Day 202 - 13 Jan '24 - Killearn. After such a cracking time at Rachel's last night, I would have loved to have had a loooooong sleep. Waking up after just six hours was not on my agenda, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get back to sleep. Oh well.
As hangovers go, it was incredibly mild; no headache, just tiredness. At least I wasn't Rachel today, who had to repeat it all again at a 40th!
The kids did some math work on their computers, and I packaged up all the stuff we were sending back to New Zealand. We were fairly ruthless with what we weren't taking with us, and things that hadn't been used once (like colouring pencils) or were no longer being used (like ankle socks for summer) were jammed into the box. Alex and I then went to the local post office.
"Ooh, you're not going to want to post this anymore," said the lady behind the counter.
"Expensive, is it?"
"£140."
"WHAT?!"
"You might be able to get it slightly cheaper at Balfron post office, but maybe only £96."
"I think we'll go back to the house, Alex, and we'll have to repack it."
"What will we need to take out? Not the Nintendo stuff!"
"No, of course not, but we'll just need to go through everything."
When we got back to the house, Dan told me to hold fire with the scissors, and had a look at his DHL account.
"$446! That's even worse! Can I cut the box open yet?"
"No, just wait," he said. "I'll look online."
I've no idea what system the post office lady was using, but when we looked at the Royal Mail website, we could get the box shipped as is for just £56, tracked and signed for! Not only that, but they would collect it too! So, that's what we did, and Deborah would hold it for us.
Abi and I went to Deborah's house across the road, and spent an hour with her and her girls. We had a great wee chat, and she showed me her MASSIVE collection of string and yarn for her macrame, as well as her other craft work.
Tomorrow we leave Killearn, but we will see everyone again at Jonny and Jordyn's wedding in April.
Day 203 - 14 Jan '24 - Killearn to Edinburgh. Nobody wanted to get up this morning, but it was time to pack up and move on. It didn't take us too long to clean and tidy, and I even managed to get the towels washed and hung up on a clothes horse before we left.
We drove to Edinburgh and visited the castle, which dominates the Old Town part of the city. Castle Rock has been occupied since either the Bronze or Iron Age (there is some debate about this), and the wind was bitingly cold.
"Guess what the temperature is," I asked.
"Freezing?" Dan answered.
"It's 2°C, but the wind chill factor drops it to -3°C!"
"If this is -3°C, what is -43°C going to feel like?" he asked with horror.
We'd heard recent news reports about a cold snap going through Scandinavia, with temperatures dropping to -43.6°C - now, THAT'S cold.
"I sure would have liked to have more layers on," I agreed.
For the last three or four weeks, I've had a fine rash over my entire body that has slowly spread. It's been a combination of feather duvets, new washing detergent, wearing more layers than normal, and probably the vaccines too. Today I decided to not put on my thermal vest, to see if that helped; I'm not sure if I'd rather be itchy or warmer...
The views over the city of Edinburgh were pretty amazing, and we could hear a piper playing somewhere in the city.
St. Margaret's chapel within the castle grounds, was built in 1130, and is the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh. It was tiny inside, and had some beautiful stained glass windows.
Next we saw the Honours of Scotland, which comprise the crown, sword, and sceptre of the Scottish monarch. At one point, these Honours were smuggled out of a castle by two women, and buried for a while to hide them.
We only had two hours at the castle, before heading back to the car. The parking wardens were there when we parked the car, and there when we got back to it. The car in front of us had already received a ticket, so it's clearly a highly patrolled and fined area!
Speaking of tickets, the one we received at Wells was dismissed, after they reviewed my appeal. We got an email back saying they'd seen that we'd paid for parking, just used the wrong number plate; they did advise us that using that excuse again likely wouldn't work...
We went to a nearby chippy for tea, then settled into a night in our motel room. The kids were once again arguing over nothing:
"She's looking at me!"
"He's staring at me!"
"How could either of you possibly know that if both of you should have your eyes closed??!!"
Day 204 - 15 Jan '24 - Edinburgh to Bishop Auckland. I had one of strange sleeps where you sleep for hours, then wake up to find it's only been about 20 minutes, then you sleep for hours again, but it's only been another hour - you know the type? It means the night lasts forever, and you feel like you've slept for ages. I wasn't as itchy when I woke up, so hopefully it continues to get better. A daily anti-histamine seems to be helping.
This morning Dan had a work problem to sort out, which meant we were a little later than planned to go and visit Auntie Teresa and Uncle David. These were some other old neighbours of ours, and a third set of parents for Elaine, Rachel, and my siblings and I.
