Courtyard By Marriott Coventry

With time rapidly dwindling I went down to Banbury way this afternoon to visit my brother et famille before I leave, taking the opportunity to say goobye to two young nephews - one of whom was able to appreciate some of the implications of what I am doing, "But what if you get sick?" he asked. :-)

Back up to Stoke in the late evening. Last day of preparations tomorrow.

Mit dem ersten Bus zurück nach London, dort noch mal den Horseguards beim Wachwechsel zugeschaut und ein letztes Mittagessen im Schatten des Grossen Ben genossen bevor es dann zum Flughafen weiter ging. Um Alternativen zum Unterhaltungsprogramm von AirAstana (auf dem Hinflug war es zu meiner großen Freude der Film "Mama Mia" auf Russisch) zu haben investierte ich meine letzten Pfunde in DVDs. Als ich in den Flieger von AirAstana einstieg und die vertrauten Kl ...

That's our second home. Leeza's been living here for 3 years and Tim has been visiting regularly as well as many friends and relatives. We'll stay here for at least another 3 years and then we'll see where life takes us. UK is great in many ways. The absence of snow in the winter makes a difference. Even though Heathrow is 1.5 hrs away, we manage very frequent travels. Birmingham airport helps but there are no flights to Moscow from here. Midlands (that's ...

... shoe? We passed by farmer's lands and, since it is a public right way, anyone can go through that way whether the farmer like it or not. Jim Passmore informed me about the signs on the gates if it also allows for horses, also the types of the gates. He also introduced me to some of the flowers and even gave me one kind of leaf to rub on my hand. Accidentally my hand touched a stinging nettle. We stop in again for a break where my favourite orange man is ...

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Took us a couple of hours and we got the audio tour included in the price which made it very interesting. It is a ruined castle and huge. It used to have a moat and lake around it. The Norman Keep is huge and walls were 8' thick. We saw the kitchen with huge fireplaces and bread ovens. Robert ...

Stephen drove us to Chipping Campden (20 min. away) for our 4 hour walk. It was bitterly cold as a wind was blowing but the sun was out. It was a lovely village and had a lovely open stone market hall from 1627 with an uneven stone floor.









We ...

... ticket to London on the National Express Coach for 13 pound 50 for both of us. Got it heaps cheaper because booking 3 days in advance ($31). Went for a hot chocolate at Costa’s in a lovely Tudor building. Changed $200 Aus to 79 pounds, bought a vegetable pastie and then went through Shakespeare’s birthplace 9 pounds ($21). Lovely home from the 1500s ...

... another pretty little Cotswold village with a stream, pub and a trout farm. We had a map with directions and they were very bad directions, because we got lost from box 1 and ended up doing the walk back to front and totally wrong sections. It snowed the whole time and was wet snow so after a couple of ...

... old buildings – Lord Leicester Hospital- timber-framed buildings built in the 1500s. Okens House, near the Castle Gates and Mill Street – a gorgeous cobblestoned street of pre-fire houses that survived the great fire of 1694 destroying most of the medieval town.















Stephen and ...

... a jacket potato with tuna 3 pounds 95. While we were there it hailed, rained and then had big fluffy heavy snowflakes, but it melted. We finished lunch and went walking and did a nice circuit walk on public footpaths through fields, little lanes, through lots of mud and past some lovely homes.









Next we drove ...