Daylight savings...

Just letting you know that the clocks went forward here today, so we are now 9 hours behind you (for our Aussie readers) rather than 10!

The Devil's Punchbowl

It was a dark, cold night as the three of us descended into the Devil's Punchbowl. Our arms aching from the heavy burdens we carried, our feet feeling for a safe landing with each step we took on the wet, uneven path, we wondered yet again why we hadn't brought torches. It was then that we noticed four silver pinpoints of light approaching from below, bobbing steadily closer as the crackling and hissing of the trees around us intensified...

BOO!!!!! Did I scare you? :D

Well, that was the start of our Easter weekend as Dotti, Ben and I made our way to the bottom of the Devil's Punchbowl, where a welcoming fire awaited us in the old youth hostel that Matt and Kat had booked out for a bunch of us to stay in overnight. The Devil's Punchbowl is basically a large hole in the ground (probably a couple of kilometres across) near Hindhead, Surrey, and there are walking trails as well as a youth hostel and a couple of houses at the bottom.

On Thursday night, twelve of us stayed overnight in the youth hostel: Matt, Kat, Trev, Sharon, Nick and Jo and their kids Georgina and Patrick, Ruth, Dotti, Ben and I. It was a fabulous night of friendship and laughter, reading the hostel's random collection of other guests' left-behind books, eating zucchini soup, bread, trifle and other goodies, sitting around the fire, and staying up until after 2am playing "Who Am I"? It was absolutely awesome fun, and thanks to Matt and Kat for the amazing job they did to to organise it all and feed everyone!



The next morning, after not too many hours sleep, we all awoke in our bunk beds and tucked into a hearty cooked breakfast. Then, after packing up and checking out of the hostel, we set off on one of the walking trails. It was quite wet and muddy. The ground was covered in leaves and there were lots of trees and a few kissing gates.



After enjoying a nice steady walk up to the rim of the Punchbowl, we gathered our strength for the return trip at a cafe there, and then walked back to the hostel and up to the carpark where we had walked down from with all our gear the night before.

We ended up having a yummy lunch at Matt and Kat's and then introduced a few new people to Chain Reaction. :) Late in the afternoon, it started to snow - big fluffy flakes covering the ground and car roofs. It was the first time we've actually seen it snow in England, and it was so beautiful! For your sakes, dear readers, I actually stood out in it on Matt and Kat's balcony to take a video, and of course I was then locked out, so I hope you think it was worth it!!

That night we stayed back at our place before setting off on Saturday morning for the rest of our Easter adventures... but I'll tell you about those next week! Goodnight! :)

The Bluebell Railway

Last Saturday we had no plans, so we decided to take a ride on the Bluebell Railway. This is a 125-year-old steam train railway running along a 9-mile stretch of the border between East Sussex and West Sussex. These days it is mostly staffed by volunteers and has only three stations, but steam trains still run on a regular timetable as it's a popular tourist activity or family day out.

We drove to Sheffield Park Station (about 40 minutes from home) and purchased first class tickets to the first station and back (a 9-mile round trip). This cost about the same as the fare to travel the full 18-mile round trip in third class, so we decided to cover less distance so we could see what first class was like!



Anyway, I ended up being quite glad of this... First class was nothing fancy, but it consisted of compartments along one side of the train, six seats in each. A sliding door opened onto the corridor. We had a whole compartment to ourselves, which was excellent as there were some very excited and noisy kids on the train. :) As we steadily chugged through the English countryside, now starting to get really green again after the winter, steam billowed from the train and the driver would occasionally sound the hooty whistle.

Yup, right out of Harry Potter or what?! I half expected a lady to come along with a trolley of Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans any second. :D



After reaching Horsted Keynes Station, we got out and had a simple lunch from a canteen on the platform. We had planned on exploring the village but it turned out to be a 1.5-mile walk away so we gave up on that idea! We had a look through a couple of old carraiges that had displays about historical trains, and then found one that was filled with an amazing number of second hand books and magazines about trains. We actually found a nice coffee table book for ourselves ("Mind The Gap" - it's about what's at the end of all the London tube lines!) and also a present for Dad there!



After that, we rode back to Sheffield Park in the same steam train and had a bit of a look around the shop there. Bought some funny Clives Cats drink coasters and discovered that someone has actually written an entire book (non-fiction) called Lichens - yes, everything you ever wanted to know about that fungus/algae stuff that grows on rocks and trees!!

Later, we had a look through the pleasant town of Lewes, which is where those mad Bonfire Night celebrations we went to in November were held. It was considerably quieter this time. :) There is an awesome 15th century bookshop in Lewes - see photo below. And that was our nice relaxing day!

