9 August - Plymouth, St Agnes and Mt Hawke and Stonehenge and The RomanBaths

Charles Church is the second most ancient Parish Church in Plymouth, Devon in England.

This was the view outside our window at the hotel we stayed at in Plymouth.

Construction started: 1640

Destruction date: 1940

Destroyed by: Fire during a sever bombing by the Germans and never rebuilt but stands as a memorial to the people from Plymouth who lost their lives.

We had our first ride on the London Underground.  We got to Plymouth and next morning we  picked up the hire car at 9.00am.  It didn't have a GPS but they gave us a map..... Unfortunately, the  page we needed had been torn out.  We eventually arrived in St Agnes, went to the museum and got some info and directions to the place where the grave stone is.

I still thought that it wouldn't be there after so long but we found it and after we cleaned the grass away from around it we were right.

Any Hawke wishing to travel where we Hawkes have already been, it's about 6 paces inside this gate in the main drag (sorry very narrow windy road) in the village of St Agnes about opposite the butcher and a few doors up from the news agency whose owner kindly loaned me a brush to clean the dirt off the stones.  Just to the right of this sign is an entry point which used to be the mortuary.

We then went to the house on Banns Rd,  Mt Hawke, and met the current owner called Richard Tuff.  He has had the house for about 2 years and said another Hawke had visited the area about 18 months ago.  He kindly gave us a tour of the house and said he thought it was built in about 1823 by an "Edward" Hawke.  I will have to research that a bit.

The front of the house appears to be original except maybe the add on on the left hand side.

The original kitchen with a fairly modern range hood stove but a slightly more modern kitchen has been added on to the back along with a shower and toilet.

The entry way, which appears in the middle now was very narrow and low.  Stuart hit his head on the door jam in another room.

The current owner was very obliging showing us through and told us when Stuart asked him what he did and he said that was a painter.  Thank God Stuart didn't allude to his painting houses as it appears he is a relatively famous painter in the area and does a lot of maritime stuff which I really didn't take to but you might.  

I needed to have a real "Cornish" Pasty for lunch while in Cornwall, but best I could do was a baguette at the local pub which was built to house Adams children I think.

Unfortunately, we were on a tight schedule and had to get the car back before 5, and then the train to London.  Driving back into Plymouth without a map and without street signs (they are on the side of buildings etc so we found out) was a nightmare.  However we managed.

It was good to get back to our hotel room in Euston London.  We now have a couple of days rest before the flight up to see the Royal Edinburgh  Military Tattoo.  

We went on a trip up to see Stonehenge before the Tattoo.  A big day but worth it.  The giants stones have been dated at Round 5000 years old and somehow the people  of the day managed to get 60 x 4 ton pieces of stone from South Wales, over 150 miles (nearly 300 klms) and 30x 25 tons from 20 miles away is still baffling people.

They actually used a system that we use today to lock the pieces in place similar to the modern mortise and tenon joint.

This one I could almost see a face in if I held my tongue straight

These mounds are buried mounds and some have been found to contain who,e villages who have died out giving thought to the possibility they they died of the plague.

For the sake of the army buffs who read this, we went past an army camp at Salisbury Plains where there were a lot of service people during the last war.

They still hold training camps there and as we went through, the red flags were up to indicate the firing of live amo.

A little way away form Stonehenge, we stopped for a good old country English Breakfast at an old (13th) century) hotel at a lovely little town.

The guide said to take a wander over the bridge and the second house was the house filmed in the movie Harry Potter, as the home of Professor ???

So we did and got a few good shots........we didn't see the first house and took a photo of the second house which of course was the third house and missed the correct one altogether and only realised it as we drove out on the bus and it was too late.  Sorry Harry Potter fans.

We then went I to Bath where the Romans found a hot spring and turned it into somewhere for them to relax and unwind after a hard day at the battlefield.

The steps on the sides and walkways were still original around the baths.

A couple of locals who told me that there was no such thing as Australia as if you get too far away from here you just disappeared off the edge.

On the way back the guide pointed out the rows and rows of houses that were typical of the day when all upperclass families had servants who lived below stairs.  And we could see each house had a front door and near it the stairs leading down to the "below stairs" kitchens and working area.

Had dinner a couple of quant little English pubs each night.  Strange - we found when we got to them that they were so crowded there were up to 50 people standing around on the footpath drinking and thought they were overflow from inside but no, they just wanted to stand outside and drink their beer, wine or whatever.

5 September - Dubai

We landed from Ireland in about 40' heat and boy did we know it.  A car was waiting for us and after clearing customs and security we arrived at our hotel at about 9.00am, very tired as we missed out on an upgrade to business class for the flight over.

Dubai Creek which is salt but not tidal as it flows into the Persian Gulf

Due to the lack of fresh water, Dubai has a huge desalination plant and its growing.

The largest Muslim Temple in Dubai

The government has started moving sand onto a man made island just off the coast to put large buildings on just like the giant man made islands of the Palm.

The arial view of "The Dubai Palm" during construction

The finished islands now with 5-6 and 7 star hotels all round the outer circle and homes on the palm fronds.

