From Norwich our journey continues to Halstead, a small market town in North Essex, close to the town of Colchester. This is the last place that we lived before coming to the United States. We visit our old house, which is currently rented out, and our neighbour Marjorie who is now in her 80s but is unfortunately suffering from failing eye sight but her mind is still very sharp. It is a little strange to be back in town but it is great to see everyone again. We stay with our friends Gael and Ian Harvey and their children Helen and Heather. We have been so lucky, everyone we have stayed with have been the perfect hosts, and the Harvey’s are no different. They had even organised to throw a party whilst we were there. The party had a tropical island theme and Ian just loves throwing a party and it is probably fair to say he throws his whole weight behind them. When we arrived and Mark opened refrigerator to put in the beer we had bought to chill he was most surprised to see a piglet starring back at him. It wasn’t really st
arring as it was most definitely not of this mortal coil and had certainly ceased to be. Not wanting to break into spontaneous Monty Python but the scene was somewhat “Pythonesque”. To complete the imagery Ian had bought about ½ ton of sand to recreate a beach and a blue plastic backdrop sheet to represent the sea. We were lucky to have a break in the weather, the rain stayed away and it was quite pleasantly warm. All the guests threw themselves fully into spirit of the party wearing leis and Hawaiian shirts. Of course we drank too much, and in the morning a number of us were a little worst for wear.
From Halstead we travel east to Leighton Buzzard to stay with Mark’s parents for a few days before they head off on holiday. Before they left we went out to a local Thai restaurant for a most wonderful meal. Laura loves her food and loves oriental food so she was really in her element in the restaurant. Jack has started to be more adventurous with the more exotic foods and tried everything that was put in front of him and really loved it. It was really nice to spend sometime together as a family before we headed off in our different directions.When Karen takes Laura back to Eastbourne, Mark decided to take Jack and Emily down into London. Like many place we have visited on this trip the children have visited before, but because they were so young it is difficult for them to remember anything about it. The aim was to pack as much site seeing in as possible. Unfortunately the weather was not very good once again. We took a train into London from Mark’s parent’s house and the caught the
Underground to the Tower of London. When he was young Mark lived in this area just a block or two away from the Tower itself, he often used to play there and had some school friends whose fathers were Beefeaters and lived inside the Tower in the residential quarters. Jack and Emily were very impressed with the Tower and its next door neighbour the wonderfully ornate Tower Bridge. Dodging the showers we walked around the Tower along the embankment of the Thames to catch a tour boat down to the Houses of Parliament. Despite the rain we decided to sit on the open top of the boat – and not surprisingly we had plenty of room as most other people chose the cramped, covered interior. The journey west down the Thames takes us past several modern and ancient landmarks, under bridges and through time. The commentary along the way helps to put in place each landmark and its place in history – and although this is a short mile or two journey there is plenty to see on the way. We depart the boat by the Houses of Parliament in the shadow of Big Ben. Mark remembers in his youth this used to tower into the sky, nowadays it seems so much smaller. Guess this is a function of growing taller and travelling far and wide. We decide to carry on walking and start travelling up Whitehall, which takes us past many Government buildings and Downing Street where the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer live. At the top of Whitehall is Trafalgar Square with its famous lions guarding the lofty column on which stands the statue of Britain’s most famous naval commander Admiral Lord Nelson. Also at the top of Whitehall is the barracks of the Life Guards, the senior regiment in the British Army and who along with the Blues and Royals Regiment makes up the illustrious Household Cavalry. Outside of the gateway to the barracks are two guard houses complete with two members of the Household Cavalry in full uniform and mounted. There is a long line of people waiting to have their photograph taken so we join to wait our turn along with all the other tourists. Jack thinks it is above him to pose for such a photograph but Emily has not such qualms and stands
there patiently. At Trafalgar Square we turn down the road known as the Mall, passing underneath the imposing Admiralty Arch. This road leads passed all the Royal Palaces and at its far end is the statue of Queen Victoria and behind that Buckingham Palace. At this point we had been walking around for quite some time so were in need of finding a restroom. To one side of the Mall is St James Park, once the hunting grounds of the Royals but now demoted to common parkland and hopefully a place to find a toilet block. St James Park is busy on this Saturday despite the inclement weather, throngs of tourists huddle around the numerous cafes in the park in search of warmth and hot drinks. Through out our travels in recent months we had come across many expected things and none more so than finding a white pelican sitting on a park bench in St James Park. We have seen many pelicans in the wild but this was an out of context experience so we at first thought that this bird was fake, but no, it was a genuine live and kicking pelican. Warily Jack approached the pelican, after all they are very large birds, but it obviously was used to hum an company and managed to get right up next to it and even touch it. Totally amazing – but possibly not politically correct! Anyway we fired off a couple of photographs and moved on. When we reach Buckingham Palace there is a lot of activity going on outside. When Mark and Karen last visited London a little over a year before it had been one of the Queen’s birthdays (she has an official birthday and real one) and the streets had been p
acked around the Palace. We were on a bit of a tight schedule that day so did bother hanging around to see the Royal party leave to go up to the parade grounds to be the guests of honour at the Trooping of the Colour. Apart from such occasions the area outside Buckingham Palace (except for the traffic around the Queen Victoria Memorial) is a place of relative calm. Today was different there were big crowds and a lot of police presence. We didn’t have too long to find out why because after a few minutes the gates of the Palace opened up and a band struck up inside. Two columns of guards’ band appeared and marched out into the streets and down the roads surrounding the Palace. We never did find out what the occasion was! After all this excitement was over we decided to set off home as we were cold, wet and tired from walking. From Mark’s parents house we head down to Reading to meet up with our friends Paul and Jo Mackenzie and their not so new little daughter Rebecca. Mark used to work with Paul many moons ago. Paul and Jo had also invited some other friends Graeme and Sarah who we had not seen for ages. It was lovely to get together and because we hadn’t met for such a long time there was so much to catch up on. After a lovely afternoon just chatting we had to leave for High
Wycombe where we were staying with our friends the Elliots.
There is only a day before we travel back to the United States. It has been lovely to stay with the Elliots, they are lovely people and very welcoming. We have been able to relax before the next phase of our travelling. One nice thing we did was to visit Marlow and meet up with some friends who were the cohorts of Jack – Julia and Jane were mothers in the same ante-natal group as Karen. Their children are all grown up and it was nice to meet up again after many years. A wonderful end to our 6 week trip back to the UK!
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