Lakes District / Scotland

After leaving York we headed up to the Lakes district to relax for a day or two, we left York in the early evening so didn't get there until late. On the way we saw Brough Castle ruins so we stopped for a look, there was no one else around and it was starting to get dark so it was quite eery being in amongst the walls. We were pulled over by a police officer just before the castle as there had been crime in the area and we were in a panel van, but when he realised we were from NZ he was very nice and gave us directions.

After leaving the castle we drove to a small village and stopped for dinner in a car park where the same police officer found us again! When he realised it was us he chatted again and left us to it.

The following day we had a relaxing day by Lake Ullswater, Justin went for a swim and Alicia did some washing, we also walked to a waterfall but as the road was quite narrow we walked along in the lake edge.

The following Day we headed into Scotland and we stopped in Glasgow where we are now after another interaction with some Scottish police officers we were escorted to a cool big park where we stayed and there was even a museum a few minutes from the car park which we have looked through this morning. We are just about to head to Edinburgh this afternoon.

England

Have had a busy last few days since we left London. First stop was Cambridge where we had a fantastic time looking at all the university colleges whilst punting along the river. Also visited Fitzwilliam museum which had lots of cool stuff like mummies and roman pots as well as paintings by Monet and Picasso. After a night there we moved onto Boston a random town along the way. It had a really tall spire on its church but that was about all. Got there quite late so decided to stay the night. The next morning we were off bright and early to Lincoln. Lincoln was a hidden gem with really awesome medieval buildings and tiny narrow streets on steep hills. There was also a rather grand church there, apparently the 3rd largest in Britain or something like that. Across the road was a castle....it was pretty....there are a lot of churches and castles in England!! The amazing thing is how old everything is, some were built in 1079 and the likes, to think NZ is only about 200 years old and these buildings are nearly 1000!
After looking round Lincoln we headed off to Leeds which is just a massive city with lots of shopping. As we don't have money for shopping we decided to push on to York. In York there are walls running through the city that look like castle walls up on a big hill. We walked right the way around part of the city on them, about 3.1 km's. After that we went to find some where to sleep for the night but the van wouldn't start....flat battery. To keep a rather long story short we managed to get it going again and today have invested in a new battery. Last night we had a BBQ tea in a park beside a nice wee church near York University. Today we have looked at Clifford Tower which is part of a large old castle as well as York Minster, another rather large impressive church...a gothic one this time. Planning to head to the Lakes district soon.

Home Sweet Sweet Home

After some more shopping for things to set up the van yesterday we are finally ready to leave London on the official start of our road trip with Edward (Ted for short), our van. The only thing we need to get now is a Postman Pat hat and a black and white cat.

London City

Tuesday we went into London City via train. We headed to Tina's work which is on the 23rd floor of a building in the financial district. This meant we could see magnificent views of London and save ourselves £32 and a long wait in the line at the London eye. Walked past a few sites including the Bank of England and the Royal exchange on our way to the underground. After a really hot sweaty and squashed ride on the underground we walked to Buckingham palace. The Flag was up which means the Queen was in residence! There were a huge amount of people there but we managed to get a glipse of the changing of the guard. We lunched in St James park with our £4 sandwhiches then headed off to see Westminster Abbey. We spent ages there, there was so much to see inside, an amazing building. When time was pressing on we headed to see Big Ben and the parliment buildings which were really close by. We wanted to catch London and Tower bridge before we left so we jumped in the black cab which took us over Tower bridge and past the Tower of London. Turns out London bridge is nothing inpressive.... I didn't realise the original bridge had been sold to and shipped over to Chicago years ago.

At 4:30pm we jumped on another train to take us out to Guildford where we were picking up the van. After 50mins on a hot train we were glad when the van seller (James) picked us up from the train station. We then headed home on the M25 which was an experience and a half....Justin's first time driving the van and first time on the M25. Once we finally got home at 8pm we had some well deserved English fish and chips for tea.

Wednesday Tina and Martin both went to work and so it was our first day adventuring on our own. We had a sat nav so hopefully couldn't get lost. We went to the £ store and Tescos to buy supplies for the van.... we then decided that buying a sat nav for ourselves would be a worth while investment.....and it will be if we can figure out how to get it to speak English not German....... Another BBQ for tea as it was such a nice day (just thought I would rub that in). Tomorrow we plan to set up the van ready for us to set off into the big wide world outside of London on Friday. From then the internet acess will probably be a bit more infrequent but will update when we can. Big thanks to Tina and Martin who have been amazingly good to us for the last 5 days....you guys are awesome and you must stay with us when you come over for the world cup so we can return the favour.

The story so far

After spending Sunday morning searching for vans with no real luck, we headed to Southend-on-sea as it was a lovely sunny day. Southend is on the estuary of the Thames. As the tide was out there was no water to speak of and all the boats were stranded on the mudflats - We're guessing it's not the kind of place you take you boat out on a whim.... Had lunch at a lovely wee tea garden then to a pub for a drink. It was really sunny and we both got a little sunburnt. After that we went to the highlight of our trip so far .......Tesco's!!!!! For those of you who don't know it's like The Warehouse and a supermarket combined, everything you ever needed. Bought a few handy things like a gas cooker for the van and a few not so handy things such as world cup flavoured ''crisps'. Had a great BBQ tea in the back garden and a few Pimm's. Also found out that there are foxes in this area that come out at night... might get up for a look tonight.

Monday consisted of more looking for vans followed by heading over to have a look at one... a slightly dodgy area I think so glad we had a policeman with us!
Had a bit of trouble finding insurance for the van over the phone so decided we would head home and check out the net for more options.......just as well we did as the owner of another van we really wanted got back to us from Sunday. Managed to find an insurance company which specialises in insuring Kiwis and Aussies for travelling in UK and Europe. Headed to Guildford where this van was and bought it....its an red ex Royal mail van..... photos to follow.... it's awesome.
As it was now peak hour for traffic we decided to wait it out at a pub (how convienient).
Heading into London tomorrow and then out to pick up the van as the insurnce company was closed for the day by the time we bought it and it's illegal to drive here without insurance.

We made it!

Hi everyone,
We have just had our first night in England - yay!
Got off to a bit of a bumpy start with the flight being delayed out of Christchurch and then Alicia having a knife in her pocket when going through security checks!!! (Don't ask) What we were surprised at though is that we could have taken the knife through as it was less than 6cm long, but would have then had it taken off us in Australia..... crazy!
Once we finally made it to Heathrow we had our first experience on the M25 with delays due to an accident and the trip to Tina and Martin's taking us 3 hours instead of just over 1!
After a much deserved cup of tea we were ready to go out for our first traditional English meal - curry and a pint. After Tina tried to kill us with her crazy driving it was straight to bed in a jetlag daze....and wide awake again a few hours later when it time to be up in NZ..... the fun has only just begun!