On Thursday morning, we left most of our luggage - and our car - behind at our hotel (we were returning there on Saturday) and caught the train and tube in to central London. It was over 2 miles from our hotel to the train station but we found a nice walkway through the Lea Valley Country Park where many of the aquatic events were held at the London 2012 Olympics:
Our hotel was a novel experience - The Hub by Premier Inn has rooms that are high tech, but, size-wise are little more than a pod. Every square inch is a prisoner. It all seems to work OK, but the downside for whichever of of you is sleeping on the inside is clambering into and out of bed - over your partner.
We walked out in the evening past Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. The latter two are undergoing major repair/refurbishment and are shrouded in scaffolding and cladding. Further along the Embankment, we came across a statue of Rabbie Burns - I had no idea there was one here - nor why.
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a terrific, classic West End theatre and 42nd Street, with its vast cast who tap-danced the whole evening away, was a wonderful spectacle.
On Friday morning we hot-footed it over to the V & A to see the hugely popular Pink Floyd exhibition which was in its last days there. Glad we made it just in time:
We met up with our neighbours, Anne and Leslie Mason, in the evening and headed to Shepherd Market for pre-dinner drinks. The place was buzzing with office workers having a few drinks to start off their weekend. The Intercontinental Hotel was just a short stroll away - we had booked dinner at Theo Randall's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_Randall) restaurant. It was a gourmet 5 course meal that took over 3 hours. Very expensive, but a terrific meal:
On Saturday, it was the Festival of Wine. Jo and I had had a heavy week already and we had to pace ourselves a little wandering round the tables in the main hall, sampling the wines, carefully spitting and tipping to ensure we weren't taking on too much alcohol too soon. The Masterclasses brought some relief, especially as they gave us a chance to sit down for a while. The Noval Port one was really good.
After the festival we went for a spot of dinner before saying our farewells to Anne and Leslie and their friends and then heading for the tube and train back to Cheshunt.
The plan on Sunday was to drive to Chester, but I noted that the route took us fairly close to Corby, where I spent some of my early years - from 1952 to 1959 - so we decided to take the diversion and check out what it was like now. Barry had been there a few years ago and had warned me it wasn't very pretty now - and he was right. I recall when we moved in to Landseer Court our house was No.1 and there were just open fields on one side of us - we were the end of the short cul-de-sac. Some time later they decided to build more houses in the open fields and, as a result, we were no longer at the end, but were now in the middle of a much longer street, and they had to re-number us No. 19:
We went to hunt for the primary school I attended - Hazel Leys - with its adjacent Secondary Modern (as they called them then). All we could find was a Catholic primary school and this:
It doesn't look anywhere big enough to be the Academy it claims to be, and it's way too modern to have been there back in the 50's. We spotted another building across the road which did look old enough, but there was no school sign there.
Eventually, we gave up and headed for Chester to walk the City Walls and check out yet another Cathedral. Some nice pubs there, particularly along the canal bank, where we dined at Artichoke and drank afterwards at the Old Harkers Arms.
The weather forecasters had been warning us about the approaching former hurricane, now storm Ophelia, but it seems only the south of Ireland got the full brunt of it. We did get spooky-looking skies however - dark, brooding and yellow and red at times. Weird.
We took another slight detour on the way back to Banchory and went to see Ross in Edinburgh:
Our time was limited and after a coffee and a bite to eat, we headed off for the new Queensferry Crossing, with quick pit stops at St Cuthbert's Primary, which Lucy and Gary attended:
Slightly further west, we popped in to see our old house at 7 Cherry Tree Loan:
Like Caldecot Way, Cherry Tree Loan was absolutely packed with cars.
Our first time across the new bridge over the Forth, but the angle from the car doesn't really show the full majesty of it:
It got pretty misty as we headed north east and the drive over Cairn o' Mount was particularly tricky - we were in first gear the whole way up. Further frustration when we got to Strachan - the road from there to Banchory was closed, so we had to detour past the Feughside Inn and over to Potarch and back. Boy, was I glad to finally get to Arbor Court.
Here's our route for the week:
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