Na zdravi (to health) from Praha

Charles Bridge to Mala Strana

Powder Gate: One of 13 of Stare Mesto's Gates

Mala Strana to Vltava River

The Old Town Square

Church of Our Lady Before Tyn

Prague: Czech Republic

Having saved a few pounds by not spending up large, we have just returned from a magical five nights in Prague (Praha). Cold for us Kiwis and only one day of sunshine but what a great city to visit. So much history; and so much Catholic history. We booked on-line with EasyJet with accommodation included (£561) and thoroughly enjoyed the near endless walking from Harmony Hotel (on Na Porici) to the Old Town Square, to St Wenceslas Square, to the Charles Bridge, to a plethora of Cathedrals, to the Powder Gate,and to climax our stay, an 8 hour walking day along the Royal Route to the Old Prague Castle,(Prazsky Hrad)and St Vitus' Cathedral above the Lesser Town (Mala Strana. With a 1.2m population (and thousands of tourists even in the off season)there were always people around, even at night, on our way home from dinner (which never cost more than 800 koruna, or about £20 for both of us including three courses - and wonderful BEER!)Three day trips - the tour of the city to become oriented, to Terezin (early WW2 Transit Camp for Jews on their way to the death camps of Poland) and to Kutna Hora (Once a silver mining town, a Royal Mint) a UNESCO protected town and the beautiful St Barbara Cathedral. The ossary was a bit crass - so many unearthed human bones from a crypt containing dead from the Plague along with some Hussite soldiers from the Middle Ages - and turned into a museum of bone (eg bone chandelier) exhibits. Would we ever come back to Prague? You bet! (but unlikely given how big our world is, but you just never know.)

Shelley alone at Wickham Market Station

Sutton Hoo Burial Mound

Sutton Hoo

Our next trip away was north again on the Ipswich lime then on the Lowestoft Line to Sutton Hoo which,(from Old English 'haugh'), means high place or hill. The day was brilliant - blue skies and 20+ degrees. So it didn't really matter when we missed our station stop and overshot. We sat, absorbing the English warmth, all alone (we have NEVER been alone in a public place in England) on the platform with the ubiquitous Stationmaster's black cat. They really do exist. We caught the train back one stop. With some support from the guard (we're rooting for you!) we managed to get off where we intended, walked about 20 mins along quiet/busy country lanes to Sutton Hoo. A burial ground from the earliest Anglo Saxons in England where it is thought, the first King of the united tribes of Southern England (King Raedwald)is buried here. There are certainly some interesting hisorical archives which tell of the unearthing of Anglo Saxon ships which were buried along with important people such as kings,from the burial mounds which are dotted around the crest of Sutton Hoo.

Freeman or Serf or Slave or Idiot?

A day at the Colchester Castle Museum, an old Norman Castle built directly on top of the remains of a Roman base, and this is how you could turn out: freeman, serf, slave but definitely not Lord and clearly not Master.

The Crawfords take on THE WORLD

The White Tower and London Bridge

And then it was off to Jenny's in London via what we thought was the Tower of London.We were a bit taken back by the size of the Tower complex and what, in fact turned out to be several towers. And there was even one where Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick had been incarcerated a few hundred years back at the end of the 14th Century. Fancy one of my rellies doing something so bad that he had to be locked up in his own tower awaiting execution. Still, he was in good company with a number of other executions taking place on the grass common: like Lady Jane Grey, who also met her fate here. What we expected would be a morning took us most of the day (the Crown Jewels were a minor attraction!) before we made our way out, over the Tower Bridge had headed (on foot!) towards Waterloo. Distance got the better of us and even a gelato wasn't enough to get us there and we ended up catching a bus: Shelley's map reading skills found our way there (after some useless debate from the other half). Having finally arrived in Bonnington Square (where Jenny and husband Matthew live) we asked a 'local' for directions. Turned out he was a South African on holiday, but he knew enough to be able to head us in the right direction. We enjoyed Jenny and Matthew's hospitality as we shared her birthday and met an intersting friend of hers. An overnight stay and a rushed trip back to Liverpool Street Station the next day ended a very full and thoroughly enjoyable weekend. (Jenny recommended a visit to Sutton Hoo the following weekend and gave us a pass which would have expired had we not been able to use it.)

