I'll try not to chunder and you try to not pull your muscles

And I hope that is an interesting enough quote for you all.  It has a good story I think, for those that are patient.  If not, just skip down a bit.

A bit of background to start us off though.  I have decided to go on a holiday to visit a couple of places of significance for my family, namely Scotland and Poland.  And have thrown in a couple of other places from my bucket list for good measure (Auschwitz and Pompeii to name a couple). 

The adventure starts in the lovely Palmerston North on Monday morning at 10 am.  Very excited to be getting underway after having planned to do this over a year ago.  First plane ride to Auckland is uneventful despite having to be in Auckland (dear Auckland, you are not my favourite place, love me and the other 3/4 of the population).  One thing you could do better Auckland airport is your internet.  Seriously, half an hour free?  Can you spare it?

Three ish hours later we are off.  Next stop Hong Kong.  11 hours.  We are flying Cathay Pacific and I can recommend Premium Economy.  Larger seats, better food, more movie selection, more leg room.  On my movie watching list was 'Entourage' but I got stuck in the TV section.  I did rewatch some of the first season of 'Entourage' (Adrian Grenier, am I right people?) in preparation for the movie but decided that my attention span wasn't going to last movie length so stuck to TV. 

Watched a bit of 'Episodes' as well.  And some other stuff but I can't remember.  Also had to watch some ads until I realised you can fast forward through them.  Managed to get some sleep as well, thanks Premium Economy bigger seats and better reclining and more leg room.

Arrived bleary eyed in Hong Kong at an ungodly hour for another few hours stop over.  The air there has an unusual smell.  We were a bit hungry so headed to Maccas for some food.  I won't bore you with a blow by blow description of the food (you can thank me later) but will try to post a pic of it.

One very poorly made cheeseburger

Hong Kong airport has much better internet by the way.  We made our way to our gate and proceeded to wait.  Alison, my travelling companion and tour planner extraordinaire, needed a couple of winks so I babysat the bags.  I am grateful to be travelling with a seasoned traveller as, when the flight leaving before us was announced as being late, she mentioned that might mean a gate change.  And it was so.  All the way to the other side of the airport.  We were certainly doing well on the wandering round aimlessly stakes, 18 hours of travel so far would do that for you I guess.

Boarded and back into Premium Economy for the next part of our journey.  This time on the

opposite side of the plane.  I had the aisle this time as I had had the window last time.  Sleep was the main priority on this leg and I reckon I got about 10/13 hours (there's some maths for all you maths lovers out there!)

Fast forward about 13 hours and, after a flash breakfast of some sort of frittata thing, tomatoes, bacon, a sausage, pineapple yoghurt, a croissant with a cute little pot of jam (that I souvenired) and some coffee that would put hair on your chest, we had arrived in London.

Next stop was Central Bus Terminal to catch the bus to Cambridge.  Free wifi with no time limits, just saying.

Sorry about the state of the picture but I am not a photographer.  Side note where I will show my age:  back in the olden days, when we used film, getting the developed film back was a nerve-wracking wait to see if there weren't any that were blurred or had fingers in them.  Out of a roll of 12, I was lucky if I even got 3.   

Bus ride to Cambridge was 'interesting', we shall say.  We left on time which was great.  The driver started off ok when we were on the M something (didn't pay enough attention as to the number sorry, had been travelling for 30 something hours) but he did toot at a couple of cars.  That proved to be a sign.  We had sat ourselves up the front which I thought was so we could look at the view but, no, it was because Alison gets motion sickness.

Here is our first stop, after he had to be directed to the new bus stop.  To be fair, I think this was the first time he had gone to this stop and there was someone there in a yellow vest to direct him. Here I used some free BT internet I had located.  I love free wifi. 

Next stop Luton airport. It looks like it is a work in progress.  We pulled up next to the orange EasyJet building (interesting minute detail and fun fact alert!) and waited for some more passengers.  This stop's free wifi was provided by Luton airport.

There is an Easy Jet plane in the background, just for context.

It was just after this that we were asked to swap seats by someone else who was sweating and looking green and feeling sick.  So we swapped and Alison took the window seat.  The driver by now had turned into a boy racer.  He was hooning around corners and hauling on the anchors rather erratically.  Alison at this stage had also started to turn green so I swapped and gave her the aisle.  Then, while we were stopped waiting for a train, whilst on the road, the driver decided to take a wee break.  Luckily we didn't hold up the traffic for too long.

Next stop Cambridge and a walk to The Castle B n B (this is the bit where the title will hopefully start to make sense).  About 2 K.  Ordinarily not a problem with a suitcase because they have wheels right?  Well, when I boarded the plane at Palmerston North mine had two of them. Worked perfectly well thank you very much.  When I collected my suitcase at Heathrow it was now mono-wheeled.  Not amused.  Had to drag and carry said suitcase the whole distance.  We were quite a pair I think, Alison trying not to chunder and me trying not to strain anything.  I am now the proud owner of a new suitcase that was half price and slightly bigger than my old one.  My biceps are certainly feeling it this morning.

Here is the view out of the window.

And here is our room.  I took this in the morning after we had spent the night.  We were good and made our beds.

I managed to stay awake until about 8 pm in order to try to beat jetlag.  I slept quite well and our room was warm enough despite being concerned it might be a bit cold as the heaters didn't seem to work.

And, a picture of the first item I have been requested to bring back.  I now have 'Monster Mash' stuck in my head every time I look at it.  Thanks Dianne!

 I think that's about all for now about day 1.  I'll just add some pics of Clare College which is where John Rutter used to be head of music and also a pic of a cute bottle of ketchup I also souvenired from the plane.