Amsterdam & United Kingdom - 2015

Yr ydym wedi ei gwneud yn ac mae'r gemau a hwyl yn mynd rhagddo'n dda.

Okay, by now you’re probably wondering what the heck are they on about so let me explain.  Had been searching for inspiration to kick off this ‘edition’ of the Geripacker’s meanderings and it came whilst we were sitting in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

So now you know we’re in the UK and if you know anything about the Millennium Stadium, you may have also worked out, we are enjoying the excitement and fun provided by the Rugby World Cup 2015, especially when masses of Welsh spectators launch into song.  The game in Cardiff was Australia’s first match against Fiji in this 45 day long competition.

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

So the heading and first sentence for this post is in Welsh and simply says, ‘Welcome to the Rugby World Cup everyone’, followed by, ‘We have made it and the games and fun is well underway’.

On our way towards the UK aboard Cathay airlines, we had a stopover in Amsterdam, which gave us time to learn a little about this lovely pushbike dominated city. We’re heading there again for a few days on our way back home and apart from thousands of pushbikes, the numerous canals were also a delight to stroll along.

scenery in Amsterdam

Our flight from Amsterdam to London Heathrow on British Airways however did present us with a small lesson in life when we arrived for our check-in at the airport.  

We were very politely advised Rob had been waitlisted but I was okay to fly!!  The reason given for this was very simple, “you had not checked in online, so because the flight is 10% oversold, one of you is waitlisted and the other one of you can fly, do you want to take all the bags with you if only one of you is flying?”.  

Apart from the simple fact that there was nothing on anything from British Airways advising we must check in online, what a bizarre decision to split us up. They are now well aware politely of our feelings about their lack of communication, lack of service and very weird decision making.  Rob did end up getting on the same flight BUT that’s not the point.

So moving on, we have been having a great time staying with our son and daughter in-law, joined also by our daughter who had flown in from Melbourne. As a group, we bought all our tickets for this impressive event over 10 months ago. 

snubbing near Brighton Pier

Our first game was an absolute beauty down in Brighton between South Africa & Japan, with the underdogs Japan just winning after full time, a real upset and one the crowd was fully engaged in.

The other games attended so far, apart from the Australia match, has been New Zealand vs. Argentina at London’s Wembley Stadium which also included setting a world attendance record for rugby.  Other games we have tickets for include Australia vs. Uruguay in Birmingham, Australia vs. Wales in Twickenham and a quarter final late in October.

World record attendance for rugby at Wembley Stadium

With both the length of the World Cup and the timing of the matches we managed to get tickets for, there are two blocks of 2 weeks of ‘free time’ to go and explore places not visited before.  So our plan is in place for these destinations and we will share all of this in future posts.

London however, a bustling city we’re very familiar with, continues to provide numerous new and very enjoyable experiences.  For example, our son and daughter in-law surprised us with a ‘Hint Hunt’ escape game experience involving all 5 of us.  We were all locked in a room and using only the clues and items within the room(s), our communication and teamwork, the challenge being to try and escape within 60 minutes.  We thankfully managed to get out in 57 minutes,

Piccadilly Circus, London

Our daughter and ourselves also attended a matinee play called ‘The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time’ in the West End at the Gielgud Theatre near Piccadilly Circus.  

It was a fabulous and well presented show and after it, we enjoyed some wine with cheese underground in the oldest wine bar in London called Gordon’s Wine Bar, established in 1890.

undergrond in Gordon's Wine Bar

So stay tuned as we go well beyond London to explore and experience a few new things, interspersed with the intensity of the Rugby World Cup.  The approach with this and future posts is to provide a few photos with each and then some links to a limited selection of other pictures after the trip has been completed.

good night from the London Eye, the Thames River and Big Ben!

Well… keep having fun everyone!

UK Christmas 2012

After being met be our son and daughter in-law at Heathrow airport and the excitement of seeing them again, we were all soon immersed in any finishing touches to the plans in place for an extended family Christmas.

Joining us for the next 3 days were our son and daughter in-law, her parents who we like very much, their son and his partner and his partner's sister.

We packed everything tightly into the car with little room left and drove to the 'in-laws' home in St Albans for some very warm welcomes from them, an obligatory cup of tea and then a lot more packing into their car before starting our 3-4 hr road trip north.

We would be spending Christmas together in a rented home in Lancashire and bordering Yorkshire as shown on the map below.

Our family name has a long association with Lancashire going back at least to1066 with a concentration of people with our surname still living in Lancashire, including the host of the house we had rented who knows some, which also happened to have a pet wallaby in its backyard!

Our accomodation (brown section) in Lancashire

We really enjoyed a very traditional Christmas lunch on a cold wintery drizzly day, very different to our summer weather back home... expertly cooked turkey, ham, roast veggies, pudding, a range of English beers and ciders, nice wines and great company!

A great Christmas spread with really good company!

Over the next few days we learned much about the British way of life, especially after eating too much on Christmas Day... they like to go walking in the rain.

Now keep in mind it was winter in the UK and that means it was cold and wet, in fact we also got to learn how good the weather forecasts are in the UK.  

First thing in the morning our hosts check the local weather forecast and plan when we would head out to explore the surrounding sights and scenery.  It amazed us that our hosts trusted the forecast when it predicted it would rain say at 1pm so we needed to leave early.  Even more amazing... it did rain at whatever the predicted time was!

The cloudy, cold and at times dampish weather did not hold us back and it actually added to the look and feel of the many things we visited in this part of the UK, for example.

Lake Windermere in the Lakes District

Hardy highland cow

Magnificent limestone Malham Cove

Driving through Yorkshire

Ribblehead Viaduct in southern Yorkshire with some locals

The memories from a delightful Christmas were fresh in our minds as we negotiated the busy freeways back to London and a little more sightseeing this time around Greenwich, famous for 'Greenwich Mean Time' and the starting point for the world's time.

First port of call, bad pun I know, was the Cutty Sark, a refurbished British Clipper ship built in 1869 and one of the fastest sailing ships of the time to transport tea from the China.  The Cutty Sark was one of the last of this type of ship to be built and visited Australia on many occasions.

Cutty Sark under sail (Photo - Allan C. Green)

Sleek copper plated hull of the Cutty Sark

The other reason for being in Greenwich was to look at 3 very famous clocks made by a John Harrison, a self taught clock maker, who solved one of the greatest issues of the time in the 1770's... how to calculate Longitude.

Captain Cook took a replica of this (H4) Harrison clock to test its ability to calculate Longitude

Our time in the UK was almost over for 2012, including celebrating New Year's Eve but our travels weren't yet over in the northern hemisphere, but that will all have to wait for the 2013 posts.

Go well!