Most people, I assume have heard of and seen pictures of the Palm, which is a completely man made group of islands in the shape of a palm tree with a crescent around the top of the islands filled with multi story hotels all between 5 and 7 stars each of the palm fronds have houses built on them each with a water frontage and they sell for about $10M each.

The next project underway at the moment is a similar group of islands called the World.  It is called this for the obvious reason and will have hotels and houses just the same as the Palm.  The buildings will be built on foundations the same as the Palm, huge rocks and sand pumped out of the Arabian Sea.

The government is in the process of making more man made islands to put homes and hotels on them too.  Notice they are designed to look like the world.

One of the hotels on the ring around the palm.

This hotel was not very old and our guide took us into the foyer.  He found out that the cost per night is between $3,000 and $25,000 per night.  

Burj al Arab Hotel.  Note the helicopter pad at the top where a tennis court was marked out and a tennis match was played on it some years ago by Roger Federra and Andre Agassi.

Stuart and I in front of the Burj Kahlifi 

NO! Not too much camel juice -  to get the photo of us in front of the tall structure our guide had to lie down on the footpath to get it in and I caught Dtuart just standing up after getting his own photo.

Burj khalifa is the largest structure in the world

After a quick breakfast and getting into our room we crashed for about 4 hours  to freshen up for our tour out into the desert sand dunes and some 4 wheel driving over the shifting  sand.  Yep! Where do you go when it is 40' in the city??? Out into the dessert in the hot sand dunes, of course. had the front seat and I was terrified.  

The driver assured us that if he rolled the vehicle he would get the sack - but I wanted to know what happened to us. He said of course we would get a refund after we had helped him get the vehicle back on its wheels.

He stopped on top of the dunes so that we could get photos of the sun setting.  

It could have been better but we were a bit late. The colour was good as there had been a heat haze all afternoon.  From there we went to a Bedouin barbecue with entertainment from a belly dancer (who wasn't over weight and was very good) and a man in a dress.  Yes, a bit unusual I know but he was good..

On our way back we were passed by a big black vehicle which our guide said was one of the Royal Family as they are the only ones who drive that type of vehicle.

The United Arab Emirates is made of 7 kingdoms run by sheiks or kings who have absolute rule and they cannot be voted out.  The job passes down from father to son.  Between them they own most of UAE and are very rich.  Unlike a lot of other rich rulers, they look after all people of the country.  There are no taxes, and even the people of Dubai are very well off.  If a foreigner wishes to own a business in the country, they must first be sponsored by a local and pay that local 50% of the business's income for doing nothing more than putting a signature on the contract.

All potable water comes from huge desalination plants and is dearer than fuel which is very cheap.  

The guide said a large percentage of the population has diabetes and other associated problems from the junk food.  95% of all food is bought in and a large percentage of that is processed and junk food.

Dubai has only been an area with population since about 1930 when about 450 Arabs lived on the river at the coast.  Oil was discovered and suddenly it became over the next 60 years the richest country on earth.  The kings at the time realised that the oil would run out one day and so started to make Dubai a tourist destination.  It now gets millions of tourists from all over the world but more importantly, the very rich have bought homes there and built 5-7 star hotels as well.

We went looking for last minute gifts and some fabric for my sister Pat wanted some fabric from Dubai.  I had no idea what sort or how much but understood that she wanted something typically from Dubai.

I told her that I got about 8 mitres of black muslin but she would have to find her own pattern to make a Burka.

Stuart said that would be easy, just buy her about 7 mitres of black muslin and a pattern to make a Burka. 

We did find some nice fabric though and I will give her a choice.  We caught a cab to Dubai Mall which is the biggest in UAE with a huge fish tank 3 stories high with hundreds of fish large and small. (Shark about 2 mitres long).

Our last night in Dubai we were picked up and taken to a large Dow where we had a very nice dinner while the boat cruised the creek being entertained by some dancers and a magician.  Unfortunately I was frowned upon when I asked for a glass of wine and all there was was soft drink and warm juice.  

A Whirling Dirvish who danced in a circle round and round for nearly 20 minutes.  Apparently they put themselves into a sort of trance.

By some women the burka is taken very seriously, or by their husbands, possibly

These 2 couples were on the cruise on Dubai Creek which we went on.  They ate by lifting part of the veil up and out from their face to get a fork under.

None the less it was a good night.

We had found out that we got the upgrade to Business Class for the last leg of our journey which pleased both of us immensely.

To sum it all up, we have had a fabulous time, seen some amazing sights ( ancient ruins, The Canadian Rockies, Grand Canyon, the green of Ireland), done some amazing things, (snowboarding on the Matterhorn, went up the Eiffel Tower, wandered amongst the ancient ruins of Rome) met some wonderful people, (Grant and Gail from New Zealand, Jenny and Stuart from Melbourne to name a few) who will remain good friends.  We have used 8 currencies, stayed in 52 hotels, 2 cruises and a number of short river cruises just s few hours long,  had 19 flights and done things a lot of people only dream of.

Now we are ready to resume our normal lifestyle, as normal as it is travelling round our own beautiful country and seeing our wonderful families who we have missed immensely.