Sunday 20 September 2009

Ilfracombe

After the excitement of Stonehenge we headed for the car to try to figure out where to head off to. Luckily we had a computer so we had a look online to try to find a bed and breakfast that looked decent and had a vacancy. After a bit of calling around we found a place called the Collingdale Hotel in a town by the beach called Ilfracombe. That was about all we knew... it was about 2 hours away and was by the ocean. So, we headed off in search of it.

We eventually found the place... after a few close calls along the way. Let's just say that we had to wash some blue paint off the windshield from where we came a little too close to a blue fence. In Fred's defense: English roads are very, very narrow.

The view out our bedroom window.

Relaxing in the room before heading out to explore.

The Collingdale Hotel where we stayed.

Beautiful views around town...

Walking along the water, people were really nice and friendly and kept asking if we wanted them to take our photo (no, not because we looked like tourists but because we kept playing with the camera).

'Imshallah' boat.



Sign under clock reads: 'IT IS TIME TO SEEK THE LORD'
I liked that.

The town centre where we ate some lovely fish.

Sunset over the water.



It was very windy.




Stonehenge Video

Was really windy so you can't really hear what we are saying!

Stonehenge



Day One: We rented our car in the morning and packed up to head off into the great English country. We didn't really know where we were going to end up or stay... but we thought we would sort that out along the way. We typed the postcode of Stonehenge into our TomTom navigation device and headed off...


It was pretty strange. You could see stonehenge from the road, just sitting up there. It seemed a little surreal.


We picked up some little audio-guide things and started listening to all the interesting bits of information while walking around and taking in the view.




Tuesday 15 September 2009

Road Trip!!

Tomorrow Freddy and I are heading off on a road trip! We are picking up our car in the morning and then heading off until Saturday to explore England. We don't know what we are going to do yet - Stonehenge is on the list and so is the west coast around Devon and Cornwall. But, we are just going to set out with the open road in front of us and a SatNav (to avoid arguments over directions and maps)...

This is in honour of Freddy's 25th birthday. It's a bit early because it's going to be busy around his birthday. (Roller disco is planned for the night of October 4th though!) Many thanks to both sets of parents that have helped contribute to this gift for Freddy. He's very excited. We are both really looking forward to having a few days off together without any work or things to do. Also, it's great to get the chance to explore England a little bit - because we haven't seen very much of the country yet!

Wish us luck!

VW Golf - the car variety we will be having


Stonehenge


Cornwall



Devon

Wednesday 9 September 2009

St Giles Fair!

The St Giles Fair has been in town the last couple of days, and last night the girls from work and I went to try out some rides. We had planned to only go on two rides, so that we didn't spend too much money, but we ended up going on six. They were way too fun to resist and everyone was so excited that we just couldn't stop! It was so much fun that we are planning a trip to an amusement park for the new future!




Saturday 5 September 2009

Wish you were here!

London calling


An unexpected but lovely visit! It seemed totally surreal that David and Mike were going to be in London today - I half expected for it to not work out for some reason. We went old school and planned to meet at 1pm at Piccadily Circus. They were with out cell phones so we just had to hope they would show up and that we would be there at the same time. Luckily it worked out great and we found them. We took in lots of sights: big ben, parliament, westminster abbey, convent garden, a pub lunch, and even the elusive lse. haha. It was so great to see them and we had loads of fun. So, thanks Stephanie for letting Michael head off to France...

In front of Big Ben.


Westminster cathedral.

Parliament.

Checkin out the map.

New favourite coffee shop in Covent Garden that was recommended to us by a homeless man.

On the tube heading towards the airport.

Thanks guys for taking the time to see us!