Preparing for the Journey
Mum and Dad came to stay for about four days to help me with some jobs. Paul and his teenage son Paul are moving in after the sale of their house, so I had a bit of work to do to make it liveable for someone other than me! Dad tidied the shed, and did an absolutely marvellous job. Mum and I maintained that it was good enough to live in, and I think the resident rat really appreciates Dad’s work! Dad also did a little garden tidying. Meanwhile Mum cleaned out all my kitchen cupboards and helped me to pack up the spare room for Tom to move into (the furniture, all crappy second hand stuff, is going into the shed so he can move in his own furniture and feel a little more comfortable). Meanwhile I packed, weighed and packed again, checking my list and checking it twice. I don’t think I forgot anything, although I think I might have packed too much… Oh, well. Why be a martyr?
In the meantime, I was also busy having last coffees with dear friends and catching up with people. I celebrated my 40th birthday on 22 July and had a lovely dinner at Glendalough Estate, a new gourmet pizza place in Armagh, just out of Clare. It was such a pleasant evening, and I felt much loved by my dear family and friends. Sunday morning was my commissioning service and Alan and Geoff from SIM in South Australia came to support me. Tuesday was “hot chip nacho” night with some of the crazy kids I teach with. If you’ve never tried melted cheese on top of hot chips, then topped off with salsa, sour cream and avocado, well, you just haven’t lived! Genius idea, Emilie! That was followed by Toblerone fondue into which we may have dipped Mint Slice biscuits…
I finally wrapped up everything at school, including handing over the International programme (at its busiest time of the year) to Melissa and Rachelle, who will do a fantastic job. I may even let them keep doing it next year!
It was quite frantic at times, and I really did wonder how it would all get done. However, as my dear friend Carolyn reminded me when she sent me an SMS with Isaiah 40:28-31, “…those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagle; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
So finally it was all done. I am exhausted, but starting to relax enough to enjoy the journey, and not just feel a little panicked!
Czech Republic – Prague
We arrived in Prague a little tired and grumpy – two and a half days travelling takes its toll! We didn’t like having to skim through so much country without a break, but it was the price we had to pay for having taken the side trip to Croatia. We hadn’t booked accommodation in Prague, deciding to make use of the tourist accommodation services instead. As it turned out, we didn’t get that far. We were met off the train by a number of people ‘encouraging’ visitors to stay at their hotel/hostel. After speaking to a couple, we decided on a hotel right on the edge of the old town, a little more expensive than we had planned, but an excellent location, and the breakfasts… oh, the breakfasts – they kept us going all day – you have never seen so much food!
After checking in we decided to get our bearings and go for a stroll through the old town. The first port of call, as always, was somewhere selling a map. Prague was crowded with tourists – like every other place we have been so far, the price for travelling in the summer peak period. However the winding streets and beautiful architecture were still interesting. We found a lovely restaurant for tea, and collapsed in our room at about 10.30pm.
We decided to get a relatively early start and try to see something of the old town before the crowds decended at about 10am (which appears to be the magic time for tourists, particularly day trippers on coaches). At 11 am we joined a walking tour we decided to do. We found the brochure in our hotel, and the walks sounded really interesting. We chose a 3 hour walk that took in the main features of the old town. They advertised that they took only small groups, and we were pleased to discover that this was accurate. Our group had only 8 people in it: ourselves, plus two other Australians (Shaun from Sydney, and a Perth girl who had been working in Melbourne, managing a chain of Witchery stores), and four English tourists (three students and an elderly woman ‘addicted to travel’). Our guide, George, was really interesting and a lot of fun. It turned out that his English teacher had been an Australian man, who was also a musician and had played in a band which was a side project of Rob Hirst, a member of Midnight Oil. As a result, George had become a huge Midnight Oil fan, and had attended their last ever concert! We got along really well together, and most of us ended up having a very late lunch together.
When Jan and I left the group, we made our way to the train station to book our tickets to Krakow in Poland. This done, we did some last minute shopping (I allowed myself a wooden marionnette puppet of a bird) then had tea (I had a lovely grilled whole trout – and managed to remember how to eat it without getting any bones, thanks to my training at Lucindale Area School, which has an aquaculture department!).
