Getting round about in Milton Keynes

When we arrived in Milton Keynes it was pitch black (and only 5:00pm!) so we didn't get to see much of the city, but we did get to go through about 20 roundabouts on the way to my Aunt Irene and Uncle Charles's place. The city, if you haven't heard already, is based on American town planning so has a lot of roundabouts, hardly any traffic lights, and the roads are build in a repetitive grid shape. Although this sounds boring, it was far from it. All the roads are lined with trees (and if it weren't winter I'm sure it would have been gorgeous!) and there are pedestrian and bike ways throughout the city so that you would never have to be on a main road if you didn't want to be.

Unfortunately we were only staying for the weekend, so we tried to make the most of it by doing a bit of road trip out to Oxford. On the way we stopped into the Xscape Centre that houses a massive indoor ski slope and wind tunnel for indoor sky diving. Very impressive for both Matt and I as we've never skied nor sky dived (although we didn't attempt either of them there and then, maybe on our next trip!).

After our eventful search for a car park in Oxford we wondered round the town and visited the Christ Church which was quite impressive, even in the dreary day. We walked down to the river and were lucky enough to see a bit of rowing race going on. The guys looked freezing gliding fast through the water.




We then decided to take in a bit of a late lunch in a wee cafe where I recognised our waitress. Although I just couldn't figure out how I knew her. Charles couldn't help himself, so asked her and it turned out, after lots of 'do you know such and such' and 'have you been to such and such' we figured out that we'd met at Oktoberfest in Munich. No wonder we didn't know straight away, we'd obviously had too many steins. Small world though, eh?

On our second day Irene and I sent the Matt and Charles to Bletchley Park - where they did a tour of the museum and grounds where the Enigma code was broken during the war - while we went shopping. And the shopping centre and Milton Keynes was very grand - again everything is in a grid shape but there are lots and lots and lots of shops. I would have been happy to spend the day there!

In the afternoon we left Milton Keynes and took a drive to Newmarket to visit my Aunt Isabel and settle ourselves into her wee house, which we'll be house sitting while she's out in Australia.

Beers, beers, beers, and a bit of sightseeing, in Belfast

Our trip to Belfast went very quickly indeed, even though we were there for over a week - the longest we've stayed in once place on our trip to date. It was great to catch up with the Montgomery side of the family and again Matt got to meet lots of new people. I told him that by the time we left Belfast he would have met nearly half of my family! LOL

In a nutshell our time in Belfast consisted of lots of pub visits thanks to Brian and Louise, my Granny's birthday dinner, a trip up the coast to the Giants Causeway and Bushmills Distillery with Carly, lots of tourist activities including a open top double decker bus trip around the city (which was freezing!), a "fiddle de dee session", and our very first pasty bap experience! Phew, no wonder we were exhausted by the time we left! And I got to meet another of my newest second cousins, Saria, gorgeous!

The weather was definitely changing when we we were in Belfast, starting to get very cold and a bit windy! I left Belfast with more gloves and more bed socks (thanks Louise and Carly!) to keep me warm.

We were very impressed with the open top double decker bus tour we did of the city - the best tour of a city we've done on our trip so far. We visited the shipping docks where the Titanic was built, the Cathedral district, the 'trouble areas' which included the Shankle and the Falls roads (lots and lots of murals), the University area and lots more. We've since learnt that tourism in Belfast has grown over the past 5 years because the troubles are easing and we definitely didn't feel like we were in any danger when we were there. And we did spend some time by ourselves of a night time in the city. Lots of development going on in the city, which is great for it's economy and tourism - so people get out to Belfast if you can, it's worth a trip!

Our road trip up to the Giants Causeway and the Bushmills Distillery was another highlight. Although the day was a bit dreary we still got some great coastal and mainland views. We got out and walked to the Causway (the remains of an old volcano, very impressive) which at first I was dubious about because it was freezing!! So much so that Carly and I hand to tie our scarves round our heads, we looked like right eejits! But it was worth it in the end for the magnificent views. We then drove about 10 minutes further for some lunch and a visit to the Busmills Distillery. The tour was quite interesting but I have to say that it wasn't the tastiest of whiskies...shame really cause the tour was so good that by the end of it we were all looking forward to a whiskey (even though I don't drink it at all!).

We spent quite a bit of time seeing the inside of old school Irish pubs as well thanks to Brian and Louise. We visited the oldest tavern in Belfast, Whites Tavern, we also visited the Duke of York (down a wee alley way, wouldn't have know it was there if Brian didn't take us), the Crown with lovely old style booths where you buzzed for the waitress (tre cool!) and Fibber McGees where we experienced our first Irish "fiddle de dee session" - Matt liked it so much that he bought their CD; he claimed he was supporting local talent, I think he'd just had too many Harps! LOL. We also managed to see some more stylish modern bars, but by far the old school pubs were our favourite.

Oh my gosh, I nearly forgot, we also caught a Karaoke Kab home one night. Now Brisbane could definitely do with one of these bad boys! A mini cab with microphones and karaoke screens installed so that you can sing your way home; the cabbie even gets into the spirit of it. It was pretty much the best thing ever! And by the time we'd left the pub, had our cheesy fries and kebabs, we were in serious karaoke mode. Hilarious!

So all up a busy and very eventful trip to Belfast - we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! We then hopped on a wee plane to Stansted and then onto a bus where we arrived safe and sound in Milton Keynes.