Back to Britain and the final leg of the journey

After almost five weeks on the road, we have finally encountered another Wicked Van.  We returned to the car park after visiting the centre at Gretna Green and what do you know, an Aussie couple from Newcastle couldn't resist the temptation of pulling up along side us.  We were surprised when we met up with them that they also were a couple in our same age range and not as we had imagined, a young backpacker couple.

After sharing some travel stories and helpful information with each other we set off in our respective directions, us on our way to visit Hadrian's Wall and they to make their way into Wales to take the ferry to Ireland.  Our trip in reverse.

Hadrian's Wall was built in AD 122 to mark the edge of the Roman Empire.  The wall was a 73 mile barrier built coast-to-coast across England.  Some parts of the wall have disappeared but other sections are still well preserved and make a spectacular sight across the landscape.

There are several towns to choose from to visit the wall.  We chose an area just past a dot on the map called Once Brewed, just next to another dot on the map called Twice Brewed.  There are a few well preserved forts with Museums.  We chose the Housesteads to view the wall and the Roman Fort.

The remains of the latrine complete with drainage

An artists impression of the real building when it was in use as a latrine almost  2000 years ago

After our visit to the wall, we had an early start the next day for a long drive south to York.  Arriving just after lunch we settled into a pitch at the campground 7 kms out of York.  After some rest, we headed into York for a look around.

The city centre of York is "medieval" in the extreme and the city centre is still surrounded by 13th century walls.  The York Minster is the largest medieval cathedral in Northern Europe, so darn big, you can't get it all into a photo.

A section of the city wall at one of the gateway openings

                 

Off for a drink in a medieval pub

While we were in York we came across one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants, so we decided to treat ourselves and had dinner there.  The food was delicious with lots of small portions of very tasty dishes and not overly expensive.

A highlight of the trip for us both was to go to see some of the snooker matches being played as part of the World Snooker circuit.  We organised our time to be in Doncaster for some of that time and booked tickets to attend a few days of the tournament.  What a treat.  The venue was the Doncaster Dome which is a huge venue for staging all sorts of sporting events and concerts as well as the swimming leisure centre and ice skating rink which are also housed there.  We were able to catch a few players before their games and should have been more organised with the camera for a few more celebrity moments.

Peter Ebden (England) and Alister Carter (England)

Shaun Murphy (England)

Neil Robertson (Australia)

We extended our time in Doncaster taking advantage of seeing the top world snooker players in one place and ended up watching 4 days of snooker matches.  Even David was a bit snookered out by that stage.

After our time in Doncaster, we were down to our last week of travel before having to be in London to hand the camper van back.  So it was off to the Peak District to have a look around.  We headed off towards Manchester, turning off to head into the Peak District and to one of the main towns of Buxton.

On the way we stopped to have a look at one of the great houses of the area called Lyme Park.  I had a special interest in this house as it was used in part of the filming of the BBC series of Pride and Prejudice.  Being one of my favourite programs, it was such a highlight to have a tour through the house and the grounds.  To stand where Mr Darcy waved good bye to Miss Elizabeth Bennett was very exciting.

The pretty little Peak District towns of Buxton and Matlock and Ashford In The Water on the River Wye

                                     

 For our last stop before London we spent a few days in Cambridge, described in the books as drowning in exquisite architecture.  Not an exaggeration.  The ancient colleges are packed along the picturesque riverside.  A punt ride on the river is an essential part of any trip to Cambridge.

The last day of our travels with the camper van rolled around and it was time to leave Cambridge for the drive south to London.  Both of us on high concentration alert for the drive in from the north and into the centre of London to return the van back to the Wicked Depot.

It was time to give The Big Lebowski a wash and a clean through, remove the coloured stickers from the crazy message on the back, pack our suitcases for the first time in six weeks and leave our home on wheels parked at the Wicked Depot.  Off again to Waterloo station for the train ride to where we had booked our accommodation for our last 2 nights in London.

That is the final installment of the long awaited adventure which was our 4 month trip around the continent and the UK.  To say that we have had a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoyed every minute would be an understatement.  This trip has been described as the trip of a lifetime, but hopefully it will be only the first of such "trips of a lifetime".

It is off now for a short stopover in Phuket, Thailand for 2 weeks to help ease the adjustment of the time difference and of course to indulge in lots of yummy Thai food and maybe a Thai massage or two along the way. 

 Thanks for stopping in now and then to catch up on our progress throughout our journey.  It has been fun (and sometimes slightly frustrating when wi fi's have failed half way through my efforts) to be able to make this blog as a way of capturing some of the memories of our travels while we have been on the road.

So until we see you all again back in Aus, continue to take care as we do here.

Cheers Linda and David.