Loving London

The weekend before last, we went to London on Saturday for some sightseeing and culture. The plan was to meet up with Dotti, who was staying at Matt and Kat's with two other girls from Nottingham, go to the Tower of London and the Natural History Museum, and then have dinner and see a play that night with a group of friends.

We arrived in London early and had a couple of hours to pass before meeting Dotti. We decided to go back to Covent Garden, and we got there so early (for London anyway – it was around 9am) that the market vendors and buskers were still setting up. It was quite chilly so we enjoyed some hot chocolate and chocolate cookies from a Ben's Cookies shop. :) By the way, Covent Garden has some association with the English beginnings of the Punch and Judy puppet show, which explains some of the below pics!

When we emerged from the Tower Hill tube station, which was opposite the impressive castle/fortress that is the Tower of London, we learnt that Dotti was still a fair way away, so we decided to go for a wander.

A nearby sign revealed that Petticoat Lane was only a 9 minute walk away, so off we set. Mum had been quite keen for us to go to Petticoat Lane as she has a little silver vase that her employer bought her from a gift shop there about 33 years ago! Anyway, as the markets in Petticoat Lane are on Sundays, there was not much happening there – the street was lined with the metal skeletons of market stalls, and men with jackhammers were working on the footpath. It seemed to be a street full of textile shops and shoe stores! Interestingly, Petticoat Lane is actually called Middlesex Street. It was once Petticoat Lane, but in 1830 the Victorians changed its name to avoid any reference to women's underwear – an unsuccessful endeavour evidently!

After a wander along Petticoat Lane, it was time to head back to the Tower Hill tube station to meet Dotti. We decided to be lazy and take the tube from the nearest station, Aldgate East. As it turned out, we definitely should have walked. Due to some incredible feat of silliness, we managed to catch the wrong tube not once, not twice, but THREE times!!! So we went back and forth along the same section of track before eventually breaking free and making it back to Tower Hill. I later found out that the Aldgate East tube station is right in the centre of the few blocks' radius in which Jack the Ripper carried out his horrible crimes in the late 19^th century.

After finally meeting Dotti, it was early afternoon and we set off for the Tower of London... home of the crown jewels and a very gruesome (but royal) history (read on for a very toned down version of what we heard!). To get there, we actually walked on one end of the Tower Bridge, which was awesome as we'd never been up close to it before.

After collecting our tickets (already purchased online), we ate some fish and chips for lunch and then crossed the moat and entered the Tower grounds. It's not actually just one tower – in the centre is the White Tower, which is the oldest part, but it is a very large complex with lots of other buildings, open areas, and huge stone walls all the way around. Well, it was awesome!! We didn't make it to the Natural History Museum after all, as we spent the next 5 or so hours just exploring the Tower...

First, we did a tour with a Yeoman Warder guide, which was absolutely brilliant. They are the oldest continuing military unit in the entire world, and they have been guarding the Tower of London since 1485. There are currently 35 Yeoman Warders (aka Beefeaters), all of whom are retired from the British Armed Forces and must be former senior non-commissioned officers with at least 22 years of service. They must also hold long service and good conduct medals. They actually live in flats that are in the walls of the complex! They have their own doctor and vicar living there too, and each night the complex is locked up and no one is allowed in or out until morning. The locking up tradition, called the Ceremony of the Keys, has taken place every night without fail for at least 700 years. Unbelievable!!!

Our guide was actually the Ravenmaster, the Yeoman Warder who looks after the Tower's ravens. It is thought that ravens have lived at the Tower since at least the 1600s, although there are only six or eight of them now. Legend has it that should the ravens ever leave the Tower, the tower and the monarchy will crumble, so looking after these birds is quite an important responsibility and they are very well fed!

During our tour, we heard many gruesome true stories that I'm not going to repeat here. The majority of them were about beheadings, which was a popular public event in the old days, and we learnt that they took place on what is now a little patch of green grass beside the Tower Hill tube station we had arrived at earlier. In the entire history of the Tower, only seven beheadings were ever done in private, within the Tower's grounds. These seven people were nobles, five of them women, and amongst them were two wives of Henry VIII: Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard.

We actually stood at the new memorial on the spot where these took place, and during our tour we sat inside the church where the bodies of those seven people are still buried today. We were told whilst in the church that at some more recent stage, one of the queens (Victoria?) had the other bodies exhumed from underneath the church and buried somewhere else – and there were 1500 of them. Unimaginable. To be right where these events took place – things I've vaguely known about since I was little – feels quite surreal. It's very hard to comprehend what used to happen right where you are now enjoying a pleasant touristy type of experience!

