Monday morning we said goodbye to Pips and the children and drove north to Somerset to see our old friend Tina and her partner Steve.
On the way we went to Burtle, the village where we last lived before emigrating to Australia. We showed the children our old house and the church where Emily was christened. It was nice to see the old place but we agreed that we had no regrets about leaving.
We arrived at Steve’s house just as Tina was arriving home from work. It was lovely to see Tina again and to meet Steve. They made us feel very welcome an fed us tonnes of wonderful food (four Michelin stars). It was a lovely evening and great to catch up on all their news.
We got some not-so-good news when Charlotte’s mum, Janet telephoned from France to tell us that Geoffrey had been taken into hospital again. Janet assured Charlotte that we didn’t need to rush back to France and that she will keep us updated.
Wells Cathedral
On Tuesday we drove to the city of Wells. It was great to see the place again. We visited the Cathedral which is absolutely magnificent; it has a beautiful and interesting clock – the second oldest clock in the world!
We drove through the Cheddar Gorge and over the Mendip Hills into Compton Martin for lunch at the Ring ‘O’ Bells pub – somewhere that Charlotte and I used to walk to from our home in West Harptree on warm summer evenings. It hasn’t changed much and the food is still pretty good. And they serve Butcomb Bitter!
West Harptree
After lunch we drove to West Harptree to show the children where we got married and to see our old home.
The church where we got married
Then it was off to Bristol to see Richard’s sister Sarah, hubby Steve and their (now grown up) children James and Katie.