Trooping the Colour 2014 - A Right Royal Day Out

"I have to be seen to be believed" - Queen Elizabeth II

Yesterday we all overslept, not an auspicious beginning to what we expected would be a very big day. I can't say I planned our last visit to London for the "Trooping the Colour", it was in fact an utter fluke and a fabulous coincidence.

 Having slept late we imagined that we would have little chance of seeing anything. We walked down through Green Park with many other late comers, arriving at ten thirty as a sea of people poured down The Mall and already people where standing five or more deep along the barricades. It seemed that passage down The Mall was blocked so we attempted to move up towards the Victoria Monument but after squeezing through the tightest gaps we realised there was no way we would see anything there and had to squeeze back out again.

We made our way back down The Mall, as we were able to now. Apparently the footpath was blocked when we tried earlier to allow Prince Charles to leave Clarence House. When we reached this now  open barrier at Stable Yard Road we reasoned that once the parade began this barrier would again close and if we waited patiently at the gate we would have an unobstructed view. Bingo, our luck was in, our spot was perfect.

Adding to the fun of the day was chatting with other spectators and the affable constables who manned our gate. Once our gate was shut no one was able to walk back up The Mall until after the Royals had passed by, which took some time. The witty Constable Hubert had us all in stitches as he very politely directed traffic around by an alternative route, at least two hundred times.

We had very good views of the Royal Family as they passed by in coaches, but managed to miss those on horseback, in the sea of horses that passed down The Mall. There was a lot of waiting in between the procession up to Horse Guards and its return to the palace. But again we had a terrific view once they finally returned.

Once our gate was opened we joined the other cattle in the race to the Palace for a vantage point to see Royal Family on the balcony. We figured that as they were going to be up high we could be further back and get a good view with binoculars and the camera. Again we were lucky and thanks to the end of a brief drizzle the umbrellas went down just as the Family came out.

I had a good view through the camera with the others using binoculars. The affections of the crowd was all in favour of the lovely Duchess Kate though unfortunately we didn't get to see young Prince George.

The RAF flypast was spectacular and very loud, I can only imagine how amazing the view from the balcony would have been. Once the groups of planes past by, including a Lancaster Bomber, Spitfires and fighter jets, the Red Arrows aerobatic team finished the day in fine style.

Soon after it was all over and we made our way back through the crowd to our friends house to get warmer clothes. Somehow in all the excitement of a week of lovely warm days we forgot that its always wise to carry something long sleeved in England and we had been quite cold most of the day.
As it was our last day in England we had to look back at our "must see list" to make sure we had no overlooked anything we would regret later. On Friday Rob had spent a few hours in Hyde Park with the kids enjoying the sunshine and taking out little boats on the Serpentine.

This left me time for a leisurely and long overdue visit to Westminster Abbey. It really was a wonderful place, and I must add that visiting on my own allowed me to take as much time as I liked and really get the most out of my visit.

The lasting memories I will take away with me include not only the famous tombs and memorials, the  towering ceilings including the magnificent fan vaulting of the ceiling in Henry VII's chapel but also and particularly the 13th century wall paintings in the Poets Corner and the Chapter House. These wonderful fragments provided me a window through which the long dead friends and acquaintances of the artists could be glimpsed after all those centuries.

And so having ticked off these very important places we were left with  only one landmark we had long promised a visit to, and what better place to end our time in London than by taking a turn on the London Eye.

We all really enjoyed it though Julian says he would prefer it went a lot faster and around again and again. We made up for this very minor disappointment with dinner at the Rainforest Café we celebrated Emma and Rob's birthdays at back in March. Again we abandoned the kids menu in favour of adding tasting plates and a side salad to two mains which more than fed the four of us without resorting to junk food.

And so we leave London this morning well satisfied that we leave made the most of our visits here and without the heavy hearts which accompanied our departure from the Ringwood area where we have been living for the best part of the last six months. The beautiful people here and the wonderful scenery will go with us in our hearts for a lifetime.

A Picture Tells a Thousand Words : Four Special Day Trips with Kids in England

"A picture shows me at a glance what it takes dozes of pages of a book to expound" - Ivan Turgenev

With our remaining days in England numbering only four it is time to take stock of what we have seen and what I have not gotten around to sharing with you. I have found four wonderful days out that have slipped through the cracks and have decided to basically let the pictures tell the story. I hope you enjoy them.