After our tour, we spent lots more time just wandering around the various museums and displays on offer. We saw the crown jewels – basically a large collection of unbelievably expensive, flashy royal bling – crowns, sceptres, swords, rings, etc. Ben was almost as impressed by the massive vault doors! One of the more amazing things we saw was a weighty punch bowl about a metre across and probably almost as high, apparently made of solid gold, and with figures of cherubs and lions etc all around the outside of it. The ladle was in the shape of a massive conch shell – made of gold!

There was also an extensive weapons museum where we saw hundreds of guns mounted in frames and on the walls, suits of armour (including one for a giant and tiny gift ones for child princes), life-size sculptures of horses that were hundreds of years old (the sculptures, not the horses!), some torture instruments, and much more.

There was even a hands-on section where you could try things out – pulling back on a bow and arrow, testing the weight of various weapons, and experiencing the limited vision of someone wearing a suit of armour. All up, we definitely recommend a visit to the Tower of London if you get the chance... unless you have a particularly weak stomach!

After finishing up at the Tower, we set off to meet the others for dinner before the play. We ate at Wagamama's in Covent Garden with Matt, Kat, Clarice, Beth, Andrew M and Andrew R.

Then, we set off around the corner to our theatre, on Strand, where we met the remaining members of our group – Murray and Mel. A hilarious couple of hours then followed, during which we thoroughly enjoyed the “tangled web” storyline and nonstop wit that is The Importance of Being Earnest. Absolutely brilliant – my favourite London show so far! (Ben liked The 39 Steps a little bit more though.)

Afterwards, the eleven of us crossed the Thames and ate dessert in an Italian restaurant before catching our various tubes and trains home. And that was our most recent day in London!

Snowboarding trip, Post 4: Salzburg

On the Friday of our Austria trip, the five of us set off for the Bad Dürrnberg Salt Mine, “Salzwelten”, near Salzburg. After donning the attractive outfits below (to protect our clothing), we were ready for our tour.

On the tour, we rode the miners' train 650m inside the mountain, walked through the maze of tunnels, learnt all about the ancient salt mining practices of the Celts, and even crossed the Austrian-German border (twice) – underground! We crossed a brine lake (27% salt compared to the 3% salt content of the ocean) by silent boat in a dimly lit underground cavern... reminding more than one person of the sixth Harry Potter book!

We also had lots of fun sliding down two miners' slides – check out the video of Donna, Ben and I below on the 42m-long slide. We aren't sitting on a cart or anything – THIS is why we had to wear the overalls!

All in all, it was excellent fun as well as being educational! Afterwards, we had a look around the Keltendorf Celtic Village next to the mine.

Next, we spent some time wandering around the pretty city of Salzburg, with its colourful houses, narrow streets and interesting shops. Salzburg is the town where Mozart was born and The Sound of Music was filmed. Watching over the city from the top of a hill is the imposing medieval Festung Hohensalzburg - an enormous fortress that Jim, Jenny, Ben and I had toured on our 2006 Europe trip.

The five of us enjoyed a delicious lunch at a local guesthouse – cordon bleu or stew for the others, and schnitzel with cranberry sauce for me – an Austrian meal I had remembered from our 2006 trip and that did not disappoint.

We looked through part of the Salzburg Museum, including the Panorama Museum, which housed “the only giant travel panorama still existing in the whole world” - a fantastic 26m (85 x 16 foot) painting of Salzburg by Johann Michael Sattler. The artist took it on “a ten-year exhibition tour of numerous European cities between 1829 and 1839”. It was an incredible work of art – the photos below look like we could be at a lookout overlooking the picturesque city (which still looks fairly similar today), but that is actually the painting. Not bad huh!!

That night was our last at the guesthouse. The next morning, Ben, Donna and I set off, leaving Matt and Kat behind for a few more days in Austria. In the late afternoon, we had an hour or so to look around Zurich with Donna when we dropped her off in Switzerland.

That night (Saturday), we stayed with Elaine and Francisco in Luxembourg again, and were invited to lunch with some of their friends after the meeting the next day.

On Sunday afternoon we drove to France (I think we had tea at a servo in Belgium) and took the EuroTunnel back to England. We arrived in Calais early enough to be offered a place on the train leaving half an hour before the one we'd booked, so we only stopped the car long enough to be checked out by a sniffer dog before we were on the train – the upper level for the first time! We really can't say enough good things about travelling with EuroTunnel.

Anyhow, the next morning, it was off to work for both of us, and our snowboarding holiday was well and truly over. :)