Sore muscles

A little late getting to the blog post this morning. We've been busy making more travel plans, and we'll be able to tell you about them soon! In the meantime, we're keeping busy in Somerset, England. Only a week and a half to go until we leave for our six week tour of Eastern Europe!

We can see the sea!

We've been in England for about a month now and yesterday we had our first view of the sea. Well, it was the Bristol Channel actually, but it does look out into the sea!

Castle Cary

Yet another cloudy day yesterday, but it didn't start raining until the afternoon. Tony was going into the village of Castle Cary to get some new tires on his work van, so we followed along in the car just for something to do.

A surprisingly nice day!

There's been so much rain here that it's become kind of expected. It's pretty much a given that it's going to rain tomorrow. Even the forecast didn't show any sun. So when the clouds disappear, it's a nice surprise.

How do we research a trip?

Not much to write about this morning because it rained pretty much all day yesterday. Reader Joe in Indiana had asked the other day if we would talk a little about how we research a trip and he's right that our upcoming Czech Republic and area excursion makes for a good example.

Nine mile hike in the rain

While much of Canada and the U.S. experiences summer, we here in England have been left behind. July the 6th felt like mid April! But that didn't stop us from going out for a nice hike at Burrington Combe.

A Tower on Top of a Tor

Well I tried to go to work yesterday, but when we got there our third helper cancelled on us. So it's now been put off, possibly until next week. I guess I just wasn't meant to get in a full days work! Oh well, that's my lot in life.

A rare post from Ruth

Well today you will get a post by me, Ruth.  Kevin went out the door this morning at 7:30am with Tony to help him put up the ceiling at Kelly and Paul's place.

Next stop, Czech Republic!

My older sister Elaine, was the correct one to guess Czech Republic yesterday. And no, she didn't have any hints. Other than the fact that she knows I like to do family history research, and that our paternal grandmother was born in that area.

Went to Bath and had a shower

My uncle and some of his family are having a vacation in England just now, and it turned out that we were getting fairly close to each other. So we drove up to Bath to have lunch with them!

Scrumpy Cider

Spent the morning on the internet researching our next destination, and in the afternoon went for a walk and then had a look at some British motorhomes.

Finally, a nice relaxing day!

As much as we've enjoyed touring London, Leeds, and Bristol over the last two and a half weeks, we were due for a break. Pretty much all we did yesterday was to go for a two hour walk in the country.

June expenses

June came in at $1,570.10. About $250 over budget, and a big chunk of that came from eating out. We include eating out under the "Entertainment" column because it is somewhat discretionary, and we did that far more than normal in the month of June.

The S.S. Great Britain in Bristol

We said goodbye yesterday morning to our couchsurfing hosts (thanks Cynthia and Nigel!) and took the bus from there into town. We dropped our bags at a hostel near the bus station where they looked after them for a cost of £2.00 ($3.28) each.

Chairs are more dangerous than sharks.

Hmm. That title's a little different. I'll explain in a moment. We had such a busy day that we didn't get everything done that we wanted to. But it was a beautiful day. In fact the locals were saying that yesterday was the best day they've had so far this summer.

Bristol!

I've never been to Bristol, and Ruth was there many years ago as a child so it's pretty much all new for us. There's quite a lot to see here, so it's going to be a busy two days!

Haworth and Saltaire

Yesterday we visited the villages of Haworth and Saltaire. Two distinctly different villages, each famous for entirely different reasons. Yet they are only about 8 miles (13 kms) apart.

Moving day and a visit with special friends

Yesterday morning we said goodbye and thanks to our couchsurfing host Isabel. Our friends Glen and Steve are currently living in the town of Keighley and we definitely wanted to visit them so we decided to move to their place for two nights before we head to Bristol.

Visiting with my great great grandfather!

Well our timing started a little “off” yesterday morning. First, we slept in…something we hardly ever do. It was 8:20am when we woke up! And even though we didn’t really have anything that we HAD to get up early for, we were just trying to get an early start to the day.

Soaking wet!

But we enjoyed our day anyhow! The sun was trying to peak through yesterday morning, so we changed our schedule a bit and decided to walk to the ruins at Kirkstall Abbey. I love castles and ruins and there are quite a few of them surrounding the Leeds area here in West Yorkshire.

A surprise trip to the theatre!

Yesterday morning, we sat down with Wendy from the Leeds Tourism office. The city of Leeds itself is not really a tourist destination, however three things attract people to the area. First, Leeds is a big University town, with a huge student population during the school term. This brings lots of parents and relatives to visit. Next, Leeds is around the halfway point between London and Edinburgh, Scotland so people driving will often use Leeds as a stopover. And third, while Leeds itself is not a tourist destination, there is a lot to see and do in the surrounding area of West Yorkshire, and this makes Leeds an excellent place to use as home base.

Arrived in Leeds!

