Hartington

For the second August bank holiday weekend we rented a car and drove to Yorkshire. We had booked a cottage in a small village but before we get ahead of ourselves we have to explain the drive first of all.

The drive strarted out OK, we drove south to get on the m25. From there pretty much nothing went right. The m25 was a parking lot, it took us about 3 hours just to get out of London. Fortunately Theo had been reasonably well behaved to this point.

I can't remember the exact route but once off the m25 we were on to the next motorway which was moving better although still had its moments. Theo was still behaving well, eating his way through all his snacks.

And then the traffic was the least of our problems. Theo vomited up all of his considerable afternoon tea. We were stuck in the middle lane of a motorway with traffic that wasn't moving so we had no way of getting out of the car. After two big spews, Theo had filled his car seat with vomit but fortunately not on Jackie or the rental car.

Promptly after the spew, Theo was quite content to go to sleep, literally in a pool of his own vomit.

So we didn't bother pulling over to clean him up, we enjoyed the peace and focussed on getting to our cottage as quickly as possible. Eventually off the motorway we were now relying on the driving directions we'd printed off. It was now dark and the rain was coming down in sheets, I could barely see out the windscreen.

So even if we could read the driving directions, we couldn't see the road signs we were supposed to be following. We did pull off one road only to decide it was the wrong one. Ten minutes later on we realised we'd missed our turn off, and eventually realised the road we'd originally turned down was where we were supposed to be.

We got there in the end, it was a hell of a trip, the weekend was going to have to be a good one to make up for the drive up.

When we arrived at the cottage we were pretty sure it was going to be a great weekend.

The next morning confirmed this.

Hartington is a picture perfect English village

This was our red car, out cottage door to the left of the car.

The general store next door, they had all the stuff a general store should have and had delicious home made cakes at very reasonable prices - we had a few. 

Theo and I went for a little walk on the first morning

On the Monday, Jackie joined us and we went a bit further, Theo confidently striding out in front the whole time. 

The following are views and the surroundings of our cottage....

And some pics of the village we stayed in...

As well as enjoying the cottage and the village, we drove in to Sheffield for a bbq lunch with friends. They are renovating their house at the moment and so there were lots of things for the children to explore, Theo loved it.

We had a great weekend, if you ever have the chance to go visit Hartington I strongly suggest you do.

You'll be pleased to know our journey home was much less eventful.

Hampton Court

On our list of things to do in London before we go included walking a section of the Thames path and visiting Hampton Court Palace.

We decided to combine these two on 13 August by catching the train to Kingston and walking to the Palace along the river path.

At Clapham Junction, going to catch the train

"Mum, I think we should go this way". Unfortunately it's not the right direction.

Educating Theo on the dangers of swans and geese, he kept his distance from this one. 

Hurry up daddy!!

Time for a break

Ok daddy, can you carry me for a bit

It was great to be back on the Thames Path, we've missed going for long walks in the country side and while this isn't quite the country, it feels like it. Theo probably walked for about 2km which is quite an achievement for him.

The fancy gates to the palace grounds with the palace in the background.

Up close with the palace, we decided not to go inside, it was quite expensive.

We did spend some time in the grounds, including a picnic lunch and a stop at the poshest park loos around.

Looking down the 'Long Water'

Horse drawn carriage take tours around the grounds. 

The gardens were very impressive

You can check out the history of Hampton Court Palace on the web, I think the main things is is famous for is being home to Henry VIII and for its Tudor architecture.

The battery on my phone ran out so we didn't get any more pictures which was a shame.

We did go and see what is apparently the longest grapevine in the world. 

We also had a look at the Royal Tennis Court, the dude below will explain what that's all about.


After a several hours of walking and lounging around in the gardens we had a look around Hampton Village before heading home from Hampton Station.

Another great day out with brilliant weather, a bit of reminiscing and some new discoveries. 

Bye bye borough

As part of our farewell tour we wanted to visit Borough Markets one more time. And so we did...

We caught the train to London Bridge, which is now home to the shard, the tallest building in London by quite some margin.

A new modern entry to the markets actually works really well

Busy as ever

We picked up a falafel wrap to keep us going while we queued for the cheese toasted sandwich. It was worth the wait.

