My folks are in town so we bundled into a hire car early on Saturday morning and headed to Norfolk for the weekend. We finally joined the National Trust and visited a couple of great historic houses, Ickworth House and Blickling Hall. Very nice!
Photos when we get them developed.
Holly and I went hiking along The Ridgeway over the long weekend. Looking at that map, we started at Avebury and climbed the ridge, then kept going for three days. We ended up at Wantage.
A great three days. We both ended up with very sore feet every day, the trail being very hard after all this dry weather. However the scenery was beautiful and the people we met along the way were fabulous.
Along the way we met a father and son doing quality time hiking and camping. One evening in Uffington, we all found a lift into the town and went to the local pub. Holly and I were a bit low on cash but the pub didn't take any forms of plastic. We asked about taxis, to see if we could get one to another town with a cash machine. No taxis in town, but one of the guys at the bar, pointing out he'd just arrived and only had a mouthful from his pint, offered to drive us there. Amazing hospitality! Find someone who'd do that in London. Or Sydney.
It's amazing how the simplest food, after a day's tramping, can seem so good. The food we ate camping was pretty basic: sausages with onion on bread rolls, pasta with sauce packet mixes, Ryvita with mad cow cheese. But it always tastes so good when you're camping! Yum.
All in all, a really nice weekend. We both got a bit sunburnt, saw some amazing countryside and ate yummy food. Very nice.
Photos are here.
I spent much of the weekend scanning photos. There's stack of new photos up here.
There will be still more, particularly photos from Welney, the town where my great-great-great-grandfather lived before emigrating to Australia.
Also still have to get around to writing about our adventures in Russia. In good time...
I'm sitting in an Internet cafe in Moscow around the corner from Nate and Jen's flat. There's a little red button next to the monitor. If I press it, a waiter comes out and will refill my beer.
Moscow is a twenty-four hour city. Fifteen lane freeways are the norm. You can whizz halfway around the city in a jitney cab for about a pound. Beer is good, everywhere and cheap. It's sunny and hot.
Surprise, surprise, I'm loving it.
We spent a few nights in St Petersburg, which is a lovely and totally different city. Much more old world and classy, but also slower and poorer. The Hermitage was mind blowing, of course.
Tomorrow we're off to a Golden Ring town overnight, then back to Moscow again.
Haven't had a chance to write about our experiences in Russia yet. Tomorrow night I'll be picking up our photos and will spend the night scanning them in and writing about it.
We had a fabulous time and many thanks to Nate and Jen for putting us up and showing us around.
Now it's back home and back at work, sadly.
You've probably heard me moan about English beurocracy before. Well they're nothing compared to the Russians! I'm trying to get a tourist visa so I can go and spend money in their country, boosting their economy. Silly me!
For starters, the Cold War never ended, if the visa procedures are anything to go by. You have to get an official invitation confirming you have accomodation booked for your stay. Then you can get the visa from the embassy, 9am-11:30am a few days a week. When you arrive in Russia, you must register with the Interior Ministry, just so they can keep track of you.
So I have a question for them, and phone them up to ask. "Look on the web site," the none too cheerful woman answering the phone tells me. I've already looked, and the information I need isn't there, I tell her. "Well I can't help you. Call the consular number." Problem is, when the consular number isn't engaged, they don't answer the phone.
"Welcome to Russia," says my friend Jenny, "and you're still in London. Yes, often they don't answer the phone. Maybe they're busy serving customers, or maybe they're in the consulate kitchen drinking tea and eating cake."
And I thought getting my National Insurance Number was hard...
We got back last night from an excellent weekend away with Matt, Maz, John and Anne. We were staying in a National Trust property, Sutton Hoo, the site of many Anglo-Saxon burial mounds, including the mound that contained this amazing helmet now at the British Museum.
Amazing place and an excellent weekend in excellent weather. We had loads of fun, eating, drinking and enjoying the brilliant weather. As usual, Anne won the game of Settlers.
We just booked our flights to Moscow for July. We'll be spending two weeks with our friends Nathan and Jenny. They have a flat in Moscow and another in St Petersburg so we'll be dividing our time between the two. Yay!
Now we have to sort out our visas. They don't exactly make it easy!
Holly and I went cycling in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire this weekend. It looked like rain and my back had been sore on Friday so we didn't do the planned Colchester to The Wash ride. Instead we headed out on Sunday from Cambridge.
Sunday night was spent in Welney, the town from which my great-great-great grandfather came before heading to Australia on the Second Fleet. Was great to check it out.
The whole region is an incredible piece of engineering, dating back hundreds of years. Naturally it's a relatively useless swampland. Drained, it provides the most fertile and productive farmland in England. The enormous drainage system keeps the lands relatively dry and also protects against tidal flooding.
Of course all this man-made change to the environment comes at a cost. The swamps form an important ecosystem, particularly for migratory birds. Some efforts are being made to rectify the situation.
Disaster struck on Saturday after we left Ely when my rear wheel buckled very badly. This was my first ride on a new "extra strong" wheel I had made. I'm most annoyed and will reconsider letting these clowns get any of my money in future, based on their response to this shoddy work.
The problematic wheel meant it took us far longer to get to Welney than normal, and also meant we had to curtail our trip for safety reasons. The wheel is absolutely screwed. Grrrr.
Anyway, we had fun and even got a bit sunburnt, as well as rained on. Photos here.
Holly and I went to Birmingham, the UK's second largest city. Largely underrated due to its Midlands location, this city was the heart of the Industrial Revolution which probably caused more social upheaval than any other technological advance.
The architecture is a bit Canberra with freeways through the centre for my liking, but the city seems to be finding its confidence. We visited a rather great art gallery and danced all night in a really good club, albeit listening to London DJs. Breakfast was in a cafe that would be quite at home in Newtown.
All in all, an excellent weekend. If only they could lose the silly accent...