Travelling B16's

We entered the magnificent Lake District after one of the longer drives of our trip. One of the features our Swedish Commodore has which is of great benefit on the motorways is a radar assisted cruise control which automatically keeps the correct distance from the car in front. The traffic density on the motorways here is such that a standard cruise control would be of limited use.

Our first stop was Windermere on Lake Windermere and we were greeted as we stepped out of the car by a howling North Westerly (South Westerly Down Under) with, alternately, sleet, freezing rain, sunshine and hail. We quickly shelved the idea of an idyllic boat cruise on the lake (!) and settled for a brief promenade along with the zillion other tourists – yes it was indeed the start of the Easter holidays – a point which we had overlooked until now.

Back to the car and on to Lake Bassenthwaite. The crowds diminished as we went North – those old Bassenthwaites obviously knew a thing or two – and we arrived at the very pleasant old world tourist lodge Ravenstone Manor, just a couple of miles south of Bassenthwaite village. After settling in we hopped back in the car and drove up to the village for a beer at “The Sun”. Naturally we drank “Bassenthwaite Beauty” – quite a respectable beer.

We dined at the Hotel and next day, not quite so windy but still changeable, we went looking for Beatrix Potter’s “Hill Top Farm” via the back roads (not strictly intentional) and experienced much of the narrow one car wide lanes bounded by stone walls, hoping no one was coming the other way.

There is a wild beauty here with the great rounded mountains and timeless stone walled farms and the lakes which make Cumbria a place you must see no matter what.

We finally found “Hill Top” which is faithfully preserved by the National Trust much as Beatrix Potter left it. Many of the scenes she drew for her books were sketched here and you can see Mr. McGregors garden, the watering can which Peter Rabbit hid in, the chimney Tom Kitten climbed up and many other scenes. She was also a highly respected breeder and judge of sheep and the descendants of her flock are still on the farm.

That night we dined at “the Sun” on traditional pub fare. In the morning we visited ancient St Bega’s on the Lake shore and St John’s in the Village and signed the church visitors register in both places. At St John’s we noted in recent years visits by other Bassingthwaightes from Vancouver, Seattle and Dubbo.

Then it was on to Edinburgh.

This seemed to be the reaction by most people over here to our itinerary and indeed we were asking ourselves the same thing after a perilous journey through the roundabouts on the way to our very budget hotel (yes we’ve been spoiled), then dragging our luggage from an adjoining car park in the rain because they had no parking or anywhere to stop.

This feeling was further reinforced on our drawn out search for a decent pub to have our evening meal. Indeed it was mentioned out loud that why, when Coventry was bombed, didn’t they knock the rest down and put in some negotiable streets. After numerous dead ends, nearly taking out a police car and several false starts we did find a very nice pub and, after a few drinks and a good meal, things started to look up.

Back at the hotel Ed had a brimming hot bath (to get his monies worth) and we both had a good nights sleep and a great breakfast.

The next day we headed for the Cathedral and spent a really interesting day in the ruined Cathedral and then down to the new Cathedral, which I loved. Its modernist design was fairly controversial but has become a hugely popular symbol of reconciliation. The architect insisted that instead of re-building the old cathedral it should be kept in ruins as a garden of remembrance and that the new cathedral should be built alongside, the two buildings together effectively forming one church.

It has some lovely chapels, in particular the Chapel of Christ in Gethsemane, and some sensational stained glass work. We particularly liked the bowed window behind the baptismal font (which is a boulder from Bethlehem). Unfortunately the huge tapestry behind the altar was down for cleaning

We had a walk through the Holy Trinity Church and admired the courage of Rev Graham Clitheroe, vicar of Holy Trinity at the time of the bombing. He, along with his curate and one of his sons, throughout one of the heaviest and most concentrated raids of the blitz, spent the night walking up and down on the ancient rounded roof of the church, throwing the small incendiary bombs off. Next door, only about 50 metres away, the cathedral blazed after direct hits, as well as the ammunition factories nearby.

The Coventry raid was the first major raid in WW2 in which radio beam navigation was used to guide bombers to a target.

Our last stop was the Coventry Transport Museum. We didn’t realize what a big part Coventry played in the development of the bicycle and later the motorbike and car. The Museum is very interesting as you trace the first penny farthing bikes, through to racing bikes, the original cars through to the latest Jags and finally the different models of land speed record breakers, including the first vehicle to break the sound barrier and set a new land speed record.

As we left the next morning and the boom gate lifted to let us out of the car park, an enormous gust of wind ripped it out of its moorings and hit us a glancing blow
(no damage) before collapsing in a heap of wood and wires. Is there some significance in that?