Dorset Heavy Horse Centre

We are not keen on attractions marketed for children but Julian had long been asking for a day at Pepper Pig World or Adventure Wonderland. However we found Dorset Heavy Horse Centre 1km from our house and thankfully Julian chose this over the other two due to the promise of cart and tractor rides and animal petting and we all had a lovely relaxed day.

The British Museum

The kids did not want to go to the museum because it would be "boring" but sometimes mum knows best and we stay for hours as the kids loved it. Here are their favourites.

Salisbury

A lovely market town we would visit when we just had shop, something we usually despise but with a lovely backdrop like this acting as our spoonful of sugar the medicine went down easily.

Mottisfont Abbey

A perfect visit in June to see the roses.

So there you have it, up to date at last and we are now in London looking forward to the Trooping of the Colour tomorrow before we head off to France on Tuesday and the next stage of our adventure will being.

Castles, Beaches, Whiskey and Snow: A Week in Morayshire

 “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” –  G K Chesterton

A wise lady once said it is better to visit a place where you know something of the history of someone who once lived there so that you can better relate to the place you are visiting. And so instead of turning to the history books I turned again to my mother’s store of family history and chose the area around Forres, Alves and Elgin in Morayshire, where our family once called home. Family history connections really added flavour to our visits to Herefordshire and Ireland, and here again in Scotland.

 

 We selected a National Trust of Scotland cottage, Cormac Lodge, at Brodie Castle as our base as the castle has wonderful grounds and an adventure playground for the kids. Also it makes a perfect base for all the places we wanted to visit as well as those we didn't get around to, such as Culloden, Cawdor Castle and even Aberdeen.  We had no expectations of what we would do here other than having a lovely relaxing week but we found so much to do we were out and about every day.

I must admit lately our enthusiasm level has dropped dramatically brought on by the stress of our tenants at home buying a new home and asking to leave before their lease expires, our inability to find new tenants and the fact we are on the other side of the world and can do nothing about it. With this hanging over us for the past few months I was absolutely dreading this week, preferring the idea of staying “home” in our cottage in Hampshire and doing nothing. I am pleased to say that as the bookings had been made we had to come and we are very, very glad that we did.

Enough of our woes let us move on from Paradise Lost to Paradise found. Morayshire and its neighbouring shires provide a long and varied list of day trips within easy reach. The first day we stayed at Brodie, built cubby houses at the cottage, read books, drew pictures, cooked delicious food at home after a visit to the delightful Brodie Country Fare within an easy walk away, fed ducks, walked in the forest and admired the castle from the outside. After this lovely at home day we were ready to head out over the next five days and discover the highlights of the area.



Aviemore and Cairngorm - SNOW AT LAST!!!! 

Our very first day trip took us out of Morayshire and back into the highlands. After 153 days on the road the kids finally got to play in the snow in the mountains above Aviemore, about an hour’s drive away. We planned to take the funicular to the top of the mountain but a chance comment I made about the kids being able to have a snow ball fight changed our plans.

The young man in the ticket office told us that while we could see snow from the top you are not allowed out onto the area surrounding the look out at the top of the hill. We were advised to walk halfway up instead and there we would find huge piles of snow.

As we don’t have snow at home in Western Australia we accepted the challenge and headed up the hill. It sounded easy until the wind and a little rain starting hitting us straight in the face. But we eventually made it up to what would be the ski runs in winter and there was the snow.

The kids had thought all their Christmases had come a once and, while lamenting their lack of gloves, they had a ball. Or should I make that a snow ball fight. Wet and freezing we hiked back down the mountain and back to Brodie, well satisfied that we had finally seen snow.

Findhorn

 After the mountains we turned next to the lovely coastline of the Moray Firth . Just down the road is the stunning Findhorn Bay, and after a very healthy and tasty lunch at the Bakehouse we spent a lazy afternoon strolling through the Findhorn Ecovillage.

It was a very special place to visit even for a short time. The community has been created around an ethos of sustainability and spirituality and if I had the opportunity to attend a workshop here I'm not sure I'd ever want to leave.

We had planned to visit a huge sand dune somewhere nearby mentioned enthusiastically in the visitors book in cottage, but without internet we weren’t able to find it. While I’m sure we could have asked we have prioritised healthy home cooked food this week and the kids are more than willing to play at home and so home we went.

 

Brodie Castle

We took advantage of our free pass to Brodie Castle that came with our holiday cottage. Even without the pass Brodie is a jewel in Morayshire's crown. About two hundred and sixty odd years ago a Brodie of Brodie castle acted as Sponsor at the christening of one of our Gordon ancestors. Having this, somewhat tenuous connection, to the place added interest to our visit to the castle.

