Pretty Cool!

There is something very cool about driving along virtually empty French coastal roads in Normandie while listening to a CD of Edith Piaf singing "La Vie en Rose"
'Life in the Pink' indeed!

We wandered along all 50 miles of the invasion beaches yesterday, including a place near and dear to me where the 13th Battalion Parachute Regiment (Mostly Liverpool lads) My old mob, landed at Ranville. I'll write more in a separate post about that and the "Beaches"

It was a long and surprisingly an emotional day so once away from the area we looked for a Chambres D'hote (That's B&B for the uninitiated) for the night. Saw a sign pointing down a country lane so we turned into it. Then just up the road turned into the half mile long driveway to the "Chateaux" a big, old circa 1700 working farm.














Getting to the door we were wandering if it was the right place, it looked pretty run down. So being the man of the party I immediately sent Sharon to the door to ask to see the rooms and the price....Well she is the one who speaks that incomprehensible language, although I am getting better but don't tell her.

Anyway when she came out and said that she'd booked it I wondered it I'd done the right thing sending her..... But!!!

It turned out to be something special. Old worn and classy, the old oak floors were well worn but well pollished. the decorating was period and well done and the bathroom had been newly done without losing the charm. a few dipsies in the tile floor added to aura.

Our room is the one right over the front door, with the wide open window and here's the view from it. The half mile driveway.

Some local photos.

Just a little hodge podge of pics from along the way.

First off Beachy Head and the Lighthouse. Seems it's a popular dropping off spot for people who want out of this version of their lives.
One step....600 feet. That'll do it!


This pub, the ThreeOaks is just across the road, Had dinner there last night. Have to get a picture of the actual pub, won't I?

Herstmonceaux Castle. This place is still in use as a Canadian university extension. A little different than Ottowa.


Living in Washington State and driving a windy country road in England and coming across it, is fun.


The Roman Lighthouse or Pharos at Dover Castle. Only about 2,000 years old, about time we had a new one. Dover Castle is a really impressive edifice. It's huge and it's been in constant use since before the Romans. There's a labrinth of caves and tunnels from Napolionic times and used again in WWII and the Cold War. Bodiam Castle

Bushy Tailed!

So here we are all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, so to speak. Both of us wide awake at 4am, now it's just after 5. We've both showered and had coffee and are wondering why the rest of the world isn't awake and why it's another couple of hours until brekkers (breakfast for you Americans). The joys of travel. With all the travel we've done it still gets you - you just learn not to fight it. I didn't go to bed until 10:30 and I'd had a couple pints with dinner and slept like a log until 4am rolled around and the brain yelled "Wakey-wakey!"

We've had a couple of days in this hotel, The George, a fairly new edifice in town...only 350 years old. Some old artwork on the walls of how it used to be, apparently a place for fancy dress balls and pricey weddings. Even though this is a small town, there are a lot of fine 'old money' homes and estates around (also an old Poorhouse). The George is kind of showing its age and lack of upkeep now. The reception area is now an upscale Italian restaurant and you have to enter at the back of the hotel. Excellent breakfast though with good sausage and really meaty back bacon. One thing I've never figured out or liked was hotel or B&B toast. It's underdone pale looking, then it's put on drying racks to get cold and hard before it's delivered to the table. 'Never figured that out - how hard can warm toast be?

And that, my friends, is what happened to the mind at 5am while waiting for food! Time for yet another in-room instant coffee.

We're moving on today, I want to take in Bodiam Castle, another relic from William the Conqueror's days. It still has its moat around it and is quite attractive-looking in pics. Some people think the moat was part of the castle's defense, but it was a crude septic system for the crude crappers that just direct the 'waste' into it. Must have been pleasant on a hot summer's day. Anyway, we're off to view this romantic-looking place. Photos later.

We'll find another B&B for the night and then Saturday we get into The Barn for a week's stay. Be nice to unpack properly and get settled for awhile. Then we can explore the Southeast of the country freely knowing we have a place to come home to in the evenings rather than having to start looking for B&B signs in the afternoon.

Sharon and Ken go to Battle.!!!

We went to visit “Battle Abbey” today, well worth it too. We’ve all heard of 1066 and all that but even me, after reading so much about that year, was suitably impressed. They have a small display area showing the weapons and armour they wore and a series of maps of the area of the battle as it was then. A short but really impressive movie explained in brief, the events leading to the fight and a nice job of explaining how the battle was fought won and lost. The battle that changed the course of history in the western world. I hadn’t really thought about it before but if “William the Bastard” had lost, we would be living in a different world now…….now I’m getting a headache for ‘thinking’ of things like that.
This little shack in town is a fairly modern one from 1429

Battle Abbey, in the town of Battle was founded by William the Conqueror, a couple of years after the battle and then the town formed around it. It really is an interesting small town. Some of the original houses from the 11th century are still here. Then the town has been added onto over the years so there’s a real pleasant mix of architecture.

