Cross Country to York

Quite literally, that is what we did today. We said our farewells and thank yous to Diane and, having driven the Alfa a total of 183 miles, we returned it Avis. We then boarded the Cross Country Trains Reading-Newcastle service at Oxford. Departing at 10:07. We stopped at Banbury and Leamington Spa on our way to Birmingham New Street. Here the train reversed direction and headed off to York, stopping at Derby, Sheffield and Doncaster on the way. We arrived in a little over three and half hours, much faster that you could drive there and cheaper too, courtesy of advance purchase fares via the Internet.

A short taxi ride from York Station brought us to Bowman's Guesthouse, our home for the 3 nights. We have a first floor, front room which is very nice and a little more spacious that our room in Paddington. After a rest, we went for a walk around York, visiting York Minster and the Shambles. Later on we went back into town and had Yorkshire Pudding for dinner. Unlike the little batter puddings we usually have with a roast, these were a large batter pie-crust that held roast meat and gravy with vegetables on a side dish.

 Bowman's Guesthouse - our room is the first floor bay window

York Minster

The Shambles, York

A Scholarly Afternoon

After a lazy morning and an early lunch, we went into Oxford with Diane as our guide. We parked the car and made our way through the Westgate Shopping Centre to the New Road mall and the heart of Oxford. With rain coming down, we made our way along St Aldate's to Christ Church College and the Oxford Cathedral. From there, our tour of the Oxford University colleges continued past Corpus Christi College, Oriel College, the University Church of St Mary The Virgin, the Radcliffe Camera and Bodleian Library. 

 New Road, Oxford

 Christ Church College

Corpus Christi College

Oriel College

 University Church of St Mary The Virgin

Radcliffe Camera

By now we had found our way to Broad Street and a return to the shops of Oxford. We visited the multi-level Blackwell Bookshop and the Martyrs' Memorial on our way to the News Cafe for a late afternoon tea. We then drove home the long way, visiting Wolvercote, Wytham, Boars Hill and Wootton before returning to Radley.

Broad Street, Oxford

 Blackwell Bookshop in Broad Street

 Martyrs' Memorial, Oxford

 Bowyer Arms, Radley

 Stopping train to Paddington at Radley Station

A Day Out in the Cotswolds

Today, with Diane as  our guide, we went for a day out in the Cotswolds, the home of towns and villages with all those quaint English names. We drove through Chipping Norton, stopping briefly to photograph the Bliss Tweed Mill, and on to Moreton-in-Marsh where we stopped for a walk around the town. Driving on through Bourton-on-the-Hill, we arrived at Broadway where we lucked a parking spot in the High Street. Here we enjoyed Cream Tea for a rather late morning tea. Cream Tea is tea with scone, jam and clotted cream which, of course, isn't Devonshire tea because we were in Worcestershire, not Devon...

Bliss Tweed Mill, Chipping Norton

 High Street and Market Hall, Moreton-in-Marsh

 High Street, Moreton-in-Marsh

High Street, Broadway

Whereas both Moreton-in-Marsh and Broadway had been extremely crowded as it was a Bank Holiday weekend, our next stop was quite the opposite. Snowshill, not far from Broadway, was a quiet little village with no shops to attract the tourists. After a pleasant stroll around, tasting a few wild strawberries on the way, we continued on to our next stop in the busy market town, Stow-on-the-Wold.

 The church grounds in Snowshill

 The High Street through Snowshill

 Stow-on-the-Wold

Market Square, Stow-on-the-Wold

After a stroll around Stow-on-the-Wold, we headed off to our next destination, a village called Bourton-on-the-Water. With the River Windrush running through its centre, it is a beautiful little village that had seemed to attract the whole of humanity to visit. We restricted ourselves to look around from the car and put Bourton-on-the-Water on the "To Do" list for our next visit to England - on a week-day!

We moved on to our last stop of the day, Burford. Here we had a rather decadent (and late) afternoon tea in the Huffkins Tea Rooms before heading back to Radley for dinner.

 

High Street, Burford

Huffkins Tea Rooms, Burford

Burford Church

Big Boys Toys...

Being the generous soul that I am, I offered to let Anita and Diane have some "quality girl time" together but taking myself off to the Didcot Railway Centre, the home of the Great Western Society. As chance would have it, Diane's neighbour Eric is a Guard with the GWS so I went as his guest.

With the weekend being a Bank Holiday weekend, the GWS was putting on a special day to launch their recently completed restoration, Steam Railmotor No.93. Built in 1908, modified a couple of times during its life, condemned in 1956 and acquired by GWS in the early 1970's, the restoration project was a major effort that spanned 13 years. Starting as a derelict hulk, the finished result is magnificent.

GWR Steam Railmotor No.93

Using a theme for the weekend of 100 Years of the Self-Propelled Passenger Carrying Rail Vehicle, they also had their 1940 GWR Diesel Railcar No. 22 in service along with a 1960's class 121 "bubble-car" on loan from Chiltern Railways where it is still used in regular service. To complete the theme, they had their Great Western/British Rail (Western Region) Auto Train, featuring 0-4-2T locomotive 1466/4866 on static display along with a First Great Western class 165 Thames Turbo, built in the 1990s, and a brand new Chiltern Railways class 172 Turbostar.

