Sunday 9th June, 2024 - London

 This morning we spent a lot of time talking about the best way to get into the city 

none of the options are fantastic!!

We ended up deciding to catch the bus (Bus 31)from across the road, for about 3 stops, to the Swiss Cottage Corner, then another bus (bus 113) to Marble Arch, then we thought a bus to Trafalgar Square, but it actually changed route and stopped at Piccadilly Circus, and then another bus (Bus 12) to Trafalgar Square !!!! By this stage it was after 2pm, so at stop at Nero's for coffee and cake was in order.

John was wanting to see Westminster Abbey, again, 

so we walked to catch another bus to there, only to find that being Sunday, the Abbey was closed all day, due to prayer services - didn't even give that a thought !!!

We walked past the Privy Council building

and lots of statues near The Abbey,

Nelson Mandella

Mahatma Ghandi

Abraham Lincoln

George Canning

Millicent Fawcett

 before walking down Whitehall towards the Churchill War Rooms, which we had visited before and had there not been a lengthy queue, probably would have again. !! We were now almost at the back of Horse Guards Parade at St James's Park. 

We walked across the parade ground, past the stands that were being erected for the Trooping of the Colour, next Saturday and out onto Whitehall and visit with the Guards 

( and a sneaky photo of the security)

 and then to a Pub - The Clarence, 

where we met a young man who was working as barman, from the Central Coast of NSW, who just happened to be a Sydney Swans supporter.

After a few drinks, we walked out of the pub and hailed a Black Cab, back to our apartment.

Saturday 8th June, 2024 - London

We had an easy morning around the apartment, as we were both tired after our travel day yesterday.

At around midday we decided to catch the bus to Camden Town Markets,

which took about 1/2 hr.  It was very crowded, but then it was Saturday.  

We had a cuppa at the tea shop, 

walking around the many varied stalls

We had been here on 2 previous occasions, and John was very pleased with himself when he was able to find the same jewellery stall.

After wandering for a while we caught the bus back to the apartment, stopping on the way to check out the Italian Restaurant 'Nona's' across the road. We booked a table for dinner that night, which we enjoyed.

Friday 7th June, 2024 - Royal Leamington Spa to London

Today was a travel day.  We were picked up by Greg at 11.30 am and taken to the Railway station.  We waited for approximately half hour for our train, in the tea rooms with a cuppa, on the platform.

The journey took about 1 1/2 hrs and was very smooth.

As we left the train, John spoke to the train manager (conductor) who told us the the train we had just travelled on, was in fact the oldest train in their fleet and was 35 years old.  The upkeep on this train has obviously been incredible as it is in top condition and travels at 100 miles per hour.  the comparison between the English Rail system and ours in miles apart.

We caught a taxi from Marylebone to our apartment near Camden.  English Taxi drivers are amazing - they love a chat !!! and love you even more if you pay in cash.

We drove past the London Central Mosque, which is huge, just as Friday prayers had finished.  There were hundreds of men, women and children leaving, quite an amazing sight.

Thursday 6th June, 2024 - Whichford / Royal Leamington Spa

 We left our little home away from home in Whichford and drove to Royal Leamington Spa to return the hire car.  This trip we used Enterprise Car Hire, and were very impressed with the service.  They even drove us to the hotel on the completion of the hire.

As it was only around midday, we dropped our luggage, and caught a taxi into Royal Leamington Spa.  First stop was a sewing shop, as I needed a DMC thread (or 2)! which was closed for lunch till 1pm, so we went across the road to a Spanish Cafe for lunch.  When the shop opened, they only had a very small range and not what I needed.  We walked down the road to the main street, where there was a craft shop, about 500 metres away, so John (god love him) walked there and called me from there to make sure he was getting the right ones.  Mission accomplished 😀😀😀😀

We continued down the main street to the Royal Pump Room & Baths building, which is now a small museum/ art gallery/library as the baths no longer exist

A taxi back to the hotel, where I did some work on the blog and some cross stitch, while John went to the bar to do some international networking !!!!!Whilst having a beer, he met a man, who asked where we were from and when he told him we lived near Albury, he was amazed, as he had been in Albury and Wagga Wagga only a couple of weeks before.  He actually lives on the central coast, but travels extensively for work, and is a director of a company based in the USA.

John returned to our room, saying that i needed to go with him to meet his new best friend !!!. Which I did.  I should mention his name is Greg. 

The three of us sat having a couple of drinks, and then he insisted that he buy us dinner and couldn't be talked out of it!! Not only that he then insisted that he would come from work and take us to the railway station tomorrow, at whatever time suited us.  Which he did. What a generous person.

We expect to see him in Albury before Christmas.

.

Wednesday 5th June, 2024 - Cotswolds - Burton in the Hill, Broadway,Snowshill,

 This was our last day travelling around in the beautiful part of the world.  We started our day, by going to the local Farm Shop and garden centre for morning tea and then drove through Burton on the Hill on the way to Snowshill, again such beautiful scenery.  While driving through Snowshill we spotted a sign for the Snowshill Manor and gardens, which we proceeded to visit.

What can I say !!! it is by far the sttrangest collection of stuff, maybe antiques, just not sure  !!!It is the collection of Charles Paget Wade, who was sent to live with his grandmother, to get a better education. He eventually qualified as an architect and became and illustrator and collector.  The collection contains everything from a Cantonese Shrine cabinet, 

to models of ships and boats 

to rusty old bicycles

to musical instruments and clothing and much more

The gardens were lovely and contained a small model village, which he built himself

We spent quite a lot of time here, and then we went to Broadway, Laverton, and Buckland, all with beautiful scenery

On the way back to the Hops and Vines we stopped in Teddington at GWR Rail facility, where they restore both steam and diesel locomotives

some of the locomotives look old, but in actual fact were rebuilt a couple of years ago, and this is possible because GWR built all their engines from standardised components.

From here we went back to the pub next door for dinner