Good Bye UK Hello Adventure Town

Dear Readers

The time has come for this blog to turn a page and onto the next chapter. The writers will be leaving the UK and returning to their homeland. The travels will be slowing down but still happening and kebabs will still be eaten. Don’t get sad yet this will not happen until we have finished our EPIC 24 week adventure from London to Sydney in a big orange truck bus!

Stay tuned readers for we will have one mighty adventure left as we drive and camp our way through

UK - FRANCE - GERMANY - AUSTRIA - HUNGARY - ROMANIA - BULGARIA - TURKEY – GEORGIA –AZERBAIJAN – TURKMENISTAN – UZBEKISTAN – KAZAKHSTAN - KYRGYZSTAN - TIBET - CHINA – LAOS – VIETNAM - CAMBODIA -THAILAND - MALAYSIA - SINGAPORE – INDONESIA – AUSTRALIA

We will be trying to update you as best as possible and will continue writing about all the countries we visit and what we get up to. So please don’t leave, stay tuned. We will try to post weekly vlogs about what has happened and what we have seen. Also you can follow us on twitter @glenandkieran.

Let the Adventure begin.

Glen and Kieran

London Blitz Party

June 4th 2011

June 4^th 1940 the day that Winston Churchill gave his famous “We shall fight on the beaches”    speech. 71 years later we dress up in clothing of the era and go out for the night to drink cocktails and relive the period without the fear of bombs falling on us. This was the London blitz party (). Donning our clothes of the period after much searching to find an outfit within budget, we set off.

First we went to a cocktail bar called Callooh Callay getting the biggest cocktail they had which was served in a fishbowl supported by garden gnomes and drunk through super long straws. This got us in the party mood pretty quick. Following the cocktail with food and the most amazing bestest chips ever (they were tempura chips). We went to the party, it was surreal to see all these people dressed up and walking down the street. We certainly did get some looks.

Entering into the venue we walked down a bricked lane which was the smokers area with all people dressed up in the old clothes, it was amazing to see so many people dressed up. In fact everyone we saw was dressed up. Sure not all of them were exactly 100% 1940 but they were close enough and looked of that era in a rough kind of way. Some people went to good lengths and had full army uniforms. I am not sure this was a smart move. It was sooo hot in the venue by the end of the night, I have no idea how the men survived in their thick wool army jackets. The night was good, having some more delicious cocktails and drinking them out of metal mugs was a nice touch. After a while we went exploring as we found a map, there was a lot more to be explored. We headed over a wall via scaffolding stairs and found the mess tent and more dance areas along with bars.

The downside to the night was that the bands didn’t play much, there were DJ’s but we thought there would be more live music. In one hall there was a good band in the other the band was more of a folk band which was good for atmosphere but not so much for dancing. As the numbers grew it got harder to move around let alone dance. We left the night at that point before it was ruined with to many people running into us and the girls feet were getting sore from the heels.

We headed to get a taxi home as it would be a nightmare of busses and tubes from east London to our place at that time of night. For those interested I made sure to get a kebab while we waited for the taxi and I got it wrapped! ohh man it was good just like home but without the tabouli and way to much garlic sauce. While we waited I did get asked if I was actually in the RAF!

I had a fun night out as dressing up is always fun and brings back a little bit of the child in us all.

Jolly Good Night

Glen

Cornwall

Spring Bank holiday 2011

Having yet another bank (public) holiday in May we felt that we had to get away and out of the city. Getting our passports back in time to hire a car, we booked the weekend away to Cornwall which is the south west part of England.

We collected our hire car on the Saturday and it was an awesome car. I need to talk about the car for just a second. It was a 2011 VW Pasat. It had done 5000miles when we hired it. We both got excited when we booked a manual; it has been to long since we drove one. As luck would have it we got an auto. This was to be a good thing later on. So we get our Pasat and the car guy says have you had one of these before, we both say no, then he asks where do we think the hand break is? Turns out the handbrake was just a little button. The key had to be pushed into the dash near the steering column to start the car. It was very strange to us. Awesome side note we did 700 miles (about 1 126 KM) on 1 tank of fuel! Enough about the family wagon lets get back to talking about Cornwall.

