England & Scotland 2018 Day 5

Day 5 25-Nov 2018 Sunday

Hotel: Premier Inn Stratford Upon Avon Waterways GBP54 breakfast included, Parking GBP4

Castle Combe,  Bibury (Arlington Row),  Bourton on the water, Upper/Lower Slaughter,

 Stow on the Wold Wooden door of st edwards church, Chipping Campden, Stratford upon Avon

After bidding goodbye to the farm horses, we started our journey exploring the Cotswold.  To layman terms, it was exploring people’s old houses from 1800+ few hundred years ago from the outside.  Quite enjoyable as there were no crowd, and skipping village to village.

I cooked chicken rice with oven baked Mediterranean vege, which Kaylen had it in the car, Jared had in Bourton on the water in the park. Not easy to picnic, cos it was rather cold.

We had late lunch Stow on the Wold,  a random restaurant that we found, serving Welsh. Kaylen and me shared two scone, yummiest cream we ever had, almost like ice cream type of creamy.

Arrived at Stratford Upon Avon close to 4pm+, the kids were tired & full.  So daddy & me went to explore the town at night..and bought them cup noodle for dinner. 

Castle Combe






Unicorn Lodge


Next stop, Bibury for the Arlington Row





Next stop Bourton on Water, this is a proper town with restaurant, shops and hotel.






Jared picnicking with his homemade lunch, chicken rice with grilled mix vege. Kind of cold ..hands were all frozen.

After that we moved on to Stow on the Wold, a very quiet town, as if only few tourist, no locals..
Didn't quite like the town & to my disappointment the bakery that serve the best scone was close that day!



Lunch
Rarebit, bread soak in cheese sauce


Quiche

Best cream I ever tasted. But the scone , I could easily replicate

We also drove thru upper/lower Slaughter. And had a short stop at Chipping Campden. All the towns were pretty quiet in winter.

England & Scotland 2018 Day 4

Day 4 24-Nov 2018 Saturday

Park & Ride Odd Down Park/Bath City/Roman Baths/The Circus/Royal Crescent/Bath Christmas Market/Sally Lunn Historical Restaurant

Parking was hard in Bath City, so we drove to Odd Down park & ride and purchased bus ticket to Bath ~GBP9.  Started raining today & so bad that we couldn’t join Bath free guide tour, and somehow I didn’t like it as much too. Too much history & talking..

So we were on our own to explore the city and visited Roman Baths which in my opinion was overrated.  The most not worth GBP50+ entrance tics spent.

Lunch was at Sally Lunn Historical Restaurant, quite different type of food..worth visiting.  Had an enjoyable lunch although we ordered too much.

After lunch, we started exploring Christmas market, which was too crowded, almost to the stage of close to pushing.  Things got better when we left the city to explore the Circus & Royal Crescent.

Winter day time was too short to properly enjoy outing, so at about 4pm we took the bus to collect our car & drove back to our farm stay.  Dinner was tapao from Christmas market and rice from left over the day before

Lunch @ Sally Lunn





The significance of this pic..Kaylen always chopped to sit with daddy..and it was a rare occasion when Jared got to sit beside daddy. Such a nice pic!

Rain stopped post lunch..and we were able to enjoy Bath city a little better

England & Scotland 2018 Day 3

Day 3 23-Nov 2018 Friday

Had the best Premier Inn breakfast, since we didn’t have good dinner the night before..everyone enjoyed so much of it. Then, we took the shuttle for Hertz from T4 to collect our car and start our road trip.  It was effortless, no crowd at Hertz, but it took me a surprise of the total car cost.  The original quote without insurance was GBP258 + GBP40 location cost.  The full insurance turned out to be GBP370 + full tank diesel GBP50, total was GBP660 for 8 days. Got upgraded from Nissan Qashqai to a Merz Benz B180, very new and clean car.

Turned out, it was the happiest 8 days on the road trip..looking back.  And daddy had a knock at the car door upon reaching Glasgow due to strong wind..so the insurance was worthwhile too.

The day was grayish the whole of time of the drive..and Stonehenge was an easy drive.

Need to take a shuttle bus from the car park of Stonehenge visitor center….again it was really cold with the wind consistently blowing..but we somehow were accustomed of the cold.

After Stonehenge, we drove to  BeeHive Park and Ride, for a free bus ride to Salisbury town. By the time we were there for lunch, it was already 2pm.  Lunch was at Pizza Express, Jared chose his own vegan pasta.

Short visit of Salisbury Cathedral..huge place before driving to our farm stay

England & Scotland 2018 Day 2

Day 2 22-Nov 2018 Thursday

I thought our arrival will be delayed from 6.15am to 8am, turned out we arrived at 6.55am safely. Very smooth landing – one of the smoothest we had experienced.  Long queue to clear the custom, but no check at all for the luggages.  Arrived at Premier Inn T4 via train & a long & cold walkway..that’s where we had a glimpse of UK winter..cold ~

Managed to check in & got our room, which we changed to our best winter gears & off we go to take bus to T5 for our trip to Windsor Castle.

At the bus stop waiting for bus to T5

It was already 10am when we arrived at T5, and wanted to wait for First 9 or 8, under the strong wind blowing..a kind driver of Bus 703 got us to take his bus which only cost GBP10 for return trip. The trip took about 1hour to arrive at Windsor.

