Chester to Merseyside

We aimed to arrive at the Holiday Inn in Chester at 3 p.m. The booking form didn't include a street number, but we did have the coordinates. Unfortunately, our GPS wouldn't accept the last few digits, so we had to go with what it would accept. We figured it would get us close anyway.

A number of wrong turns, missed exits and backtracking later, we were told by the sweet-voiced GPS to turn left onto Wexford Road, then a hundred yards later, to do a u-turn at the roundabout. There was no Roundabout, just a set of lights with a large 'no u-turn permitted' sign. So on we went, along Wexford road into Wales. At least Lindy can now say she's been to Wales. I stayed in this area of Wales in 2006, stunning scenery, green mountains and curling clouds crowning them. 

It was a number of miles before we came to turning place to take us back into England. Our destination, according to sweet voiced Sarina, was on the left. Not there, so we drove on, into Chester city through the west gate. I knew that the Holiday Inn was in Cowley, not right in Chester, so we got out of there and tried again. This time, we turned into the Business Park and found someone to ask; he soon put us right (it was just around the corner, tucked behind some bushes). 

At last, we had arrived, although it was an hour and a half later than we'd planned. We were ecstatic when reception said we were on the ground floor. What they didn't say, and we soon found out, was that it was a long trek through endless corridors to our room. 

The room made up for it - it was large and comfortable, with a lovely modern bathroom. We logged onto the wifi, and while I caught up with email and Facebook, Lindy went for a shower. About 15 minutes later, she was calling for me to come and help her. She had not been able to work out how to turn the water from bath spout to shower head, or how to mix the water so it was not boiling hot. There was almost enough water in the tub for a bath, but she said she hadn't been able to pull the plug. When she tried to pull the silver thing on the end of the bath, the plug remained in but the silver bit came off. There was water all over the floor because the shower screen was so narrow, but we eventually saw that the screen folded out. One had to do this before getting under the shower however, as there wasn't enough room once in to unfold it. There were two grab rails on the edge of the bath but Lindy was afraid to use them in case they were like the one at Athena.

Finally freshened up, we treated ourselves to dinner and went to the bar, where we had Tandori Chicken on Ciabatta, which was served with a salad, a small bowl of coleslaw, and crisps, although the menu had said 'chips'!

We woke to cloudy skies and the promise of rain after a wonderful sleep. We booked out, and the Holiday Inn permitted us to leave our car in their car park while we went into Chester. With only a short day to spend there, we decided to find and use a Big Red Bus to show us the city - you are able to get off and on these buses at will. I lived in Chester for 6 weeks or so in 2006, when I taught English to foreign students at a summer school in the University, and I remembered the city reasonably well, but it's better to see it with someone else. 

The stop for the bus to Chester Railway Station was nearby and while we waited for the bus, we made a little breakfast of the wild blackberries we found there. We arrived at Chester Railway Station a little after 9 a.m. It's a lovely old building and after walking through it, and finding out that the Big Red Bus left at 10:15, went to the station cafe and had a hot drink and a Danish to round out of blackberries.

We went to the front of the top deck, which was covered, because the sky was lower and clouds darker. The drive through history was fascinating, and we snapped away even as it rained. We didn't have enough time to get out of the bus to explore, and the weather was deteriorating, but we got a good sense of the history. The driver stopped the bus at one point and came upstairs to point out a piece of the wall which showed the layers. The bottom layer, built by the Romans 1900 years ago, was extended by the Saxons and finally repaired by the Normans. It was easy to see the layers and the different way the stones had been laid.

We would have loved to get off and walk through the park by the River Dee, and even taken a boat down river, but by this time the rain was heavy and it was difficult to see much, so we decided to return to our car and continue on to Blackpool. 

A few photos

Lindy outside Athena guest house (first photo) and our Annexe (second photo), Oxford

Below - Oxford City

Oxford, UK

After checking out of Athena, we left our car in a Park and Ride (note, the parking machines there do not give change), and travelled into Oxford City by bus. We opted to get off in High Street and just walk. We loved the old buildings, the bicycles that everyone seemed to ride, and the history. When we got tired of walking, we sat in a little cafe and had coffee and Danish and soaked up the atmosphere. Then we set off again. One college had a sign out front, saying visitors were welcome to come in but the rooms were out of bounds. There was a magnificent garden inside and a smooth green quadrangle. The stone of the building was warm looking and so very old at the same time.

We left Oxford mid afternoon, retrieved our car, and travelled onto Chester, a walled city on the border of Wales and England. I spent some time here about 8 years ago, teaching English to foreign students at a summer school at Chester University, so had fond memories of the place.