They also do raclette.

This sandwich is huge, one of us should have stood next to it to give perspective. Turns out they cut slices an serve as smaller slices which is probably for the best. 

Generally acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of the London coffee scene, Monmouth would  generally have a queue about this long on the weekend. The coffee is good although there are other options in and around borough which are just as good without the queues, they just don't have the reputation of Monmouth. 

The traders take care in merchandising their produce, which is important because there are so many traders selling the same thing. 

We had Theo in the Ergo front pack, which seems very comfortable, this was just before he fell asleep. You can't really see it here but they're standing next to some big wheels of cheese.

One of the fishmongers.

Theo fell asleep so we went for a drink. We 'accidentally' bought the high strength beers, I think Jackie's was 11%

The pub was the Rake, an iconic tiny pub in the corner of Borough Market, no children allowed inside so we loitered around in the outdoor area until someone insisted we sit down. 

We walked back towards Waterloo station, crossing the Thames at one point to get a different view, including looking up to St Pauls which is just around the corner from where we spent our first night in London. 

Crossing back across the Thames on the millennium bridge towards Tate Modern.

Happy chappy having a run around the South Bank

We will really miss places like Borough markets, so much variety and interesting things to look at and eat (I know, we ate a cheese toasted sandwich but they are very special and there is more to it than that). 

Kew Gardens

I hadn't been to Kew Gardens before, Jackie had once, but it was somewhere we wanted to go together before moving back to NZ.

Last weekend we made the decision to go. The weather was nice so we packed a lunch an headed to the train station.

Streatham Common - Clapham Junction - Kew Bridge Station and then a short walk.

It cost £16 per adult to get in which is very steep for a park but we knew that before we went and planned on getting our moneys worth by spending a good portion of the day there.

They have an exhibition on at the moment called IncrEdible - all about edible plants.

These mushrooms aren't real

They're made of wicker

Theo loved the fungi

As a fancy park no ball games are allowed, we broke the rules! Here's Jackie hoofing the ball, Theo chased it around the park, it was great fun to do this without any dogs around (not allowed).

This was Jackie's favourite, it was a huge table set for tea with plants growing in pots and out of plates. All the plates were screwed in to place. The plants were ingredients for things, we sat next to a cherry tree and almond tree, both which were labelled for a bakewell tart. 

One of the staircases in the famous glasshouse. We had the buggy so didn't go up, although Jackie has confessed she wouldn't have gone up any way.

The glasshouse with vege garden planted out front, on the right towards the back you can see the corn. 

Hydrangeas, one of Jackie's favourites. 

Not only were we mean enough to dress Theo in a pink polo, when he was sleeping we took a photo of him with matching flowers. 

Not sure it really comes through but this tree is one of the original trees planted in the garden, it grew horizontally an had brick reinforcing to stop it falling over. 

Another shot of the glasshouse with the lake. You could hire boats on the lake, lots of people did, many of them ha no idea how to row a boat so it was good fun to watch. 

After the gardens we went to Kew Gardens station, where we stopped to get a coffee before getting the train home.

At Streatham Common station we stopped at the Railway pub, which is fast becoming a favourite, they're very child friendly.

Here's Jackie and Theo taking a break. The little girl on the right was Theo's girlfriend, although she thought Theo was a girl (he'll never forgive us for putting him in the pink shirt). The girl's mother and friends, had a couple of other kids with them and told us not to worry about Theo if he was with them, we kept an eye on the kids from our position and managed to stop them escaping on a few occasions. While Theo was off playing with the other kids we managed to get an extra pint in. 

All in all a great day.

The next day we went for a walk to Streatham Common park, we'd not really explored it before and thought we'd give it a go. The main bit isn't very appealing and we weren't sure if there was more to it. Just as we were about to give up we found the Rookery, a really peaceful manicured garden. By this time we were getting pooped and ready for food, we saw there was more to explore so might try and get back there before we go. Theo had a big run around and we thought he'd fall asleep in time for us to have a sit down lunch somewhere, no such luck. But we did have a nice coffee and pick up some fresh bread for sandwiches.

So a great weekend exploring some new places that we can tick off our list.