Best Western Kings Arms Hotel Dorchester

Bournemouth has a very funny layout.. the two main streets of the town go up both sides of the hills that lead down to the park and eventually to the famous Pier.

I was a bit down in the dumps this day.. I think because I was watching all the families and couples having some fun. It was mid term break so there were heaps of kids around and the entrance to the Pier was packed with amusements and ...

... woops. I'm still in one piece so its all good. Must have given the driver a heart attack...

Deidre and John also took me around the New Forest and showed me an old oak tree that is 600 years old!!! And of course we had lunch in a pub, a nice roast with HUGE... I mean HUGE Yorkshire puddings. Beaulieu is a lovely place too, an old Abbey sits on the rive in town. I saw where Ric************ owned a huge place within the forest. Christchurch ...

... is not really a speed demon, but the slower pace suits us fine as we are in no hurry... it also conserves fuel which is important considering the distance we will be covering over the next few months. So we don't really go faster than 50 mile/hr (80km/h for the aussies at home) and we avoid the motorways as there generally is ...

Another lazy start before packing bags and heading into the New Forest again making our way down to the SW area and a place called Burley. Historically it was suposed to be a place where a local witch lived way back when, so it is famous for its witches shops and also the ponies that block the roads ...

... we went into the club. Where they were just finishing off the kids club show. We had a three piece singing group and then two comedians. I think the entertainment startedabout 9 and went through till about 1. In the club they had a kids amusement centre, with pool tables, dance machines and arcade games.. we went through a lot of 2p coins than night!! I was really surprised at the amount of entertainment there. A lot of fun for a big kid like me!!

So after driving for a bit after leaving Stonehenge and we though it was time to something else. so when we saw a tourist sign to Stourhead we decided to follow it even though we had no idea what it was.

WOW!! These gardens are lurvely. If you get a chance you gotta come here.

Now I wish we had followed the earlier sign to Drogo Castle - found out latter that would have been pretty nice too.

... see friends in Cheltenham on the way back. We're not in Brian, so perhaps it's cheating to be writing on a blog called 'Life in Brian'?!

Our travel plans:
We're heading off into France, probably from Calais, at the end of October. Current thinking is that we'll travel roughly down the west coast of France, hopefully coming inland and stopping off to see some friends before we ...

... gone up to our rooms to relax for a while. Susie had graciously prepared dinner for us on our first night there (including a bottle of wine, we paid 25 pounds each), but we were on our own the second night. After our naps, we got into Claire's car and once again risked life and limb on those insane single-lane roads. This time we were going from East Chelborough to the Greyhound Inn on North Street, in ...

... In brief, I have to take a valium when I get in a car. Not only do the English drive on the "other" side of the road, the roads are narrow, the signals confusing, and for a nervous Nellie like me, it's just all too much. 

Also, do you know about Sat Nav?

Claire and Damian have it (a GPS-type application) on their iPhones. They put in the postal codes of the points of origination and destination, and coordinates,  a map ...

... br>
Since that visit we have always dreamed that we would one day return, hopefully more able to avail ourselves of the different forms of transport. During those years a chap came into my little shop and chatted about having lived in Switzerland and about what we had missed! He invited me to borrow his videos showing the Swiss Railways systems in all their glory. From then on we were compelled one day to go back !

So this is the travelog of our return to Switzerland ...