London 3/11/12 - Melbourne 5/11/12

After a good nights sleep, we woke at about 8am and we headed down for our last breakfast here in our Hotel in London. Tummies full after yogurt and toast, we headed back up to our room to pack our cases for the last time before heading down to the foyer to check out. We left our luggage at the Hotel then headed to Paddington Station to get our daily travel card then set about finding the bus that would take us to The Tower of London. After much frustration of not knowing where the bus would leave from, we asked a bus driver who told us "take a 23 bus to Trafalgar Square followed by a 15 bus to The Tower". So on board a 23 we got which ended up detouring round so many streets we had no idea where we were till suddenly we were at Trafalgar Square! Off we jumped and decided to do a quick photo stop as the only times we had been here was on a bus passing through. This only took about 10minutes then we found a 15 bus which took us on the next leg of our journey.

This trip took about 3 times longer than it should have due to a massive crane doing some repair work to a building along one of the streets. So what should have been a half hour journey took us 2 hours! We were exhausted before we began our visit to the Tower of London. We decided to have a bit of lunch before going any further so we found a restaurant where we had a Latte each along with an omelette for Michael and toasted sandwich for me.

We both felt quite a bit better once we had re-fueled so we got our tickets and headed into the Historic site of Tower of London. In  the 1070's William the Conqueror began to build  a massive stone tower at the centre of his London fortress. England had never seen anything like it before. He intended his mighty 'White Tower' to not only dominate the skyline but also the hearts an minds of the Londoners.

There were so many things  to see here however the main attraction I wanted to see were the Crown Jewels, so we headed up towards the building where they were housed, and found ourselves facing a massive queue! Uninspired to wait, we ducked into Jewel Store and looked around before speaking to one of the staff who recommended it was definitely worth the wait, so back up we went to join the queue! 30 minutes later we did get to wander through and saw some pretty amazing crown jewels.

Once we finished wandering through the Crown Jewels display we decided to exit the palace as we still had to fight the traffic and get back to the Hotel, so off we headed - however this time we tried the train. It ended up being a much better option and about 45 minutes later we were back in the Hotel, sitting relaxing with a Latte and biding our time until our taxi was due at 5.30 to take us to Heathrow Airport.

The taxi arrived early and we were at the airport by about 6pm where we checked our luggage in, re-arranged the weight in our hand luggage, organised our VAT returns, then made our way to security. This time I was the one to receive the frisk as my boots alarmed as I went through the security check! Then I got pulled over to have my back pack swabbed whilst Michael sailed through. We had about 3 hours to kill, so between the two of us we found seats and either sat waiting or prowled around the shops stretching our legs.

The two flights home were on the A380 which we had both been looking forward to. We boarded the plane and were off just after 10pm so we settled in for the long flight ahead of us with food being served not long after take off and then we both managed to snooze on and off throughout the flight. We ended up losing most of the day as it was 6.30pm in Singpore when we landed and also quite humid which was vastly different from London. We both removed outer layers of clothing as soon as we could before finding a place to sit were we had a cold iced coffee.

I quickly grabbed the last small souvenir that I had forgotten before heading back to the transfer lounge to wait to board the next and last leg of our holiday - our flight back to Melbourne. This was boarding at 8.15pm for a departure of 9.30pm. We were seated on the upper deck for this flight and there appeared to be slightly more room up there which was great. This flight was only 6 and a half hours and again, more food, a little more shut eye before we landed into Melbourne at approximately 7am.


We proceeded through the various customs, security and baggage collection points reasonably smoothly before we organised a lift back to the long term parking to collect my car. On the way home we picked up Michaels car and then before we knew it we had arrived back home where our journey had began just five short weeks ago. As I unpacked and sorted our souvenir and gifts Milo (who I think had missed us both) gave me a helping hand to ensure that I sorted it all correctly!

