Before I begin on the next part of out tour of England, I would like to apologize for my spelling in the last post - I blame the jet lag and trying to type a post in the short space of free time...
There is no saying wether this post will be any better - the reason for this bout of tired-head-fuzziness, you will find out later on in this post...
There is no saying wether this post will be any better - the reason for this bout of tired-head-fuzziness, you will find out later on in this post...
The Wirral tried to give us more sunshine, but failed.
But it wouldn't feel like England if we didn't have the rain, and I wouldn't feel English if I had no weather issues to tell you about!
But it wouldn't feel like England if we didn't have the rain, and I wouldn't feel English if I had no weather issues to tell you about!
We managed to squeeze in a cheeky barbecue on the Monday evening, before the clouds filled the skies for the next few days.
The next day we saw our opportunity in a break in the clouds and had a breezy wander around West Kirby Marina:
The next day we saw our opportunity in a break in the clouds and had a breezy wander around West Kirby Marina:
And looked over to Wales...
On Wednesday, we went to Liverpool with my mum and T's mum.
And watched The Lion King...
...along with many primary schools...
Thursday dawned and all too soon it was time to leave the Wirral and drive on to see family near Oswestry for lunch, then drive onto Lincoln, via Leicester.
After catching up with more family in Lincoln, we headed onto the pretty village of Cumnor near Oxford, where we had a quiet night in a sweet b and b to charge our batteries...
...before hitting the road again to catch up with more friends in Bristol.
This group of friends we hadn't seen since we all lived in Sevilla a couple of years ago.
They had all moved back to the UK after the programme they - and T - were working on finished. It was strange seeing them all in this - cooler - setting!
From here we meandered onto a sunny Croyde, Devon.
Soaking up some sunshine and catching up with yet more friends and family...and T fitting in a cheeky surf (I stuck with walking along the beach for my exercise)...
...we then made our way to London on Monday.
It took slightly longer than expected as we hit rush hour traffic - we should have known, but with so much going on at the moment, this little fact had been overlooked.
So we spent 30 minutes travelling a couple of kilometres...
So we spent 30 minutes travelling a couple of kilometres...
After spending the evening with T's brother, we were ready for a good night's sleep on our last night in England before flying off: Or not...
We were woken up by an ear-piercing loud alarm going off around 1;30am.
Not sure if it was the fire or burglar alarm, we lay there for a while, coming too, hoping it would be turned off.
It wasn't.
We decided we should really get up in case it was a fire alarm.
Scrabbling for clothes, we then left our room, locking the door behind us, as we had all our worldy possessions in the room and weren't sure whether it was a burglar alarm, or thinking maybe someone had set the fire alarm off so they could get us all out of our rooms and then clear our belongings...
We stepped outside into the cool night air, the other residents already outside.
There was no member of staff at the hotel it transpired, so someone rang the emergency contact number stuck to the front door.
No answer.
We tried again.
No answer.
The woman doing all the calling then rang the fire brigade, who came out.
As we shivered outside they checked the building.
They then checked the bedrooms...
Our room was at the front of the building, and was just above where we were all stood.
As a fireman was asking us if any of us had locked our rooms, T and I were just handing him the key, the sound of breaking wood floated down to where we were stood.
"I have the key to room 3." the fireman said over the radio.
The reply came: "Too late, we're in room 3."
Ahh.
That sound of splitting wood would have been our door then.
Not sure if it was the fire or burglar alarm, we lay there for a while, coming too, hoping it would be turned off.
It wasn't.
We decided we should really get up in case it was a fire alarm.
Scrabbling for clothes, we then left our room, locking the door behind us, as we had all our worldy possessions in the room and weren't sure whether it was a burglar alarm, or thinking maybe someone had set the fire alarm off so they could get us all out of our rooms and then clear our belongings...
We stepped outside into the cool night air, the other residents already outside.
There was no member of staff at the hotel it transpired, so someone rang the emergency contact number stuck to the front door.
No answer.
We tried again.
No answer.
The woman doing all the calling then rang the fire brigade, who came out.
As we shivered outside they checked the building.
They then checked the bedrooms...
Our room was at the front of the building, and was just above where we were all stood.
As a fireman was asking us if any of us had locked our rooms, T and I were just handing him the key, the sound of breaking wood floated down to where we were stood.
"I have the key to room 3." the fireman said over the radio.
The reply came: "Too late, we're in room 3."
Ahh.
That sound of splitting wood would have been our door then.
We weren't the only ones to have locked our room, but everyone else was able to hand their keys over before any more doors were broken!
Another fire engine came to help them break into the bar so they could check that area was free of fire.
Bang.
Bang.
The sound of splintering wood.
A few minutes later, a head popped through the front door.
"Bar's open!"
We were allowed back into the warmth of the bar area, and after another thirty minutes we were told we could go back to our rooms.
All the time the firemen had tried various contact numbers for hotel staff, but none were successful.
Bang.
Bang.
The sound of splintering wood.
A few minutes later, a head popped through the front door.
"Bar's open!"
We were allowed back into the warmth of the bar area, and after another thirty minutes we were told we could go back to our rooms.
All the time the firemen had tried various contact numbers for hotel staff, but none were successful.
Soon after 3:30am we were back in our room, a few of our numerous bags propping up the door to our room, as we were unable to close it properly and therefore lock it..and the bedspread used to cover the light shining in through the rather large crack:
It was certainly a memorable last night in England...!