Travels with "Peedie Charlie and 2017 Adventure: Salop!!!

14.7.14

Bonjour…….happy Bastille day!! Liberte, fraternite and………… travel!

In a couple of days we catch the ferry over to the Netherlands, meet up with Sarah and travel up to Norway. We have been spending the last few days getting everything we need to travel in Europe. For example Norway, Denmark and Sweden do not use the Euro so all their currencies needed to be obtained. For driving we have needed a kit, which includes a breatheriser (for France)! We think we are all set.

We have been house sitting in Telford near Shrewsbury for Joy, part of Marg’s extended family. It has been really great spreading out and we have been enjoying the beautiful garden and harvesting tomatoes, strawberries, beans and courgettes. Pretty lucky and we are really grateful. We have also been able to find close by all the things we need for the van.

After leaving Scotland a couple of weeks ago we drove straight to Yorkshire and on the way back to Doug and Isabel’s in Harrogate we stayed at Hawes to do a bit of walking. The village was having a gala when we arrived so we had a good look around and visited the Wensleydale Cheese factory. Hawes was on the route for the first stage of the Tour de France and a week before the race it was looking great with bunting, signs and painted bikes. We climbed Stag Fell, the hill that Buttertub pass is on (if you watched the race), or Le Cote de Buttertub as the French called it. The locals were erecting a huge white bike made out of white material on the slopes of the Fell the day we were up there. As we drove to Harrogate later we were still on the route for the race and all the villages and farmers had done their bit to decorate the way. Harrogate was also looking very festive. We later watched this stage of the race on TV and Yorkshire looked great.

After a welcome catch up with the folks we headed to Chester on the Welsh border. We lived near here in the 70s and we wanted to have a better look at this walled city, so did a good walk around. On the way to Telford we called in to some of the interesting places we remembered from our stay such as The Boat on the river Dee (pub where Cromwell’s soldiers drank) and at Nescliffe to visit Humphrey Kynaston’s cave…a highway-man who was Shropshire’s ‘Robin Hood’, later pardoned in 1516. Rare bats have taken up home in the cave so we could no longer go in.

We had a quick trip down to Oxford to meet up with John and Jude, friends from Plimmerton. It was great to have a catch up and to walk around the lovely and interestingly diversified farm they were staying on. They took us into Oxford and we visited places we missed on our last visit such as Blackwell’s the famous 4 story book shop (great place to get lost in) and the Natural History Museum with its really weird collections.

While we have been here it hasn’t been all arrangements for our travel. We have visited Shrewsbury and found the house where it is said Henry VII stayed before the battle where he killed Richard III. Great old Tudor house. We visited the RAF museum and appreciated the way they set their role in context. Along with the all the planes there were good displays on the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis and the role of the CND. We particularly enjoyed the Russian leaders being depicted as a set of Russian Dolls!
Just learnt this morning from a local that Tolkien walked the Wrekin near Wellington (Salop) regularly where he was supposed to have had LoTR idea from !!!

1.A real front door on Carlisle castle