It was a really nice camp spot actually, right under an old train bridge that is no longer used, so if it was to rain, we’d have some extra cover. All the really good spots on the level ground were taken (it was late by now, we did expect that) so we ended up with the very last spot on a more unlevel part and where the ground was like cement. Oh well, these things happen huh? It didn’t take long to set up the tent and to be settled in, so we caught the next bus into the city centre where we arranged to meet our good friend Dell.

Luke and I haven’t seen Dell for almost 5 years, which is far too long to go without seeing a good friend, and Chris though hearing so much of Dell (and vice versa) has never actually met him, so it was really great to be meeting up where the boys could finally meet and we could see one another again!

While we waited for Dell to finish work and meet us we took a stroll around Edinburgh and we have to say, it is a gorgeous city! It’s just really beautiful with all it’s different levels and old buildings and castle. We felt so comfortable. We made our way very very slowly through the streets, see, the Edinburgh Festival is on at the moment and the city is PACKED with tourists and acts all over the place! It’s great to see! We were wandering the streets mixed in with the crowd that were off to see the Edinburgh Tattoo, there were thousands of people all walking up to this castle. It was a little hard for Chris to watch I know. Before we even came to the UK we had tried to get tickets to this event but it was all sold out, so it was hard to be here in the city and have to walk past it.

We ended up meeting Dell where we had jumped off the bus and it was SOOO lovely to see him again after all this time, we all had a big hug before moving on to dinner in a little pub 5 minutes away (where Chris order Haggas!). It was so great to just chat and catch up and hear how things were going, and, to make plans for upcoming time away together. It was late before Dell dropped us off at our campsite and we climbed into our sleeping bags lazily and in a tired state!

Chris and I on the other hand pottered about the house, taking our time to get ready etc, just generally relaxing and taking it easy, which was really really nice. Plus Luke is really cool and handsome. What a guy. We spent our day watching telly and having warm showers before heading off on our walk to Buntingford to collect dinner for tonight and then getting it all prepared for when Sue and Patrick got home. It’s nice to have a ‘home’ at the moment where we’re able to be free in the kitchen and ‘take over’ per say, it’s nice to feel domesticated again after travelling for so long and eating out or cheap meals on the go.

Again it was just a chilled out evening of chatting and catching up and… packing. We’re off to Scotland tomorrow!

We then had to return the hire car, which, upon doing so, they discovered a TEENY TINY scratch on the bumper, made from a little rock flinging up, and decided to charge us an exuberant amount to fix this, despite the rest of the car being full of scratches… go figure… they don’t fix this car at all, they just ‘claim’ things and make you pay them and then they leave the car untouched! Anyhow, we argued with them in many ways and have refused to pay them just yet and told them that we would look into all this, thank you very much. Hmph. Plus, to make it even more annoying, they put an X on the car diagram when it was picked up to state that there was indeed a scratch there previously, but when we stated this to them they said “oh, no, that’s for another scratch” but buggered if we could see another scratch… it’s all very very dodgy and made for a bad start to an already busy, sad day.

After lunch Bryan bundled our stuff into the car and prepared to take us to the train station. We had to say goodbye to Ann who was staying behind and as I’ve already stated, it was sad. She and Bryan have been so good to us over the past months, taking us in, housing us, feeding us, showing us about etc etc, they’re just lovely lovely people and we’re proud to be part of the family and to have spent so much time with them. It was only a quick trip to the train station where we then said goodbye to Bryan, which was just as equally sad and hard!

The train eventually came along and we jumped on and made our way to London, off that one and onto another to take us to Stevenage where Sue met us. It was great to see her again too and then see Patrick once we got home. We caught up on all the goss over the past week and then head off for a nice early nights sleep!

written by  Chris and Emily on August 10, 2009 from Buntingford, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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We then decided that it would be of a benefit to us all to have some “alone time” So, as the boys went there separate ways looking at various shops and picking themselves up some goodies I took myself off for a pedicure, which I have been craving for about 3 months now. My feet have been a mess since walking all over Europe, in thongs. It felt soooo good to finally get them done, I felt really spoilt. I then went for a quick shop to look for a birthday pressie for Jen and then off to meet the boys once more.

We made it back to Bristol in time for the Sunday roast that was taking place. Yum! It was lovely to be sitting about the table with our English family (minus Martin who was at a wedding) and having a meal on our last night. It was a fun, happy meal, followed by a sad goodbye to Jen. It’s crazy to think that we’re now saying goodbye to people when it seems only a few weeks ago we were saying hello to them, the time has just flown by so fast. It was sad to say goodbye and to give Jen a final hug, but we know that we’ll see her again sooner rather than later and we’ll always be in touch, she’s the best female 3rd cousin we could have!