Bombing statistics
• 522 German bombers took off from France.
• 21 bombers made a diversionary raid on London, 22 more laid mines on the Thames.
• 449 bombers (according to German records) actually reached Coventry.
• 1 enemy aircraft officially shot down by anti-aircraft guns. Another claimed but not confirmed.
• 135 sorties flown by defence aircraft, only two actually opened fire on bombers, but none shot down.
• 881 canisters containing a total of around 30,000 incendiaries were dropped.
• 64 light capacity flare-bombs were dropped.
• Between 1,200 & 1,600 high explosives and oil bombs, totalling 503 tons, were dropped.
• The high explosives contained a mixture of between 50kg and 500kg in weight.
• Among the HE’s were around 50 parachute mines (also known as land-mines) weighing 1,000kg each.

Laden with our bakery efforts we set forth to Bath via Lyme Regis. Ian (the chef from our B&B) had recommended a friend of his as a cheese maker and had rung him up to organize some cheese and wine to go with our bread.

Lyme Regis is a very popular tourist town on the coast. We walked down through the beachside gardens to the Tower Cheese Shop checking out the specialty shops on the way. After having made our purchases and adding a cheeseboard and a couple of thermoses we were ready to roll.

We had the time so avoided the motorways and made our way to Bath via the secondary roads. Our stop in Bath was at a beautiful Georgian B&B called Apsley House. We had a room right at the top of the building – great view but no lift!!

By this time we were so relaxed we didn’t know what day it was as evidenced by our turning up at the theatre a day early. There we were all done up in our best and settled into our great seats when the rightful owner of the seats turned up. Fortunately for us the theatre pacified them with some other seats and we got to stay and enjoy the performance in this stunning little theatre.

Next day it was down into Bath and on to the Big Red Bus for an overview (and to shelter from the drizzle). By the time we were on our second time around we had ourselves sorted and hopped off at the Royal Crescent and made our way into No. 1 – an interesting example of Georgian life during Bath’s heyday.

From there we did all the Bath attractions – and loved them. The Roman Baths, the Assembly Room which had an exhibition of Fashion through the Ages which was really great, the Pump Room, the Abbey and finishing off with a Bath bun at Sally Lunn’s. We wandered through the Circus and Queen Square and admired the architecture and even did some shopping.

Next day we did a tour of the outskirts of Bath and were regaled with stories of highwaymen and turnpikes before packing up our bags and headed for Coventry.

Down we went on the farm cart pulled by a tractor to the River Cottage Cooking School at River Cottage HQ. We had been warned the previous night that the day was going to be tough and exhausting by two of the previous day’s participants, who staggered in and collapsed at the bar of our fabulous B&B.

Dead on 10am we started. A quick discussion on different types of flours and we were away. Eight eggs to be folded and kneaded into the flour for the brioche then on to the baguettes, which had to be ready for lunch, then on to the sourdough and the rolling and folding of the croissants. By 2 o’clock we were in a state of frenzy and reeling on our feet but our baguettes were cooked and perfect and the River Cottage lunch was great.

For the rest of the day we rolled, folded and proved our baking items and at the end of the day we had, between us, 8 baguettes, 2 round loaves of sourdough, 12 brioche buns and 12 croissants – and Andy, the teacher, declared us to have qualified for the title of bakers.

We had a look round the River Cottage dining room and kitchen, where all the filming is done and also round the vegetable garden ready for spring planting and then back up the hill and back to our B&B.

The White House Hotel and B&B is in the very pretty village of Charmouth, which is on the coast. It is a listed Regency house, beautifully restored and has 4 guest bedrooms, all very spacious with a huge bathroom and wonderful bath.

Ian and Liz were our hosts and we had dinner there the first night. Ian is a chef and it was a brilliant meal, imaginative and well executed, one of the nicest meals I have eaten in a long time. We were very flattered when Ian tasted our baking and then said he would be happy to serve it in the restaurant. We offloaded all but a couple of baguettes, one loaf of sourdough, some croissants and some brioche..

We had previously booked dinner that night at River Cottage Canteen so, somewhat reluctantly, changed and went out again. So glad we did. It was a fun menu with lots of different things. I had warm pheasant breast salad with pig’s ear bacon, apple and hazelnut dressing and Ed had two entrees , mackerel gravadlax and air dried shaved venison (and a beer……)

Next on to Bath

Felt quite at home catching the car ferry across (though our guys are a lot more efficient at loading). Sailed quite close to the American aircraft carrier ‘Theodore Roosevelt’ which was interesting.

