Cromwell Lodge Hotel Banbury

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.

... in fact the price on the machine was taped over). There was no reply on the phone and no-one about so we moved on to Hillmorton, where we went through the three locks easily. We moored near Barby in a remote spot, except that there were eleven boats in a line! James went for a short walk and discovered HMP Rye just through a small wood. What a contrast - high walls and floodlights and barbed wire, compared to the gentle countryside, canal, footpaths and remains of medieval ...

... century building convertted into a pub and the part we stayed in was in the old dance hall above the gate, it was a huge room and was very comfortable, we were only house bound for two days but that was ok as it gave us time to relax properly and enjoy some English hospitality in the pub, I cottoned onto a local beer called Hook Norton ...

... didn't ask him about Zidane's head butt, though. Wandered through Westminster; I took lots of breaks today as my feet are beginning to get sore. Hopefully that improves. Enjoyed the cool air in the basement of the Zara store. I don't really want to shop, but it's a great opportunity to cool off. Chilled out in Holland park for a bit. Walked through the Notting Hill area - neat. Continued on to Baron's Court and Earl's ...

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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 ...

... church of St. Lawrence. We then crossed little streams and did a huge uphill walk in deep mud tracks. At the top of the hill we followed the road back to Chipping Campden for the next 2-3/4 miles. The wind howled at times and was freezing. We passed fields of black sheep and then ...

... 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 ...

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We had thought to bring spare shoes with us to change into but hadn’t thought about spare jeans. Nathan had mud up the inside of his legs past his knees and so we made him strip down to his undies to get into the car. My jeans were wet and muddy, at least the bottom 8 ...

... and river and beautiful country on the other. It was started in 1068 by William the Conqueror. It was owned until 1978 by the Earls of Warwick and then bought the Tussaud Group. We walked over the drawbridge and explored first in the towers of the Gatehouse and Barbican. They had 2 port cullis to lower to keep people out and if they trapped people ...

... 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 ...