The South of England

The big trip was on a pre-scheduled plan, right up to Rome, then it was a loose idea of going to Naples and Pompeii, then onto Spain and Barcelona. However, leaving things til our last day in Rome meant that booking flights and accommodation in the height of European summer left limited choices where we could go. We had already worked out with my penfriend, the lovely Tiina, that we would be arriving there on the 12th and leaving direct to Denmark on the 17th, giving us a few days to get settled back before work and course started, so, weighing up our costs and options, the best plan was to head to London.
Yah! London. England. Somehow this feels like my other home home (as opposed to NZ being home home, and Denmark being (currently) home) and so it was with great excitement that we headed to the airport the next day.
We arrived in Stanstead to a considerably cooler clime and this was welcome. As I had only been to London, it was time to see a bit more of England so we hired a car. This was an interesting experience. Barry found a great deal online and we went to pick it up. Well, the poor staff had been having a real bad day and people had been waiting hours for their car as somehow the system wasn't working and cars were not ready. The good news is that we got a massive upgrade and ended up with a beefy new sleek black Nissan Qashqai instead of some piddly little two door runaround. Very happy Barry.
With no clear direction planned, we took the opportunity to head to the south of England and check out the places my Dad lived in as a boy.
My Dad wrote his memoirs recently and it was so interesting to me, especially as I had heard so much about these experiences growing up and going for our daily walks with our dog, Thumper.

Thumper, and Dad's leg and slipper!

Dad's memoir.

When dad was a boy, he was born in and lived in London and went to the south coast for holidays in the Summer. He was only 7 when his mum died of Leukemia, and only 8 when world war 2 was declared, so he spent a lot of time at his grandparents, down in Sandbanks where his great uncle lived and at Mayfield where he attended boarding school. 

So first stop was right down in Southampton so I could visit Bournmouth and Sandbanks in Poole where he had many happy memories.

Southbanks beach looking out towards Old Harry's Rocks

Close-up of Old Harry's Rocks.

Chaddesley Glen, the road of Dad's Great Uncle's house, 'Brackenside'

The site (we believe) of where the house once stood. Check out the background view in the photo below.

'Brackenside'. Such a shame it was demolished.

Me at the beach my Dad went to when he was just a lil fella!

This is Bournmouth beach. Grandpa Coleman used to hire one of the huts for the day!

On Bournmouth pier looking back.

It;s a pity we don't have these in New Zealand though I doubt they would survive a Wellington southerly!

So that's it for today's blog. Next to come are:

• Mayfield
• Hythe
• Portsmouth
• Brighton
• Dover
• We then went to Lincolnshire to stay with my cousin Sally and Mick (Dad's older brother Chris's daughter), and went to see them in a production...more about that later
• And then across the way to Norwich to meet Sally's brother Nick and his wife Ger (finally).
• Last we went to Dartford and stayed with Uncle Pat (Dad's brother) for two days catching up with them.
• We wanted to visit Wales too but that will have to wait. Instead we spent the last couple of days in London city and caught up with Hannah (Sally's daughter) and her boyfrend Charlie along with my nephew Phillip and his girlfriend Catie.
• Then we headed off to Finland where Barry had the absolute BEST experience of his life.

Watch this space!