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Friday. Colchester Castle has had a major refit and reopens on May 2 so we went to visit Gainsborough's House in Sudbury instead. It is a lovely Georgian house and there was a veritable treasure trove of paintings, chalk and wash pictures and many portraits of the aristocracy and parliamentarians. The tulips in the gardens we have visited have been lush - wonderful colours and about 2 feet tall and in this garden they were. We stayed overnight in Tonbridge in an inn built about 1700 and the floors creaked and were more wavy than the ocean. We were looking forward to a good nights sleep but a wedding on site continued with Karoake and dancing until after 2.30 am.
Saturday and we filled in the day at Chartwell exploring the house, the extensive gardens and Winston's art studio. It was a perfect end to the holiday. The views across the countryside from both the house and terrace were magnificent; the ponds full of fish; the tulips, peonies and blossoms wonderful and the house lived in, tastefully decorated and comfortable. Winston's wardrobe of official uniforms with their sashes, hats, shoes and decorations was substantial. The 20 or more we saw formed only part of the whole and required a large room full of showcases.
The flight to Dubai with Emirates was excellent but having started the second leg "we have a problem Houston". The QANTAS plane had an AC malfunction and after making it to the end of the runway twice we were finally bussed to hotels overnight and had dinner about 13 hours after initially boarding. A very interrupted sleep with people calling and at 6.30 the first and business passengers returned to the airport where finally we were put on an Emirates plane about 10.30am. At that stage repairs were continuing on the original A380 and they hoped to leave by 1.00pm. There were many people still in hotels when we left. It is a drawback when things go wrong on such a big plane and there's a need to deal with over 400 people.
Great flight home and were happy to see the QANTAS chauffeur meeting the 5.45am flight! New experience for us. Caught up with our girls, Sophie and Phoebe and looking forward to sleep tonight.
We will be in touch soon. Elaine & Neil xx
Friday. Colchester Castle has had a major refit and reopens on May 2 so we went to visit Gainsborough's House in Sudbury instead. It is a lovely Georgian house and there was a veritable treasure trove of paintings, chalk and wash pictures and many portraits of the aristocracy and parliamentarians. The tulips in the gardens we have visited have been lush - wonderful colours and about 2 feet tall and in this garden they were. We stayed overnight in Tonbridge in an inn built about 1700 and the floors creaked and were more wavy than the ocean. We were looking forward to a good nights sleep but a wedding on site continued with Karoake and dancing until after 2.30 am.
Saturday and we filled in the day at Chartwell exploring the house, the extensive gardens and Winston's art studio. It was a perfect end to the holiday. The views across the countryside from both the house and terrace were magnificent; the ponds full of fish; the tulips, peonies and blossoms wonderful and the house lived in, tastefully decorated and comfortable. Winston's wardrobe of official uniforms with their sashes, hats, shoes and decorations was substantial. The 20 or more we saw formed only part of the whole and required a large room full of showcases.
The flight to Dubai with Emirates was excellent but having started the second leg "we have a problem Houston". The QANTAS plane had an AC malfunction and after making it to the end of the runway twice we were finally bussed to hotels overnight and had dinner about 13 hours after initially boarding. A very interrupted sleep with people calling and at 6.30 the first and business passengers returned to the airport where finally we were put on an Emirates plane about 10.30am. At that stage repairs were continuing on the original A380 and they hoped to leave by 1.00pm. There were many people still in hotels when we left. It is a drawback when things go wrong on such a big plane and there's a need to deal with over 400 people.
Great flight home and were happy to see the QANTAS chauffeur meeting the 5.45am flight! New experience for us. Caught up with our girls, Sophie and Phoebe and looking forward to sleep tonight.
We will be in touch soon. Elaine & Neil xx
- comments
Sharon What a wonderful way to end your fabulous holiday (not the flight delays). Welcome home!!!! Thanks so much for sharing your adventure. It was almost as good as travelling with you. :-) Much love love love