Final Days

Sunday morning began with a 180 miles (290km) three hour journey south to The Royal Cornwall Showground to attend the Kernow Yarn and Fibre Festival. 

The journey passed through many familiar sounding places, including Bridestowe, Bridgwater, Exeter, Launceston, Weymouth and Sidmouth. 

I discovered there wasn't much English wool available at the festival but I did find a couple of unique skeins. I was able to attend a free workshop on making Yorkshire and Devon buttons. It was really interesting and we got to keep the kit we used, so I'll easily be able to make more. 

Monday morning began with a visit to downtown Launceston! Whilst much smaller than Launceston Tasmania it has the essentials of all British town centres, Boots Pharmacy, a charity shop, Costa coffee shop, Co-op or Tesco Express supermarket and Castle ruins. 

Town Hall

They have a castle where the shop assistant told me she'd met many people from Launceston Tasmania and is saving up to come to Tasmania as a result.

Town square.

I then headed to Devon where it seemed appropriate to have a Devonshire Tea, or Cream Tea as the locals say. Whilst the presentation wasn't great, these were definitely the best scones I've had in a long time and I now love clotted cream.

The location in Exmoor National Park was lovely.

I was in Devon for four nights at a Christian Creative Arts retreat, at Lee Abbey. While it was initially a little more arty than I expected, by the second day I found the others in the group who like me are more crafty than arty and we had fun playing with the art materials. The focus of the retreat was on how images are used throughout the Bible to help us remember what is being taught. My clay plaque was made when everyone else made a bowl. I decided there was no chance of my bowl making it unbroken to Tasmania. 

Lee Abbey Estate is 300 acres in the midst of the national park, a stunning location. 

An underground chapel at the beach. 

The octagonal room, once the music room of the house is now the main meeting room. 

It was also a fun time of meeting many different people as there was concurrently a Friends of Lee Abbey retreat happening, that we shared all meals and some activities with. There were lots of questions about the length of my holiday and a general agreement Australians are very lucky to have long service leave.  Though one person was very concerned I might not have a job to go back to, as my school might have decided they don't need me! I assured her that they have to have me back and it's a perfectly normal thing to do.

Finding out about minor food differences at meal times became a frequent meal time question. Other participants were amazed I'd never had baked beans on a jacket potato (they thought bacon, cheese and sour cream a much better idea) or a Yorkshire pudding. I also discovered not only do chocolate Freddo Frogs taste different, they're also a different shape, despite the packaging being the same. I also had to try a flapjack at the cafe after admitting of never having even heard of them. It was okay but I'm in no rush to make one, unlike clotted cream.

Friday was a big drive back to Birmingham airport. I drove down the steepest road in England, Polark Hill and decided they must not have many hills. I certainly understand all about delays on the M5 now though. The four hour drive became five hours due to the many times traffic was close to a standstill, often for no apparent reason. I was glad I had given myself double the time needed. No for the long trip home.

Wonderful Wales in Four Days

On Wednesday morning I picked up a little Fiat 500 rental car and headed west on the M6. It took me an hour to get through Birmingham, despite the traffic mostly flowing well.  My lunch stop was in the beautiful town of Shrewsbury. I happened past a river cruise leaving soon and decided to do it. It was a sweet way to see some of this lovely town on the England/Wales border.

Thursday's focus was the Snowdon Mountain Railway. I'd booked an 1886 steam train ride back in March, as it sells out well in advance. The train takes you almost to the top of Wales' tallest mountain, Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon). The one hour journey up was stunning but the weather changes dramatic. Whilst mostly clear there was rain, hail, sleet and dense fog. Thankfully the fog cleared five minutes before the train returned down the mountain, so I got to see the full view briefly. I was also thankful that we only got told when almost back to the station that the train and the carriage are purposely not hooked up. The train pushes the carriage up the mountain, with the guard giving hand signals to the driver. 

Before WW2 this valley was full of many small farms but in 1938 the government moved them all into the nearby town and turned the area into an area for the military to practise. Just about everyone refused to move back when given the opportunity after the war, they'd grown to used to having running water and electricity in their new homes.

The guard definitely could not see much at times, the biggest issue is sheep on the tracks but the diesel trains had scared them all off for us. He also had a hand turned wind screen wiper, which he needed to use periodically.

Clearing view from the top. 

My train, an Abt train that has been on the route since they opened in 1896. There are mostly diesel powered trains for the one hour journey now or three walking routes.

I had a great seat, initially I thought it was at the back but with going backwards it was actually at the front!

Friday was a stunning drive through several national parks and beautiful farms of Mid Wales. I was disappointed at the lack of pull over spots, they could definitely learn from Scotland in this regard. 

