Homeward bound

 So 6 weeks and 3500  miles, driven not flown!!!  I'm sitting in the Qantas lounge at terminal 3, and I have upgraded to first class for the trip home.  How nice it is to be pampered, met at the door, escorted to a reserved armchair and valet service all the way.

But, what have you been up to since Bath you ask, well let me give you a quick overview of the past little while.

After Bath, Terri and I headed to Stratford upon Avon to soak up some Shakespearean history.  We had a great day wandering around, we went to his birthplace and to the church where he's buried. We walked miles, meandered along the river, soaked up the sights and had a wonderful dinner before heading back to the bus to take us to where the car was parked. Unfortunately the bus driver who too, us into town gave us the wrong time for the last bus, and we missed it.  We finally got to the train station and managed to work out how to get back to the car, only to find we had a 45 minute wait for the Train!!!  After a quick call to our bnb to let them know we were running late, we waited for the train and all was well.

After a good night's sleep we headed off early for Stonehenge, sitting in the middle of Salisbury Plain, its an amazing sight, unfortunately you can't get up close and personal like you can at Avebury, but it was a great experience.

After leaving Stonehenge we headed through the New Forest to Lymington for the night. The NF is lovely and Terri got to see the wild NF ponies as well as the sheep and cattle that graze wild in the Forest.

Our bnb was comfortable and boasted a hot tub in the garden, we were both too tired to be bothered and had a shower and early night.

Next day was Brighton, after a less than inspiring brunch we explored the Royal Pavilion and  marvelled at its vulgar faux Chinese architecture!!  Then it was off to Brighton Beach and the Brighton pier.  Terri wasn't impressed with the stone beach, but what can you expect from a daughter that insists on calling football soccer (but that's another story)  Anyway she enjoyed the pier with its shops and amusement halls  we did a little retail therapy and loaded up with Brighton Rock before heading back to the car for the drive to Dartford where we stayed for 4 nights.

On Saturday we had a date with Jo to watch the rock choir perform at the St Giles fete.  Before the fete I took Terri to St Giles churchyard - the bloody church was naturally closed - to see the family graves and put some flowers on my grandparents grave where we interred dads ashes.  Terri picked poppies from the church gardens, she maintains the only signs said don't let your dog pee on the grass, there was nothing about picking flowers. So while Terri arranged the flowers I took out my pen and wrote dads name on the headstone. They can't transport me to Australia my crimes as I'm going there anyway.

Before we met up with Jo we headed to Joan's and spent an hour or so catching up with her, and I promised to take Jo to see her after the fete.

Jo's Rock Choir is amazing, we could have listened to them all day.  After the performance we headed to Joan's for more tea and conversation before dropping Jo home and heading home ourselves.

On Sunday morning Terri and I headed to Hever Castle the ancestral home of the Sackville-Wests.  We did a castle tour and wandered the grounds, being Fathers day it was packed, but we enjoyed it, especially the gardens.

After Hever we headed to Mick and Jacqui's in Crocken Hill for a BBQ and even the rain couldn't dampen the fantastic time we had. The afternoon passed so quickly and we still had so much to talk about that we decided to catch up for dinner on Tuesday evening.

On Monday I took Terri to commune with the deer at Knole, I don't know how many photos she took, but I think the Knole deer are about to become more famous than Bambi.

After Knole we headed back to Farnborough so I could take some last photos of family graves and to walk through to High Elms. It's still a lovely walk and we paid our respects to the Lubbock graves as we passed through, in another lifetime I went to ballet classes with Sir Eric's daughter.  Then a drive through the Kent countryside before we headed back to Dartford.

Tuesday was our day in Windsor so we were up early and left at 6.30 for the 60 mile / 100km drive. My reasoning was we would be ahead of the traffic, haha, we got caught up on the M25 carpark and it too, us 2 and a half hour to do the trip,not helped by torrential rain and broken down vehicles.

But, Windsor was worth it, the Royal Standard was flying so we knew King Charles was in residence, it was the first day of Royal Ascot so Windsor Castle was closed and there were spivs dressed to the nines everywhere.

We had booked for the hop on  hop off bus, but there was only 1 bus and it was only running ever hour to hour and a half so we got our ticket validated and headed back to the Thames to do the river cruise that was included in our ticket. On the way we headed a band and a chap said the changing of the guard was happening, I thought we could only see it in the castle grounds, but no, they were coming through the main street. We missed the new guard going in but waited an saw the old guard leaving. It really is quite a splendid sight.

After  the COG we decided to have lunch as our 40 minute river cruise was booked out.  We had lunch in the very posh brasserie, the food was okay, but nothing  to write home about, the decor however was spectacular..

Fortified with food we headed back to the river to find there was a problem with the 40 minute  cruise, so I talked us onto the 2 hour one!!!!  We had a great time took lots of photos including  long shots of Frogmore cottage and William and Catherine's home, we also got to ogle the Royal Dairy Herd of Jersey cows.  When  we got back from  the cruise we headed home  this time it only took an hour and a half to reach our last hotel in Swanley.

We has a wonderful dinner that night with the family and I can't say much without getting emotional.

Yesterday was London, thankfully only a 30 minute trip on the train from Swanley and the hop on hop off bus picked us up just around the corner. We had a great day seeing the sights and did another cruise on the Thames.  This time we got to see the horses end of end of day ceremony at horse guards.

We caught up with a school friend of Terri's for drinks in Trafalgar Square and then I left her to spend the evening with Jin and I  headed back on the train to have dinner with Mick and Sue who had come  up from Somerset to see us off.

Today we finalised our packing, had lunch with Mick and Sue and headed to the airport.