It was so lovely to get to see them again in the hotel they now own. They hadn't changed a bit, and we spent an enjoyable couple of hours reminiscing as well as talking about our trip. Auntie Teresa even brought out a plate of jelly cubes, a treat we would get at her house when we were little!
Sadly, we had to say goodbye sooner than we'd have liked, and drove to nearby Melrose to visit their younger daughter Stacey.
We then spent a lovely couple of hours at her house, where she'd made us a delicious curried parsnip soup and some gluten free pasta for the kids. Abi got to help her bake some macaroons for us to take away, which she really enjoyed.
Another special surprise was a video call from her elder sister Terri-Claire, whom we unfortunately never got the chance to visit. Then, once again, it was time for us to say goodbye and get on the road, as we still had two hours of driving until our night's stay in Bishop Auckland.
I'm very happy I managed to catch up with almost everybody I wanted to while back in my homeland. No, we didn't get further north up Scotland, but it just means we'll need to come back one day!
Day 205 - 16 Jan '24 - Bishop Auckland to Addlestone. The kids sure know how to push our buttons. Once again (ONCE AGAIN!) they were arguing over the bed. We now have zero hope of them changing; it's been six months, and they still fight over whose side of the bed is whose, their feet are on my side, their arm is on my side, they have all the covers, their pillow is touching mine, they're looking at me...you name it, they've argued over it.
At 5:30am I was up for the third time telling them off (Alex had snuck out of bed to grab his kindle, then Abi had done the same thing, then they were sitting up arguing over duvet distribution).
"Right! That's IT! We are sick and tired of this constant ridiculousness. Get on the floor. GET ON THE FLOOR! YOU, that side, and YOU, that side. And you will STAY there until we tell you otherwise!"
We had a long drive today, the longest we'd done since leaving the States. Almost five hours on the motorway to get to a town called Addlestone, near where my second cousin Iona lived with her family.
It was awesome to finally get to see her, as we'd tried lots when we were down this way two months ago, but just couldn't get it to work. We spent a lovely couple of hours with them, and got "the last photo" with family. That's it - nobody else left to catch up with!
Day 206 - 17 Jan '24 - Addlestone to Heathrow. This morning we had to quickly change our plans; we were going to be staying the night with Richard and Su again in West Meon, but woke up to a text to say Su and one of their sons were sick!
"I guess we're going to have to get used to reorganising our plans," said Dan, as I hopped online to find a motel.
In the end, we decided to stay at a Premier Inn at Heathrow airport, and take our car back a day early. This would save us having to pay for parking, which other London motels seemed to charge.
We dropped our luggage at the motel, then drove to a nearby Tesco to buy some lunch.
"We don't need to buy anything, as we've got lots of food to go through," I pointed out.
"None of it really goes together though," Dan protested.
"It'll be fine!"
So, for lunch, Dan and Alex had cold fish finger and tomato sauce sandwiches, Abi had cherry tomatoes, a chunk of cheese, and some smoked mackerel, and I had smoked mackerel, a chunk of cheese, and some sweet chilli crisps. Lunch of champions!
"Do you want another sandwich, Dan?" I asked.
"No thanks," came the choked reply.
"Why not, daddy?" Alex asked.
"Because it's dry, there's no butter, and the fish fingers taste a bit fishy!"
Even still, there was lots of food we had to throw out, as we could no longer leave any of it with Richard and Su; things like half used jam, honey, tomato sauce, and butter, as well as some broccoli, potato scones, and a microwave chicken curry.
"We just have to think of it as, they saved us money when we needed them," Dan said.
"Yes I know," I replied, "but I'm not throwing out Abi's gluten free stuff. I'd always had in my head we'd be carrying at least one bag of food around with us all the time, mostly gluten free food."
After lunch, we went to a local shopping mall to kill some time. Alex and Abi spent their last remaining pounds on some new Switch games each, and we bought a controller set, so Dan and I can play games with them.
It was then time to hand the car back. We left Abi's half booster seat in the car (we had no further use for it), and caught the shuttle bus back to terminal four, where our motel was.
"Tomorrow we're on Shank's Pony!" Dan stated.
"Yep! We'll really be 'four packs and us' without a car for the first time in six months," I said, "although, at the moment, we're actually 'four packs, two backpacks, three carrier bags, and us'! But that doesn't have the same ring to it."
We had dinner at the on-site restaurant, which was nice, and as part of the deal they had on offer, the kids get their breakfast free, so that's good. One less meal for us to worry about!
Day 207 - 18 Jan '24 - Heathrow to St. Pancras. The beds were comfy, the room was quiet and dark (despite being right next to the runway), but Dan and I had a fairly average sleep due to Abi coughing up a lung (then complaining at 5:30am that she didn't get any ginger juice, when Alex got some when he was sick), and Alex talking and shouting in his sleep!