Shelley outside the Norwich Railway Station

Norwich Cathedral from the manicured lawn

The weekend we went to Norwich was brilliantly fine and warm - what they say here, is a typical September day. The train ride through Manningtree and Ipswich through Diss (must have been a sad person to Dis a town!) was very comfortable and we arrived at Norwich knowing nothing. We spied a castle on a hill which looked as though it were in the direction of the town, and we headed for it. And lo, the town. First stop, the Information Office and a sit in the sunshine overlooking the market, where from the Middle Ages, a market has run, albeit with a few modern changes. A tour through the church of St Peter Mancroft with an elderly guide (who'd recently had a fall and was now sporting a bruise as big as a dish on her side)a walk to the Catholic Cathedral Church of St John the Baptist and a very informative walking tour of the heart of Norwich preceded our end point at the Norwich Cathedral - an impressive building but a lie on the internal, manicured lawn gave us a different perspective. We tried (successfully as it turned out) to find our way back to the station via the Wensum River, which many centuries ago the Romans forded to claim the city. But as we got nearer our thirsts took over and we stopped in a little pub for beers and chips. While we tried to avail ourselves of the local brew the nearest thing to anything local (because they'd run out) was a Strongbow cider. Not really impressed but we did try. After the top up it was back to the station to find hordes of Norwich (canaries) football supporters descending on the station after what appeared to be a loss in the local derby. Some sad faces. But what a lovely city.

The Dome of St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral

The first opportunity we had after settling in to our flat in Highwoods, Colchester, we took a Saturday trip to visit Paul in London. Having watched the All Blacks demolish Italy, we spent a couple of hours visitng St Paul's Cathedral across the new Millenium Bridge. St Paul's was the marriage venue for Charles and Diana some years ago but for us, the climb to the upper balconies was more memorable. Winding steps seemingly going on forever upwards (were there 400+ steps?)spiralled into narrowness but at last opened up onto a crowded balcony from which views over a leaden London spread underneath us. You could almost feel the pomp and ceremony in the whispering gallery and the serious history in the basement burial tombs of, amomgst others,Horatio Lord Nelson, Sir Christopher Wren, the Duke of Wellington and Florence Nightingale.

Amongst the cloud on The Peak, Hong Kong Island

Jordan Rd, Hong Kong in the early evening

Kowloon skyscrapers from Kowloon Park

Hong Kong was an amazing place: population density and high rise accommodation were more than picures could ever indicate. Just so intensely jammed together sometimes apartments not too much bigger than a bed space. Eating out and laundromats preclude the necessity of anything beyond bed space. On the harbours around Aberdeen on the south of Hong Kong Island the rich (apparently) but near destitute looking fishing communities do more than eke out their exisrence fising: if there's no fish catch then tourists pay to be transported around and through the fishing villages where boat dwellers live in boats as big (if not bigger some of them) as apartments with no rental fee (because they are not taking up landspace) and paying no Government taxes. And the August heat and humidity were very overwhelming. Three showers a day to get rid of dust and sweat and wet from the summer rains. For three days the clouds hung low and pregnant over Victoria Harbour like the world was closing in from the hills that characterise both Kowloon and Hong Kong Islands. At another time of year Hong Kong would make a great stopover on the way to Northern Europe but would need to get out into the New Territories and into mainland China. There is not a lot to do but the experience was well worth having. What a history: proudly and richly presented in the Museums: Art, Natural and Space - three separate insitiutions all with their own different contributions to make about Hong Kong's turbulent and sometimes brutally violent past.
But for these tourists no bag space = no shopping (yet it is a shopper's paradise!). Maybe next time. And just to put the icing on the Honk Kong cake our flight out to London Heathrow was delayed 15 hours - so nice of them (Air New Zealand) to feed us with huge buffet meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and put us up in 5* luxury at the Airport Hotel. A great way to while away the time -and what's more we got to fly out to London at 12.30 ish am, a much easier flight on which to sleep than the day flight. And so then to our arrival in England.