Camper Van and Bike Journey

So, did a bit more work on the van over the weekend. Not as much as I would have liked, but more progress was made nevertheless.

On Sunday Dad and I went on a 35 mile bike ride in training for "the big one." Afterwards Erica took some rather fetching photo's of us in our MS t-shirts that we got and also our highly fashionalble illuminous jackets...

We have set up two web-sites for the journey so that we can get sponsored...

http://www.justgiving.com/996_miles_north_each

http://www.justgiving.com/996_miles_north_ms

Camper Van Update...

So, over the weekend I spent most of Saturday building a frame. Hopefully, next week I will finish this and then start to build the outer ply shell to go over the top. This will then make it look a lot more complete! By the end of the Saturday, my "dado joints" were pretty awesome if I do say so myself!

Once the carpet has been laid over the rear and down up to the checkered floor, this will hide all of the metal work and also the wires making it look a lot tidier and neater.

There's obvioulsy still a bit needed left to do. I need to cover the wall panels in the same material as the front, and get on with (or Becky can get on with!) sewing the cushion covers!

Watch this space!

That is all for now.

X

London, York, Manchester and Cambridge

So, the very late update from our week tour around the country! I hope I’m not this bad at updating it whilst I’m actually away.

Before we went to York on the Monday, I met Beck and Jack in London on the Friday for a day out. They got the train down to Kings Cross and from here we went to Madame Tussauds. I hadn't been here since I was really young, so thought it would be pretty cool. The price to get in for an adult was £25 which to look at someone made out of wax is pretty extortionate...I don't know if I’d pay £25 to see the real person. Anyway, I got buy-one-get-one-free vouchers with the train tickets, so that made it more bearable. Anyway, the whole Madame Tussauds experience I found was quite strange and still can't really get my head around the whole idea and why it attracts so many people. We had to queue for a good 45mins before we got tickets and then when we got in I felt like a battery caged chicken. Admittedly the wax models are very good and do look realistic, so it was good. There were some very tacky rides and shows inside which were very random. I don't think my review of the place is actually sounding very positive, I did enjoy myself honest! Anyway, here's a picture of Winston Churchill....

After this I said, "we could go to London Zoo if you like" Beck and Jack said "Yeah, OK" I said "we could walk through St. James's Park, it can't be too far" they said "Yeah, OK"....so about an hour later we found London Zoo, then about half an hour later we walked around the perimeter of the park and found the entrance! I think that I can take responsibility for the zig zag approach to London Zoo. So I think we got there at about 3pm and it shuts at 4pm so we decided against paying to go in for an hour when we saw a lot of the animals from the other side of the fence.

We then headed to get the tube and went through Camden Town. Went for a bit of a stroll around the market and after being offerred some crack we got on the Underground.

Off to Hamley's we went and I think we can all say that this place is awesome! Only Hamley’s has a 15 foot giraffe cuddly toy for sale for a mere £3,500...however it was reduced to £1,500...personally I think that is what you call a bargain! We spent a very long time here then after buying a Magic Set and some 21st Century Yo-Yo's we left to go stroll around Carnaby Street to see some of the really cool Christmas Decoration. They had massive paper link chains hanging from one side of a building to the other.

That was pretty much the London activities for the day.

Onto York....

We left on the Monday as we had Monday and Tuesday night in York. On Monday night we drove into York as we were a few miles out and strolled around, went to see the Minster and got a bite to eat. We turned in for an early night as we knew that Tuesday would be a busy day. On the Tuesday, we went to the Jorvik centre which although going there just over a year ago was still really interesting. The reason that they found all the history there was because the bank over the road wanted a vault and the digger people (or Archaeologists) said "can we do it for you" and found all the bones, remains of houses and tools that they used. After the Jorvik Centre we strolled around York. We found that a Ghost Walk would be going in the evening so had some food in the most haunted pub in England, the Golden Fleece then after this went on the Ghost Walk. It was all good fun. Just at the end the heavens opened and began to sleet. It was a quick dash back to the car, so with soggy trouser bottoms headed back to the Travelodge. IT is at this point that I realise I have no photo's of York, so you will have to take my word for it that I did actually go there.

