More of England

Yesterday we visited Cadbury World, yes that's right, the world of Chocolate, needless to say Chris and James were like children in heaven, we toured around there and got loads of samples and then got to make our own chocolate concoctions at the end (yum yum) Rob then bought the boys the BIGGEST bar of chocolate we have ever seen - a 1kg bar. Not sure if it will come home with us or not.....

After that drove down through the Cotswolds which is absolutely beautiful. We started in Chipping Campden where we stopped for tea and scones with clotted cream. . . These villages are all beautiful and so quaint, built from the local stone.

We then carried on to Stow-on-the-Wold where James had his chocolate chip ice-cream and then on to Bourton-on-the-Water where we wondered around the village and saw the miniature village. The weather has been so stunning that James took himself for a walk through the river, whilst the rest of the town sat on the banks of the river absorbing the sun.

Our final stop was in Oxford where we wondered around the city.

Today we headed out to Sandringham, the Queen's holiday residents via Peterborough where we shopped (yet again) and saw one of the larger cathedrals in England. We spent some time in the gardens of Sandringham, dreaming how we would live if we owned that kind of space and feeding the fish and ducks, taking loads of photo's

We then drove on to Norwich where we again wondered around the village, saw the castle, shopped and went to the Norwich Cathedral built by the Normans in 1098. In the Cathedral the boys lit candles in memory of Jonathan, Grandad and Uncle Jimmy, which was a lovely moment. The candles were all placed in a globe, which James then took a picture of.

This morning before we left, Rob went to speak to the management of the resort about our 'yobbo' neighbours who once again came home in the early hours of this morning, this time with girls, shouting and laughing at the top of their voices. On Saturday night, or Sunday morning at about 3h30, they were smashed out of their minds and jumping into the water of the Marina, and then the screaming -"it's f@#king cold - I think I am going to die....etc, etc, etc. The management said they had already had other complaints about them and assured us that they would be gone by this evening, even if they had to get the police in to do it and true to their word, when we got back this evening, they were gone. It is fantastic that the resort reacted in this way and that they are really concerned about the welfare of their customers.

Finally home again, to make dinner and eat at only 10.15pm while its still not quite dark outside.

So far we have travelled approximately 1300km around England, all of it driven by Rob, not bad for 1 week. I did do a small driving stint to one of the local grocery stores, but am very happy to be chauffered driver around - Rob is an excellent tour guide. We have been given a fantastic car by the rental company - VW Passat station wagon, which is more than able to cope with all of our luggage and transport us in comfort, whilst being extremely economical on diesel - it goes about 1100km on a tankful - I don't know why we don't see more of these types of cars in SA, as they are much more practical than the small 4 door saloon cars that we see on our roads.......