It took us the whole day to reach our first nights accommodation in the village of Luxulyan. We were hoping to be there by 2pm in the afternoon instead we arrived around 6pm. We were staying in the area it was close to the Eden project. Not having time to visit it that day we thought we would visit it the next day. After a nana nap from a long days drive and with rough directions from the B&B owner we headed off to find some dinner in a town called Fowey. Travelling through 1 lane roads covered by hedges, it felt like we were driving down a very long driveway just for a long time. Every time we would come to an intersection we had to double check the map multiple times to see where we were. Lets just say we got lost a few times. Some times we had to stop and reverse so other cars could pass us because the roads were so small. It was interesting and fun as it was so different for us. There was no way I could live there as it would take so long to get anywhere.

Finally after an hour of driving (the B&B lady said it would be 20min) we made it to the village and parked up, went down to the water for a nice meal. The meals were rather large. There was so much food on my plate it was falling off. Somehow Kieran still had room and ordered a dessert. The dessert came and it was massive, it was a huge crumble that I had to help her eat, even then we still couldn’t finish it! We rolled our selves out of the pub and back in the car for the drive home in pain with full bellies. We made it back to the B&B in only 30mins and it was dark, don’t know why that worked better than when it was sunny.

The next day we headed to the Eden project, back along the same roads as the day before. We arrived and headed down into the old mining pit that is the Eden project. Not doing much research we got to the ticket counter and found that it was £20 each. It looked like a place you could spend the whole day. We didn’t have a whole day to look around and only wanted to spend a max 2hrs there. We decided it was not for us and left it. We were a little disappointed but we had other things to fit into the weekend.

Driving on some more we arrived in Penzance and went to St. Michael's Mount it is a castle on top of a hill which you can walk to in low tide very similar to Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, France. Quick side note: One thing about Cornwall is, almost everywhere we parked cost us money. If you drive on a little further there will usually be something cheaper. If you are visiting a place on the tourist trail drive as close as you can to the place as they will probably have free parking there. Near by these places will be the pay parking…we always fell for the pay parking. Continuing on we walked over the tiny causeway.

We head on up to the castle, it’s a good steep climb but there are just to many old people or people with slow knees. Finally we make it to the top and admire the view. There’s not much to say about the inside. It was a standard castle really all the same stuff you see in all the others. What you go there for is to walk around on the outside and look at the ocean and the surrounding area. Having enough of the castle we head back to the main land. By this time the path was completely submerged under water and we had to wait in the queue to board the boats to take us back. It was a fun but very brief trip. Considering how long we were in the queue waiting. While heading back to the car we stopped and had a Cornish pasty for lunch as you should do in Cornwall.

The walking lunch finished we headed onto Lands end the most south western point of England. Only at lands end, could you pay £4 for parking just to see a cliff. To try and get more money out of the tourists they have built some rides, 4d amusements or something to try and fleece more money out of you. It was the most naffy takky thing we have seen. They even had a guy would you put letters on a sign post and take a picture of you for £10. what a joke seriously. This place just oozed tack. We had a walk around just to make the most of our parking price. Go see if for your self but really there isn’t much need unless you love the tackfactor 10,000 style. Ohh I almost forgot to mention the big burly blokes on tiny steam trains. These guys we built big but they were riding around on miniature steam engines and I still have no idea why. They were silly small steam engines. Imagine it like a 6foot 100kg plus man sitting on a 3yr olds tricycle. That is what these guys looked like, just so bizarre.

Getting out of tackvill we headed for Minack Theatre. This is a theatre which was built by a lady and it took most of her life to complete. She built the theatre in her back yard, except her back yard was a cliff! It was pretty good to see and would have been amazing to see a play performed here, we were too early in the season as they hadn’t started yet.

Getting lost again in the tiny roads of Cornwall we finally made it to our accommodation in Mousehole – Penzance.  Dropping our bags we went straight out for dinner. All we pretty much do when we travel is eat, I am sure of it. Find the local eateries we had a nice dinner overlooking the water.

