The trip home

Once we had negotiated the logistics of the mini bus transfer to Heathrow Airport and checked in all our luggage, we could relax a little, and bunker down for the two flights home.  The kids were in good form, and enjoyed making some noise on a communal piano, before we boarded the Airbus A380 aircraft.

The flights again went well, and despite sleeping for less time, Xavier behaved very well.  We once again availed ourselves of the first class Emirates lounge in Dubai, where we had a nice meal, and the kids played for a while in the small games room.

Upon arrival in Melbourne we were met by Kate, Sarah, and David who drove us home to 23 Radnor St, Camberwell.  On our doorstep when we arrived was an esky full of essentials and treats from our caring friends the Johnson family.  It was Thursday 24th July (the day before Grace's 10th birthday), and after an incredible 103 days away, it was nice to be home.

The final day - Bray and Windsor Castle

Originally when we booked the holiday, Tuesday 22nd July was to be the day we started our journey home, on QF10 departing around 10pm.  However, sometime in May Qantas made major changes to its schedule and QF10 switched to departing at 1pm.  As we expected to have plenty to do from our Winchester base, we opted to switch our flight home to the following day, a decision aided by Andrew being able to book two rooms at the Hilton Doubletree near Heathrow Airport with points for the additional final night.

On the morning of the 22nd we packed our luggage in a car for the final time , said goodbye to Winchester, which had provided an excellent base, and headed north for the third time in five days up the M3; this time to Heathrow.  On arrival we quickly checked in, moved our luggage into the rooms, and then headed back out in the car to find somewhere to eat.

Our destination for lunch was Bray, a small village not too far from Heathrow and Windsor, famous for being the home to Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck restaurant.  Elle had been very open over many years about her dream dinner being at the Fat Duck, and Andrew tried very hard to make this happen but was unsuccessful (bookings can only be done online, 2 months in advance, and places go within seconds of the system opening them up).  Despite this, we decided to visit the village of Bray to see the Fat Duck and to get lunch somewhere else.

Once we found Bray (the UK car didn't have GPS) we parked the car and walked the length of the main street, admiring the lovely whitewashed brick old buildings.

 Despite the small size of the village, and knowing the Fat Duck was on the main street, it wasn't immediately obvious where it was.  However, eventually we spotted a small menu on a wall, so we were able to take some photos.

We then sought out a place to eat, and could only find two options.  Fortunately we chose well, with the Crown Hotel, which we later found out was owned by Heston Blumenthal (So Andrew can say that he took Elle to a Heston restaurant!), and was excellent. The old hotel has a very traditional English feel, with low internal roof heights, exposed wooden rafters, and hand pumped beers.  Noting the children they offered us the option to eat in the rear garden which was an excellent choice.  The kids could play around before eating and we could all enjoy the glorious warm blue sky day.

The fish and chips and mini burger were popular, but the highlight was the Elle’s Eton Mess, which she had to share with everybody.

After lunch we drove to Windsor, found a great park near the town centre, and walked up to Windsor Castle.  Although a relatively quick visit, we managed to see all the highlights and walked around most of the accessible areas.

One of the highlights was the magnificent St Georges Chapel, in which we spent 30-45 minutes, taking in all of the key features (including the many royal tombs, e.g Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, George VI and Elizabeth the Queen Mother)..

Another was the State Apartments, featuring the Queen Mary's dollhouse.  While walking past glass cabinets of memorabilia, Andrew was amazed to see the gun shot that killed Lord Nelson (connecting well to his uniform with gun shot hole from the Naval Museum in Greenwich).

After being the last to leave the castle at 5pm closing time, we walked the nearby streets of Windsor and did a small amount of shopping in the many tourist shops.

After dropping Elle and the kids back at the hotel, Andrew drove the hire car to the nearby AVIS airport drop off point.  This normally routine task then took a turn for the worse, and raised stress levels to red.  On successive mornings in Winchester, we returned to our car and noted modest damage had occurred overnight.  One was very minor vertical scratch, the other a much more noticeable 6-8cm scrape, over two door panels.  As per usual practice, Andrew reported these upon check-in, expecting a response of ‘thanks for letting us know, they are minor, don’t worry’.  Instead the check-in person indicated that all damage had to be recorded, and an estimate of repair cost charged to the customer.  The number quoted was £1000 (A$1600)!!  This was a distressing end to the holiday, but fortunately 3-4 weeks later, after we contacted customer service to request a fairer outcome, AVIS dropped the entire charge, providing excellent holiday closure karma.

Farnborough Airshow

When organising the 16 week European sabbatical, Andrew decided to search for major events that we might be able to attend.  Initial focus areas were U2 concerts (not touring) and major sporting events (Tour de France, possibly, but in London not France).  However, while researching things to do in the South West of England, he discovered that the Farnborough Air show was on just before we returned home.  Andrew has always been a big aircraft fan, and attended several air shows in Australia (and Dubai) in his 20s and 30s.  Farnborough is one of the biggest and possibly the most famous Air Show in the world, so he was very keen to attend.

On Sunday 20^th July, we drove up the M3 from Winchester to London, before peeling off towards Farnborough.  With tickets purchased over the internet and maps printed off, we found our way to one of the large car parks around midday, about an hour before the 5 hour flight display commenced.

Upon leaving the car park we had our first bit of fun, with a policeman allowing the kids to sit astride his motorcycle.  Xavier in particular loved it.

 A 20 minute bus ride later and we were entering the gates to the airfield, and not long afterwards the first aircraft took to the skies.

An early highlight was the Breitling wing walkers, who performed numerous acrobatic feats while tethered to four 1940s vintage Boeing Stearman biplanes, with smoke billowing out the back.