Unlike the other castles we have visited over the past five months, we visited the castle accompanied by a guide. Our lovely guide was able to explain who the people in the portraits were, really bringing history alive for us. For example she showed us the coat of arms and motto of the Brodie’s “unite” and then showed us into the dining room where the same crest and motto appear on the hand painted china, except on the two misspelled pieces she pointed out, which read “untie” which gave us a chuckle.

The castle was filled with interesting things, from a creepy skeleton of little person to all the Brodie kids toys and beautiful artworks. Emma even impressed the guide by recognising a portrait of Charles I. I’m so proud of these kids. While we might drive each other crazy at home, with the usual arguments between the kids, and a tendency of the kids to respond “oh no that will be so boring” to every idea we present them, we end up having fun every day and when a guide compliments us on our well behaved children it’s the icing on the cake.

The adventure playgrounds at Brodie Castle is brilliant for kids, but I must also add that all the public playgrounds we have found in Scotland are incredible, with much more that you would expect to find.

The pond next to our cottage is part of the castles grounds and the kids loved visiting the swans with their eight little signets. We wandered off behind the pond with the plan to loose ourselves in the forest and see if we could see any wildlife if we walked quietly. The idea came from a seeing a baby red deer running in a field, but sadly with crashing feet and loud voices we saw no little creatures other than the lovely little birds but had a lovely walk never the less.

Elgin and Lossiemouth

We enjoyed a wander around Elgin, trying to imagine what it looked like when our family had an Inn here many many moons ago. At that time, the early 1700's, the whole town consisted of one street around one hundred metres long and so it was quite hard to picture today. We only drove by the Cathedral but with more time would have like to have a closer look.

We followed the advice of this sign and wandered "doon tae" the Elgin Museum and thorough enjoyed ourselves. Though entry was by donation it was well stocked and very interesting. It had everything from Pictish and Jacobite history, to dinosaur footprints and a mummified princess.

When the kids felt they could cram no more history into their heads we head down to Lossiemouth to visit the beach.

Julian and I walked from the township while Rob and Emma drove and then to get to the beach we all crossed a long foot bridge. It was such a lovely day to be outside, but the wind was still pretty wild.

The kids enjoyed rolling down the sand dunes while Rob and I attempted some yoga and found it much more relaxing to lay in the sun in the least windy spot we could find. 

Huntly and Dufftown
It took a little over an hour to reach Huntly in Aberdeenshire, but the drive was very pretty and the castle was worth the effort.

While the castle is a ruin, large sections of it are intact, such as the kitchens and dungeon, and some areas have been reconstructed or supported so that you can safely visit the upstairs.

 The kids were “freaked out” by the little birds that would suddenly come flying out of the fireplaces, and also by their father who raced up the spiral staircases to yell “who does there” and pretend to shoot arrows down on them.

 

 

We were able to stand in the courtyard outside the castle and locate the original Motte from the timber Norman castle which stood here until the 1400’s.The playground next door was really terrific, it is refreshing to see how local government authorities place value on fun places for children to play.

Dufftown, which is only a short distance away, is considered the malt whiskey capital of the world and so we decided we couldn’t leave the area without a visit to a distillery.

 We chose Glenfiddich not because we are whiskey connoisseurs, but for the simple reason that they let young children on their tours, and even better once we arrived we discovered it is also free.

Apparently this is the maintenance period of the year so the tour was limited to having a look at the stored barrels and then having a sniff to identify what had previously been in the barrels that the whiskey is aged in, sherry or bourbon. It was still very interesting though we would have liked to see the production process.

We were even given a free tasting session of the 12, 15 and 18 year old whiskey, and a very good vintage of orange juice for the kids. Luckily on the way out of Dufftown we finally caught our first glimpse of the iconic Highlands Cows

Goodbye to Scotland

And so after a week that simply flew by we made our way back to Inverness to make the journey back home to Hampshire, via Bristol. As it turns out the weather in the south had not been as pleasant as lovely mild days we had in Scotland which was an added bonus.

Sadly we were not able to fit in a round of golf for Rob, which had planned to indulge in regularly while in the UK and decidedly in Scotland but with only two weeks remaining before we head off on our round Europe adventure we must make sure he fits in at least one game back in Hampshire before we leave.

While in Inverness we received an offer from a lovely family looking to rent our house and so the stress we have experienced over the past couple of months, which has sadly marred this wonderful experience, was instantly evaporated. Now we look forward to enjoying every day we have left to us in England and can head off on the next adventure in a calmer state of mind.