2025 May - Europe

Time is counting down as we fly over to the UK/Brittany on May 6th and we need to make sure that our mobile home is ready for storage with fresh food depleted, the fridge emptied, washing done, clothes sorted and Heidi ready for 7 weeks alone, in the open, at Weedons NZMCA Park.

Preparing to store Heidi and take off!

May 1st - It was raining all day again today and there was a lot of flooding around Christchurch with Akaroa being cut off so we stayed another night on the hard surface car park at New World catching up with indoor things and only really venturing out to the Laundromat, Hairdresser and for a First Table dinner at Saigon Sister all practically next door and all very good. The next day we had a lovely lunch with our friends Helen & Bill after picking up our old flatmate, Sandy, so she could join us. That night we accidentally ended up at the Papanui Club, which isn't in our NZMCA directory, instead of the RSA which we had planned but it was no problem and we were made to feel welcome.  As an aside it was free to stay here whereas we would have paid $30 at the RSA. The Papanui Club rooms are new and huge, the original building having been damaged in the earthquake, and it was buzzing. We were being picked up by Helen & Bill to go to see Ben Elton ($100 each) so we had a nice meal earlier at the club being surprised to be tapped on the shoulder by Lukas, a Rotary friend, who used to live in Whakatane but now lives in Christchurch - it's a small world and it was good to have a catch-up. I think Len enjoyed Ben Elton more than me - I found the first half funny but for me he could have stopped there as the second half seemed to go on and on and I found it hard to stay in the moment.

The big wash!

Over the weekend we did things like getting Heidi washed at CleanCo Truck Wash which left us $158 poorer but it was worth it, defrosting the fridge, boxing contents from the fridge for Helen & Bill, cleaning and packing. It was a relief to finally get Heidi parked in the storage end of the Park, be kindly picked up by H&B so we could stay at their house for the night and be delivered to the airport on Monday morning to catch our Singapore Airlines Flight to Manchester. Thank you H&B!

We chose our return flights to allow for 6 Hours in Changi Transit Hotel. Trish had a flare-up of COPD/Asthma/Cough on the plane, so started antibiotics and prednisone, as very breathless.

Catching up with UK Family

P,T,F&L in Penrith

Four nights at Fayes in Penrith, then we picked up a rental car in Carlisle and headed to St. Bees.

 

Jude

Isla, Tracy & Kaitlin

Four nights with Joan & Norman. Len met Kaitlin's son, Jude; his fifth great grandchild. Caught up with Elaine & John. Sunday Roast at Shepherds Arms with Joan & Norman. Walk around Loweswater and a little lunch in the very old, character-filled Kirkstile Inn, dinner with Mark & Family in Wetherspoons, walk around Buttermere.

Off to France

2 nights back at Faye & Pauls, then train from Penrith to Euston, London, tube to Victoria, train to Gatwick to fly to Rennes, Brittany. 2 Buses to get to Dinard for Home Exchange stay for 10 nights. Could use credit card on the bus from the airport but needed cash for local buses. Arrived at about 8.30pm and met by host's friend, Regine. No Wifi!! Perfect apartment up in the roof space right in the village and a few metres from the beach and fabulous coastal path - so scenic with blue sea, yachts, boats, little islands and lots of people. People swimming but water temp only 14 degrees. Watched Eurovision one night, hoping that the French girl, Louanne, would win but unfortunately it wasn't to be. 

View from appartment

There was a huge market just down the road - a nice egg plant dish from there for dinner with some huge pasta  thrown in by the vendor. With easy access to the GR34  trail we did walks to St Lunaire - 2.5 hrs with photo stops (bus back), St Malo (12 km and approx 3.5 hours having lots of steps  towards end) quirky Pubs, caught Red Ferry to St Malo also, hopped on the little scenic train through the walled city, walked around ramparts. 

Dinan Port

Dinard to St. Lunaire

Hired bikes to ride to Dinan, getting slightly lost a couple of times. Stopped in Pleurtuit for almond croissants after having difficulty finding a coffee shop. Lunch of galettes on the edge of the river at the port, below Dinan. Walked to top of Rue du Jerzual - pretty steep but so much character to admire in all the very old buildings. 

What goes down....

Bussed to Dinan next day so we would have more time there for exploring - visited the Castle, the Garden of The Little Devils, went on Le Petit Train through the city and enjoyed eating especially the the delicious croissants au almonds from our local patisserie and the ready made dinners at our local boulangerie, both a few steps away.

After catching the bus to St Lunaire we did the oh so picturesque walk along the coast to St Briac where we had the most superb vegetarian pizza with aubergine, artichoke etc at the lovely Restaurant Tchanquetas being served by a delightful waiter. Best pizza ever, rivalling one we had in France years and years ago. Did many walks around Dinard and found our evening drinks in our local bar, Le Skipper, interesting -  must have been a gay bar as many of the males were very "touchy-feely".

After 10 glorious days we had to catch 2 buses back to Rennes, which is just a small airport, to fly back to London. It was rather sad to leave.

London for a short interlude

We had a couple of nights in London as I was looking forward to catching up with my grandson, Jack, but sadly it ended up being just an Instagram chat as Jack was pretty sick with a flu, fever and cough and we thought meeting up would be a bit risky. The apartment we stayed in was a bit of a shock at first as we had to walk down narrow, steep outside steps to get into the basement where there were 3 tiny apartments. We had no windows, just a skylight and it seemed smaller than Heidi. However it was new and clean and had everything we needed apart from some space.

Ghostly spectres

The next day we walked to Madame Tussauds which was amazing and I loved it - so much better than I expected. We would have spent a couple of hours there. They now have a Taxi Cab tour called The Spirit of London taking you through life in London from the 1600's to the present day. Afterwards we had a delicious lunch in a cafe on the way to the British Museum where we spent another 2-3 hours - it was hard to pull Len away from their Egyptian section to see other exhibits! 

Taking ET home

So many treasures in one place!

After getting back to our "mousehole" we had a beer and pizzas at The Smugglers Inn, 2 doors away, quietly trying to give clues to the young people at our table who had entered the Pub Quiz and didn't seem to know much.

Back up North

Wednesday the 28th May we travelled back up to Faye & Pauls in Penrith where we blobbed out for a few days, watched The Salt Path movie at Rehged, walked up the big hill to the Beacon plus a few more local walks and enjoyed just being with Len's family and sitting in the garden on sunny days.

J,L,F,T&L in Penrith