UK week 22, with the grandparents Smith

We had a marvellous few days with Rob and Helen, Jac's folks, including heading out to Cliffe near Canterbury - Helen at left is showing us where she used to live as a teenager in Cliffe.

And the appropriately named church in Cliffe, the largest parish church in Kent.

We all line up outside Anglicanism's equivalent of St Peter's, Canterbury Cathedral, where for the £24 a family cover charge you get to see, below, where Thomas Becket was murdered by knights thinking they were doing the king a favour, and creating 'The Martyrdom' tourist attraction in the process. Canty's probably the most interesting church we've been in - the Black Prince's actual battle get-up and his tomb are here, as well as Henry the 4th's (or was it 5th's? 6th's?)

Spreading the chores around

Getting in some Baroque dancing at Kensington Palace as part of London's Big Dance month. Yep, they wanted us back as instructors but we just couldn't find the time.

The post Gay Pride party squash in Old Compton St, Soho, where you can just see Jac on her way to the theatre (to see Jersey Boys - great fun).

Paddling in Greenwich park.

Jac and Elsie, Dan and Rachel's daughter. They all came round for a barbie with Rob and Helen, held in Auckland-like temperatures.

Dan v Sam

We now all know what Matisse's 'Snail' looks like at the Tate Modern.

Tate's Warhol room

And on the Millennium Bridge

The big barbie in the back yard

Rob and the grandks watch a video in the underbelly of a Vulcan fighter at the RAF museum.

Rob at The Globe for Henry VI part 2. Very funny if virtually incomprehensible

Helen and the girls playing Fish.

The Great UK Road Trip Part 1

The Great UK Road Trip Part 1
(kids' stuff, commentary, + jac's stuff courtesy of her regular email)
First stop was a supermarket pizza tea next to the Trent River canal at Willington - with an "i" not an "e" (and not a breath of wind). The caravan park wouldn't take us after 9pm - we made it at 8.30 - in stunning countryside round Staffordshire.

Ellie says: "On the seventeenth of july we went on a great road trip. It was really cool."

Congo River Rapids at Alton Towers. It rained a bit and we forgot our coats which meant getting wet on the rides that much less painful.

Sam says:
"We set off from London on a Thursday afternoon at 5 o'clock. Ashbourne was the best bit of our whole one year holiday, even better than Disneyland because we went to Alton Towers, a really really cool theme park. But before that I was feeling sick ...."

Battle galleons at Alton, where you get to pump-shoot and soak anyone who boards the small pirate ships, whether complete strangers ....
Jac says: "First day we awake to slightly cloudier but warm enough day. Unfortunately poorSam started vomiting (tip do not use the salad bowl in No 63 if you ever end upthere). Oh what should we do, we are all off to a rollercoaster park ?? So in truePennington responsible parent form we load the white lad into the car with the saladbowl & hope for the best. As we were waiting to get onto the shuttle to get into thepark Sam did say “I don’t think I better go on any rides Mum & kept asking where hewas going to be sick, as I had made him leave the bowl in the car, thinking it might bea tad obvious. Well we have a new medical discovery for a vomiting child put themon a horizontal spinning rollercoaster. He got on there white & got off completelyrecovered. I’d been gearing up to apologise to the stranger in the next carriage butno need. He went on to spend the day being spun all ways, including upside downnever losing the smile or scream on his face. We had an absolute ball."

... or your sisters/daughters. Then you stick 2 quid in a drying booth + get 5 mins standing under a huge combo dryer/heat lamp.

And after the fun, the serious stuff - at the top of Mam Tor, a high point in the Peak District, on Day 3, one of our few windy, coolish days.

Dracusam arises from a Transyl-Roman sacrophagus by the old city wall in York.

Ellie confesses to heinous crimes in the executioner's tower in the least flash museum we've been to so far, inside one of York's old city gates, about Richard the 3rd and whether he really murdered the Two Princes in the Tower of London or not. Not guilty according to the kids.

Sam says: "In York we went to the train museum, it's a bit boring."

R & R. Could be anywhere (in this case, York). Would anyone consider swapping our 4 for 1 child who DOESN'T like ice cream. But then what would they ever remember (Rosa, asked where we are living, pointed to the Maldives in the middle of the Indian Ocean).

One of York Minster's massive windows (all up it's got something like two thirds of all the mediaeval stained glass in England in the church).

Jac says: "We ended quite a long day in the truly amazing Yorkminister Cathedral, the short people were rebelling a bit but I tried to ignore the whines & even lost them in the cathedral for a while, only to discover they had been lighting the candles. As you are supposed to light a candle & pray for someone rest assured you are all covered as Sam reckons they lit 30 !! So a quick exit was made from there."

A medieval Minster carver gives you the message.

At Fountains Abbey, a ruined National Trust property north of York - "the most beautiful Abbey ruins I’ve ever seen (yes, I have actually seen a few now)" - Jac

That weather forecast we got pretty lucky with throughout - doesn't shine much in Northumberland and Lake District but it did for us, even if it was a touch drizzly in Scotland.