Had dinner in the local pub tonight, Sharon likes English sausage so she had the bangers and mash with onions. I just had some plain Steak and Kidney pud and new spuds. Goes down well with a couple of pints of bitter. Sharon has to shudder when I have that. Says, I should start an International House of Pancreas!

The start, Sharon's Thoughts.

First, the crisps. That’s potato chips to you Americans. Who knew that Britain could be so far advanced in flavor choices?! Having just finished off a packet of Thai Sweet Chili crisps, they’re on my mind so I begin there. A few less dollars for road repair and national defense, and the US could embellish the potato chip flavor choices there. I shall lobby my congressman

But it really began Terry Dean getting us to the bus for the Vancouver Airport…in his car, ours had a dead battery, not an auspicious beginning to any vacation, but it was all uphill from there. Simple trip, easy border crossing, great seat selection with nothing but legspace and the bulkhead in front of us. Life was indeed good. Even the 2 year old across the aisle (a nose picker by the way) and the lady in the seat behind us who kept telling the flight attendant that she needed a steady flow of whatever painkillers the airline could provide because of what she was pretty sure was the onset of Swine Flu couldn’t dampen our glee.

So here we are in Battle, Sussex, England having a wonderful day of exploring charming villages, castle ruins, sausage rolls, 600 year old pubs, and the beaches where William the Conqueror and his gang landed to stake his claim to the crown, weather wonderful, Ken’s driving on the wrong side of the road, but so is everyone else and it’s a rental car so who cares? I’ll now return Ken’s ’blog’ to him. Special thanks to Terry Dean and Carol Sanders for making this trip possible.

Me (Ken) back for my thoughts

Long day that first one. Up at 4:30 am on Tuesday and then to bed at 9;30 pm Wednesday night, that's pretty long you might say but then you have to add the 8 hours time difference, then it gets long. Happy tiredness though, no worries no pressures.

I think I pass on the left.... or is it right!?

Nice car to drive 600 miles on the clock and smells factory fresh. It's a Vauxhall “Insignia” or something silly that car makers like to call their cars but it's a British GM. Lively motor, SIX speed manual box. But on these country back roads we like, it lugs in 4thgear. 5th and 6th are strictly motorway or the ‘odd’ longer straightaway

“Insigna” that’s it, that’s the name. I finally remembered. Another thing I have to remember is to keep up the revs starting off or it stalls easily and yes I have stalled it…..once or twice..! Oh, and another good way to stall is coming to a stop and forgetting you’re not driving an automatic. Second day now and I’m all over that stuff…! At least I haven't tried to drive on the other side...yet

The GM / Vauxhall, Insignia.

I've finaly found a home for Sharon, this nice little castle has a (not so) cozy room for one.

International day or Flag day?!

Last minute shopping today, so we had breakfast out, celebrating our international trip at the "International House of Pancakes" Seem appropriate, just like a breakfast in France....!

Packing tomorrow and tying up loose ends businesswise and tripwise. Then at 6;30 am Tuesday we're outtahere. Next time I add to this it will be from somewhere from the South of England, hopefully from a pub.

Just four more sleeps!

And we’re on our way.

Tuesday morning we’ll kick Terry, our cellar dweller, out of his sack so he can have the privilege of running us to the factory outlets at Tulalip. There’s a bus that runs from there to Vancouver Airport in plenty of time to pick up our flight.

The flight is going to be interesting, it’s a charter flight run by Tomas Cook the British travel group, it’s also “direct” and even traveling first class it’s less money than the usual way we’ve traveled from SeaTac. Last time I went to Eng-er-land my flight was delayed getting into Chicago, meaning I had another 8 hours added onto my day, not good..! So we’ll give this a try.

We get in next day in the morning and pick up the rental car at Gatwick, then take a couple of relaxing days traveling English country roads down to Hastings way, Three Oaks Village and ‘The Barn’ for the first portion of our wanderings…..


“ ’The Barn’ was once a Victorian barn dating 1877 now converted into a cottage with secluded garden.
The village has a local inn and railway station with services into London, Charing Cross and Cannon Street.
The village itself is very picturesque surrounded by country lanes, footpaths, woods and fields, and on its doorstep is the historic 1066 walking routes. Shop 2 miles, pub and restaurant 25 yards.”

