THE GRAND TOUR!
I spent two months in Britain over the Christmas '98 -- New Year '99 period. It was my first overseas holiday, and first chance to meet my husband Tony's only brother Eddie and his family. Because of work commitments, Tony didn't join me until just before Christmas.
I stayed in Rochdale (near Manchester) with Eddie and Jean for that first month, getting to know the places where Tony grew up and immersing myself in the day-to-day experience of life in the "industrial north". It was a suprisingly easy transition from sub-tropical Ipswich, Queensland (even though it was my first experience of a European winter). Apart from obvious differences in climate, geography and urban architecture, the lifestyle wasn't too different from home. (I suppose one working-class town is much like another). But there was certainly enough novelty to keep me quite happy just mooching around the town. I did a bit of sightseeing in the area, some day trips (to Haworth to visit the Bronte parsonage, into Manchester, and over the Pennines to Leeds to visit nephew Gary's pub in Horsforth), and a short trip north to Carlisle and over the border to Edinburgh for a few days.
After Tony arrived for an emotional reunion with his brother, Eddie and Jean treated us to a four-day Christmas special holiday package staying at the "Norbreck Castle" hotel in Blackpool. That was really something. (Bill Bryson did a splendid article in
National Geographic a few years back about the delights of Blackpool: he said it all, and I strongly recommend you look it up).
After a jolly family party to belatedly celebrated Christmas, and a day trip to York, Tony and I headed off early in January to London. After an exciting and wearying four days exploring the National Gallery, British Museum, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey etc. etc., we collected a hire car and took off to cover as much ground as we could in 10 days. Our meandering tour took us from Canterbury to Battle; across the south downs via Arundel to Portsmouth; via Chawton (to see Jane Austen's house), Winchester and the New Forest to Salisbury and Stonehenge; through Somerset and Devon across the Saltash Bridge into Cornwall; three days exploring churchyards in the Roseland looking for ancestral graves, and trekking across Cornwall; up the coast and across Exmoor via Nether Stowey (Coleridge's house!) to Glastonbury; Cheddar, the Severn Bridge, Wye Valley and the Forest of Dean to the Cotswolds; to Woodstock to see Blenheim Palace, into Oxford; on to Cambridge, then continuing north-east to Ely, Sandringham and King's Lynn, before turning west and heading back to Rochdale. Phew!
In our last week, we hired another car and toured around the north west and the Lakes, and had an overnight trip to Chester and North Wales. We departed England on 27 January and had a whirlwind two-night stopover in Singapore (where the change of climate just about did me in) on the way home.
It was the most fantastic holiday, and did indeed live up to the cliche of giving me a lifetime's worth of memories.
Share some of my memories:
Britain Oop North
Britain Dahn Sarf