Great Western/British Rail (Western Region) Auto Train

GWR Diesel Railcar No. 22

Chiltern Railways Class 121 Bubble-car

First Great Western Class 165 Thames Turbo

Chiltern Railways Class 172 Turbostar

With the emphasis of the day being on railmotors, the other amazing exhibits of the GWS were relegated to static display. This included Fire Fly, a replica Broad Gauge (7' 1/4") locomotive and carriages representing the original Great Western Railway of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It was a great day out and I only got back to Radley five minutes before Anita and Diane who had gone out for afternoon tea in Dorchester-on-Thames.

GWR Broad Gauge Fire Fly

Some of GWS's other locomotives

It was a little disappointing not to see Fire Fly operating but that just means a return visit to Didcot on the next trip to England will be required.

Bye, Bye London - For Now!

After a few enjoyable days  in London it was time to say farewell to our little room at the Tudor Court Hotel and move on to the next phase of our holiday. So after another great breakfast from the hotel, we packed our packed our bags and towed them up to Paddington Station to catch the 9.50 train to Oxford. Stopping only at Slough and Reading, we were there in under an hour.

First task on arrival was to walk around the corner to Avis to pick up our hire car for the next few days. Booked as a "Vauxhall Astra or similar", we were pleasantly surprised to be driving away in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta. After an impromptu tour around Oxford, we sent off for our intended destination of Radley where would were staying with Anita's cousin Diane.

Our Alfa - well, at least for the next few days

Diane's house in Radley

After lunch, Diane took us on a guide tour of the village of Radley and the town of Abingdon. In Abingdon, we park the car and walked down to the Abingdon Lock on the Thames and back through the town itself.

Abingdon Lock on the Thames

 Mid 15th Century house in East St Helen's Street, Abingdon

St Helen's Church at the end of East St Helen's Street

St Nicholas Church, Abingdon

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

The forecast was for "showers, heavy at times" so we set off for a day's sightseeing around London only to discover later on that we were a little under-prepared. We took the Tube to St James Park where, after a short walk, we arrived at Westminster Abbey. In between intermittent showers, we joined the hordes of tourist and walked around the Abbey, past the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben and then over the Thames on Westminster Bridge.

Westminster Abbey

Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

We stayed on the south side of the Thames and walked around the Waterloo Station for morning tea. From there we set out for Tower Bridge, first by Overground train to London Bridge station and then on foot along side the Thames. When we first arrived at the river, we were greeted with what we thought was a most unusual occurrence; Tower Bridge was open to allow a boat to pass. We later discovered that London's traffic gets stopped quite regularly for the bridge to open, sometimes several times a day.

Tower Bridge closing after a boat has passed through

The Tower of London from across the Thames

The sky was very dark and threatening as we walk across the Tower Bridge to the London side of the Thames and just as we reached the other side, down came the rain. Bucket loads... We took shelter for a while in an underpass be fore deciding to make a dash for the nearest Tube station. We got a little lost and so to get out of the rain, we jumped on board a convenient bus. It's destination was Covent Garden so it was a bit of a surprise to head off back over the Thames. With all the rain, the traffic had ground to a halt so we jumped off the bus at London Bridge station and made our way back to Paddington and our hotel by Tube.

After drying off and having lunch, we set off to go shopping, this time dressed for the rain. We walked down Edgware Road to Marble Arch, dodging the rain as we went. From Marble Arch, we headed down Oxford Street visiting different shops on the way, especially when the downpours came. One noticeable difference between Melbourne and London is that there are no verandahs on the shops in London. As a consequense, every time the rain came down, everyone would rush into the nearest shop just to shelter. 

Having walked most the shopping district along Oxford Street, we headed off through Soho and Covent Garden to Trafalgar Square. By now it was late and still raining a lot so we caught a Tube at Charing Cross back to Paddington.

A Visit to Henry's House

The weather yesterday was brilliant and the forecast for today was for more of the same. So with tomorrow not looking so promising, we decided today was the day to visit Hampton Court Palace, the home of Henry VIII, and East Molesey, the home of Anita when she was a young girl.

After a early morning stroll around the Regent Canal and Little Venice, we caught a Circle line tube to Wimmbleton where we changed to a Hampton Court train. From the station it is just a short walk across the Thames River to the Palace. We spent most of the day exploring the many rooms and gardens before finishing up with a visit to Bushy Park and the Hampton Court Maze.

A Narrow Boat on Regent's Canal

Hampton Court Palace

Clock Court

 

Just like the jig-saw puzzle we have

One of the many Tapestries hanging inside Hampton Court Palace
 

Although rather tired, late in the afternoon we set off on the second part of the day's quest - East Molesey. Anita was fearful that character would have changed with development and modernisation but it was a pleasant surprise to find that this wasn't so. We walked down Bridge Road and, crossing over the River Mole along Esher Road, arrived at Summer Road where Anita grew up. The ford across the River Ember has now gone but  footbridge allowed us passage to her street.While her old house at 51 is still there, it is now hard to see as there is a rather crude garage built where there once was a lovely front garden. Such is the progress that has been brought on by the motor car.

Bridge Road, East Molesey

51 Summer Road is the cream half of the semi-detached house on the right

Rather tired, we retraced our steps back to Paddington and enjoyed another meal in one of the many establishments that are within a short walk from our hotel.