Keswick, The Lake District, England

We had wheels for the week thanks to Michelle's brother, Richard and sis-in-law Nicola, so we buzzed up to the Lake District, stopping in Liverpool for a night on the way up.
Michelle's friend from Portland, Vida, and her husband Jay live there on the Wirral with their cute little girl Bronwen. We spent the day walking around town before having a nice meal, some wine and a good rest.

The next morning, we did a whirl wind trip of the two impressive cathedrals in Liverpool. The Anglican Cathedral is absolutely massive with a surprisingly simple stone design inside, and the Catholic Cathedral which locals call Paddy's Wigwam from it's shape, looks like a bit of a disco inside too - lots of coloured lights and colourful stain glass windows. We then had a lovely drive through the Lake District, finishing up in Keswick. Our friends Claire and Ralf from Bangkok had recently moved back here. They were staying with Claire's Dad, Tony, who gratiously put us up in the spare room for a couple of days, even with all the construction going on. Keswick is a beautiful little town, one of Michelle's favourites, with lots of character - and great Cumberland Sausage!

The Lake District is all about walking, so that's what we did. A ramble through the farmers fields led us up to Castlerigg Stone Circle, with great views around the valleys. Passed many sheep and cows in the fields on our way up there. Would have been a surreal place up there in 'druid' days, but today, far too many tourists and kids running around. I guess we did get up here at the end of Summer holidays. Ralf joined us on a quick hike up Latrigg before dinner, which had stunning views over Derwent Water and Keswick, but was dwarfed by larger Skiddaw beside it. Had some amazing sun beams breaking through the clouds on our hike down. It was just nice to be outdoors and get some fresh air. Of course, we came back to the aforementioned Cumberland sausage that was literally 10 feet long.

Our time in the Lake District was great and loved seeing old friends. It's also Michelle's favourite place in England and she was excited to have the chance to show me this pretty part of the world. Our brief trip culminated with a visit to see Colin and Flo, friends Mush knows from Scotland, and then a stop to see her good friend from secondary school, Becky and her husband Karl and new baby Max. *Stub

Pub Crawl at Bury St. Edmunds, England

A spur of the moment visit to Bury St. Edmunds. Good ol' Sarah (on the right), who we traveled with for 3 months, lived there, and also my Mum's best friend Barbara along with her husband Philip and son Joseph (2nd from L). We found a cheap train ticket up there - only 5 quid, and Sarah agreed to drive us back to London the next day.
Joseph met us at the train station and we spent the afternoon with him, Barbs and Philip. As usual, Barbs loved feeding us, and we loved eating her great food - mmmmmm shepherds pie! After some puzzling moments (Michelle and Philip love to do puzzles), we headed off with Joseph to meet Sarah.
Of course, what better way to catch up with Sarah than to join her on a pub crawl of her home town, where she seems to be well known in all of the local establishments. A couple of other friends of hers joined us for the night and after plenty of pints, a nights sleep on the floor at her Mum's place, we were back in London ready for our MegaBus back to Birmingham. *Stub

6 Days in London

A necessary trip to London was in the cards for the month. I have many travel friends in London, and Michelle has a few of her own and some family too. So, the trip was not so much about being tourists, but visiting everybody. We did however manage to cruise the sights a little as everything is just so close. This picture is of the Millenium Bridge with St Paul's Cathedral in the background.

My buddy Biscuit was nice enough to let us crash on his 'pallet' as he calls it - a well used futon in their living room. Nice base for us though as it was in the Camden Locks area - Chalk Farm, and easy for us to hop on the tube into the heart of London.

We managed to catch up with some friends from Tibet, Iain and Liz, who we toured the Courtauld Art Institute with, as it was free! A 'business' dinner of some great Thai food with Steve, an old friend of Michelle's that same day. A quick visit with Rachel, Pierre and Adrien near Kew Gardens, who had just driven over from Paris. A lovely dinner with cousin Isabel and Mark, with a surprise visit from Uncle Manuel and Aunt Rachel. Isabel and Mark gratiously let us stay the night at their new flat. A night on the piss with Biscuit, Bartlett and Cranky, who Martin traveled around New Zealand with in their van called 'Bill the Disco, Dingo Bus'.

We did do some sights walking around Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, and a quick hour at the British Museum where we saw the Rosetta Stone, and the Parthenon Marbles. We also managed to catch a show at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre - A Comedy of Errors!

And finally, we spent some time with Martin's Grandad, who had recently suffered a stroke. For 89 years old, he is remarkably resilient and shows no ill effects of the stroke. We wish him many more years of exploring London. *Mush and Stub

Bourton-on-the-Water, The Cotswolds, England

In Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, we met Lydia. She was a good laugh and we enjoyed a few drinks with her, and she showed us the institution of Mike's Burgers at about 3AM one night. What a great late night burger! One of our favourite burgers on the trip (yes, we did miss those things). Well, a few months later, we bumped into her in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. After that we kept in touch and met up with her and her friend Jim (Painer) traveling throughout Vietnam for about 3 weeks together.

Lydia and Painer both live in Cheltenham, a short 30 minute drive from Bromsgrove. So, a trip to visit them in Cheltenham turned into a day trip to Bourton-on-the-Water in the heart of the Cotswolds. The town is very charming and quaint with lots of cute shops and oldey-worldey pubs and so was was very busy with tourists. Later, Jim joined us for dinner and it was great to see him. A nice day all round catching up with them again. * Mush

Packwood House, Solihull, England

Whilst in England, we've been spending a lot of time with Michelle's family, staying with her sister Jacqueline and brother-in-law Mark in Bromsgrove. Just around the corner is her Mum and Dad, and a few miles in the opposite direction is her brother Richard, his wife Nicola and her nephew and niece, Dylan and Christina. So, being this close, we see a lot of the family and have some good laughs and also loads of good food and tons of good wine!!!

We spent a nice day out at a 'National Trust' property just east of Birmingham, with Michelle's Mum and Dad. The 'National Trust of England' preserves old heritage properties all over the UK. Packwood House is originally a 16th century house much altered over the years, but still a really fine house with some great 16th century artifacts and furniture, and the gardens are famous for its 30 large and immaculately clipped yew trees which apparently take some maintenance. Pretty impressive. *Mush

Return to Blighty - Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, England

Well, it is with some sadness that we bid farewell to the Asia part of our journey. For us though, it was time to come back and we had been looking forward to it for a couple of months. There is only so long that you can live out of a little backpack, and keep moving all the time.
Michelle arrived back in England about 3 days before me, as she wanted to get back in time for her Mum's birthday. Her Mum asked if she wanted to go out for Sunday Roast lunch, which Michelle promptly declined. We have eaten out for 3 meals a day over the last 14 months - one thing we really missed was HOME COOKING. So, Michelle managed to tell me all about her amazing home cooked roast beef dinner while I was still eating rice and noodles in Bangkok. No worries though, I was soon back for fish'n'chips, curries and meat pies along with some tasty roasts too.
We did experience culture shock on returning!!!! Mainly due to the incredibly high prices of everything. We could live on £25 ($50) a day easily in Asia. That includes food, accomodation, transportation, drinks, entertainment, etc. Now, all that buys is a meal in the pub. Needless to say, we haven't been eating out much.
It's was really good to meet up with Michelle's family again, and they are as hospitable as ever. Staying again at her sister Jacqueline and brother-in-law Mark's lovely house in Bromsgrove. It's hard to believe that it was a year ago that we were meeting them in Lake Como, Italy for their wedding! *Stub