On our last morning, I rose early to try to get some photos of the Charles Bridge and the old town without any tourists in it. Of course, at least another 30 tourists had the same idea, and I didn’t quite manage as many photos as I would have liked. Our train didn’t leave until 11am so we had a leisurely breakfast (did I mention how good those breakfasts were?) then stopped at the post ffice on the way to try to send a package of things I had bought to my mum and dad. Unfortunately their computer system was having problems, so I still have the parcel with me – will try to send it tomorrow from Krakow!
End of Term Holiday
I apologise that my blog is not yet up to date! Special apologies to Olwen who is still waiting with baited breath for my account of the performance of Jamie Bamber in Dr Faustus (or perhaps she has given up on me…). Rest assured I will get up to date with that and other things such as my visit to Crufts Dog Show, a visit to the Tower of London, my Easter day trips to Blenheim Palace and Dover Castle, my first taste of an English nightclub: The Pink Toothbrush (!?) in Raleigh, and my most recent visit to the theatre to see Kevin Spacey and Mary Stuart Masterson in National Anthems.
But for now you will have to be patient with me! I leave this afternoon for my two-week holiday to Ireland. I am driving to Holyhead today and catch the ferry to Dublin tomorrow morning. I will spend a couple of days in Dublin, a day in Mountmellick, two days in Galway and then will spend a day visiting St Joseph’s Secondary School in Spanish Point, Clare, which is my school’s (Clare High School) sister school. From there I will drive to Kilarney to join my Peregrine walking tour through the Ring of Kerry. It does look like I will get to use the waterproof pants which were in the ‘Very Important’ part of the recommended gear list! Oh joy!
I promise all will be updated soon after my return!
Half Term: Hay-on-Wye to Chester (25 February)
After another quick wander around the town, mainly in search of a postcard to send Jill, the librarian at my school in Australia, I began the leg of my journey to Chester. However before I could get away I had to wait for no less than 40 minutes while the woman parked behind me to come back from what ever took her so long and move her car! I had parked across the road from my B&B in a small parking area beneath the town clock. Parking is clearly at a premium as it seems to be everywhere in the UK, and no one apparently thinks anything of blocking in others as they would be ‘just a minute!’ Hmmm… Good thing I wasn’t in a hurry and was in the mood to be patient and gracious!
I began my journey north, and enjoyed wandering slowly along the twisty ‘B’ roads. The sweetest thing I cam across was a little rickety wooden toll bridge! It cost me the princely sum of 50p, collected by a little old man, for the privilege of having just crossed his bridge – a little cheaper than the Dartford Crossing!
As I was driving along I came across a sign advertising a nearby castle managed by English Heritage. Not holding our much hope that it would be open in February, I turned off and made my way to the car park. To my pleasant surprise it was opened and I made the first use of my English Heritage membership to get in for free. Stokesay Castle was very small and virtually ruined, but enough of the interior woodwork remained to make it really interested. It was snowing lightly which made it pretty cold (enough of the numb ears for heaven’s sake!). The nearby church was open and I quite enjoyed wandering through it.
I arrived in Chester late in the afternoon and again made my way to the tourist information centre to find a map. Chester was the hardest of the places I visited to navigate, but I found my way to my guesthouse eventually. I hadn’t really planned to see much of Chester as I was really only here so I could pop up to Liverpool on the train the next morning so I could see a performance of Dr Faustus at the Liverpool Playhouse.
Half Term: Bath to Hay-on-Wye (24 February)
I didn’t leave Bath straight away the following morning, because there was one thing more I wanted to do. I had found out that there was an exhibition of the art of E.H. Shepard, who did the original illustrations of Winnie-the-Pooh! I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition, particularly the ways in which he illustrated his personal correspondence. His drawings were just beautiful!
I left Bath late in the morning and headed towards Wales. Hay-on-Wye is in England, but is very close to the Welsh border, and the most direct and interesting route was through the Black Mountains. This town had attracted my attention because it is full of second-hand bookshops! Richard Booth, who proclaimed himself ‘King of Hay’ and is the owner of Hay Castle, set up the first bookshop in 1961. He claims it is the largest second-hand bookshop in the world. Now there are over 30 bookshops, plus a few antique and craft shops. I really enjoyed wandering through the winding streets, but didn’t buy anything as I had well and truly blown my book-buying budget in Bath at the Jane Austen Centre!
I stayed in a really comfortable and beautifully decorated B&B called Clifton House with very welcoming owners. It was situated in the centre of town right near the clock tower that let me know what time it was every 15 minutes… all through the night!