Manchester...

We got there too early too book into the hotel, so parked the car up in an NCP then decided to go for a quick look around Manchester. Everything is pretty central and for such a big city it was really easy to get around. We headed to the Tourist Information Centre to see what was happening whilst we were there which was next to the Town Hall.

There was an exhibition on the Hacienda night club that was featured in 24 hour party people so decided that we would go and check it out at some point. After some general strolling about, having a look around a church behind the Millennium Wheel, having a coffee and shopping we checked ourselves in to the hotel to freshen up before dinner. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for some food which was all good...

On Thursday, Jack and I had a tour round Old Trafford booked which was pretty cool. It lasted over an hour. We started in the Stadium, then went to the conference room, the executive suites, the changing rooms, to players lounge, the tunnel etc. It was pretty good stuff even if I don't support Manchester Utd. After the tour we had tickets to see the museum which had all the trophies in them also. It was pretty interesting. It also had an exhibition on about the Munich Air disaster as the 50th anniversary was infact the other day. I think the average age of a player back then was really young at about 21 or something so it was a massive disaster.

After Old Trafford, there was an Imperial War Museum over the road, so we went to check that out. It was a really cool looking building, designed by a Jewish American born in Poland (random!) the idea was to get the globe, cut it up into segments and use these segments in a certain way, and that each piece would represent the War from land, air and sea. It was pretty impressive. Another very impressive thing about it was that it was free! Bonus!

Then we got inside, we grabbed a quick bite to eat, then looked to see what this place had in it. There was a brief tour of the place, so we went to go on that. We ended up being the only two people on it, but it was pretty interesting finding out a bit more about the structure and the exhibitions inside. The floor is on a slope to represent the curvature of the earth...it's all very "arty!" The walls are big and blank, however on the hour, they project pictures onto every wall so it is a 360 degrees show and play clips of people talking about the war and it is really impressive.

Around the wall inside the museum it was a timeline thing with pods along the way with more inside these things. It started with WW1, then After the War, then WW2, then from memory things like media in the war, women’s roles in the war, technology, and the modern day. It's crazy how much things have changed in the past 40 or so years relating to wars.

I really like the posters that they had during the wars and all the art stuff within one of the pods. Here's a couple that I particularly liked...

After looking at everything inside, there is a lift that goes up about half way up the tallest part of the building and then there is a walkway which at one end has a viewing platform over Manchester. It is very impressive, unfortunately it was getting dark and was a bit of a "grim ol' day." If you look very carefully you can see the platform going across inside the below picture...

We pretty much ran out of time on the last day, and didn't have time to check out the Hacienda exhibition. When we got there it was pretty much shut so only had about 5 mins inside there. We got up early and went there before we began our drive to Cambridge. As well as the Hacienda Exhibition there was also an Art Exhibition on with a theme of Advertising. It was actually better than the Hacienda one. Here are some of my favorites...

After this we headed downstairs to the Hacienda exhibition....

Cambridge...

We left Manchester at about midday and went to Cambridge via the Peak District. I remember when Becky and I had a week off in August we drove through here and it was awesome, so thought it would be better than sitting on the M6 and various other boring roads towards Cambridge. We stopped off for lunch in the Cat and Fiddle which when we got in the car park, it began to snow! It was pretty cool especially for the Aussies to see the snow. By the time we left, the snow had settled enough for a bit of childish graffiti and some snow fight action!

When we got to Cambridge, it was pretty late, so had some grub then a bit of an early night. We got up early the next day to get the park and ride onto Cambridge. It was a pretty chilly day, but the sky was very clear and blue so we decided to go for a punt. It was awesome. On the punt ride, you see so many of the colleges and other buildings along with all the bridges, it is really nice. It's so peaceful and very relaxing just sitting on the punt whilst you go up and down the river.

That’s pretty much it folks...

Bye for now.

X