Surbiton to Barcelona

I'm sitting at Gatwick Airport waiting for flight to Barcelona. We'll be back here briefly on Tues night/Wed morning when we return and board EasyJet to Pisa.

The last couple of days with Meg have been great but not at all to plan. The Tuesday visit to Hatfield House didn't occur because it was closed on Tuesdays. On Wednesday Kevin picked us up in his car and we headed to Herne Bay for our boat trip to the windfarms and seaforts. The drive was uneventful as I was the navigator with support from his GPS Tomtom. On the way we rang to book tickets for the 1.30 trip as we didn't want to miss out. On arrival we checked kin and paid and watched the 12.00 boat go out. It looked very exciting in an open life boat type thing that accelerated awesomely.

While waiting we wandered the beachfront and then ordered fish and chips at a very popular fish and chip shop where we had to line up. They were by far the worst fish and chips I have ever had! I still reckon I can taste them.

The news, however, was about to get worse. The boat's motor had broken down and there would be no further sailings that day. We were gutted, especially Kevin whose idea it had been. Two days in a row our plans were scuttled.

We drove further along the coast to a Roman fort at Recluver that we could see on the horizon. It is most probably the oldest building (2AD) that I have seen and the views along the coast were great. The Dam Busters practised out here!

We then drove back to London via Leith's Tower Hill which is the highest point in Sussex. It was a great walk through awesome MTB terrain (we saw a MTB) and the view of London was good, though it was a long way away.

We then visited The Maypole, which is the pub around from Kevin's where we had a few pints. We then bused into Surbiton and had a great Indian feed at Joy. I then fell asleep on Meg's floor with a very nice whiskey in my hands.

At least we still had fairly secure plans tomorrow which would prevent the hat trick of Plan Bs. We were to get up at 7.00 and train to Kent for a 11 mile ramble on the Downs with a nice pub lunch.

In the morning Leigh was feeling a little wasted so was reluctant to go! As well, the train line we had to catch was under repair and we would have to bus! Plan B again!

We bused into Kingston to do some shopping. This was relaxing and rewarding as I purchased 6 more CDs for the Top 500 and now own all but 3 of the top 101! We also did some shopping for Lucy's birthday. When we got back to Surbiton we bought some boxes to send gifts and surpus clothes home and spent the rest of the afternoon packing the boxes and our suitcases.

We then wandered back into Surbiton and took Meg to dinner at the same Chinese (The Magic Wok) we went to on our Saturday night there when Meg was at the wedding. It was a great meal.

The next morning I took the envelope for Lucy and the two boxes of our stuff down to the PO to discover it would cost more than 100 pounds to send the two boxes home bt slow boat to China. The helpful man suggested breaking things down into smaller boxes so I bought two more, lugged the two boxes back to Megs and packed up four boxes which would cost about 11 pounds each. I left Meg the money and she agreed to post one a day for us.

We then walked to the station where w4e bid Meg a sad farewell and we headed off to Gatwick. On our second train I got caught up with a bunch of lads heading to Portsmouth for a stag weekend. Once the train was under way they made the poor groom to be change in the doorway into his Borat Mankini which he was to wear until lunchtime when he would have to wear another costume, and so on for the rest of the weekend. Check photos on the blog. He was allowed to put a kilt on before moving carriages.

Gatwick was straight forward and very soon we were landing in Barcelona. We were at the shuttle train door when it closed and took off on us so we had to wait another half hour before we were spilled out at Sants Station. Our street Avenir de oma is one of the many that spokes out from this centre, but could we find it?

Eventually we did and walked off dragging our suitcases to number 93. When we got there it did not exist and there was a bunch of seedy flats. One of the occupants, a helpful, but alcohol stinking and non-English speaking residents, showed that we had gone up the wrong spoke and pointed us in the right direction. After 200m we were able to check into the very nice Amister Hotel and head out for a walk to find dinner.

We found a nice Italian and after a feed of pasta and some Spanish beer we walked a bit before crashing after a busy day.