I can crawl 25 yards back ‘home’ easily...!

Our plans for the summer.....Or how to commit suicide in real estate!

It’s about time I looked at adding to this blog thingy, I haven’t thought of it for a while.

Why have I thought of it now you may ask. Well in 10 days time, Tuesday June 16, we’ll be in England on our summer trip. This time we’ll be taking the notebook with us to keep in touch. Write some views of what we see, where we go and add some photos along the way.

Sharon and I were talking a while back on what to do this summer, we'd veto'd Mexico because it might have been a little warm for our Northern bodies. Real estate didn’t seem to be filling our lives, (No really!) back then. So I got on line and booked tickets from Vancouver BC to London Gatwick. Then six weeks later return from Barcelona to Vancouver…..How cool is that? Now we have to fill in the blanks, blank weeks that is.

Sharon found a converted stone barn in a village near Hastings in West Sussex called Three Oaks. We're just doors down from the “pub!” She knows how to pick them. I have a reason for seeing Hastings and Battle Abbey. We want to see Canterbury and the Cathedral again then Dover Castle and other ‘hysterical’ places in the Southeast.

We’ll stay in the South of England for about ten days then take the train under the Channel to Paris and spend a few days wandering Normandy. Sharon wants to see Mont San Michel and the French countryside. I need to look in on the Bayeux Tapestry, seems only fitting after being at the battlefield at Hastings. We’ll get the 1066 Norman media’s spin on the battle. Winners always write the best history of the event, like the “Great Patriotic war for Freedom” we have going in Iraq!!!

One thing I want to do is drive the ‘Beaches’ along to Arromanches (Gold Beach) where uncle John went ashore on D+4 before he went on through France, Belgium, the Battle of the Bulge, Germany, all the way to the River Elbe and the end of the war with the 23rd Hussars.

I’d like to at least have a coffee at the Café Gondre at Pegasus Bridge, just outside the town of Ranville. Ranville was the name of our old barracks in Liverpool, named after the first town liberated on D Day, by 13 Para. (Liverpool lads) My TA Battalion. (Clive and Arthur will know it well) I was at the opening of the barracks way back when/then! The café has a lot of D Day memorabilia I’d like to take a look at.

We found a flat in Paris for rent owed by a Seattle couple so we’re renting it for a week. It’s a great part of the City 2 minutes from the Eiffel Tower almost on the Rue Cler, a classic French market street with some great small shops and cafés. It’s about a 20 minute walk from the Notre Dame along the Rive Gauche (or Left Bank to us non speakers). Wandering Paris for a week should be a lot of fun. We’ll use the Metro and bus to get about plus a lot of shanks pony.
Running up the Eiffel Tower in the morning before getting my café au lait and baguette should just about ruin my day……my life!!!

After Paris…Well, is there life after Paris?

We’ll pick up another car and head Southwest taking in Chartres and it’s cathedral labyrinth and to Chinon Castle, near Chinon is Fontefraud Abbey, resting place of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Wife of two kings, one French (but he didn’t last long.) then Henry II of England, She was also the mother of two kings. Richard the Lionheart who lies beside her and ‘Wicked’ King John, signer of the Magna Carta. Then we'll wander down though the Dordogne, it’s supposed to be an really beautiful area. Châteaux’s, vineyards, rivers for canoeing down (Not up, they let you drop off your canoe down stream!) Even deep caves where you can see art work from the first Frenchmen done a year or so ago.

Then we’ll swing East across the country as far as Provence. After all we’ve read and seen on TV of the area, we really do need to go and see it for ourselves. “Aix en Provence” has a great ring to it, dunnitt? I feel the need to sit and people watch from a sidewalk café on the broad main street. We’ll then head West again, along the Mediterranean as far as Perpignan and drop the car before picking up the train and ride across the border to Spain and rediscover Barcelona for the last week. So many things there we’d like to see. Sharon hasn’t been down as far as the Med. Coast and I haven’t been since 1961. Whoah that’s like 48 years. Oh my! D’ya think it’s changed a little since then?

While in Spain we hope to get down to visit with Roxanne and the girls, maybe take them to dinner. We’d like that. Our flight back to Vancouver is from Barca on the 1st day of August. Should have a tale or two to tell and a photo to put on line.

Well that's the plan, stay tuned and we'll let you know how it really went!!!
Ken.