MALAYSIA TO ENGLAND & WALES (No. 1 of UK Visit)

Skipper takes it easy for a minute or two

It's good to be back in KL and we find another very comfortable hotel in Chinatown where we have close access to the stalls and markets. We revisited the spectacular Petronas towers and this time also strolled around the Aquarium (note: Don't visit the Aquarium at the weekend – aargh children everywhere!). However the Aquarium itself is worth the visit. On our second day in KL the skipper unfortunately picked up a slight stomach bug and so we made sure we had plenty of rest prior to our flight to London which meant not straying too far from the hotel and taking things a bit easy.

In the Aquarium

Thankfully, IN the Aquarium

We are pleased to say Air Asia again gave us a smooth flight and although the airline food reputation has somehow wormed it's way into this airline, we landed fairly well rested and 50 minutes ahead of schedule. When you are young staying awake for 24 hours is easy – not so now although having daylight for those 24 hours helped slightly and we soon caught up with the time change. Landing in Stansted airport gave us the opportunity to view the lovely English countryside on our approach as the airport is quite remote and England from the air, to our delight, looked like an enormous patchwork quilt in various shades of green.

After landing we took the driver-less train to the terminal, collected our bags and slipped through the formalities without a hitch (the crew now also has her British citizenship so both of us were in the 'short' queue). We did however, unfortunately have a very miserable, stern, short-tempered bus driver who we are convinced hated his job from the greeting we got. Oh dear, Welcome to England. One other young passenger overheard the crew's comments and assured us that “we are not all like that here”.


 

LONDON

The term 'Old London Town' is absolutely justified and walking around this city is like walking back in time. The rows of buildings, double decker buses and old cabs add loads of character to a busy, modern metropolis brimming with tourists at this time of year. Our hotel is small but clean and a cooked breakfast is available each morning. (There goes the gym workout). Of course we follow all the other tourists and visit the popular sights – Buckingham Palace, Royal Horse Guards, London Bridge, Big Ben, Hyde Park, Museums, HARRODS (the crew is keen to go back there), Paddington Station, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and the list goes on. 

After three days of walking London town we give our blistered feet a rest and hire a car to meet up with the Skipper's parents in Wales for a week's tour. We are not used to wearing shoes and socks and the skipper has enormous blisters on both feet and the crew is going to lose a toenail. 

We spied this little fox with his eye on something in the garden in Hyde Park

Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace

You are allowed to ride your horse through Hyde Park

WALES

Wales is just beautiful and we seemed to have stepped through a time-warp back into the 1800's and sometimes as far back as the middle ages. There are many castle ruins and towns are still alive and well within castle boundary walls. The weather was mostly kind to us and we are happy to say we even got to shake out the shorts! One waitress told us to “make the most of it, it won't last” but it actually did – the entire day! Our accommodation has been varied and 98% of the time very good – mostly farm or village B&Bs and we were fortunate enough to have the 'Bridal Suite' at one place – very posh – spa bath, brass bed and a view of the sheep up the side of the hill – very romantic. I said 'very romantic' skipper, are you awake? Oh well.  Below is Carnarvon Castle.

Looking into the village within the castle walls

A drive through the Snowdonia region delighted us with soft rolling hills and lakes dotted throughout the valleys and tiny villages with very narrow streets – only wide enough for one car – but they do have passing points which consist of a bit of road gouged out of the hedges that line the roads just big enough to pull into to let another car pass. Navigating was a bit of a challenge as the Welsh town names are something else. They seem to lack a few vowels and approaching road signs and then trying to compare names on the map before the driver got caught up in the roundabout became the bane of the crew's day. We did see a couple of roundabouts twice – didn't we just pass that? 

As you can see the streets are extremely narrow.  Our last night in Wales was spent at the seaside town of Mumbles where we believe the skipper's father has some ancestral heritage. The local post office and library were ever so accommodating in tracing back the names of streets so we could take a drive around to have a look at what may have once been the family home. Sometimes a hit-and-miss operation with many streets having been mentioned in the history and names that are very similar but not quite right – however, many a laugh was had with the 4 of us in the car navigating through the narrow streets sometimes reversing to allow oncoming cars to pass. 

A gorgeous Welsh village.

As our Wales visit came to an end we were welcomed at the home of the skipper's uncle and aunty where we said farewell to his parents and after a delightful afternoon tea we made our way to Wilton Farm (a B&B) and a self-contained unit for a few days.

One of our delightful farmhouse accommodations - 9:30pm and the sun is still just peeking over the roof.