Loved the Isle of Wight, which seems to be of an earlier time with its quaint villages and country lanes.

Rather sorry we didn’t stay a night here though we are a little early in the season for Osborne House (Queen Victoria’s residence) and the rather magnificent Carisbrooke Castle.

We visited the Ventnor Botanic Gardens, which are located on south facing slopes and grow a wide variety of plants up to subtropical. Very well laid out and an interesting walk around.

The beaches are quite lovely. Could easily see me having a holiday here. (Ed:not sure about these “beaches” Lindy saw – I must have been looking the other way for a split second!)

Had dinner in another pub. Ed is getting addicted to English pubs and diverts in to a pub every chance he gets to quaff another pint of English ale

Next day was back to the dockyards to inspect the Victorian armored warship the Warrior. She and her sister ship The Black Prince patrolled the Channel and were so formidable and far ahead of everything else the French and Spanish had to offer that they never fired a shot. They were the ultimate deterrent.

The Warrior was equally as interesting as The Victory and her restoration story almost as epic a story as The Mary Rose. It is brilliantly done and fascinating how they all lived on board for years at a time. It is a mixture of the ‘modern’ and the traditional in weapons as in accommodation. I particularly liked the fact that they had bathrooms and hand cranked washing machines but still used a hole in the deck for the loo.

On to River Cottage

Saturday saw us off to Battle Abbey where we walked the battlefield of the Battle of Hastings looking at the terrain through the eyes of King Harold then William the Conqueror. A close fought battle between two seasoned campaigners, which could have gone either way. Harold’s army may have been tired having force marched down from the north but he held the high ground and was well entrenched. William had a superior force and was a wily opponent but had to fight his way uphill which limited the use of his heavily laden cavalry and made it difficult for the archers. It was far more interesting than I had expected with great displays of weapons and armor and a v. interesting audio tour. It is popularly conceded that this was the “best battle England ever lost” making way for a strong Britain under Norman rule.

The next day we headed for Brighton and the Royal Pavilion for a look at a totally different Royal exploit. What a magnificent example of overindulgence! The dining room and the music room are sensational and the kitchen a delight for any cook.

Walked out along Brighton Pier – quite crowded even on a chilly Sunday afternoon. Then headed along to Portsmouth. The driving in UK so far is better than I expected and lots of interesting scenery/ on the secondary roads.

Monday was spent at the historic Naval Dockyard. We walked all the decks of the Victory, which was awe inspiring, then the Mary Rose wreck which was recovered in 1980’s after 400 years on the bottom. More interesting than the hull remnant, which was impressive enough, were all the relics and personal items recovered with the wreck.

Off to the Isle of Wight tomorrow

I am writing this blog overlooking the ocean sitting in the window seat of our warm and comfortable room.

The dreaded long flight turned out to be not too bad and we arrived in England to be informed by Hertz that we were in luck and had been upgraded from a medium size car to a luxury car for only a little more! Spent the next 30 minutes trying to work out in our sleep deprived befuddled mind how much a ‘little more’ actually was (take away this, add that, don’t forget to add the bond and the tank of fuel, calculate the savings of a diesel and convert everything).

Came to the conclusion as we hurtled down the motorway towards Hasting in our brand new, never been driven, luxury Volvo with all the bells and whistles including heated leather seats, that it was actually quite a bit more but decided philosophically (and also a little late to change) that as our home away from home for the next 8 weeks it wasn’t too bad.

The Zanzibar Hotel turned out to be everything it boasted and Max made us very welcome. We had a bite to eat, tried out the steam shower and sauna in a hit and miss way (tricky seeing with glasses in a steam room) and fell into bed.

Today we have gone for a long walk along the promenade, explored the old town part of Hastings with it’s cobbled streets and narrow alleyways and had a pint in Ye Old Pump Station.
We drove to Eastbourne and partook of a sumptuous afternoon tea at the magnificent The Grand Hotel.

Tomorrow it is a visit to the site of the Battle of Hastings. Having discovered over afternoon tea that our knowledge of the battle is a little sketchy we intend to study it in detail over wine and cheese so to be prepared for the next part of our adventures.

This time next week we will be in Hastings! Hard to believe that all the preparations are finished and we are nearly ready to go. Only a bit of gardening to do, chooks to go on their ‘holiday’ to Ben and Claire’s and last minute communications with those who are looking after things here. Both getting very excited!

We wanted to share our travels with family and friends. Travel with us through the English countryside, watch us run aground/get stuck in a loch/fall overboard on the canals of Scotland and Wales, freeze in the Scottish Highlands and catch up with family in Ireland. Hope you enjoy our adventures!