UK, France & Cruise Home

Easy entry onto ship! As soon as our taxi pulled up their was a guy there with a trolley to take our bags!!!! We had to wait 1.5 hours to board. Ship was late in due to propulsion trouble but all fixed now. Everyone very chatty while waiting. Sandy & Merc arrived soon after us. We had to wait for the PRIORITY PEOPLE boarded then we could!!!! Nearly half the passengers are ELITE CLASS & don't some of them let you know it ; others lovely. Some are on their 10th World Cruise & booked next year!!!! Others on their 44th Princess cruise! They all know each other; know All the lurks & perks & are just so spoilt & precious!!!!!!! They get free internet, special meals, washing done places reserved for them!!!!! Anyway....... enough!!!! We are on Deck 8 towards back if ship with HUGE window to loom out! We dine at any time that suits in Dining Room or Horizon Buffet. I got a cold 2 days before cruise in Dover & have no voice!! I get coughing fits & ...

A last day to get everything 7before the cruise & see some more of the places nearby. Over the weekend we'd looked up Podiatrists so Warren could get histoenails cut!!! Wondered about how to get there, appointments & the like. So we set off at 8.45 & walked to the end of our block. Across the road was the Royal Nail Salon with a youngish Chinese guy standing outside. Warren said to him 'do you cut toenails?'   Yes.  Can you cut mine? Now?  Yes! In we go - & out 5mins later with cut & filed nails - £5!!! Bargain! We walked the easy mile walk into the town centre. HUGE Maison Dieu grey stone building that takes up a whole block. Now Town Hall & Creative Arts Centre. It was founded by St Augustus in 9oos as a Monastery & Hospice. At Clarke's shoe shop Warren bought  pair of sandals. I got more lozenges, eye drops & Panadol for my 2nd cold of the trip! We then bought a Day Tripper bus ticket. First we went to Canterbury (34 m...

On our last day in London we visited Bunhill Fields Cemetery in the East End. Quite s few of the MESSER families from the area buried there. It has been a cemetery for 1,000  YEARS with 123,000 buried there!!!! It closed in 1854. There are black wire fences around each half & people walk through it !!!! East End quite a yuppie area now so it's a busy thoroughfare. It is opposite John Wesley's house & next to it is still the Royal Artillery HQ & grounds - there since forever too!!! We bought the £3 Tesco Express meal - sandwich drink & snack & had in one of the laneways. We had tried unsuccessfully to buy our train tickets to Dover on line. They are much cheaper & crazy system where on line companies get them for you at various prices! We went to Kings Cross ticket office & nice guy there got us £11 ticket each instead of £32 from From key South to Dover Priory. Much easier for us to get to than 3 changes on railway & t...

When we decided to come to London I said there is definitely one couple I want to meet - Audrey & Jim Johnson. YEARS ago when starting on the Wimble family research, I somehow contacted Audrey & she sent me 3 pages of graph paper with numerous generations & descendants. EVERY year since then their Christmas card is the first one we receive!!!! & quite a few times I have not returned one - but still it comes! We caught the train to Swanley in Kent. We'd  been unable to find a phone number for them. I knocked at the door - no answer. I went in next door & the kind Chinese lady rang their mobile. 'What's wrong Millie' said Audrey. 'There's 2 Australians waiting on your doorstep! Said Millie. We had the most wonderful day! We were all like long lost friends..... talk talk talk! Audrey got her folders out & Jim & Warren talked work, medical issues! They took us out for a lovely dinner before dropping us back at the station. T...

We arrived in London on Sunday afternoon from France trip. We worked out how to buy a Visitor Oyster card for using public transport. It was £5 deposit & we put £20 on each. Transport is very expensive here. They were working on our line to Peckham Rye so had to end up getting a bus the last part of the journey! We'd changed trains once - thank goodness for LIFTS- pulling our 20kg plus bags! We arrived at Peckham Rye - very hot day;  PR is like mini Africa in looks + Hurstville in smell + Haymarket in markets/rubbish/people everywhere!!!!!! We walked towards our Air bnb & 3 streets away it was a different world - rows of old English brick terrace houses, trees, flowers & peace & calm!!!!!! So many parts of London as I described PR - graffiti everywhere, rubbish everywhere, just looks just like no one cares. EVERY nationality under the sun! Anyway enough......... A lovely young couple with little boy welcomed us. It's described as an Artists ...

We caught the train from Northampton to Euston Station, London. We walked towards St Pancras Station (virtually next door).  In between is The British Library where Richard Cheeses (Warren's 2nd cousin is in charge of the Music Collections). We met & chatted to him for a while. While nearby Kings Cross Station we visited Platform 9 3/4 of Harry Potter fame. They had the sigh set up & huge line up of people waiting to have their photo taken at it! When we went to join the queue to get on the Eurostar & Warren presented his ticket, people 'jumped to attention' & 'come right through here sir; me following to the head of the line! We had to pass through Customs & passport control - gone the special treatment when we had to lift ALL our bags onto the conveyor belt to be checked!!!! However people very good helping us on & off trains. Warren just stands there & looks helpless ! Eurostar 40 mins in England; 30 mins in tunnel & 1hr ...