The Desk in the Corner: Success

Finally, internet access on the laptop.

I started this blog entry in the middle of the first week of our holiday. Unfortunately, internet access has been a bit of a problem. When we could get access from my aunt’s place, during the first week, I had no easy way of transferring stuff over from the laptop. I would have had to hog the computer to do a proper blog entry and I didn’t want to do that. So I’ve been typing stuff into Word and hoping I would be able to get access somewhere. We're in the Apex International hotel, five minutes from Edinburgh Castle and finally, with some help from support and the girls in reception we've got access, what's more, it's free. Most of the hotels we've stayed at it's been about $37 Aussie dollars for 24 hours. It was about $25 in London, but access was pathetic, especially compared to Hanoi, where it was quite good, and cheap.

Anyway, here’s what we’ve been up to so far.

If you’re travelling from Australia to the UK, I can highly recommend you plan your flights so that you arrive in Singapore in the evening, then leave in the morning. We booked a night at the Ambassador Transit Hotel, which is in the middle of the airport. That way we managed to get a good night’s sleep on the way and a shower. There’s still that 12 hour flight for the second leg, but you feel much better for the break.

Donna got to visit her first English pub the day after we arrived. My cousin Terry, who turned 50 on Christmas eve, had his birthday lunch at a pub called the Yachtsman. We were in another pub the next day, The Jolly Sailor on Poole Quay (notice the nautical theme developing here?). This was for New Year’s Eve.

We stayed there until about a quarter to midnight, then moved down the quay to another pub, Corker’s, where my cousin Mandy’s husband John was the DJ. This meant that the first song played after Auld Lang Syne was 500 Miles, one of our favourites. It was quite appropriate with us travelling around as we are, but the reason John played it was because I requested it.

Tuesday, Terry took us to Corfe Castle via Swanage. Crossing the harbour entrance on the ferry, it was so clear, that we could see the Isle of Wight, birthplace of one of my work colleagues.

Corfe Castle was pretty much destroyed by Oliver Cromwell during the civil war. Yes, England had a civil war once too. If you have a look at most pictures of Corfe Castle, you’ll see a pub called the Greyhound in the picture,that was where we had lunch. A sign out the front says it’s Britain’s most photographed pub. I can believe that, I took a couple myself.

Terry left to visit some friends in Budapest on Thursday morning, so Barbie and Ken took us to the New Forest. Yes, you read that right, my aunt’s name is Barb and her partner’s name is Ken. We visited yet another pub for lunch, the Queen’s Head this time. Getting back to Poole, Donna and I went to a local grocery store and discovered that Jaffa cakes cost about half what we pay for them in Australia.

The next day was a trip to Monkey World, a refuge for rescued apes. It's apparently famous the world over because of a TV show about it, but we'd never heard of it in Australia. Probably because the show isn't on free to air TV.

Friday morning (I think), Barb and Ken dropped us off at Bournemouth station and we caught a train up to London. We spent that night in a room at the Park Plaza hotel, just across the river from the Houses of Parliament (Big Ben). Internet access in that hotel is ridiculous. We could get access on the TV, but it’s almost impossible to read. Wireless access is extremely slow, if it works at all. We're staying there for three nights at the end of our tour, so there'll be another pause in internet activity probably.

Saturday, our tour with Trafalgar started. This really needs an entry of it's own, partly because it's part two of our trip and partly because we've seen so much.

The Marriot hotel in Bristol, where we stayed for the first night of the tour was excellent, the food was great and so was the service. The Holiday Inn at Chester, not so good. The service was still good, but the food a bit, blah! We're now in Edinburgh, as I mentioned before, right in the middle of the city.

Tomorrow we travel down to York, then the following day we finish our tour in London.

I was hoping to catch up with Dave while we were in Dorset, but family kept us pretty busy so it didn't happen. We'll still have some time when we get back from the continent, so there's still a chance Dave.

Now, hopefully our next chance to get on the internet won't take so long, figers crossed.

Below is a very small selection of some of the places we've visited so far.