Hadrian's attempt - not quite up there with the Great Wall of China. Sam was amused he could jump off it without breaking his leg.

... and further amused inside 1700 year old sewage system for the communal lavatories at Housesteads, Britain's best preserved Roman fort (not for want of us trying to de-preserve it)

Two Roman auxiliary (locals) soldiers, and some reject from Karate Kid II the movie.

Go North (just not in summer) - Jac: "... we discovered Scotland's best kept secret - the midges. Absolutely everywhere, poor Phil got covered in bites ... I saved on perfume as there’s no point as you are all covered in jungle strength insect repellent.

They're eating our mussels - in Glasgow. Not that I'd be game to try them in the rough east end of a city marked by the best pedestrian-only streets anywhere, statue humour and brilliant buildings including a whole lot by the architect McKenzie or something, among them the Willow Tearooms, below. Bit art deco for my taste.

Loch Lomond, enough to bring on wee chorus of Scotland the Brave.

The Great UK Road Trip Part 2

The Great UK Road Trip Part 2 (or Encounters with the Local Wildlife)
Above, just what is this odd ritual we've stumbled into on Skiddaw? You'll have to read on to find out.

The static caravans we stayed in twice, though not cheap at round 70-80 quid a night, were pretty flash, though the boat-cabin-size bedrooms'd test a wider/longer family.

The Great Bull Escape Story (just gets better with the telling)

Rosa: "A Highland cow chased us in the woods and it was a daddy cow. It mooed at us."

One cow and two calves were in front, one bull (below), trotting along behind. The bigger bull (above) was the one that worried me.

Ellie: "One day we went for a walk up a hill. It had a lot of cows and bulls living on it. On the way back we wre walking down and we came across a bull in our path and we started to clap an dshoo it onto the bank. Then we started to walk on down the hill but then the cow an dher babays were on our path but we shooed it on to the bank and climbed over the stile."

At home wherever we go.

The caravan park at Lochgoilhead in Argyll (an hour north of Glasgow, sort of the southern highlands) had an ice skating rink the size of most people's lounge. Which made stopping in time tricky.

Lara says: "I got a bLister when we went ice skating.I stopped. but I need to Practice more. "

Horse riding above Loch Gill not far from Inverary.

The big rock at Drimsynie caravan park on Loch Goil.

More wildlife, this time at Luss on Loch Lomond.





Castle fatigue sets in, closely followed by wallet fatigue. We passed on the 60 quid to get into Edinburgh Castle and settled for this pic instead at the front door.

Jac: "One of the best times of the trip was after Edinborough when we stopped in a littletown called MacMerry, we were looking for Jim & Joyce Ange, my sister in lawsparents. We went into the local miners club & of course they knew them & happilygave us perfect strangers directions to their house round the corner. We pulled up &they both came out & welcomed us in. I started off by saying we’re just popping inquickly before we get tea & find our next place. Well a bottle of wine later, 2 phonecalls to New Zealand & Joyce heading down to the local pizza place to feed our poorstarving children it ended up being a great couple of hours. They both then drove theway to our next humble abode. This was a farmers ‘bothey’ Which is really a smallhut probably used in the past by shearers in the middle of a paddock. The look onJoyces face when she saw the state of the shower (it was the most crowded showerI’ve ever had slaters spiders & worm like things joining me) & the 3 tiered bunks,with the top being 7 feet high, was priceless. "

Outside the pub in Haddington where Jac's brother Phil and his Scottish wife Ange met.

Inside the bothy, which takes the prize for the narrowest kitchen...

... and the highest bunks (three tiers, about 7 feet to the top where Sam and Rosa slept)

It was either another ruined abbey, in Melrose, or this. This won.

Walking in the Lake District to Skiddaw Hostel. Note, no rain.
Sam says: "To get to our hostel on Saturday we had to walk a 3 mile track. I amused myself by making a stone kneif."

As for that arcane ritual above, says Jac: "... the placewas full & we had a great night singing & playing musical instruments with our new friend Bill." A pop star in the 60s someone said whose repertoire stretched from 'I know an old lady' to 'My Girl'.

Skiddaw hostel itself, said to be the highest and most remote hostel in Britain. But we saw a car out back and the hostel manager managed to watch the England v Germany World Cup debacle on his TV.

From remote to Manchester. We stayed in an awful sterile cheap Etap hotel (40 quid for each triple room) but got out on the tram and bus to Curry Mile, literally possibly a mile of balti shops where the huge naan comes hung on hooks and we managed to keep the kids away from the chicken nuggets and chips.
Lara: "I liked the curry but I didn’t like the yellow curry."

The after dinner entertainment in the fountain at Picadilly Gardens in Manchester.

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Art space at the Lowry Centre, near Old Trafford and the very impressive Imperial War Museum (IWM) North

The view from the IWM tower.




And down the M6/M1 home in 5 hours .... 1360 miles in the old toyota and nary a puncture, jump start or blown gasket.

Brilliant