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.