John and Kerrie's Brits Job Tour

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John and Kerrie's Brits Job Tour

Live vicariously through John and Kerrie as we travel through Crete and the UK on the Brits Job Tour
(1)

23/08/2023

The final mileage. 6152 miles / 9901km. It's been a wild and fantastic ride with a great crew. Amazingly, we had the exact same mileage as John and Ange, equal highest mileage of the group. If only we had got lost one more time! TBF, John and Ange covered more ground as they shared some rides.

19/08/2023

Ending our trip in London. Evening dining with Ruby and Tyler beside the Thames, at OLD SHIP.

19/08/2023

We said goodbye to the Mickey the Mini today. It had 5,400 miles on it when we picked it up five weeks ago. It was over 11,500 today. Over 6K miles or 10,000 km. We have bonded with the car, but still prefer the MX5

19/08/2023

Lavenham historic village. Half of the old houses are being held up by the other half. Nothing is straight or level.

19/08/2023

Church at Lavenham.
I was surprised to see a New Zealand connection in a stained glass window.

18/08/2023

The Kelpies. These were horses that towed the barges along the canals as the first major bulk transportation mode. This massive sculpture is to honour those horses.
The sculpture is less than 20 years old. It is another field of dreams; build it, and they will come. And come indeed we and zillions of others did. It is well positioned on a canal, with locks between the horses part of the art. Next door is a working canal with boats.

18/08/2023

Battle of Britain. Plotting / Control Room.
I (John) went to Duxford Air Museum. With my usual high level of research, I had no idea that this was an Imperial War Museum and that it covered a lot more than just aircraft.
I was surprised to discover that here was the original "Ops Room" that controlled the British air response during the Battle of Britain. It is not a very large room. It would have had about four women doing the plotting table. A similar number of men (sorry, not trying to be sexist, just reporting how it was) were looking down at the table. They also had incoming comms, and decided what resources to commit to the fight and when. There are indicators showing how many aircraft were ready, or will be ready, or are engaged etc. It struck me that the people in this room may have been among the few who really knew the balance of forces between the two sides on at any time. How to deploy the available RAF forces would have been a heavy responsibility.

18/08/2023

American cemetery, Cambridge, UK.
This is reputably the biggest American War Graves Cemetery outside the USA.
I think that the way that a nation honours its war dead is a good indicator of how healthy that country is. My understanding is that currently, Russia is trying to hide its war dead and does not want to repatriate bodies, let alone pay out the promised compensation to relatives.
Here in Cambridge, it was the epicentre of bombing operations. There would have been a lot of injured and dead airmen coming back from missions over Germany.
There are 3,100+ graves and 5,000+ names on the wall who have no known grave. The manager on site told me that the graves are a fraction of the dead, as 80% (or 60% - can't recall) were repatriated to the USA.
There are three staff on site. Manager, Visitor Center and security.
There is a beautiful chapel/mausoleum.
I was fortunate to be there for the flag-lowering ceremony.

15/08/2023

Treasurers House, York

15/08/2023

This morning we ticked something off our bucket list: a walk around the city walls.

It's a beautiful morning for it. We didn't complete the whole walk as we needed to get on the road. On our way to the Peaks District now.

15/08/2023

Silly sign of the day

Wikipedia says: The street's name was first recorded in 1505 as Whitnourwhatnourgate, and later appears as Whitney Whatneygate. It seems to mean "neither-one-thing-nor-the-other street", although a plaque on the end of the parish hall suggests the meaning "what a street!" In 17th and 18th century documents, the alternative name Salvey Rents or Salvegate is also found.

09/08/2023

9 August/Day 32 of 45. Mey Castle. Photos - Kerrie. Words - John
Today on a whim, we turned into Mey Castle, near John o Groats, top of Scotland.

In the car park, we hummed and hawed over whether we wanted to spend the time or the money to visit the Castle and gardens. Eventually we decided to go in.