So what has Lesleys Pilgrimage achieved? Well I am strong, I can live and enjoy life without Warren, I have family on both sides of the world, and Australia is home.  Wazzy is always with me and sometimes his face just pops up in front of me and I know he's there.

I can't wait to see you all and cuddle my boys.

Love you all

Bath

 Another beautiful sunny day so Terri and I were out and about early, we walked from the hotel, across the river into Bath and purchased tickets for the hop on hop off bus and spent a couple of hours just soaking up the history and grandeur of the place.

Bath is a beautiful Georgian City built on the site of the ancient Roman town of Aqua Sulis. The architecture is beautiful with Georgian buildings constructed out of the beautiful honey coloured Bath Stone.  The Royal Crescent is an incredible example of Georgian Architecture and these days the tour buses are not allowed to drive around the crescent, which I think is a good thing, it means you can walk around and really soak up the history without a lot of traffic.

Naturally we did a tour of the Roman Baths, and even though I'd been the  re before it was still an incredible experience and Terri was truly impressed!!  It's just amazing how much of the original baths still exist, the hot spring that the baths are bulit on (which had been revered and held sacred for centuries before the bloody Romans arrived!!)  still spews gallons of hot water every day, its an awe inspiring sight just to see the overflow which still feeds the main pool in the courtyard.

After leaving the baths we indulged in some retail therapy before heading to the Pump Room for high tea, and what a high tea it was, a lovely glass of bubbly, multiple pots of tea, dainty sandwhiches, savoury tarts, scones and cakes, in fact we had to get a doggy bag as we couldn't eat it all.

To walk off some of the indulgence we took the bus to Queens Square Park and walked around the beautiful parklands just across from the Royal Crescent.  One could almost imagine Jane Austin promenading in the afternoons!!

There was a Mr Whippy van in one of the parking areas and I couldn't resist a soft serve with a flake and raspberry sauce - OMG how the hell did I eat them when I was a kid, it was sooooo sweet!!!!  Neither of us could finish so we surrupticially dropped the ice cream behind the seat we were sitting on - not 2 minutes later the grey squirrels started to arrive one cheeky bugger actually picked up the cone and proceeded to sit behind us munching away on it!! You can see why the native red squirrels have been pushed out.

Leaving the squirrels behind we walked back to the hop on hop off bus and made our way back into central Bath and then strolled back to our hotel tired but happy.

Glastonbury

 Monday morning bright and early we said a tearful farewell to Mick and Sue and headed to Glastonbury which is about 25 miles away.

Having parked the car we decided coffee was the first stop, we walked into the main street and into the same tea rooms across from the Abbey that Wazzy and I had frequented in 2016. The service was just as good as last time and so refreshed we began the walk to the Tor.

Those of you who read my 2016 blog will remember it's quite a walk with the trail meandering along country lanes before heading uphill through rolling countryside and then the final steep climb to St Michael's Tower on the top of the Tor.  Every step I took I was reminded of walking the same pathways with Warren and how determined he was to reach the top.

The views across Somerset are amazing and St Michael's Tower is quite awe inspiring. The wildflowers were blooming and there was a gentle breeze blowing, it was quite beautiful.

I was telling Terri about the chap we met at the Tor and how he discussed Ley Lines and explained about the magnetic force where Ley Lines converge and how he showed us the place where the magnetic force moves you backwards. I pulled up the photos I'd taken and tried to find the spot again, Terri was a tad sceptical but I persevered and finally found the spot. When I stood on it it pushed me backwards, yet 12 inches to the side nothing happens. Terri  stood there and she too could feel the tingle and was pushed back.  Video has been taken, so all you sceptics can view it when we get home!!!

After sitting and drinking in the views for a while we headed back down the hill to visit the Chalice Well and the Abbey. The Chalice Well Gardens are magnificent and so peaceful we spent about an hour there and I took a walk through the pilgrims healing pool in King Arthur's Court, the water flows into the pool from the spring which feeds the Chalice Well and is a constant 11 degrees!!

After drying my feet and warming up we headed down to Glastonbury Abbey and spent time wandering around in the ruins where King Arthur is  said to be buried. The Abbey must have been enormous, a village in itself and the trust is doing an incredible job of preserving the ruins and explaining the history of the Abbey.

From Glastonbury we headed to Bath arriving in time for dinner, shower and bed.

Mick and Sue's

 Well Friday arrived and we gratefully left the Wardonia Hotel, again only one night spent there when we got back from Paris, but NEVER AGAIN!!!! We caught the tube to London City Airport to pick up the car - that's another story, suffice it to say, I said after our last trip I would never hire with Europcar again - I should have bloody well listened to myself!!!  

Anyway we finally got in our car and headed off for the 4 hour trip to Mick and Sue's in Somerset.  The trip took us 5 hours, but we arrived safely to be met with the warmest of welcomes.

Over the weekend Mick drove us to various places including a willow farm and Sheppy's Cider as well as a couple of pubs!!!

It was so nice to just relax and be pampered, Sue and I sat up  late each night going over family history and enjoying a glass of wine.  Terri and Mick very sensibly left us to it!!!

M&S's place is absolutely devine, their home is so warm and welcoming, the gardens are beautiful and the outlook over their neighbours small holding which is alive with the most friendly farm animals you will ever meet just signals relaxation.

Terri and I met the sheep, the alpaca's, the goats, both normal size and pygmy, the guinea fowl, chickens, geese and the pigs who I fell in love with.

It was a wonderful weekend and so very special to spend more time with my cousin.

On Sunday afternoon we walked to the local church that was built in the 1400's, it is beautiful.