This has been an amazing journey, we have seen so many things that we never imagined we would, we both turned 50 as well as celebrating our 3rd Wedding Anniversary! It almost seems a life time ago that we left, but we crammed so much into the time we were away. We have so many memories to treasure and will never forget our  2012 European/UK adventure. Thank you for sharing this journey with us, it was a diary I had always planned to write and will now work on transforming it into photo books so we can have the memories at hand!

Alison and Michael - FiftybyTwo xxx

London 2/11/12

Happy Birthday to me, 50 years old today!! Don't feel any different but not so happy with the number.

So, no sleep in for us, the alarm went off at 6.30, up, showered, had coffee and the Van packed ready to leave by 8am. We had a last couple of photos with Dafydd and Marian before we said our goodbyes then back on the road heading South.

We had a quick breakfast stop at about 9.00 then straight on to Flamstead where - after much confusion and frustration - we filled the Van with fuel ready to be returned at the depot. The process here was a lot quicker than we thought, and we then got a lift to Harpenden Rail Station. This was the part of our journey we were not looking forward to, but it was not as stressful as our previous experience. We caught a train to Farringdon Station and then by chance discovered the platform that the next train to Paddington left from, so we jumped aboard the next train and arrived at Paddington Station at about 1.00.

Once we were back in familiar surroundings we breathed a sigh of relief. My birthday lunch consisted of  sausage roll and lemonade at the station before heading off to the 'Quality Crown Hotel' our accommodation for tonight were we stayed prior to heading off on the road trip.

Our room wasn't quite ready when we arrived so we left our luggage and ducked down to the hotel bar for a coffee and cookie - my birthday cake apparently! - before walking back to Paddington Station to collect a couple of gifts we had left until now along with some photo's of our two favourite restaurants.

By the time we returned, our room was ready so we had a couple of hours to relax and catch up on messages before catching a cab to the Lyceum Theatre. We had pre-booked our tickets for The Lion King before leaving Melbourne, so we ducked in and collected them before finding a little Italian Restaurant for my birthday dinner. The two of us squeezed into the corner of this very busy restaurant and enjoyed pasta and chicked followed by dessert and coffee.

It was a lovely way to kill time before heading back to the theatre where we climbed what seemed like thousands of stairs up into 'the Gods'. A good view of the show from there and we even paid one pound to use binoculars (which didn't work very well!). The show was brilliant - stunning, simple but effective staging, the costuming and puppetry was so very believable - overall it was a great show. It was a lovely way to end my 50th birthday.

We jumped into a London Black Cab who drove us back to the hotel via Buckingham Palace where there is obviously going to be somebody important visiting as there were flags flying everywhere on the main drag up to the Palace.

Back up to our room for a cuppa and final check of today's emails before we headed off to bed in readiness for our last day in England. 

Leamington Spa 1/11/12

Michael was awake very early today so he got up at 6.20 and took himself off for a big walk around the town while I dozed blissfully unaware that he had gone. I was however waking just as he arrived back at about 8am. So after a lovely shower in a proper bathroom and dressed without trying to avoid bumping into things, we headed downstairs for a coffee. Dafydd and Marian joined us and we had breakfast at their table in the dining room which overlooked their beautiful back garden.

It was a miserable day outside, but we are getting very used to that in the UK! Our plans for today were very simple! Michael and Dafydd headed off to the Axeminster Tool Shop which is a very large home handyman and professional tool store. A bit of a mecca for do-it-yourselfers! Michael saw lots of tools that he couldn't afford to buy as well as lots of tools that he either couldn't carry home or would have no room for in his garage. They prowled around the shop for a good hour before driving back along the picturesque countryside. Michael then spent the next little while cleaning the inside of the van in readiness for its return tomorrow. He then got half way around the outside of the van before he realised we didn't have to do it, but figured he would continue on rather than leaving it half dirty! (Old coach habits!)