Monday, the last day of the long weekend. Today we had a massive drive ahead of us we were going all the way back to London in 1 day. On the way we stopped in to Tintagel Castle (some say the home of King Arthur) had a look around and were bitterly disappointed when we found out there was not a shred of evidence to support such a claim to be King Arthurs castle. Still it was nice to climb another cliff. I wouldn’t recommend this place. On the drive home we stopped at a services to stop revive survive and all that. While I was in the queue to order a coffee I turned around to see our friends Steve and Em. It was such and amazing coincidence that out of all the services on that motor way we bumped into them at that exact time and place. Amazing.

Cornwall is a nice place with lots of one lane tiny roads. It is very British and has that wonderful postman pat feel about it. I would recommend the trip down there but maybe reconsider the need to see some of the sights as they can be a let down.

Glen

Warwick Castle

21^st May 2011

The UK has many castles some of which are in ruin; others have been turned into tourist destinations. We have been to many different types of both of these. This weekend we headed out to Warwick castle which is now for tourists. It is part of the Merlin group. This group owns most of the good theme parks in the UK, such as Alton Towers and Lego land just to name 2. We thought excellent let’s go to Warwick castle as it should be a good day out after all it’s run by the theme park experts. We had heard there are knights there and they also have jousting. This was going to be excellent…. it wasn’t. Turned out it was just alright with a big touch of let down.

We started the day by going to St Albans by train to get a car ride there with Craig (a lucky friend who has a car) and set off on the 1.5 hr journey to get there. We arrive around 11.30 am, to find a big queue for tickets. We have a 2-4-1 voucher, although there were 3 of us we had a plan. Find another odd group and ask them if they wanted in on the cheap ticket. The plan back fired as everyone else had the same 2-4-1 voucher or even better had a free ticket! Stuck now with a dilemma of asking almost everyone if they wanted a cheaper ticket or get some karma. We went with the karma, we got the 4^th discounted ticket and gave it away to someone who didn’t have a freebie for their group of 3 and were at the end of the queue. Know I can hear you asking “Glen if you found an odd group and gave them the ticket why didn’t you sell it to them?” that was because their 3^rd ticket was for an OAP (old age pensioner) so it was already discounted.

With our good karma deed done for the day we went inside. We notice there are a lot of kids around, I mean a lot! We quickly check the what’s on board to find out there is no jousting! The website doesn’t state when it will be on either just turn up and hope its on….gr8 plan. We see that the great trebuchet is on at 12. We walk very quickly and take our seat. 10mins later after hearing about how they wind it up and what happens with the firing they finally set it off. Sitting in anticipation as its about to fire………    then it goes, you hear nothing but see the weight drop and the arm go up and the rock or ball (not sure which) goes flying through the air, not a huge distance as the size of the trebuchet would suggest but a reasonable distance. They would have to be bloody close to a castle to cause any damage. All of this happened without any noise being heard by the crowd. That was it show was over.

Being disappointed as was most of the crowd (you can sense these things) we went on to watch the birds of prey flying around the castle. This was more interesting as the birds are pretty big and it’s cool to have them swooping over your head. We had to eat our lunch quickly and cover it so the birds would not attack us crazy seagull style for our food.

With the bird show over we headed in to the main section for a character tour of the main hall and private rooms of the castle. This was by far the best part and the actor who spoke to us was excellent. The crowd grew and grew at times it was hard to get into a room to hear him speak. It was good to hear about the history of the castle and more history of King Henry VIII.

Next on the list was the Mill where they produced electricity for castle. There was meant to be another character tour on here but we had to find the guy and ask him if it was happening. It was but it turned out to be a private tour. With him telling us the information about the mill and the power. Problem was he told us everything we already knew! While we were waiting for him to get there we read all the information boards. He just repeated what was on them.

I would suggest that the castle is fun for kids and it can be alright for adults. Just don’t go in with the mind that there will be knights with swords, jousting and all that cool medieval stuff you read about…it just isn’t there.