September 10th - 13th, 2010, visiting friends in England ...
By deciding quickly we could get two 99 Euro flights from Frankfurt to Birmingham to visit our friends in England!
Although Cynthia just recovered from a severe cold, we started our weekend and after arriving Friday morning we took our hire car at Birmingham Airport and drove to Malvern to Gaynor and Steve ...
Gaynor & Steve
First stop was the car manufacturer Morgan Motors around the corner ... we had to hurry as the last tour on a Friday is at 12:00 hrs ...
It was absolutely amazing, that all production is basically as it was 50 years ago ... still a combination of wood and metal ...
... the most modern tool - so it seems - was a drilling machine ... here checking the surface ...
... and correcting it by hand ...
Here Steve, Cynthia, Gaynor and Thomas in the factory ... btw it was great, that they allowed photos everywhere ...
Here a tool from the fifties ... 3 plies of wood are glued together and put in there for two hours ... ready is the wooden mudguard ...
Further ahead in production ... attaching leather to the doors ...
... and here Steve and Gaynor with their next car ... definitely Steve's favourite colour ;-)
We went back to their house ... fantastically restored (and extended) ... with a huge garden and - of course the kennels ...
Gaynor prepared a wonderful dinner for us at home ... it was great to enjoy their company and hospitality ...
Saturday, Steve took us on a tour around where they live ... first stop was Ledbury ... here the main street ...
Saturday, Steve took us on a tour around where they live ... first stop was Ledbury ... here the main street ...
we stopped for a little lunch in a local pub ...
... street scenes in Ledbury ...
In the afternoon, dog feeding was on the agenda ... and you cannot imagine the speed with which the bowls were emptied ...
Cynthia fell in love with a Lab puppy called "Molly", just four months old ... a real cutie ...
Steve also took us on one of the walks with the dogs ... and taught us a lot about training dogs and their psychology ...
... here one of them at full speed ...
Last evening we were invited to dinner in a pub close by; absolutely typical for England!
So we have to thank Gaynor and Steve for their hospitality and we hope, they make it to Germany soon! ... Sunday morning we started driving to Beverly (North of London) and we saw the beautiful countryside of Cotswold region ...Beverly
... to arrive at their home in Letchworth and to see Beverly with Katherine and Susie again ... After a light lunch, we made our way to Cambridge ... here a funny sign in the pedestrian zone ...
The food in England has drastically improved the last year ... due to German Bratwurst Import ;-)))
Here a good photo of the main entrance to King's College ... with a funny clowd above and interesting light ...
Here the street opposite (King's parade) ... really fantastic ...
While moving on, we witnessed classic street scenes ...
... more old buildings ...
... nearly got lost in the maze of Cambridge ... here the two of us ...
Inside St. John's College yard ...
... classical warning signs you can see all over England ... ;-)))
... and here the river with the boats ... it's called "punting" here ... and because our feet were tired ...
... we jumped on a boat and had a 40 minute ride over the river ... and we could see the city from a different perspective ... ... here our - very nice - guide ...
... we could see the "bridge of sighs" ... inspired from Venice ...
... and of course ... they still exist!Last day ...
... we first drove to Stratford-upon-Avon ... here Shakespeare's birthplace ...
... and Cynthia in front of another old building ...
... when we went for lunch, we saw this sign in front of the pub: the Aussies pushing their wines into the market ;-)
... this was the pub actually ... another possible picture for Cynthia to paint ...
... on we went to Warwick Castle, which is enormous ...
... here after climbing some stairs up ...
and a final picture of Warwick through the loophole ...Monday afternoon we drove back to Birmingham Airport, took our flight back to Frankfurt and arrived safely at home at around 22:30 hrs ... it was good to see our friends again!!!