Doing it NOW Chris and Yogi out seeing the best bits of the world while they still can....Doing it NOW

Well we finally arrived on the 16th June in Runcorn, my old home in England, we were met at the train station by Lesley my cousin and Tony her husband, we haven't seen them since they came out to OZ for a holiday a few years ago. They took us to my Auntie Jennifer's home where we would be staying. It was really great seeing family again after so many years, we last stayed with Jennifer 26 yrs ago!!! and she hasn't changed a bit, and the house is as lovely as ever, very English country style, Chris and I just love it.

I got up early the next day and went for a long walk through the nearby forest and up the big hill in the village where she lives, you can see for miles over all the countryside where I once lived, this bought back a few memories. The path through the village passes an old church with gravestones dated in the 1600's and an old pub, the Ring o' Bells, that started life as an inn in the 1500's all so very quaint and just unbelievable.

We spent time later in the day at the local markets and then set off for a English pub dinner at the Bulls Head and a pre-dinner drink at the Ring o' Bells, this is great it's all just up the road. When we were at the Ring o' Bells we were chatting with the couple on the next table, it turns out that he knew my dad and used to work with him over 40yrs ago!!!! absolutely amazing.

Friday 18th June and off to Stratford upon Avon, birthplace of Shakespeare, in Tony and Lesley's new motor-home with their best friends Graham and Yvonne tagging along in their motor-home. We had a great couple of days sightseeing. Tony and Lesley stayed with their friends in their motor-homes at a fantastic camp site but they arranged for us to stay in a hotel in the town, very very nice; we were very spoiled. We took a water taxi along the river from the camp site to the town, the river was full of swans and hundreds of ducks. The town has a canal system that joins the river so there are lots of narrow boats that people live in and cruise the rivers and canals. Some of these boats are brightly painted and all the brass bits are polished, absolutely lovely to see.

We visited Shakespeare's house, Anne Hathaway's cottage and all the surrounding tourist spots, we enjoyed nice food, all the girls loved the shopping and all the boys the good beers. England is really great for touring, places are really close and can be reached after a few hours drive on a freeway.

We spent the second night in Stratford having a ripper of a BBQ at their camp site, a big table, 2 BBQ's, loads of fresh food bought at the markets earlier that day and of course too many drinks. Absolutely great company; it was one of the best times so far on our holiday, Chris has not laughed so much for a long time, big thanks to Lesley, Tony, Graham and Yvonne.

We spent a day in the city of Chester with my Auntie Jennifer, Chester is a lovely place and I love coming here, we caught the train from Frodsham to Chester and wandered around the shops, we decided on a picnic lunch so we bought really nice food from Marks and Spencers, an English shop renowned for its quality, we had lunch down on the banks of the river Dee which runs through the city.
Chester is a very old place and was settled by the Romans 2000yrs ago, there are many ruins including an amphitheater from those times. The medieval times have left Chester with a wall that surrounds the old part of the city, I will explore this another time, today was shopping for Jennifer and Chris who have the same good taste in shops. Later that evening we had a visit from Jennifer's daughter, my cousin Tracey; it was lovely to see her at last, we have been on face-book before but it's not the same as a visit. Tracy bought along some old photo's she took of us when were here 26yrs ago and she was only 11, what a laugh.

Tomorrow we are heading North to the lake district with Tony & Lesley.