Camping in Kent

This is Chilham, about 10 minute's walk from our lodgings at Cork Farm at Old Wives Lees, Kent. A very pleasant and civil place.  A building on The Square is above, St Mary's church is below.

In my previous post I mentioned the consequences of reckless form filling.  The later flight arrived on time at Heathrow, but fate was about to have her say.  First there were lengthy queues at passport control.  We were among the last to be processed.  A baggage handler had the day off, we were told, so our bags were slow to emerge. Nonetheless it was good to be on the ground.

I booked a car from a company called Green Motion many months ago. We were expecting someone from Green Motion to meet us at the shed that is Terminal 3, or at least to answer our call to its office nearby. Plan B was hastily formed and put into effect.  This involved taking a courtesy bus to the Avis depot (which seemed to be closer to Bristol than Terminal 3) to become a "walk-up".  Apparently a walkup has criminal tendencies that justify some additional charges, but at least the staff were helpful and had a car available.

We drove to Kent.

We arrived at Old Wives Lees at bout 11pm, just as our hosts were taking their phone off the hook.  Plan C? No other accommodation was available so we slept in the car.  Early next morning we made belated contact with our host who cheerfully suggested that perhaps we should have contacted him earlier.

After finally getting some sleep we set about exploring this fascinating area, starting with Canterbury.
  

  

Chilham door.

Changi and the folly of forms

So many forms.  Many months ago I made a mistake in our booking form for our flight from Singapore to London.  In the twenty minutes it took to rectify the problem, we lost our seats on the 9am flight.  Not too perturbed, we settled for the 12:45pm, aboard the A380.  After a restful night in the transit hotel, waiting in Changi Airport for a few hours was not too burdensome.  Koi and butterflies make fine, gentle entertainment and a next to our departure gate.  All appeared to be well, but the aforementioned error had consequences later that day.  

Iceland

Iceland is like no other place we visited. Its landscapes are breathtaking.

The fact that geothermal energy provides most space heating and a significant amount of electricity generation is a hint that this is an unusual place.

We took an eight hour bus excursion around the "golden circle" from Reykjavík.

Apart from the stark volcanic landscape we saw the Golden Waterfall, Gullfoss, and erupting hot spings at the Geysir geothermal area, before visiting the rift valley at Thingvellir.

At Thingvellir the valley floor is subsiding because the North American tetonic plate is pulling away from the European plate. Our bus took just a minute or two to travel from Europe to North America.

Ring of Kerry

We cruised gently around the Ring of Kerry in west Ireland, and saw not one tourist bus. More astonishing was that it didn't rain.






Sylvia found a pleasant shop in Kenmare. We also had a pleasant meal.

Tower of London and the Cabinet War Room

For reasons that have yet to be explained, some people feel compelled to throw coins into ponds and fountains. At least here at the Traitor's Gate in the Tower of London, the money is collectedfor charity.





The WWII Cabinet War Rooms were facinating, particularly the Cabinet Room which, like many other significant rooms in the underground complex are just as they were at the war's end.

Room 63 was a secret room used by Churchill to talk by secure telephone line to Roosevelt.

London again

Lyndal and Nick joined us on our outing to Hampton Court Palace.

Sensory overload in New York

Frommers publish a helpful pocked guide to New York. They realise that negotiating what has been described as an urban theme park can be a bit distressing, so the guide includes a "tear-resistant" map.

Fortunately there were no tears for us. We just ran out of time in this fabulous place.

We stayed in the Midtown Comfort Inn on West 46th Street between 6th Avenue and Broadway. Times Square, the most visited place on the planet, is a 3 minute walk.

We saw Mamma Mia on Broadway. What a hoot!



Manhattan from any vantage point is spectacular.

If the city iself doesn't overload the senses then the museums surely will.



This is a Picasso. It is among dozens in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, along what seems equal numbers of works by Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, van Gough, Matisse and many others. No point in visiting the Tate in London to see the Turners: most are in the Metropolitan.

This is another Picasso, this one is at the Metropolitan.