Penny Farthing Hotel Lyndhurst

I had to take Pete for a spin so I decided to visit Wincester, one of the oldest towns in England. Was setup as Englands capital at one stage and was pretty important place when England became a country, ie united under King Alfred around 7th century..

It did have a castle on the hill but all that is left are the foundation stones. The hall is still there with ...

... Michael's Church to help us sort and pack the boxes. You are all stars...

We can't wait to start seeing the smiling faces of people receiving your shoeboxes and we promise to keep you up to date with where we are, who we meet and the reaction your gifts receive.

Check back on Monday when the Trussell team will reach Bulgaria and start distributing your shoeboxes to men, women and children living in poverty...

Booked flight today - Guatemala on Feb 22nd 2010. So to mark the occasion I thought I'd start my travel diary today as well.

Two months to go - and a lot of list-making, planning, shopping, getting vaccinated, freaking out, and bouncing with excitement to do!

... Her boyfriend is Belgian and she was staying with him in Leuven. She came to Genk to meet we and we wandered around the ponds in the Molenvijver park, wandered up a hill to a little chapel in the middle of town that I had never seen but that Lucy had found, and had a cherry (Kriek) beer to chat over. It was nice to catch up.

Last Sa**************ed into Genk with my last host-sister, Hanne Bijnens, and we went shopping for essential errands - several kgs of chocolate later, I ...

... to our other blog please let me know or alternatively you can search for shunny81 and this is the name of it. There are a few to read but it will take away the boredom on a Friday afternoon.

Hope your all well and the weather is not to bad. Just think of us when its raining having to take shelter of the 35 degree heat.

All the best

Nigel

Sophia>>>>>
Right it is Wednesday the 11th November we'll be departing in a few days!!!! Realy getting excited and a bit nervous now just thinking this time next week i will be on the other side of the world!!! Busy time now though ahead last jabs tomoz as well as seeing katie and lexie for the last time till i get back!! Then the evening ...

... I even saw a picture of the bathing compartments pulled by horses into the water so people could swim without anyone seeing them in their swimmers. I'm presuming it was for the women! I also presume their swimmers were neck to ankle... lol what would they think these days!!

I was going to have lunch on the pier but they weren't selling any food.. ah well you can't have it all your own way!

... They have these cycle paths.. I did only about 5% of them so there is heaps more to discover when I go back. I also managed to do some jogging ... whew my poor old knees didn't like it all... but the scenery was so lovely. The leaves were all turning, animals were wondering around it didn't feel you were in a country of 60 million people at all.

One day I had a ride for about 3-4 hours, ended up in a small place called Fritham... I had some ...

... people coming from London to take in the sea air and take to the water, ie the spas! Jane Austen apparently stayed in Southampton for a time as well.

The last night with the Smiths and we had a bit of a party night, I bought Indian... the music was put on and we were dancing and Olly was playing with his guitar and the dogs!

... to Guernsey we had to pick up our luggage and check it in again for the continuing journey to the UK. Much to our surprise the girl at the check-in counter insisted that we had to spend the next 3 hours sightseeing in Guernsey pulling our suitcases with us, as they had no facilities to store our luggage! Thank goodness someone higher up must have kicked her in the bum because soon after some others complained to the Condor ferries head office we were ...