^ It is lovely there...when the weather is fair.
The Yews in the UK are very long lived. Some they estimate to between 2-4 thousand years old so they are babies, many years of clipping ahead
^ It is lovely there...when the weather is fair.
The Yews in the UK are very long lived. Some they estimate to between 2-4 thousand years old so they are babies, many years of clipping ahead
Great pics and trip report commentary, looks like you fitted a lot in.
I am still in Shropshire with the ex. There's no escape. Fortunately we kept things civil and found some decent restaurants and pubs.
Next stop was the Norman town of Ludlow, or the Ludlow Home for the Aged. I fitted right in.
There are some interesting buildings. Feathers was built in 1619 and is now a hotel.
Not being a great history buff I never even knew that Napoleon had a brother, let alone that the brother found himself living here. Maybe it was a more exciting town, back in the day.
The most famous building is the Norman castle. Built to keep an eye on the Welsh. The town grew up around the castle.
On the day of our visit we found that tickets were being sold for Macbeth, an open air performance at the castle on the following evening. We went along with a picnic and essential cocktails. I really cannot recommend thse G&Ts in cans.
Just as well it was close to mid-summer, there was no lighting. This pic was taken at the end of the performance, about 10pm. We enjoyed it, it isn't a play I know well and it was a reminder of how many quotes and phrases Macbeth has given to the English language, such as 'the milk of human kindness'.
We had another trip out, to the even sleepier town of Bishops Castle. We had a decent lunch here.
A van had rolled back into one of the old houses here. It had done quite a lot of damage, some of these old wooden framed buildings are relatively fragile. This is probably about the most exciting thing to have happened in Bishop's Castle for quite some time.
Another day saw us up by Stiperstones ridge. There are colourful myths about the rocky outcrops which are simply the exposed end of a folded bed of quartzite. Mendip will be able to give us some more correct terminology. The surrounding area was once a hive of mining activity, mainly lead and some barium from Barytes ore. It's all gone now and the area is known for some rare wildlife - which I did not see.
I did however see llamas and alpacas.
"Look out! There are llamas."
Very nice, shu. Pics and stories are appreciated. How are the wines & beers?
My time in Shropshire came to an end. I can understand why the ex chose to live there in the summer but winter must be a challenge.
She agreed to drive me all the way back to LGW, with an overnight stop at my daughter's home, so an unexpected last chance to see the granddaughters again.
On the way down she had a cross-country run to do in Malvern so I had a few hours on my own. I have never been to Malvern before. There are great views out towards the Severn valley.
And of course Great Malvern Priory. There was probably a religious community here a thousand years ago, before the Norman invasion. Construction of the priory probably started about 20 years after the Normans arrived:
That was my UK trip more or less over. One last night with the family and then the very long trip back to DMK. The flight was 2 hours late leaving because there was no one to load bags onto the plane. How many ground staff do you see here?
Looks lovely, great pics. Blenheim palace is gorgeous!
I returned to Bangkok, although this was just a short stopover as I had decided to travel on to Penang. The gf flew down to join me for a couple of days, no passport renewals on this trip.
We went to Jim Thompson's house because she had never been there and knew nothing about his role in the Thai silk industry. It is all getting rather tightly organised for my taste. We opted for the Thai language guide which worked well because that was just us and the guide while the tourists had some shrieking harridan pushing them around.
Back to the British Club for cocktails. They have this Fentimans tonic water that I hadn't tried before and frankly I did think it made a superior G&T. I looked on Lazada and found it at B74 a bottle, which is more than I'd like to pay. I might still get a few bottles in for when I fancy a change.
Dinner was at a restaurant I used to like very much. I first went there not long after it opened and it was an atmospheric small house with very good food. Sadly it has changed, our experience was not better than mediocre.
Then it was on to Penang. My host has a comfortable apartment, the view to the East catching the sunrise over the entrance to George Town harbour.
Inevitably, a swimming pool that nearly no one but I used.
The hill behind had a couple of different kinds of monkey from time to time, plus occasional parrots and sea eagles. Here is the monkey picture that Malmomike has been waiting for:
^^
The boat park looks ideally placed. Slipway on the right corner? A great spot for my Boston Whaler, though I'm not too fond of Penang.
Getting home was less easy than I had hoped. Many Internet sources give the AirAsia office address in George Town and when I couldn't change my ticket on line I trotted down to the office. To discover that it is now a Family Mart. AirAsia closed up a year ago, it turned out. I eventually found a travel agency that sold AirAsia tickets but they couldn't rebook my 'flexible' fare. They couldn't even sell me a new ticket because their system couldn't access the page they needed to add a suitcase to the booking.
The only option was a long journey to the airport, where their office was, you can guess, closed.
It took some time to find the one counter handling ticket sales then queuing to meet the sourest young woman I have ever encountered in Penang. I eventually got a new ticket and a whole series of new reasons to be unhappy with AirAsia.
I thought I was done until I arrived extra early to check in for my flight and found perhaps the longest checkin queue known to history. They had sent massages saying that online and contactless checkin was 'mandatory' but none of their machines was working so everyone had to queue.
It was actually a joy then to arrive at DMK and find only one person ahead of me at Immigration. With no TM6 or ThailandPass required I was out into the baggage hall about 2 minutes later. A record.
On then to the LionAir desk where the sales agent was a delight to deal with, such a contrast to AirAsia. I soon had a ticket and was later on my way home to Udon Thani.
I had been on the road about 6 weeks. It was great to meet so many family and friends and just as great to get home again.
Great thread. I disliked travel even before Covid, with the exception of one or two sojourns within Thailand. Even with those, always a pleasure getting home again even after a few days away.
^ or we are all just getting old, even you Armstrong
sofas, i have a small 3 seat (2.9M) and a 4 seat (3.6M) but in Dill terms they are a 2 and 3 seaters - very comfy and i keep waking up at 12 and going to bed. Not midday Lulu.
George Town is nice but the traffic a bit of a nightmare.
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