Our bus left London at 1:30pm yesterday afternoon, so when we set off for Victoria Station at 11:30am, we thought we had lots of time. We had to walk to the overground railway and take one train with a connection to the underground train. No problem, and we got there about 12:30pm. Except we wanted to get the £5.00 each refund for our Oyster transportation cards.

The chair police

The chair police? Yes, we almost had a run in with the chair police yesterday. We'll explain in a moment.

A visit to Greenwich

We decided to walk to Greenwich, a distance of 6.5 miles (10.5 kms). We would see some sights along the way, and it was another beautiful day. We have managed to bring the Mexican sunshine with us everywhere we have been since leaving Mexico!

Tower of London and the Crown Jewels

The second most popular fee based attraction in London is the historic Tower of London and the display of the Crown Jewels. This expensive museum attracts over 7,000 visitors per day and even though it's expensive, we think this huge fortress should be on your list of things to do.

Tower Bridge and the Fire Monument

Yesterday morning we walked down to Tower Bridge. This bridge is one of the most famous in the world, however it is often mistakenly referred to as London Bridge, which is actually the next bridge up river. Tower Bridge was built in six years and was opened in 1894. From the top of this bridge you can get some of the best views of London!

A fun time at The Million Pound Drop. Except...

it could have been much better.

We had "priority"tickets, which meant that we were guaranteed admittance provided we were there by 6:00pm. Even though the live broadcast doesn't begin until 9:00pm, they always try and overbook these shows, so we wanted to be sure we got in. So we got an early start and left home just before 3:00pm.

London. Did I mention lots of walking...?

It is 4 kms (2.5 miles) from where we are staying to the downtown area and the River Thames. Yesterday, we decided to start off walking, and if we were tired we would take the bus or the underground to get back home.

Lots of walking in London

But that's okay because we love walking. And there is so much to see that it doesn't seem like we're going that far. Yesterday morning, we walked to a grocery store, but took a roundabout route.

Off to the pub!

We had only been in London for a few hours when Ruth's aunt and uncle suggested we go for a walk and stop in at the pub. So that's what we did!

Our flight with Sunwing

I do a lot of research into travel prices and deals. One name that comes up consistently when I'm searching for a great travel deal out of Canada is Sunwing. So when I saw a fantastic price to get us from Toronto to London, England, we jumped on it!

Arrived safely in London!

We are in London, England! Almost feels a little surreal, because the whole travel experience seems to have gone by extremely quickly, even though we didn't get much sleep on our overnight flight. We landed at Gatwick Airport 15 minutes ahead of schedule, and then had to collect our bags.

Heading across the pond...

Well, here we are at Toronto's Pearson airport, waiting for our Sunwing flight to London's Gatwick airport. And, yes, they have FREE wi-fi throughout Terminal 1...assuming it is the same in the other terminals as well.

Dundas, Ontario

A bit of a late start yesterday as we left Galetta heading for Dundas, Ontario. We were with Ruth's sister Lesley, and her son Marshal, with their dog Tia. So the car was full, and so was the trunk! We didn't get going until around 11:00am, and it's at least a six hour drive.

What do we pack for a 3 to 4 month trip?

Some of you will be horrified to learn that we sometimes wear the same item of clothing two days in a row! But sorry, that's how we travel light. Even though we're only bringing a small backpack each, we're bringing along enough clothing that we'll be comfortable, and if we need something else, we'll buy it along the way.

The Olympics

Virtually every time we tell someone that we are going to England, the very first question is "Oh, you're going to the Olympics"? Actually, no, we have no intention of going to the Olympics. In fact, if I lived in London I would make sure I was away for the Olympics!

The last few days

With all the "excitement" of this Australia contest, we've been neglecting telling you about what we've been up to the last few days. Here's the rundown...

An interesting finish to the contest...

Or is it finished? The rules say that the entry with the most votes at 5:00pm PST (8:00pm EST) moves on to the finals and has a one in nine chance of winning the $12,000 prize to Australia. However, when that time went by, the voting continued...and strangely, you can still vote this morning.

One last time...

A special request to vote if you haven't already today. Turns out the voting ends at 5:00pm Pacific time which is 8:00pm Eastern. As of right now, there is only 107 votes separating my cousin who is in top spot in her category, from second place who has been slowly gaining all day.

Please take 5 seconds and click the green "Vote" button...

http://aussieexperiences.com/contest/entry/kangaroo-island-brenda-read/

And then I won't bug you again, until it's time to tell you if we won! Should know for sure by June 13.

Check out our cool new luggage!

Or are they backpacks? Well, they are both luggage and backpacks, but I think we'll call them backpacks. Anyhow, our new backpacks from Heys International showed up yesterday, just in time for our trip to England.

Giving back to the system

Yesterday I took a drive into Ottawa to run some errands, but also to go for lunch with an old friend and then to meet a new friend!

$5 return flight to England

I sign up for various travel newsletters, and yesterday I received one from a company that regularly has some pretty good deals. The one that stood out of course was the one that said you could get a return flight from Toronto to Birmingham, England for $5. But that sounds too good to be true, no??