My lunch stop was at Devil's Bridge, where there are three bridges built on top of each other.

All the directional road signs are bilingual, some end up rather too long to easily read. 

I often have no idea where I'm headed as I either have no idea how to pronounce the place name or sometimes there are two totally different names for the same place.

Saturday I visited the Llandovery Sheep Festival (Ll is a Cl sound!). It was really just a general festival with one of the three marquees having some sheep, spinners and wool sellers in it. But it was interesting and involved what will probably be my last driving on one lane roads, as well as purchasing summer lovely wool. 

These two sheep had a really, really curly fleece.

I don't understand why one lane roads have the same  60mph/100km/hr speed limit as two lanes roads? Especially as most of the one lane roads have hedges either side and passing places are few and far between. 

Sunday I'm heading into southern England for the last six days of my holiday.

Fife, Edinburgh and Birmingham

On Saturday after a quick visit to a friend of Dimity's, I visited the Scottish Yarn Festival. Whilst I did purchase some yarn from a few farmers it was much smaller than I expected. I didn't think to take any photos.

Along the way, I was impressed yet again at the huge loads pulled by tractors. It's really common to see tractors on country roads as most farmers have multiple, small land holdings. 

After the festival we headed to Scone Palace, the crowning place of many Scottish kings. No photos were allowed inside but it was full of family history and their many collections, like 50 dinner sets. The grounds were lovely to walk around. 

A replica of the Stone of Scone, in the spot where it was used to crown kings. The original is now on Edinburgh Castle, after the English returned it in 1996 (they'd captured it in 1296 and taken it to London).

We then headed to a small village on the Fife coast, Cellardyke. It was covered in mist most of the time we were there.

Sunday afternoon's plan, after walking to a local village church was a quiet stroll around the town of  St Andrew's. We arrived to bedlam, it turned out it was the day before orientation week started. There were students and parents everywhere, leading to long lines of traffic and no parking. I did get some lovely bacon topped Mac and Cheese, made with local cheese and bacon at a nearby farm shop. 

Monday we followed the Fife Coastal Trail into Edinburgh. There was a cruise ship with 3600 people on it, so the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle were both very crowded. Luckily I'd been able to get a ticket online on Sunday morning (at that point Monday afternoon tickets were still available, they'd all sold out by Monday morning).

Hollyrood Palace, at the bottom of the Royal Mile.

Along the Royal Mile.

Edinburgh Castle, the Scottish Royal Jewels were most interesting to see but no photos were allowed and they were in a vault room, with a security guard. Like most rooms at the Castle there was a queuing system to get in and also a red/green light to let you enter.

St Margaret's Chapel. 

A lovely fireplace in the royal apartments.

It was interesting to look all over Edinburgh.

They were taking down the seating from the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

Late Monday afternoon I hoped on a train and 4 hours and 18 minutes later I was in Birmingham. It was weird to be in such a huge city after so long in small places. Tuesday morning I did a short walking tour of the city to see the main buildings. There are only a few really old buildings due to WW2 bombings.

This bull was created for the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and is now in the train station. The young city guide I had, tried to explain the Commonwealth Games to me, he seemed surprised when I explained Australia was part of them so I knew exactly what they are. I did also point out we normally do pretty well at them. 

Birmingham Cathedral, really just a church that they added to a little when they wanted a cathedral.

This water fountain is a running joke in the city as at once stage it was turned into flower beds but was fixed up for the Commonwealth Games and was immediately filled with detergent, which created a lot of bubbles and stopped it working again. 

War memorial. After WW1 everyone village, town and city in the UK was required by the government to build (and fund) a war memorial. This is the largest one I've seen.

They're very proud of Ozzy Osbourne in particular.

The Shakespeare Memorial Room at the city library, it's been rebuilt several times but now sits atop the library on the 9th floor and most of its books are stored in a secure, humidity controlled space only available to researchers. It was originally built in 1882.

The library was actually quite lacking in resources, with many areas having out of order signs on them. The fiction and non fiction areas were smaller than the Launceston library. But it was a real community hub, with tourist information, a contemplation space/prayer room and adult education classes, that included English class for the many migrants in the city. I love how they have arranged the old books in coloured sections and put up fairy lights, it looked magical as you road the escalators up and down.

In both Edinburgh and Birmingham it was sad to see the different kinds of barriers being put to to stop people driving where they shouldn't.

Tuesday night I caught up with Marleen who was my roommate on my Vietnam tour over a decade ago. We had a wonderful Persian meal but we so busy talking I didn't think to take any photos.