STILL WAITING!

On Friday (26^th April) we successfully transferred funds from our account Down Under into the bank

account of our vendor….i.e. the money has gone from our bank but as it takes a couple or more working

days to land in their bank, we are still waiting for confirmation of receipt before we can move on. 

After doing that, we drove to Dunster and visited the castle…last time we tried, 4 years ago, it was

closed on the day we were there so now we can say that we’ve been, and it was well worth the visit!

We spent the best part of some time there and found it to be very impressive with beautiful furniture,

tapestries, paintings etc., gorgeous gardens and with magnificent views. 

Our next stop was Minehead and a feast of  fish and chips

 

followed by a nostalgic visit for Mike M. to Allerford and The Pack Horse, (www.thepackhorse-exmoor.co.uk) holiday accommodation where he and Marion had previously stayed.

Brian and Linda, the owners, were happy to show us around each of the self contained apartments, all recently renovated and ideal for a base for visitorsto tour this lovely area. From there we went on to Lynmouth via Porlock and Porlock Weir, up a narrow toll road which was a little bit scary in places.  Just before we arrived in Lynmouth, we caught up to a Frazer Nash open vintage sports car and when it turned off into the car park of the Tors Hotel, overlooking the village, we followed it, to find a dozen others already there, with more arriving shortly after.  The hotel was closed for a private function so we assumed that

there was some sort of rally about to begin for the enthusiasts and continued our drive down to the

village, where we parked the car and bought ice creams which we ate while strolling around being

Tourists.

On Saturday, it was an earlyish start for the drive to Bridport in Dorset.  Marion’s Mum lives there

and after a stroll through the street markets and a light lunch in a lovely little café, we spent a pleasant

couple of hours catching up with her over afternoon tea before driving back to Somerset for Marion’s

yummy Beef Bourguignon.  Another splendid day!

Yesterday, Sunday 28^th, was the day we caught up with Jo and Simon in Wiltshire and their delightful children,

Who’ve both grown up considerably since we last saw them, as children do.  We were treated to a very tasty lunch of Beef Rendang, followed by a Chocolate Roulade…another delicious meal…we’ve been so well fed here that it’ll be hard to leave.

Today, Monday 29^th started slowly, with us not doing much until after lunch…then we drove into

Bridgwater to do some shopping.  We’d made a list of supplies needed to make the motorhome habitable

a  A few more things required,

nd comfortable so visited a few budget shops to make a few purchases.

mainly a motorhome to put them in, but that’s not very exciting reading. 

ANZAC DAY Down Under!!

On Tuesday we drove to a village called Street for a poke around Clark’s Village, a factory outlet complex - bought a pair of shoes for me and a hoodie for Mike, had tea/ hot chocolate in a little tea shop and after a bit more wandering, drove to Ashcott for lunch at The Retreat  which is a pub with an upstairs hostel conversion for returned soldiers from Afghanistan. 

Lunch was superb, the service from the young people who waited on us was excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed a leisurely couple of hours there before moving on to Mudgely and Wilkins’ Cider Farm, which we first visited in 2009.  We bought some real cider, cheese, jams and pickles for Boris. All in all a splendid day. 

We drove into Taunton on Wednesday and extended the car hire with Hertz as it will be a few more days before we can collect ‘Boris’.  The funds are going via the moon, we think, so we’ll just have to wait.  Driving ‘home’ through the gorgeous Quantock Hills, down narrow, hedge lined lanes just wide enough for one car, we took a wrong turn and became a little bit lost.  Not to worry, ‘Kenny”, our GPS found the way back for us but not before we oohed and aahed at the spectacular views of  the hills and dales and the Bristol Channel in the distance.

We will drink a toast to all of our servicemen and women later on today at beer o'clock. Thanks Laurie.
After much instruction Mike Madd. took this photo for The Anzacs.

Day seven in Merry Old England

We have been very busy since we arrived here and finally have found some time to blog.

We arrived at Heathrow on time on Thursday, 18^th April after an uneventful and largely sleepless flight.  Mike went through immigration quite quickly with his UK passport while I queued for half an hour or more before being welcomed into the country by a cheerful and friendly Englishman.  Another queue was endured at the Hertz office…and we were eventually on our way west on the M4 to Bristol, a left turn onto the M5 and  south to Bridgwater, then on to Stogursey and a warm welcome from our friends Marion & Mike.  A happy afternoon was spent catching up, an early dinner with a warm, comfortable bed to follow and we were both asleep by 7pm. 

The next day was a slow one, didn’t do very much at all until the evening when the four of us went to dinner at a Turkish restaurant in Bridgwater (yum!) and we were pleasantly surprised when Sally & Steve arrived to join us..  A most enjoyable evening ensued, with an excellent meal, a few drinks and good company.

Since then we have found and bought our motorhome,  a lot more quickly than we expected  to….saw some possibles advertised on the internet, arranged  to view a few, drove to Plymouth on Monday, liked what we saw, agreed  that we’d be hard pushed to find better at the price, so bought it!  That is, we’ve put down a deposit and are now waiting for the balance to be transferred and all paperwork to be finalised. It has already been named "Boris" due to it having a sticker on the back saying "Becker".

It is a 2000 model Hymer left hand drive, based on a Fiat 2.8 turbo diesel and is 5.45 meters long and has done 99,000 Km's.

It has a drop down double bed over the drivers seat and a single bed down one side.
The price was within our budget so all is good.

It has MOT (annual roadworthy inspection) until October; which is good for us. We have to now pay road tax (rego) and arrange insurance.

We now know the paper trail required on how to do the transfer, so we are hoping all goes smoothly.

We are now transferring the money over and all being well we should be off next week.

Started planning our route and which ferry to get to France.

In the meantime, we’ll continue enjoying the company of M & M who are spoiling us with their hospitality, good food and helpful information.

The weather in the last six days has been at various times, raining, windy, cold, really cold, (brrrrr), sunny and warm with blue, cloudless skies.  After the long, wet winter, the bare trees are beginning to don their summer foliage and the spring flowers are starting to bloom.  It’s a lovely part of the country here in Somerset and we feel quite at home. 

Welcome to our blog in which will be recording our travels through Europe in 2013.
We are leaving in the next few days and will be back in October. Feel free to add comments if you wish.