running formore than 4 years and they are still packing them in.    We took a London Cab to the theatre which was an interestingride as we had a cabbie that was more then happy to talk.   So he pointed out some of the local pointsof interest for us, brought us up to date with the local economy and how hewould solve it.   The price of petrolhere in UK is around 1.16 pounds a litre.   Drove downOxford Street, which only allows Buses and Cabs to drive it, there were peopleeverywhere and he told us that it was a quite day.   There is something like 8000 people that commute into Londoneach day for work.   Charged us 23pounds for the experience.

After the show we caught up with Geoff andhad coffee and a real good chinwag about families and what we have done.   Got another cab back to B & B as it wasaround 7.30pm and the tube was packing them in so decided that was not theoption for us.   This cabbie had nothingto say and charged 20 pounds.   We haddinner at the restaurant across from B & B, great meal much improved fromthe meal we had the night before.   Wehad taken the advice from Josephine and gone to one of the restaurants on FulhamRoad, fish and chips for me and steak and chips for Eddie.   Yes that’s all that we got, no greens orsalad, big, big mistake visiting that restaurant.

Thursday 29th May

We took the opportunity this morning to walkdown Fulham road to the Chelsea football ground, could not get in and see theground but had a walk around the place.  Big set up with a merchandise store the size of a department store likeTarget in our local shopping centre at Robina and they had a row of 20checkouts, amazing.

We then found an old cemetery, BromptonCemetery.   We found graves as old as1861.

We then left B & B for Victoria Stationto travel by train to Wittering, West Sussex, with Eddie’s sister and brotherin-law, Darlene and Ken.   Thecountryside down this way is incredibly green and wide-open fields.    Everything is green, very flat, there arenot many hills and what there is, are very low.   The houses are made of stone and or bricks, some with thatchedroofs.   

Friday 30th May

We took a drive to Bosham Village, which isabout half an drive from Wittering.  This village is situated by a natural harbour, with winding streets,quaint cottages and has been associated with the sea since Roman times.   Legend has it that Canute got his feet andthrone wet a Bosham.   Saw the very old,pre 1064, Saxon Church, which stands next to a millstream.   It is said that the crusaders on returningfrom war blunted their swords in the shape of a cross above the church door.

The harbour attracts a variety of boats andsailors all year round.   At high tidethe sea has been known to come right up to some of the houses one street backfrom the harbour, hence the high step and small doors leading into some of thehomes.

Most of the places we have driven to are onnarrow winding roads, some places are so narrow that you need to pull over andlet the vehicles coming towards you pass.  Plenty of old English Pubs, with the most interesting names, The Pigand Cow, The Black Pig etc.   The homesin this area also don’t have street numbers the house have names.

Saturday 31st May

Ken and I went to a boot sale at Ford on anold air field, a lot of this area has history with World War 2.   Just outside the door of the place thatDarlene and Ken live in was a landing area during this time also.

This afternoon we visited Ken’s uncles placeat Bognor Regis and had High Tea.

Getting out and about and seeing lots.   We are both enjoying the opportunity and making the most of it.