Fawlty Towers with a Twist

Think Fawlty Towers, with a Chinese man playing a pleasant Basil Fawlty. He met us at the door and led us through a narrow, not very clean hall that was lined with power leads disappearing into the nether regions and a multitude of plugs adorning the skirting board, some piggy backing others. We ended up in a grubby kitchen, sitting at a table covered in crumbs, filling in 'paperwork'. This comprised of an example of a form they'd 'run out of' and a blank piece of paper for us to fill in.

We were then invited to follow 'Basil' to our room, which turned out to be in the annexe. Now, an annexe in my view is a building attached to the main building, so imagine our surprise when we were led out through the little car park, around the corner and across the road to an entirely different building. We followed him in (at least it was clean in there) and up a short flight of stairs. He indicated the kitchen, a piece of paper with the wifi details sticky-taped to the door. To our further horror, he led us up another flight of stairs, showing us the 'shared' bathroom (a tiny shower and a toilet), then up even more stairs. We were not happy when we finally arrived at our door, the room number (like all the others we'd passed) written in pencil on a piece of paper sticky-taped to the door. Room numbers in this place were obviously interchangeable.

He left us then, and we collapsed in laughter. The room was small, and a bit crowded with a desk, a cupboard for clothes, a fridge, a double bed, and a single (we'd asked for 2 singles), but the beds were comfortable, and the room was clean. Each bed had a bedside table with nice lamps and covers, but we discovered that these were for show only. Lindy lifted her lamp to find that the cord led nowhere - there was no visible power outlet. My lamp leant drunkenly to one side and threatened to topple when I tried to switch it on. The view from the window was the best feature of the room, showing the street lined with quaint shops, a small pub, chimney tops and so on - all obviously not Australian - but the glass was streaky, it was raining, and the window wouldn't open, so photos were not possible.

We decided a shower was necessary first, so Lindy braved the shared bathroom. She arrived back feeling fresh and much more human but warned me not to use the grab rail. She had tried, only to discover that it was another 'for show only' piece of equipment when it came off the wall in her hand!

After my shower, we tried to connect to the wifi so we could let everyone know that we had arrived, but the password didn't work. I phoned 'Basil' who tried to tell me that it was my computer. I soon put him straight, and he came over from the main house. He finally agreed that it wasn't our iPads and did as I suggested - he rebooted the router, which was perched, surrounded by more plugs and leads, on a narrow shelf up near the ceiling on the landing under our room. That worked, and I thanked him (I am polite even when a bit miffed) and turned to open the door to our room. He was part way down the stairs but popped his head back up, to point out that my room was up one flight! I apologised to the two startled girls in the room I'd tried to enter and fled up the stairs, to collapse laughing on the bed.

Our email done, feeling a bit tired by this time (9 p.m.) and not at all hungry, we tucked ourselves in and went to sleep to the sound of very soft rain on the roof above us.

England at last

We're here in rainy England. What an adventurous trip! From Brisbane to Melbourne was uneventful, although a bit noisy with tired, fretful children and babies, and we arrived in good time to get through customs. That process was not uneventful because I'd forgotten that water is a liquid that it is forbidden to carry onto an aircraft, so my carry on bag was pulled from the screening process. Once we got that sorted, we were on our way to the gate with just minutes to wait until our flight was to board.

And so we waited, and waited, with an increasingly restless crowd. No announcement was made until 11:30pm, a half hour after we were to have taken off. A 'technical fault' was being rectified, and we'd be boarding soon. I said to my sister that it would probably turn out to be a blown globe and that they were waiting for an electrician to replace. I was close, as later we were told it had been a sensor light on a door that had malfunctioned and needed replacing. Although we were understandably anxious about the late departure, we were glad that Qantas pay attention to their passenger's safety.

We finally lifted off just short of two hours late. The time in Melbourne was 12:45am, in Dubai - where we were to disembark for a brief while - it was 6:45am, so we had some hours to fill before we could sleep. Like most international flights, there was plenty of entertainment to choose from, with the screen set into the back of the seat in front. We had lists of movies to choose from, or TV shows, news, games and so on. There was food too, although I was pleasantly surprised to see that things had changed since my last long trip, with much lighter meals. We both had a 'real' book to read, opting to save battery power on our iPads.

The time passed pleasantly enough, and the seats we'd chosen were perfect. We had plenty of room and were seated at one end of the row of 4 in the middle seats. That meant we didn't have strangers wanting to disturb us to get out I to the aisle. The toilets were behind us, and the noise of the engines was just a distant roar.

We did manage to sleep reasonably well and woke to find that we were 2 and a half hours out of Dubai. We had made up some time with the help of tail winds but were advised that we would be at least an hour and a half late into Heathrow.

We left the aircraft in Dubai, to allow for crew changes and cleaning. For some obscure reason, we had to pass through more security checks and screenings to proceed to the boarding gate. That process was a bit chaotic, and we didn't have time to do any looking around, just rushed through and got to the gate with just a little time to spare. I did get the feeling that I was in an episode of 'The Dome' though, as the terminal is covered with a glass-like, bubble dome.

