from west to north with some memories on the way
I am writing this at about 35000ft in the air, moving at very close to the speed of sound. And taking it all quite for granted. But in the last few days we re-visited one of the places of my childhood- in the days when 300 mph for a fighter aircraft was really something – and flying at the speed of sound (or over, as many now do) was not even thought about. (well, maybe by the boffins)
We had left the wild beauty of Tintagel and Clovelley and made our way back East to the more prosaic Weston-Super-Mare and now moved on towards Stratford on Avon, heading to the Midlands. But on the way we purposed to visit some spots I had fond memories of, as a teenager. First was the house of my aunt, in Chippenham in Wiltshire, where a whole bunch of cousins stayed when things got a bit too dangerous back on the edge of London where we were living. 3 families: 9 children plus their mothers, plus a lodger all crammed into a fairly small 3-bedroom semi-detached home. We stayed there a couple of times, once for about a year and also for a holiday, if my memory serves me right. Well we were passing close by, and with the aid of Rob’s trusty GPS we found the street once more. It seems that every house we have lived in is left to decay in later years. A neighbour informed us that the gentleman that used to live there had just gone into a home as the place was too much for him. As clearly it was, with peeling paint and weed-infested front garden. But this was the place of many childhood memories and it was rather nice to see that it was still there, and likely to be so for many a year to come.
Then on to another place of happy memories – Cheddar Gorge, which I had cycled up a few times while bike-touring with good mates, and had later cycled up again in training as a racing cyclist while in the RAF at Locking, near Weston-S-Mare. It was even more of a gorge than I remembered and we were all quite spell-bound by the magnitude of it.
Then on to the famous caves at Wookey Hole, but oh, what a disappointment! The place has now been turned into an Entertainment complex, with the caves and the hand paper-making almost an add-on to the games parlour etc. And the charges were exorbitant. So, we gave the caves a miss, and consoled ourselves with an ice-cream instead.
One last place before we turned North? Yes we would Make the time, and so we pressed on to the cathedral city of Wells.
We and a picnic lunch on the green sward in front of the Cathedral and took in the beauty of this ancient town.
Finally we headed North and made our way to the home of Bill Shakespeare – Stratford-on-Avon. Fascinating to walk up old cobble-stone streets and see houses that were built 400 years ago, still going strong. A little bent here and there and a sag or two evident – but at my age I can relate to that with sympathy.
The incongranuity of the Asian Ice-cream seller next to William Shakespear’s birth[lace struck us forcefully
We stayed in the front yard of another friendly couch-surfing family who let us use all their ‘civilised’ facilities. The next day my daughter and I were scheduled to leave the happy band of vanners and drive a hire-car to York. Meanwhile the tribe were scheduled to go and visit Warwick Castle on the same day. But overnight the heavens opened up and the morning dawned grey and very wet. Our trip to York was still on, but the Tribe were left to re-schedule their activities.
Rob drove us to the car hire place where I was expecting to pick up the smallest, cheapest, Ford they had on the books. But when I checked in I discovered that they had no record of my on-line booking. The only car they had available was a streamlined rocket – a VW Sirocco. And it was virtually brand-new! (sorry – no picture) The increase in cost was minimal and the rain was still pouring down, so I did not argue!
Our plan was to head East until we connected with the M1 and then high-tail it Northwards to York. I thought it might take about 4 hrs max. But we are getting quite used to our progress on the road being frustrated by circumstances, and this day was no exception. It rained and rained and with the rain came slow driving and accidents. We didn’t actually see any accidents but we encountered slow traffic and detours all the way up’ We had hoped to arrive at about 3.0pm. Instead we finally checked in to our B & B at about 6!
The only good thing was that it had finally stopped raining, so after a quick cuppa we were off to explore the city. And an intriguing, historic city it is. With the Minster
With a sturdy Wall encircling the old city,
with ancient buildings leaning crazily towards each other
and ancient cobbled streets
and fascinating architecture on every corner
we were totally enraptured by York.
Then the tummies started to rumble and so we had a bite to eat. Coming out of the restaurant at about 9.0pm, we looked up and down the narrow streets and made a guess as to which way was ‘home’. We both agreed on a direction and started walking. To cut a long story short, after we had passed the same three bridges 4 times, and found a helpful bill-board map, we wearily reached home at about 11.0 pm. It had been a long day!
Tags: Digs, Transport, Travel, Weather, Tag Index
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