We enjoyed our buffet breakfast, leaving the restaurant with full tummies, and packed up our rucksacks.
"Time to get used to walking!"
It was only a six-or-so minute walk to the airport terminal, and Alex said his legs were shaking by the time we got there! Unfortunately, the train we were meant to get on (the direct one) had issues on the line, so we walked back across the terminal to get on the first of two trains.
A staff member kindly helped us buy the correct tickets, after Abi 'helpfully' told him that only one of the children were under 10.
"Thanks, Abi," grumbled Alex. "You just cost us an additional £10!"
"Look at it this way, Alex," I pointed out. "The man did all the kiosk button pushing for us, and got us the cheapest tickets possible. Plus, we're on the high speed train for most of the ride, so it will be faster!"
The first of many 'think on our feet' changes, I'm sure!
My and Dan's rucksacks are fairly heavy to sling up and over our shoulders, and then walking up and down stairs is giving our knees and thighs a good workout. I'm looking forward to the weight loss and muscle gain that's sure to come...surely?!
We dropped our bags at the motel luggage storage, then hopped back on the train to go to a travel clinic for more jags. Our final dose of cholera for everyone, Japanese encephalitis for Dan and I, and an intra-dermal second dose of rabies. £586 later, a few tears from Abi (again), and we were on our way again. Not many left to get now, but they will be somewhere in Europe.
We had a bit of a laugh as we walked back to the subway:
"If we ruled the world," said Alex, "we would ban cigarettes and vaping and Moana."
"What?"
"We'd ban smoking and vaping and Moana," clarified Abi.
"Moana?!" Dan and I looked at each other, confused at what they were meaning.
"YES! MOANA! You know, when you smoke it!"
"Oh! Ha ha ha ha ha! It's Marijuana. We thought you were meaning 'Moana' as in 'I Am Moana!" I laughed.
"That's why we thought it was really weird you wanted to ban Moana, ha ha ha ha!" Dan added.
"Oh! Ha ha ha!"
On the way back to the motel, we went to the British Library, which was just across the road. Their exhibits included items such as the Magna Carta, lyrics from The Beatles written on the back on John Lennon's son's first birthday card, and the Declaration of Abroath.
The kids got a bit bored after a while ("Why are you bored? Look at all these amazing things!"), and Dan was grumbling about his backpack ("why couldn't we have dropped our bags back at the motel first?"), so we didn't stay too long.
The rest of the afternoon was spent writing diaries and looking for cheap flights from Mallorca to Marrakech. Morocco is the first country we'll be going to after our European leg finishes, and the quicker we buy tickets, the cheaper they will be.
Off to Paris tomorrow - eek!
Day 208 - 19 Jan '24 - London to Paris. I admit to being a bit nervous about the next part of our world trip. For the first time, we will be in countries where English is not the main language spoken. Food labels will be a challenge, as will reading signs. Before we left our motel room, I downloaded French onto Google Translate; I'm sure we'll be using it a bit in the next few days!
We got to the train station with plenty of time to go through immigration, then experienced the first of what will be many delays. Only 20 minutes' delay for departure, then up to 30 on the track due to the weather.
We've bought a three-month Eurail first class ticket, but the first class part is only on certain trains, and on a first-come-first-served basis. Unfortunately, this first train didn't have first class available, but the seats and spacing were more luxurious than on a plane, so we were all happy enough.
The journey didn't take too long, and the view out of the window changed into one covered in snow! We arrived safely at Gare du Nord, and disembarked into a busy crowd of people.
First stop, the main concourse to work out our route! Dan had booked us an apartment just a seven minute walk away, so with our packs on our backs, off we went.
It wasn't as cold as London, and I was glad I didn't have all my winter gear on, as we got rather warm carrying our packs!
Our Airbnb host met us in the foyer of the building, after a lovely lady kindly let us inside and out of the cold. The apartment was on the 6th floor, and will be our home for the next three nights. We had a great view across the street of other typical French apartments, and could hear almost constant sirens.
After dropping off our bags, we braved the Parisian public (much to Alex's terror, as he seemed to have developed a fear of people here in just seven minutes) to go to a local supermarket for dinner supplies and milk for breakfast.
The food here was quite a bit more expensive than the UK, and mince, pasta, and a cheap jar of sauce for a simple spaghetti bolognese cost over €10!
"We're going to have to get used to a different way of eating now," I told the kids during dinner. "We can't carry lots of food with us anymore. Sometimes dinner might just be sandwiches, or bread and soup-in-a-cup. Breakfast might be a pastry, or fruit, or bread and cheese and ham."
Let the adventure begin!
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