London (Dartford)

Friday 23^rd September to Friday 30^th September 2016

We have spent a lovely week staying with Kate in Dartford. Kate is renting from and sharing with a lovely girl called Emilie who kindly allowed us to stay with them. This turned out to be perfect because not only is the house very nice but we could see Kate every morning before she went to work and again each evening. I cooked plenty of muffins for her freezer and we had dinner ready each night.

We also did a bit of touristing. On Saturday we went into London with Kate and walked down the Thames from London Bridge, went to the Borough Street Markets, the Tate Modern, Millennium Bridge, Trafalgar Square and finally a musical (Kinky Boots) at the Adelphi Theatre.

On Sunday we met some of Kate’s friends who came over for lunch, did some gardening and basically let Kate do some preparation for the school week.

Monday Andy and I went fossil hunting at Folkstone. It was a bit windy and drizzled for a little while but we had a great time scouring the cliffs and beach for fossils. Found a couple of nice shells for us and sent the rejects into Kate’s school for the kids.

Tuesday we went to the Natural History Museum in London and really enjoyed it especially the gem and mineral display. Wednesday we went to Greenwich and included a boat up the Thames to get there and a tour of the Cutty Sark.

Have spent today sorting and packing in preparation for the journey home tomorrow.

Belguim

Monday 19^th September to Friday 23^rd September 2016

We flew from Venice to Brussels on Monday and then caught a train to Ghent. It took us all day and we didn’t arrive at the hostel in Ghent until 5pm (there are lots of tram works happening in Ghent so following the instructions to the hostel was challenging!!).

Spent Tuesday doing a self-guided walking trip of Ghent in which we visited three churches (not Andy’s favourite), went on a tour of the Belfry (both our favourite) and also toured the castle (over priced). We also spent a fair bit of time getting lost but now have Ghent pretty much covered.

On Wednesday we went to Bruges which is smaller and more beautiful than Ghent. Went on a canal trip which was excellent and then walked and walked through the old town and along the canals. Managed to fortify ourselves with pastries, chocolate and beer (following the brewery tour). Had a great day.

Thursday was spent in Brussels, where we couldn’t quite decide what to do so visited the Grand Place or Grote Markt first and then went to the Botanical Gardens. This turned out to be a good choice because the gardens are well out of town so we had a long bus trip and saw a lot of Brussels.

Ghent:

 

Bruges:

Could this be Morgan?

Youth Hostel

 

Brussels: