Travel in England

We arrived as expected in England on the 19th May and have been here ever since. Our accommodation in Kent in the old Oast House called Latter's Oast was simply fabulous. The owners have converted an old oast house (a place where they dired hops in the days when this was profitable) and our accommodation was a luxurious one bedroom flat with all the mod cons including an en-suite bathroom and a kitchen as well as having access to satellite television. For only £35 per day I can assure people that if they are ever in Tudeley in Kent this is THE place to stay.

The weather was variable to say the least with one day being the hottest that the UK has experienced in something like 50 years and the rest of the time being rainy, cloudy and cold. Go figure!

We visited quite a few of the old houses in the area and thanks to our membership of the National Trust in Australia the entrance fees were nothing while others had to pay between six and eight pounds per person to enter. When you consider that the exchange rate is something like two and a half times then you will realise that having taken up membership in this institution in Australia began to pay off after very few of the old homes were visited. Alas one of the old homes that of the Duke of Malborough was not on the protected list and so we had to pay $13 each to pay this a visit. Considering that I already have a hard time thinking well of the people with titles in the UK this did nothing to endear them to me. $26 is the price of a meal for three in a pub or the cost of fuel to fill up the car. BTW petrol here is around 82 - 89 pence per litre. Once again if you multiply by two and a half you will get the idea that it is bloody expensive to say the least and of course they only have to ship the oil from the North Sea - amazing! Australians would not stand for these prices.

Today we are outside London's Heathrow airport and will be travelling on to Frankfurt in the morning. The hotel was easy to find after we virtually circled the airport at least twice. The instructions were in English - obviously something was lost in the translation to the colonies

Before arriving here today we manage to see the white horse on the hillside and marvelled at the ingenuity of whoever put it there in prehistorical times. We also have been amazed at the quality of pub food in this country and considering my last attempt at eating in England some 15 years ago things have improved considerably. Alas so have the prices.

During our stay we have met up with relatives of my partner both alive and living in the same area that the family have lived in for hundreds of years.

I am afraid that the pictures of this trip will have to wait for an opportunity to locate a place where they will permit uploads or until we get home.

If anyone wants to send emails make a comment to this posting and we will then send off an address where you can locate us.

Sight seen have included most of Kent, Brighton, and the Cotswald. Even then there was not sufficient time to see as much as could be possible.

More news when we have the time and the opportunity to get to a machine that is not time limited.

A suggestion for those of us who travel

In recent times we in Australia have seen some of our citizens arrested, detained and put on trial for their lives because drugs have been found in their baggage.

It's all well and good to argue that these people deserve everything they get is they smuggled the drugs, however what if they did not?

What if the allegations in the press about baggage handlers being involved in planting drugs as a means of sending them overseas without risk is true?

What can the honest traveller do to protect him/herself from being set up?

I understand that there is someone in the Melbourne Airport who is making money hand over fist in providing a wrapping service to airline passengers. For a mere $8 per bag (size does not affect cost) each bag is wrapped in airtight plastic. This is supposed to eliminate tampering.

Well this is a solution I guess but one that is a little bit expensive and over the top. What about opening bags and taking a digital picture of the contents in front of witnesses and then keeping the image until you arrive at your destination and safely pass through customs.