Upon getting down the bus, we were so surprised with the cold of London once again..which was almost unbearable. Jared’s cold got worst and keep sneezing.  Got the timing wrong for guard change, and ended up having lunch at King and castle (Wetherspoon pub) which tasted so so mediocre that we vowed not to return to any Wetherspoon in future.

Windsor castle was surprisingly not as grand as we expected, a little old, messy, no pictures allowed, even the room which Prince Harry/Meghan’s family shoot was taken was messy.

The St George chapel which hosted the royal wedding was also small & rundown

Outside Windsor

A funny guard, who make faces to tourist. And they keep marching every 10minutes.

The better places in Windsor were always locked up

The Long walk was kinda interesting..just that in winter cold we couldn’t complete the walk

Dinner was tabau Chinese from Windsor about GBP5 each for fried rice & noodle.  But jetlag was getting really badly on us. Couldn’t finish the food, in fact Kaylen slept without dinner & shower from 6pm+ UK time.

England & Scotland 2018 Day 1

Day 1 21-Nov 2018 Wednesday

QF1 Qantas A380 Flight Schedule 11.55am, but delayed till almost 1.30am before we could get on flight. 

The gal who just came back from school leadership camp..slept throughout flight delay.


A big plane & full too ..majority of ppl came from Sydney


Breakfast

England & Scotland 2018 Itinerary Summary

Day 1 21-Nov 2018 Wednesday

QF1 Qantas A380 Flight Schedule 11.55pm, but delayed till almost 1.30am before we could get on flight.

Day 2 22-Nov 2018 Thursday

Heathrow/Windsor Castle

Hotel: Premier Inn T4 GBP62, breakfast included

Windsor Castle Ticket –Prebook £54.70

Transport: Greenline 703  GBP10 day ticket for 4pax

Day 3 23-Nov 2018 Friday

Hotel: Rew Farm Country & Equestrian Accomodation 2Nights GBP138

Pick up Car/Stonehenge/Salisbury

Day 4 24-Nov 2018 Saturday

Park & Ride Odd Down Park/Bath City/Roman Baths/The Circus/Royal Crescent/Bath Christmas Market/Sally Lunn Historical Restaurant

Day 5 25-Nov 2018 Sunday

Hotel: Premier Inn Stratford Upon Avon Waterways GBP54 breakfast included, Parking GBP4

Castle Combe,  Bibury (Arlington Row),  Bourton on the water, Upper/Lower Slaughter,

 Stow on the Wold Wooden door of st edwards church, Chipping Campden, Stratford upon Avon

Day 6 26-Nov 2018 Monday

Hotel: Premier Inn Manchester City Centre (Arena/Printworks) GBP81 breakfast included

Shakespeare's Birthplace/ Holy trinity church-grave

Manchester Old Tratford Stadium/City/ Christmas market/Chinatown

Day 7 27-Nov 2018 Tuesday

Hotel: Augill Castle Derwent & Raisbeck GBP200

Manchester Cathedral, Primark, John Ryland Library

Brough Castle, Afternoon tea GBP80

Day 8 28-Nov 2018 Wednesday

Hotel: Moxy Glasgow Merchant Inn FOC (yay! Redeemed Marriott point) Parking GBP5

Storm Diana! Rained whole day, the worst rainy day throughout trip, but temp was mild ~13C

George Square, Merchant City, Christmas market, Buchanan shopping street, Primark

Day 9 29-Nov 2018 Thursday

Hotel: Nevis Bank Inn GBP125 breakfast included

Loch Lomond (rain-drive thru), Glen Etive, meeting of 3 waters, Glencoe

Day 10 30-Nov 2018 Friday

Hotel: Hollyrood snug apartment 3nights  Total: GBP270

Loch Achtriochan/ Glencoe

Meadowbank Shopping @Edinburgh

Day 11 1-Dec 2018 Friday

Royal Mile/ Edinburgh Castle / Greyfriars Kirkyard/ Christmas Market/ Princess street

Day 12 2-Dec 2018  Sunday

Arthur’s seat, Queen’s Arm Sunday Roast, Carlton Hill

Day 13 3-Dec 2018  Monday

Train to London 4.5hr

London Eye / House of Parliament/ Big Ben/ Leicester square

Day 14 4-Dec 2018 Tuesday

Tower bridge/Borough market/Millenium Bridge/ St Paul/British Museum/ SOHO/Covent Garden

Day 15 5-Dec 2018  Wednesday

Buckingham Palace  - guard change 11am/ St James Park

Picadilly Circus/ National Gallery/ B Bakery for Afternoon tea Birthday celebration/ Chinatown birthday dinner/ Brick Lane Salt Beef Beigel

Day 16 6-Dec 2018  Thursday

Natural History Museum, Sci Museum, V&A Museum

LHR Airport with Blackberry taxi @ GBP40

Day 17 7-Dec 2018 Friday

Home sweet home

Total Cost:
Ticket: $3696 [1016 adult, 873 youth , 796child]
Seat reservation: $160
Hotel: $2700 (Total 14N, with 1N free, redeeming points)
Entrance tickets: $475 (Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, Bath Spa, Edinburgh Castle, London Eye)
Train ticket: GBP59
Car Rental: $1200 (GBP665 include 1 full tank diesel & all covered insurance for 8 days)
Phone SIM: Three SGD33 for 12Gb
Total trip cost ~SGD8k

We brought along GBP2000, with exchange rate of ~1.80, and came home with left over of GBP440