May 17, 2013 - London crawling/travel ( also) makes the heart grow fonder

Airports are the same the world over. Places for transport of human kind. Cattle lined up and processed. Distant stares and anxiety abounds. A holding pen, where people hustle and bustle for position and small victories won by guessing the right line. George Orwell's pigs frisk and treat the common animals with disdain and at best a means to an end. The greater good determined by them not us. Human cargo mass around food, toilets and Internet ports- surely a revisit of Maslow's hierarchy is warranted as communication with those outside the...

May 16, 2013 - Day 16 Pooley Bridge to Falkirk (Scotland)

After a photo shoot in the morning of the bugeye's driving over the stone bridge we made our way to Penrith over some more stone and hedge lined great winding roads. On making it to Penrith after one of our driving companions got lost not once, but twice we finally made it to town. Then it was our turn. No parking for us so we made our way up one way streets (the right way, past a castle, through residential streets, past the school and then back in the way we originally came. Finally parking, we didn't get to enjoy much of the city as we...

May 15, 2013 - Day 15 Llandudno to Pooley Bridge near Penrith in The Lakes District

After another hearty breakfast we made our way to The Great Orme Railway in Wales which is a cable car run by cable half way up the mountain, then you change cable cars and proceed up the rest of the mountain. It's high, it's cold, it's breath taking (literally), it's beautiful. I feel that every part of the UK countryside is just that, incredible scenery. After 20 minutes we headed back down the mountain as it was time for us to sample some of the WRC rally stage in Wales along the cliff face heading around the coast. Then it was a short...

May 14, 2013 - Day 14 Norton to Llandudno

On leaving our beautiful pub we headed to the Iron Bridge which is supposedly the first iron bridge to be built in 1794. A very pretty area, but with a few more things to see and do we then headed off to The Royal Air Force Museum at Cosford. It was free entry, but you had to pay for parking. See nothing is for free. It was quite large with at least four hangers with a multitude of planes from many eras. They had quite a few experimental planes as well as missiles. If you asked you were able to take a closer look. We learnt that when steel...

May 13, 2013 - Day 13 Lynmouth to Norton

This morning we arose to a fine day with a blue sky and we started our day with a walk to the rack railway that is operated by water. They have two carriages, one at the top of the hill and one at the bottom. They load water into the one at the top until it counterbalances the one at the bottom and then the brakes are released and the carriages start to move. They meet in the middle where the tracks are slightly wider for both of them to fit and then they continue on there journey. It was a lovely ride even though I had visions of what...

May 13, 2013 - Last few days in the UK

Saturday we had a tea party at my sister Naomi's house where we we met a lot of relatives of various generations. On Sunday we went to visit another relative who was unable to get there on Saturday and had a pleasant visit. Chatting with one of his grandchildren who also came I found out that he went to the same school as I did many years ago! Said school being 400 years old this year! Today is packing day and tomorow, Tuesday, back to Vancouver.

May 12, 2013 - Inspired by other adventure bloggers

Hello I would just like to say a big thank you I love reading your blog. we are on our life long journey now having rented out our house and downsized to a caravan in scotland while my partner has a contract. Once this is finished we plan to travel in asia. your blogs have inspired me and my family, we now live a car free lifestyle. where we bike or train most places. this wkend we did some biking around Loch Lomond in scotland, even though it was raining. My daughter who is 7 biked 8 miles on her new bike, take care and thank you Tracey x

May 12, 2013 - Our biking holidays 2013

May 10 th 2013 May 10th Andy and i are celebrating our 10 year anniversary eek and Alisha has a new bike as she she is growing up fast. so we decide to celebrate by going on a small biking holiday. We biked to the train station in Alloa then took the train to Loch Lomond. We stayed in a lvely b& b in balloch. On saturday we visited the sealife aquarium, which I have to say is excellent... then on Sunday we biked 8 miles along the loch shore, Alisha did very well and loves her new bike with Gears. It was a shame it rained all the way...

May 12, 2013 - Day 12 Perranporth to Lynmouth

Today was the final day for the Perrenporth rally. This morning we had a show and shine in the carpark on the foreshore. It was cold, windy and with a hint of rain in the air. After breakfast we all took out our chamosis and started to wash and clean our Healeys. Some more than others. For our three bugeyes it was more of an English shower and freshen up. Around 9.30 you could hear the rumble as 85ish healeys started their engines and rumbled to the foreshore car park. Even though the weather wasn't the best many of the locals were out...

May 9, 2013 - Leeds Castle & Canterbury

We’ve been to Dover to board the hovercraft to Calais, France when we were still leading groups of high school students on European adventures. It’s been a long time. This stop is advertised on this cruise as a way to see London, but it’s 70 miles away and once you get there, there’s too much to see. We heard that Dover itself doesn’t have much to offer a tourist, so we chose a tour that went to nearby Leeds Castle, a place we’ve never been and then took us to Salisbury for some free time. This seemed like an ideal tour. We like to learn...

May 9, 2013 - Day 9 Cheddar to Perranporth

Leaving Cheddar and on our way to Perranporth via the freeway for a short time to get us closer to where we have to be. On our way Gary's car threw a fan belt so many hands made light work. With help from the local pub with ample water using an empty whisky bottle. On our way again and soon into Perranorth where we met up with many other Healey drivers

May 9, 2013 - Arrived safely and spent the afternoon at Knole House

Arrived safely just before noon. It was bright and sunny when we landed but was raining by the time I claimed my bag! Hey, this is England! We spent the afternoon touring Knole House, a summer palace of Henry VIII. Henry acquired the palace from his Archbishop of Canterbury when he let the archbishop know how much he liked it. Henry seemed to acquire a lot of properties this way! There were a lot of royal and noble portrait paintings including some by the famous artist Hans Holbein the Younger. One was a portrait of a beautiful young womeen...