After this we thought that we’d really better start packing. Chris and I had left quite a bit of stuff at Ann and Bryans when we first arrived, so we had to sort through all that and pack what was wanted and needed. It wasn’t a hard job to do but it took forever as we just didn’t have any motivation! Luke was already packed up, lucky him, so he relaxed watching telly and playing on the net as Chris and I mulled over finding the motivation to pack, but we did it in the end and then, exhausted, fell into bed.

written by  Chris and Emily on August 9, 2009 from Bath, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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Luke and Chris then went for a walk down to the Tintagel castle where Luke paid and went onto the site to look about and Chris went into Merlins Cave, a part we didn’t get to last time but had wanted too. While the boys did this I casually cruised the streets looking at all the little stores and picking up some water for us as it was a very warm day. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon and relax.

As we drove around we also came across another little castle that sat on a hill. It was a sweet little castle with a lovely country view, and it was lovely to spend some time looking about the grounds before getting back into the car and on the road.

Getting back to Bristol was a little tiring as there was quite a road block and traffic jam with tourists trying to leave Newquay at the same time. The road was so busy and we crawled along slowly. We kept pace with the car beside us (it was a 3 lane highway) and to our immature entertainment, the two young teenage boys next to us kept holding up immature signs like “Honk if you’re horny” and “smile if you’re gay” We did both these which seemed to amuse them to no end, from what we could see they were doubling over laughing. Glad that we could help someone pass the time in such a traffic mess, they gave us a wave as they moved off, nice to know we made ‘friends’ if only for half an hour or more.

It was nice to get back to Bristol where dinner was waiting and Ann and Bryan were keen to hear of our news. As a treat to ourselves and to see the new renovations to the pub down the road we went for a pub meal, where they were serving BBQ meat and salad for dinner. It was lovely to sit in the sun, have a nice meal and a drink in a really relaxed atmosphere; we sat there for a few hours before heading back up the road to have a few more bevies there before declaring it a night and hitting the hay.

written by  Chris and Emily on August 8, 2009 from Bristol, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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We said goodbye to Ann and Bryan and promised to be back soon and that we’d be safe and then made our way to Wells for a quick stop to show Luke where the film “Hot Fuzz” was filmed and we then made our way on towards Newquay.

We soon discovered the reason as to why there was no accommodation in all of Newquay, there were major surf title competitions on the go, and also, a big weekend concert. Newquay was packed with tourists and locals alike!

On the off chance and on a whim we pulled into a caravan park and asked if they had a caravan that we might be able to hire for a night, and to our relief, they did. It was a cozy two bedroom caravan with a lounge room, kitchen and bathroom. It was more than adequate for our one night stay!

We head into Newquay Centre and found a spot at a bar that over looked the water where we could watch the goings on at the beach and take in the views. The surf competition itself was around the corner, but it was so packed and busy you couldn’t get there without a fight, and to be honest, we were all quite tired now! We had a meal, watched some of the Ashes and “booed” when all the other people in the bar would cheer (Aussies weren’t doing so well during this test) and then moved on for a look through the town picking up a few groceries for tonight and breakfast tomorrow.

The caravan park we were staying at was more like a mini city, and I say that with complete honesty. There were, I kid you not, 1000 caravans and tents there and on site there was a water park, a bowling alley, a pizzeria, a grocery store (over priced of course) a restaurant bar and a ‘club’. As it was still a little early when we got back we thought we’d go and check out the club, looking forward to meeting some other travelers, having a beer and some music, and generally, just relaxing. We walked in, and to our amusement and horror the club was infact a bingo hall. There were at least 500 people sitting about at tables all playing the game with the tackiest music and lighting going on in the background. It was truly truly awful. But it got worse. As the numbers were called the announcer would call out something really tacky, but number 22 was the worst, the announcer called out “Two little ducks swimming side by side, number 22” and the whole room erupted into “QUACK QUACK QUACK!!!” the announcer smiled and said “Thank you quackers” and this happened twice while we were there. Getting the rooms attention was painful too. The announcer would go “SH SH SH- SH SH…” and the room would finish it off with “SH SH” oooohhhhh, it was bad. We thought that the best way to deal with this was to drink a few drinks QUICKLY and then get out, so we ordered drinks that were on special and being promoted only to be told “oh, we don’t stock that” yet, there were big banners saying “special give aways with this drink, this week” etc, and then, as we stood at the bar giggling, an incredibly large, incredibly drunk young man, who was bright red from sunburn and who, I hate to say it despite it being the truth, had no fashion sense, came up to us and went “WWWWOOOOOOO” in our faces, pumping his arms in the air victoriously, to which we took the micky and copied him, he stalled for a moment as if contemplating us, but then moved on to the front of the room where he danced (badly) souly. He gave it a go though and was very enthusiastic in his terrible moves.

We could only stand one drink and then had to get the hell out of there, it was killing us. We made it back to the safety of our little cabin where we barracked ourselves in with a bottle of wine and some beer and chips and enjoyed the rest of the evening chatting and watching bad TV.

written by  Chris and Emily on August 7, 2009 from Newquay, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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We caught the bus into the city centre where we then made our way to the ‘ferry café’ that we really love for a cup of coffee and hot chocolate. Now feeling revived and more ‘awake’ we slowly made our way towards the shops of Bristol, stopping on the way at the ‘Walkabout’ pub quickly jump on the net (still checking prices of up coming travels!) and then onto to the mall to find both the boys some new thongs. It seemed a little redundant as it was raining, but still, we’re optimists, we figure by buying thongs the weather HAS to get better, right? It was a successful mission buying thongs for the boys and finding t-shirts for Luke.