Imagine our surprise to learn that King Charles had been in residence for the last 1.5 weeks. He vacated yesterday. That was handy because the castle is closed to visitors when the King is around.
Down at the end of the road at John o Groats, the barmaid told us that Charles always goes to their highland games event. Last weekend they wondered if he would still turn up now that he is King. Yes, he did, with security holding an umbrella for him to protect against the rain. He also opened a local distillery.
The Royal family has a long history of enjoying summer in Scotland. Indeed, the Britannia would be moored offshore from Castle Mey. Some of the family would come ashore during the day, then retire to the ship at night.

Castle Mey is a modest, compact size. It is way smaller than many that we have visited. It was the personal property of the Queen Mother. In 1952, she was holidaying in the area and heard of this castle being for sale. She fell in love with the ultimate in fixer-uppers. She went back to London and consulted with Winston Churchill about the merits of purchasing the run-down castle. Churchill was pretty biased as he was already donkey-deep in saving and restoring Blenheim Palace castle, where he was born. The vendor of Mey Castle, in recognition of the huge amount of restoration work required, sold the property for 100 pounds. Three short years later, it was fixed up enough to move in.
We enjoyed our visit. The walled garden is the best that we have seen so far. It is more remarkable because it flourishes when outside, the landscape is pretty barren and windswept. The whole garden is working and tended well. We noticed that despite the huge walls surrounding the garden, internal hedges also play a crucial part in mitigating the strong winds. Kerrie remarked on how strong the scent was in the internal rose garden.
We were thrilled to have been so close on the heels of King Charles. It was also interesting to hear of his humble involvement in the local community. When thousands of English flee the UK to holiday in Spain, Portugal and Mediterranean countries, it is great to see the Royals still heading to Scotland for the summer, which today hit the heatwave high of 14 degrees Celsius after a chilly low of 10C

09/08/2023

(Kerrie) Lovely drive this morning. We our left Dornoch accommodation around 9am, heading for John O Groats. Then the fun started.

04/08/2023

Our last dinner at the Bower House in the Lakelands. A lovely sunny day today hitting a heat wave high of 20 deg. Tonight, we are dining together on front of the mid-summer fire. I had 4 layers on outside but now only three. First outing for the thermal top 🥶

03/08/2023

At dinner tonight I can see sheep grazing outside. Nice.

03/08/2023

Red squirrels: They're a Thing here. Haven't seen any yet. But I guess if Beatrix Potter has created a character - Squirrel Nutkin - they are probably cute.

I think grey squirrels are cute too. Shouldn't they have rights, too?
(Kerrie)

03/08/2023

Today we we saw some lovely countryside, went through some Roman passes, Beatrix Potter's house, and other odd things along the way. (Kerrie)

03/08/2023

Staying at this lovely inn in the Lakes District for three nights. Nice day today, but still a little chilly to sit outside for long. (Kerrie)

30/07/2023

Stopped here for lunch on the way to Dublin.

29/07/2023

We have stayed in a couple of old hotels. This one is just over 500 years old. The stairs, halls and low beams are a common issue of randomness that adds a lot to the character. This was one of our best hotels so far. Hopefully, this short video tour will give you some insights.

29/07/2023

July 27. Jaunting in Killarney with Lewis. I (John) have had a low opinion of horse and carriage rides, but this changed with this experience. Lewis is a hilarious 16 year old, 6th generation Jaunter. In the off-season, he trades and breaks horses. He also does show jumping and training rides for racing stables.

29/07/2023

July 28. Desmond Hall. We made a short stop to view this. It has an unfortunate history as barracks for the irregular British Auxiliaries in the 1920s Independence War. The British burned the center of Cork as retribution for the killing of some of their troops.
Today, the site only has a few buildings remaining. It is well presented and has undergone some restoration work, with funding assistance from the EU. It is staffed and free to visit.

