The Next Patch

Celebrating life's great adventures..............

Friday 25 May 2012

London & surrounds.....

Our great travel adventure is drawing to a close but before we depart a little about our visits to areas surrounding London.

Oxford one of the world's great university towns with a rich history dating back 750 years...




Hampton Court Palace the one time home of King Henry V111 & located on the River Thames.....

The Palace houses an amazing collection of tapestries, many from the time of Henry V111. How talented the artisans & weavers were who designed & woven these works - just look at some of the amazing detail in these pieces......




We went to the Theatre to see the wonderful musical Jersey Boys. It was fabulous.......it put a real "spring in the step"....  My niece Merran joined us and before the show we had dinner at a local mexican restaurant where Mez works..........

It's been a wonderful trip but after 6 weeks we depart London today for our homeward journey via Hong Kong. Stay posted - the next blog will be coming from School Lane...........

Wednesday 23 May 2012

London - where the sun does shine!!

We have been in London for nearly 2 weeks & I must say it is as entertaining as ever. We have enjoyed the sights & sound and spent time with my lovely niece Merran who is currently living & working in London. In particular she introduced us to the Borough Markets, well known London fresh food markets offering an amazing selection of fresh foods and wines...... We lunched on some delicious delights, along with hundreds of Londoners & other travellers!

But..........today, dear Reader, I'm delighted to report that coats, scarves & boots have been cast aside because, at long last, warm weather & sun shine has arrived................. To celebrate we spent much of yesterday out & about enjoying the sun. The afternoon was spent roaming around the north London suburb of Hampstead - an area I lived in when I worked in London in my youth!! We finished the day with a lovely walk on Hampstead Heath and joined many others napping on the grass around the heath's pond......


The view sky ward from our resting spot on the grass..............

St Paul's Cathedral under a glorious blue sky!
Our roaming also took us to Westminster Cathedral with its glorious collection of mosaics. This is a recently added mosaic of St Paul.....


Finally on a sunny day the locals doing what Londoners do well - sitting in the midday sun enjoying their lunch.....

Earlier in the week we joined English friends for a long lunch at Kettners Restaurant in Soho. These are friends from past travel adventures to the Wonderful Workshops in Jaipur India so their was much talk & catching up! We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon celebrating joy of friendship....


For a wonderful 360 degree bird's eye view of London I recommend a ride on the London Eye....


One familiar view from The Eye on a somewhat overcast day......


We've had a few day trips outside London including to Oxford & Hampton Court Palace, so stay posted for more about that later. Tonight we are off to the West End to see the Jersey Boys....
Until the next post, K & R......  

We are

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Cornwell & Devon....

Blogging has been a bit slow on this trip as it's been hard to find internet access that enabled easy uploading of photos & what is a blog entry without photos????
Initially we arrived in London, hired a car & travelled to Cornwell via Somerset. We spent a week based in the quaint town of Fowey on Cornwell's south coast. In spite of almost constant rain we enjoyed our travels around Cornwell & Devon.

Fowey is an old fishing village with steep narrow streets leading from the cliff top down to the fishing cove. The streets are barely wide enough for a single car, so it was a case of pedestrians jumping into door ways or any available space to allow cars to pass

Our cottage was located on the cliff top, so.......depending on our daily perspective / mood the steep streets provided good exercise or a real challenge!!

In its early days Fowey was a fishing village but these days it has reinvented itself as a popular holiday destination.


You can probably appreciate the steep walk from the water front to the cliff top!


These are the steps leading from the road to our cottage. There are numerous steeps around the village & these are called as "Steep Steps" - and, how appropriate!!

The streets, houses & gardens of Fowey.....................




We also spent some time exploring Devon, specifically the Dartmoor area which was home to ancestors of mine who came to Australia in the 1850's. Buckfastleigh was the birth place of my great, great grandparents - these are the ruins of Holy Trinity Church where my ancestors would no doubt have worshipped & the surrounding cemetry is the final resting place of some....


My great grandmother, Kathleen Chaffe, was born in Princeton which is located in the middle of the inhospitable Dartmoor moors. This town is also home to the infamous Dartmoor Prison which still operates as a corrective centre to this day.


On a lighter note, we visited Port Isaac, a quaint village on Cornwell's north coast. It's claim to fame is that it was location for the filming of Doc Martin. Fans of this delightful program will recognised Doc's home, the school & the harbour..........



We bid farewell to Fowey & Cornwell & headed for London via Salisbury.

More about London soon, so stay posted!! Until the next post, K & R........

PS: The last few days in London have provided fine weather & some promise of sunshine!!

Monday 14 May 2012

Paris to Cornwell to London..........

Been a while since the last post - since then our adventure in Paris came to an end and we travelled from Paris to London on the Eurostar - the great railway journey under the English channel!

We are now back in London after 10 days exloring Cornwell & Devon including a week in the Cornish coastal town of Fowey! We travelled to Cornwell via Somerset where we stayed with a friend, Christine, for a few days in the very pretty village of Crewkerne. Christine showed us around the area including historic medieval Wells Cathedral. Fowey & the Cornwell / Devon areas were lovely but more about that in the next post...........

Why are we back in London? Well..........as it sometimes happens we have experienced unfortunate travelling weather - rain, wind & cold! Therefore we decided to extend our planned stay in London rather than drive around the country side in the rain!!!

But, before we get to our England adventure a few final glimpses of our Paris roamings - unfortnuately it wasn't good weather for photography......   Notre Dame's glorious rose window.......


The patchwork shop, La Rouvray, is well known to dedicated patchworkers world wide. After exploring the small back streets close to Notre Dame we located this quaint shop! One travellers joy is evident......

 The River Seine & Paris roof tops - from our hotel room window......

And, finally, the sun shine arrived for our last day in Paris.............

While based in Paris we used the ever efficient France train service to visit surrounding places. The places included Bayeux an old city in Normandie which is home to the renouned Bayeax Tapestry. This remarkable tapestry was embroidered in the 11th century and vividly tells the story of the Norman invasion of england in 1066. Given its great age thisowrk of art, which is in fact an embroidery work & not a tapestry, is remarkably well preserved. Unfortunately photography was not allowed.

We also visited Chateau du Chenonceaux.... a spectacular sight build over the River Cher during the 1500's!


And, Giverney, home to the beautiful garden established by the artist Claude Monet & his home for many years. A few glimpses including the water lilly pond which featured prominently in his art works....




Stay posted for further tales of our travels in England.

Au voir from Paris - our "singin' in the rain" tour............, K & R.........