Back to Ann and Bryans where we then got ready for our evening at the balloon fiesta that was staring tonight. We were dropped off at the bus station, which, thanks to the immense traffic took about 45 minutes when it should have only taken 20 minutes! Once on the bus we made our way to the grounds where we were greeted with a large ‘carnival’ atmosphere. There were rides and side show alleys and on the oval one lone hot air balloon. We had been expecting many hot air balloons to be blowing gently in the breeze, so to see one lone one, promoting a local big name store, was a little disappointing. We quickly made our way to the alcohol tent for beers and Pimms before making a round trip of the oval.

Martin then met up with us and from there our little group grew as some of Martins friends joined us, including Rich who we all met when he and Martin made there way out to Australia, it was really nice to see him again.

We stood around talking for a while before a set of fire works signaled the start of the ‘balloon fiesta’

The Balloon Fiesta is a big carnival where people come from all over the world with their hot air balloons and there are all sorts of different activities, take offs, shows etc and, on the first night, like tonight, there is a show where the balloons all light up in time to music that is playing, such as ABBA, Tom Jones, classical tunes etc. It really does look spectacular against the night sky! This lasted for about half an hour and the end of this was once more signified by a large firework display that seemed to take place RIGHT behind us, which made us jump a mile, let me tell you!

We made a hasty retreat at the end of this in a bid to outrun the 5000 strong crowd; we did well, though we still managed to get caught up a little. Martin had parked a good 20 minute walk away, so we made the trek to the car which was probably good for us after all the hideous greasy food we’d consumed that evening! Ann had waited up for us and to hear all the news from the balloon festival, so we had a chat with her for a bit before hitting the sack for a few hours sleep in preparation of tomorrows activities.

written by  Chris and Emily on August 6, 2009 from Bristol, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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It was a quick tube trip to Paddington Station where we boarded our train to Bristol. Normally you get plenty of time to make your way down the platform to your carriage, but this time, for some reason it appeared that the conductors were all very eager to get the train on the tracks and were blowing there whistles as we just made our way to the platform. We ran a little thinking that we would make it to carriage B, but when we realized we wouldn’t, leapt onto another carriage and then had to make our way through the carriages to our seats. It was an uneventful trip otherwise.

To get to Ann and Bryans we had to take a taxi from the train station and we had the funniest taxi driver EVER. He told us joke after joke as if he was auditioning for a stand up gig and he had us giggling the whole time, he was very funny and also very nice.

It was great to get back to Ann and Bryan. We haven’t seen them in so long, it was lovely to be able to catch up again and introduce Luke.

The evening went quickly and it was also really great to see Jenny and Martin once more. Jen joined us for dinner and after he’d finished work, Martin popped by also. It was a really nice, relaxed evening and, an early for once!

written by  Chris and Emily on August 5, 2009 from Bristol, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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We walked onto South bank where we took Luke to look at the London Eye, we contemplated going on it but then saw the line up for tickets and backed away very quickly, it was huge! We strolled along the river Thames taking in the sights around us and dropped into the Tate Museum quickly where we looked at some Picasso paintings and then left. London is currently chockers with tourists so it’s pretty crazy at the more popular places of interest, you can barely move and it can become quite claustrophobic really! We kept walking until we came to a bar we’ve sampled earlier in our travels and stopped for a drink or two in the sun, before again rising to our feet and heading off to see the Tower Bridge, from a distance, our feet were beginning to hurt a little. We slowly head off to the tube station, stopping briefly at the Portobello Market Square where Chris was able to sample a ‘very good’ coffee (highly recommended by the Lonely Planet booklet)

We made it back to Leicester Square where the movie premier was just beginning to take off, the red carpet was rolled out, the barriers were up, fans lined the streets… we noticed that there was a two story Burger King right across the road from the movie theater, so we went in there and it was a very good decision to do so I think. We had a brilliant birds eye view of the events, we watched as dancers came out and performed, and then as little explosion things took off and red love heart glitter things fell from the sky, and then, Garod Butler (mmmmm) and Kathrine Hiegl arrived. We watched them walk down the red carpet stopping to pose with fans, sign autographs, talk to press etc etc, they seemed very nice, especially Kathrine Hiegl, who despite knowing of, I’ve never been a huge fan of. It took a long time for them to make there way down the red carpet which was about 150 meters long all up, but it took them about an hour and a half, we actually left BEFORE they finished there appearance, we were getting really tired of standing about!

As we were in the movie district we decided that we would take a rest and relax by watching “Star Trek” it was as good as we first remembered it being, but this time, as it played I suddenly heard a little snoring sound… I looked over and despite all the loud explosions and yells etc, Luke was sound asleep in the movie theatre, we let him sleep through out this and only roused him out of his slumber to make a move back to the hostel.

written by  Chris and Emily on August 4, 2009 from London, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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