29/07/2023

July 29. Galway Walking Tour. Brian was our host and gave a knowledgeable and entertaining tour. We started at the University before going through the cathedral. We then followed the river before venturing into some of the older streets. We appreciated the experience and the insights. The weather continues to be consistent.

29/07/2023

July 28 Cliffs of Mohar 700ft high. Pictures- Kerrie. Words - John. Mohar was supposed to be today's Big Thing. However, the northern summer weather is less than cooperative. First, the boat trip highlight was cancelled, thankfully, looking at the sea state. Check out the close-up pictures of waves breaking on the shore. We later discovered that although several other couples made the journey out to Mohar, they did not go further than the car park. We were the only team to get to the Cliffs. Mind you, there was a freezing wind blowing. Also, we were later than the others, so we missed a lot of the torrential rain. The vigorous weather adds an edge to the experience and makes you appreciate the environment more. The infrastructure is very classy. All the visitor buildings are underground. A street market is also bunkered and resembles Hobbiton. It is all of a high standard. On the coast, there is a continuous wall of slate rock about 1.2m high to discourage people from venturing too close to the edge. There are one million + visitors each year. The operators have certainly made the most out of it.

28/07/2023

Rocks of the day.

28/07/2023

Today we visited the 700ft high Cliffs of Mohar. John said he was going to get some fresh air and that he may be some time!

28/07/2023

(Photos and awful poetry by Kerrie)

In honour of our journey today through Limerick on our way to Galway, via the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare.

So… We stopped for lunch at Adare;
T'was the castles that beckoned us there.
But the pub meals were large,
And we now need a barge,
To carry our arses to Clare.

26/07/2023

July 26. John. Today we moved from Wales to Killarney, Ireland. It was the earliest start for this tour/convoy, and everyone executed it immaculately. However, it was a long day with an early start and about 320km/6 hours drive after the ferry arrived at midday. We elected to go on a direct route.
However, we did have issues. Coming out of a roundabout, Kerrie was confidently overtaking cars in the slow lane, when I mentioned "oncoming traffic" After a brief panic that we were on a two lane highway instead of a divided four lane highway, we moved to our place on the left lane. Later I was driving and may have lost concentration and drifted across the centre line while studying the inside of my eyelids. I was brutally snapped to attention by Kerrie screaming. On the bright side, she was now fully alert with an elevated heart rate and she was very happy to drive the last 14 minutes to our destination.

25/07/2023

Last night, we decided to try the local JD Wetherspoon's here in Caernarfon. This is a pub/restaurant chain that specialises in occupying interesting buildings like old banks, post offices, pubs, and historic buildings.

It was set up in 1979 by Tim Martin, who was educated in New Zealand and Northern Ireland. Sadly, one of his NZ teachers, Mr Wetherspoon, stated he would never succeed in life. But succeed he did, and he cleverly named his pub chain after him, as well as the character JD from Dukes of Hazard, hence JD Wetherspoon.

I love that. I hope the old geezer lived long enough to fully appreciate Tim's grand middle finger gesture.

Sadly, our meals were a bit sub-par. We both had steak, and they were too thin (and tough) to be cooked medium rare, arrving well done. I sent mine back and got another marginally better.

We have concluded that these pubs are not our style, so if we do try another, we'll avoid the steaks.

Go well JD Wetherspoons.

Oh, and Tafarn Y Porth translates as 'The Pub by the Gate'.

22/07/2023

Signs of the day. We saw the welcome to Wales sign three times. The last time was after being accidentally exited from Wales due to a navigation error.

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Narrow road of the day. This one has hard edges. At Hay-on-Wye

Driving here is interesting in places where the hedges grow to the edge of the tarmac. You can be doing 100kph inches away from the trees. In many places the tree canopy meets in the middle of the road. The only shaping and trimming is from passing trucks. Apparently, some years ago they decided to stop vegetation management to save the bees. They also saved the expense of employing thousands of workers.

The Chapter House.

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