We travelled by bus to Camberwell to visit St Giles Church where my Great Grandparents were married and reminisce with a wander through Kings College Hospital where I did Nursing training back in the 20th Century. Met with a colleague from my KCH days & now friend Roland, for lunch and had a wonderful time making his acquaintance again. I will add a photo later. Roland dropped us into Bromley Library for an appointment with the Local Studies Archivist to view some documents they hold on the Norfolk family. And visited the Church where Thomas Norfolk was baptised in 1805. We made our way back to Central London from Bromley exhausted from the heat and our jetlag. London is full with visitors from many nations
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After two full days on my 'Family History Tour', l generously said it was Manny's choices today. We had thoroughly enjoyed several walking tours when we were last here in 2010. So we headed off to meet our guide for the Notting Hill tour. The guide was fabulous, as usual and made it very interesting with lots of history (which I liked) and not all about the movie. We saw where lots of famous people lived but not Eddie & Patsy (from Ab Fab). Plus spotted a Grand Design house before the guide told us about it. The tour ended in the Portobello Markets, one of my old stomping grounds from the 80's. We grabbed some lunch next to an appropriately named Norfolk Square & headed down to the Thames to redeem a Groupon voucher for a cruise to Greenwich. The weather couldn't have been better. Heading off to visit family tomorrow before catching the ferry across to Spain on Tuesday evening.
I'm having some technical issues with my phone. I think a four day blog was probably too big. I'm going to divide it up into individual days but not till this evening. Have to go out and enjoy our last day in London NOW! Love to you all and thanks for all the positive feedback.
p.s. Flasher - Deptford Bridge won't be the same again. Another Family History visit (some of you will yawn, lucky Manny is very patient with me) to Brockley Cemetery to see a grave that I only recently discovered the location. This grave turned out to only a short distance from one I found by accident in 2013 and in a beautiful woodlands, hard to believe that we were in a big city. We explored the cemetery and then headed into Lewisham for a very traditional pub lunch, Steak & Kidney pie washed down with a local ale. After some shopping we caught the train to Deptford Bridge to visit the site of the Norfolk Brewery which was demolished and replaced with a building called Norfolk House in the 20th century. We discovered that has been demolished & redeveloped into apartments and we were delighted to discover they kept the name. From there we walked along Greenwich High Street to St Alfege Church Greenwich to visit the family graves in the park behind the Church but unfortunately there is redevelopment happening in the adjacent buildings and they were covered for protection.
We are spending our first week in England to recover from jet lag and for me to do some swift Family History research. The weather has been unseasonably hot, like being on the Gold Coast in January. Something we had not prepared for. We had 10 hours break between flights in Singapore and enjoyed a free tour into the city with a stop at a spectacular light show much like a firework display but accompanied with 70's disco music, I have a weakness for the genre, so they had me, hook line & sinker. We joined the crowd & lay on the ground to watch. If you are thinking what happened to the Camino? Next week.
Our plan: To arrive in Spain at Santander, crossing the Bay of Biscay by overnight ferry from Portsmouth. The plan is to commence our walk at the Cathedral in Santander, along north coast of Spain following the ‘Camino del Norte’ to Aviles about 200kms. Then change routes to the ‘Camino Primitivo’ which commences at the Cathedral in Oviedo and passes through the mountains of Asturias into Galicia to Santiago de Compostela. Why? This is the question I have been asked the most and often with a hint of irony. Between us we have very different reasons, my interest in walking a pilgrim’s route started, I think, when I lived in Kent, England back in the late ‘70’s, I remember seeing signs for the Pilgrim’s way, when I was walking up in the hills behind the village where I lived. Also as a cyclist I appreciate the wonder of traveling at a slow pace, feeling and seeing the changes in the landscape and the healthy fatigue at the end of the day. For Manny, well he has been dragged along with my idea but as it happens the Camino Primitivo passes 700 metres from the place of his birth and 15kms from where his Mother was born. We will take a detour to visit family and friends for a few days and explore the area while we are there. He is looking forward to walking over the land of his birth. Camino Primitivo: is the route of the first pilgrimage in 814 Alfonso II, King of Asturias, traveled from Oviedo to confirm that the remains of the apostle St James were located in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. How: We are traveling independently, carrying everything in backpacks and staying in Pilgrim hostels called Alburges. Crossing fingers that we won’t incur any injuries and taking good care of our feet.
On Thursday, I attempted to walk up Mt Warning with Julian to celebrate his birthday. Attempted sounds like we failed but that's not what happened. We got well past the halfway point and within 100 metres of a really nice view point where I'd planned to have a break when we heard the rain coming in. Despite sheltering under some trees, we got quite wet while we ate some lunch & hoped it would pass. I was left pining for my lovely wet weather gear and umbrella safely packed in my backpack at home. The rain eased off & we thought to continue up at least to the chains but the respite was only temporary and we decided it would be dangerous to climb up the rock face in the rain and what's more the temperature had dropped and we were getting properly cold. A bit disappointed we headed down. Saturday - back in Nerang National ParkCraig joined us for our final training walk back at our 'local favourite'. We headed out nice and early thanks to Craig, we are hopeless left to our own devices. Only a short walk (10.3 kms) today because we needed to get home and do all those last minute things to prepare for our departure on Tuesday. To our surprise, both the overturned vehicles we saw 3 weeks ago were still in the Park but now have Police tape on them. On Friday I walked Daves Creek loop in Lamington National Park with our neighbour Ann. There was fairly persistent rain the night before but the track was Ok just a bit muddy and we had to be careful. The inevitable happened, on a lovely flat and clean section of path, my feet went from under me and I fell heavily, the first three fingers of my right hand took the impact. On closer examination the path was almost pure clay and slippery like ice. Being a weekday there were fewer walkers and we saw a couple of wallabies close to the track, lots of birds and two unwelcome passengers; a tick each. Ann's behind her ear and mine on the abdomen. Lennox Heads to Ballina returnSaturday we joined friends and mentors Kath and Russell on a 20km walk along a spectacular coastal paths. The weather has been idyllic lately with clear, warm windless days. We saw whales breaching and pods of dolphins following our route southwards. Kath & Russell recently completed a 1700 km walk across France from the English Channel to the Mediterranean and have very generously shared advice from their experiences and ripping yarns from their adventures. They have a blog of their journey: .francecoasttocoast.blogspot.com.au/?m=1 We had a wonderful day and came home feeling pleasantly tired but a little anxious about our fitness after spending the day with such experienced walkers. These photos don't do this magnificent stretch of coastline justice. Post scriptMy fingers have been very sore but are on the mend. This is a bit of a relief because I have a bit of a history of getting an injury just before the event. Russell took lots of photos on Saturday and sent a few to me. They are lovely and I’d like to share some with you. |
AuthorMy interests are photography and family history research. And I like to cycle and travel. We are walking the Archives
May 2019
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