The last leg of our journey dragged by but we finally got into England an hour later than planned. By the time we cleared their border security and found our rental car (an unexpected trip in a bus to collect it) it was peak hour traffic. To make matters worse, it was raining, and the sky was low and very black. We sat in the rental lot car park for 15 minutes, to familiarise ourselves with the controls and the GPS, then set off to brave the traffic and the weather. From there it got a bit farcical for awhile until we got used to the directions on the GPS being in yards and miles! After a couple of missed turns, with Sarina recalculating our route (although she is very quiet, preferring that the driver is forced to look at the screen to see the directions - luckily I have Lindy) we joined the hoards fleeing London and travelling west. West is where the bad weather was coming from so we drove into worsening conditions.

We soon deviated away from the majority of the traffic, the sky lightened, the rain eased, and we had time to slow down and enjoy the green country. As we drove into Oxford and to our accommodation, Lindy saw her first old English houses, coming right to the street, chimney pots and all.

The Athena Guest House. What can I say? That's a story in itself, and we are in stitches constantly with it all. But more of that later. It's 7am now and time to make plans for the day.

Some last ideas

Three sleeps to go; it's beginning to feel very real now. My packing is done, paperwork is ready, and seats for our flights chosen. I've made sure all outstanding accounts here at home have been paid, or have made arrangements for them to be paid while I am away

I still need to prepare my iPad for safe and secure travel, and the day before we leave I will check the weather forecast for our first destination, which is England and we all know how changeable the weather there can be.

Last week I went to the Department of Human Services website and looked through the list of countries that the Australian Government has reciprocal health agreements with. The UK and Italy are both mentioned. This agreement means Australian citizens are entitled to basic health care, meaning treatment that is 'immediately necessary'. It does NOT mean that we don't need travel insurance. Go to the website to learn more, and remember to take your Medicare card with you if the country you are visiting has such an agreement in place.

Because the bushfire season is almost upon us, and because I live in a rural area, I've shown my daughter and my brother where my evacuation box is. In that box are all my important papers, digital backups of my computer files on USB's, and a few precious photographs. If the worst happens, all they need to (if it's save to do so) is collect that box. I have many other things I'd like saved but not at the expense of someone's life; things can be replaced, people can't.

One last thing we are considering and that is registering at Smart Traveller, a website at the Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It's a good idea to register your travel plans so that you or your family can be contacted in the event of an emergency, such as a cyclone. Your registration will let the department know if you are in an affected area and they will be able to contact you to provide the latest safety information. No destination or traveller is immune from crisis so it is important to register, even if you intend to travel to a safe destination, or just take a short trip. The Smart Traveller website also has some interesting tips and loads of information to help you plan your trip.

My next post to this blog will be from the United Kingdom. I hope you can come with us and share our experiences as we take our Grand Tour!

Final ticks on the 'To Do' List

With just ten days to go, I’m counting down the sleeps. My ‘to-do’ list is almost completed but there are a final few items to go.

The Australian dollar plunged to below 70 cents this week, which does not auger well for travelling out of Australia. However, we had anticipated a drop so locked our currencies in while the exchange rate was higher. We have enough cash to cover those few things we haven’t paid for up front, including food, fuel and other costs, so don’t anticipate having to access too much more while we are away, barring unforeseen expenses of course.

I remember being a bit put out at the VAT (Value Added Tax, similar to our GST) added to purchases when I was last travelling in Europe. The tax on food, transport and accommodation (unless it’s a business trip) can’t be claimed back, but for souvenirs and gifts, it is possible, and worth it for larger items when you consider that the tax ranges from 15 to 25 percent. I doubt that I will be buying anything of great value, but if I did, I would certainly consider applying for a refund. If you want to know more, here is a site that explains how to obtain a refund - https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/money/vat-refunds Good luck!

On a lighter note, I’ve carried out my usual ‘test pack’ and managed to fit everything into a case that measures 45x35x20cm with room left over. I’m considering finding a small, fold-up soft bag to pop into my case. This will do for our return, when we may have a few more items to pack. I do like to travel light, considering that it will be me who has to lug and throw the bag around.

I have copied of all my documents, cards, passport and so on, and have left one copy here at home, and have placed a copy into my bag. The originals will be with me, and I also have digital copies on my iPad and also on USB. I’ve made sure that family have a copy of our itinerary, and that they know how to contact us if necessary.

Because there will be someone in my home while I’m away, I don’t have to worry about my mail. But there will be bills arriving while I’m away, so I need to organise payment for these. It wouldn’t do to arrive home to a house with no power and insurances expired!

I also need to notify my bank of my plans. Knowing where I will be and the dates I will be in particular countries will help them keep my banking secure.  I’ll also give them my Travel SIM mobile number, in case there is a problem and they need to contact me.