Andrew very much enjoyed the World War 1 flying exhibition.  The individual aircraft looked great (Sopwith triplane, SE.5a, Junkers CL.1 , and Fokker DR1 triplane, made famous by the Red Baron), but of more significance they had nine in the air at once.  This enabled them to recreate what a real WW1 air battle might have looked like, with multiple dogfights occurring at the same time.

Despite tiring during the day, and struggling to keep up with his Dad’s aspirations for him to love the experience, William did enjoy several of the static and flying exhibits.  In the photos below, he is in front of a BAE Hawk (with Andrew), used by the British Air Force Flying Display Team, the Red Arrows (more on them later), and the famous Supermarine Spitfire from WW2.

 Although the crowd was huge (see below photo with Airbus A380 overhead), the large spaces at the airfield provided several uncrowded areas in which you could relax and enjoy both static and flying displays.

Although we didn’t queue to go inside, the distinctive Super Constellation looked great both on the tarmac and in the air.

Andrew was very happy to see (for the first time) an Avro Lancaster flyby.  It was surprisingly not well announced, and even more surprisingly only did one pass or the airfield, but he did quickly get a photo.   The Lancaster was one of Andrew’s favourite aircraft when young, and was the largest model plane he ever made, hanging alongside 3-4 others on a cotton string above his bed in Echuca and Tatura.

Later research revealed the following about the aircraft we saw:

PA474 is one of only two Lancaster aircraft remaining in airworthy condition out of the 7,377 that were built (the other is in Canada). PA474 rolled off the production line on 31 May 1945, just after the war in Europe came to an end.  She was used for many and varied tasks, including taking part in two films, ‘Operation Crossbow’ and ‘The Guns of Navarone’, before being adopted by the Air Historical Branch.

Other military aircraft highlights in the flying display were the Avro Vulcan, the Hawker Harrier, and the Eurofighter Typhoon (all shown below).

The Vulcan made the loudest noise of the day on take-off, while the Typhoon the loudest while airborne.  The Harrier performed a great display showcasing her unique engine thrust deflection system, hovering and drifting in the air for several minutes, before tearing off and performing very tight radius turns.

A small disappointment was the cancellation a few weeks earlier of the planned flight of the F-35 Lightening (or Joint Strike Fighter).  Commissioning issues in the USA forced them to revert to a static only display of an aircraft (see below) and separate engine system display.

The Lightening was contained inside the US Air Force display area, which also contained an F-15 Eagle, F-16 Flighting Falcon and F-18 Hornet (see below).

Among many highlights, all family members agreed that the 30min Red Arrows flying display was #1.  As much as we like the Roulettes, the Red Arrows are a cut above.  This is largely because with nine aircraft, rather than six they seem to be able to perform more numerous and more difficult formations and tricks more frequently.  Also, as the USA and French will confirm, red, white and blue smoke looks great out the back of aircraft!

After the flying display was all over, we had some more fun before heading back to Winchester, by going on some old fashioned carnival rides, including the Hurricane (pictured).

Childhood dreams fulfilled at Legoland

On Friday 18^th July, we got back in the car and headed north up the M3 towards London, and our destination for the day, Legoland at Windsor.  We were about 5 minutes away from the carpark when Elle received a call from Kate to relay the bad news that Pippi had a stroke earlier that day. The news was that she seemed physically OK, but that she had lost the ability to speak.  This was terribly distressing for Elle, but she put on an incredibly brave face in front of the kids, so their huge excitement in anticipation of the day wasn’t diminished.

After completing the call and parking the car, we entered Legoland not long after the gates opened at 10am.  We then went and collected our Q-Bot device, which would assist us greatly during the day to minimise the waiting times for rides.

Pleasingly, Grace and William had both just grown to exceed 120cm in height, and so were able to go on every ride without adult supervision.  Also, Xavier had just exceeded 100cm, and so was able to go on every ride with adult supervision.

First up, we went on two dragon themed roller coaster rides, one of which started in finished in a castle.  This is shown in the photo immediately below, along with the knight on horseback and dragon, all made form lego bricks.

Andrew, Grace and William then went on the ride below, where they spun around beneath a giant spider made of Lego.

Elle then took the kids on big dragon-themed water ride.  This was popular, and was revisited later in the day for another go.

Andrew took Grace and William on the more traditional ‘flume’ ride including a drop and splash section at the end.  The photo below of them about to splashdown was taken automatically by a fixed camera and the image displayed on a wall as they exited the ride.  Note Grace bunkering down at the front, and William gritting his teeth and holding on tight.

All 3 kids then got the lego car licences and went for a drive.  Going solo in a ride like this was a first for Xavi and he struggled to get the gist of both using the accelerator and steering.  As such he was only in motion for about 50% of the available time.  But, he was very happy during that 50%.

Another ride we were all able to go on was the Atlantis submarine, which took us underwater into a large aquarium containing sharks, sting rays and many other fish.

Elle and the kids then took to the skies on a little helicopter ride.

All up, we probably spent about 80% of the day seeking or experiencing the great rides.  Aside from breaks for lunch and other snacks, the remainder of the time (about one hour, close to the end of the day) was spent walking around Miniworld.  Miniworld is what Andrew always dreamed of visiting when he was a kid (in Denmark, because they only had the original Legoland in the 1970’s).  It is where they build replicas of iconic buildings and structures, arranged by city or country.

By 5pm, we were all tired, especially Xavi, who fell asleep on Andrew’s legs while waiting for Elle ot battle the crowd to buy a few souvenirs.

Fortunately, he did wake up on while being carried out, just in time for the family photo.