Meanwhile Marian and I headed off in her Sporty Subaru to her favorite shopping haunt and we spent a thourably enjoyable few hours window shopping (and maybe purchased a couple of things along the way!) We stopped for a baguette and latte for lunch before heading back along a  very scenic route where Marian showed lots of gorgeous villages, old buildings with thatched rooves, Warwick Castle all of which were so picturesque, just what I imagined the UK villages would be like. It was a lovely day to be out, however I didn't have the camera with me, so not photos of this journey!

We arrived back a little after 3pm where we had a cuppa with Michael and Dafydd before we headed upstairs to make some sense of our suitcases and shopping. This took much longer than I thought but finally we now have our suitcases re-packed, shopping in our carry on bag and back packs all sorted in order for the final few days of our trip.

For dinner tonight, Marian and Dafydd had booked a table at their favorite pub where we headed for our 7.30 booking. We had the most delicious meal, lots of chatter and laughter, yummy dessert and overall a fantastic evening bringing to a close our visit to Leamington Spa with Dafydd and Marian.

What a wonderful way to end our UK road trip!

Leamington Spa 31/10/12

We had a very leisurely start to the day as we only had a short drive to our first destination which opened at 10am. So we started some of the procedures with the Van that need to happen before we return it to the depot - dumping of grey water, dumping of waste, refilling drinking water etc - as we won't be using them again before we return it. We headed off to the Yorkshire Air Museum which was a Wartime Bomber base at Elvington and home to the 77th squadron. Michael led the way as we viewed predominantly Military planes which had been completely restored and most of which were now non-flying. There was a smattering of civilian and recreational aircraft amongst them along with the once flying (but no longer) Wright Flyer and the George Cayley Glider!

The one aircraft that Michael was most interested in though was the DH Mosquito as there are none in Australia and only recently did one fly in New Zealand. He reckons that even though it was nice to see it, he would have preferred it to by in the air flying. Most of these were planes were housed in a couple of massive hangers with a smattering out in the elements.

There were other displays of operational equipment - tractors, ambulances, fire engines, helicopters etc.  There was also a Nissen Hut set up with displays depicting raids performed by Bomber Command including the Dam Buster Raids. A ready room displaying log books, licenses and official letters to the family of missing members.

We had a quick cuppa in the restaurant which was in fact a Mess Hall decorated with large scale model planes varying in age hanging from the roof.

We finished our visit to the Museum with a visit to the Gift Shop where Michael finally managed to buy himself a couple of birthday presents. Shopping complete, we  headed back to the  van in preparation for a longer drive than the last few days. We had a quick lunch at a roadside stop and refueled the gas in the van - yet another thing ticked off the check list for returning it! Lunch today was extremely naughty  and not very nice but filled the spot. While we had stopped Michael had a massive panic whilst in the toilets. After washing his hands, he shook them before drying them, heard a 'ting' and realised that he had shaken off his wedding ring without knowing it!! Fortunately there was no one else in the toilets so he was able to search for it without people getting in the way and he was able to find it. He has lost weight from everywhere including his fingers it appear, may have to look at getting it re-sized so it won't get lost. Back on the road, and we continued on to our destination of Leamington Spa!

Dafydd and Marian are dear family friends of ours and have been kind enough to let us stay for a couple of nights. I have not seen them for about 40 years so it was wonderful to catch up with them after all this time. Dafydd and my father knew each other through work and became close friends, as did the families. We had a lot of catching up to do which obviously brought up stories of times when dad was alive and the memories we all had of him. Dafydd even had the original tape recording of Christmas carols the families had made when I was about 10 years old which he played much to Marian's and my embarrassment. In some ways this was a very emotional evening but it was lovely to share the memories.

Dinner was a delicious Chicken casserole and vegetables, followed by berries, a caramel roulade with icecream for dessert.

Today is Halloween so there were a few knocks at the front door by the local kids looking for treats, which fortunately we were able to add to with some of our shopping we had done along the way. Dafydd and Marian have a lovely home  and after 10 days of living in the van it was luxury to have a bedroom to sleep in as well as another bedroom to spread our stuff out in so we could sort it all out.

 We had a gorgeous evening with our very welcoming hosts in their lovely home.