190427 to 190504 England

ENGLAND has a lot to offer for Tourist. Depending on your preference, if you like the crowded city atmosphere, London is for your. If you prefer the less crowded area, out of London is good.
England is big and it is not possible to travel the whole country in one trip. It also depends on how much you want to cover when visiting a place.
I have 13 full days for this trip. Was able to travel quite a number of places with the help of my sister driving us here and there. We only covered places on the South Western area and London.
For me, I love places that is less crowded. Thus, I love places that is out of London.

From the more well known places in
South West of England - Salisbury Cathedral, Arundel Castle, Bath Spa, Stonehenge.
Cotsworlds - Burford, Bibury, Bourton-on-the-Water
To London's  Sky Garden (Mobile phone building), The Shard,  Thames Bridge, London Tower and Natural History Museum

The less well known places in England
Hengistbury Head Park, Lyme Regis
These 2 places are my top of the list during this trip and will want to visit again when I visit England again.

We are tourist from Singapore. So we need about 14 hours flight time to reach Heathrow Airport.
Flights were book 6 months in advance during a sale by British Airways. SG$1127.80 each.

We managed to book flight BA0012  that
Depart from Changi Airport Terminal 1 Fri 26 April 2019 - 23:15 (local time)
Arriving at Heathrow (London) Terminal 5 Sat 27 April 2019 - 05:50 (local time)

BA0011 for returning flight
Departing Heathrow (London) Terminal 5 Fri 10 May 2019 - 19:55 (local time)

Arriving Changi (Singapore) Terminal 1 Sat 11 May 2019 - 16:05 (local time)

190426 - Departing from Singapore

About BA and Heathrow Terminal 5

24 hour before departure, we did a on line check-in. BA has already allocated seats for us. Back row against the food preparation area. We wanted to swap the seats but was not possible. Learnt from the check in staff that the flight was fully booked. 

We found out the seat was not that uncomfortable after all. Was surprised that BA has serving staff around their 40s? These people are mature enough to handle situation with a twist.

Food on board - Nice

190427 - Heathrow Airport Terminal 5

Reach Heathrow in time. Custom was not that busy, perhaps we were early?

Unlike our Changi Airport, we cannot expect a lot from Heathrow Airport.

Cafe already opened at 6am in the morning. But do not expect hot food. Most serve hot coffee and cold sandwiches with pastries. There are no other eateries other that 'coffee cafe'.

At the Arrival Hall, there is M&S and Waitrose if you like some snacks from convenience store.

For transfer by public transport, the ticketing machine are all here. Oyster card can be bought from these machine too. 

SIM card - there are 2 shops there. I did not get them as I prefer using the Data Passport provided by my Mobile provider.

190427 Day 1 - Salisbury

Salisbury is not only about the Cathedral. There are so many other things to explore.

The Old Mill (Top) and the Bishop's Mill (Bottom)

2 of the Mills we visited. The Old Mill which is located about 20 to 30 minutes walk from town via the town path. There is another Mill located inside town. All mills were beautiful. When there is a Mill, there is water. 

Salisbury Cathedral

According to Google search, this places dates back since 1386. It is just located in Salisbury Town. Salisbury Cathedral is a must see when you talk about visiting Salisbury.

Cafe facing Salisbury Market
Located inside Salisbury Town, Salisbury Market is only open on Saturdays and Tuesdays. I love this market. Not sure if the merchants are the local farmers. Things here were very cheap. So nice to walk here with the cooling weather. The temperature is 11 to 14 degrees Celsius though it is already end of April.  Very cold for us as we came from Sunny Island.

Other than Mills, do walk around the town and do some shopping.
We tried Cafe Rouge . Turn out it is a French restaurant after we enter. Well, the food was good.
My to do list always has a supermarket that I wanted to visit. We visited Tesco. The local Supermarket. It is so interesting to know that food over there is so cheap even after multiplying to our currencies.

190428 Day 2 - Arundel Castle

Arundel Castle
I chance upon this castle write out while looking for another castle to visit instead of Windsor.
Understand traffic is very bad for Windsor. So this is good as it is not too far from our base (Salisbury) and there is a tulip festival going on end of April.
We paid for the cheapest tickets to just explore the grounds, the herbs garden and the beautiful and big gorgeous tulips. 

190429 Day 3 - Bath

Bath
Bath is another City in England. Just like London, traffic in this City is very bad too. If you drive to this place, it is better to park at 41 Odd Down Park and Ride to Bath.
Bath is not all bout the SPA. It is about a City with a history.
We are glad we joined the free walking tour and with her story, the whole Bath comes alive.

190502 Day 4 - Lyme Regis

Lyme Regis.(click Lyme Regis to read more) A seaside town in West Dorset. Nice place to take a stroll along the coast and do some shopping for Fossil and Stones. 

190501 Day 5 - Cotsworlds

Burford , Bourton-on-water, Bibury
All located in Cotsworlds.

Driving from Salisbury,  Bibury is our first stop. A very small place to look at old houses and rivers full of watercrest.

Next, we stop by Burford. This is a little town in one street. Beautiful when we look from the higher grounds to the lower. We can even see the rapeseed field over the town. Beautiful. Have our lunch here.

The last stop is Bourton-on-water. It was drizzling when we visited. Still a enjoyable trip. Oh, there are cafes selling cream tea and shops selling fossil and stones(amethyst or quarz)  too. We love the cheap quarz there.

190502 Day 6 - London

Our last minute plan to 'crash explore' London

This was a very last minute plan cause my hubby needs to go home due to some issue at home.

So 3 of us accompany him to do a London Speed sight

First, I book the last minute train ticket via South West Rail website. Managed to get a bargain off peak tickets with open return. We managed to accompany him to see London, to Heathrow Airport and return back to Salisbury in one day. Do note that train after 7pm from Waterloo station is only 1 trip per hour. If everything is plan properly, still in time for it.

This link show what we did when we arrived London.

Borough Market is where we started. Have our breakfast and lunch here. We like the place here cause it is not that crowded. From here, we can walk along Thames River to Thames Bridge.

Having traveled from Salisbury to London is a big culture shock for us. From a slow scenic place to a fast crowded place. We only did half of what is in our list and decided to call it a day by ending it with chinese food that my friend recommended. 

Goldmine Roast Duck - my friend kept reminding me to try this out. Since my hubby is a fan of HK roast meat, we came here to try out. Yes, the food was delicious. Really worth coming to try out when you are in London.

190503 Day 7 - Hengistbury Head Park

Hengistbury Head Park
I will never get tired with this place. Hope one day, I can visit during Summer to have a swim here.

Decided to have Mcdonals  for lunch as it is located just next to Tesco.

To our suprise, McDonalds is a real treat to us. Happy tummy before our supermarket visit.

Tesco Supermarket - to my sis, it is a grocery job for her. To us, it is our travel itinerary. We love going to supermarket, either at home or overseas. It is where we understand how much a family need to spend to feed a family with simple meal.

We ended our day by having take away dinner.
We have Indian food delivered to our door step by the Restaurant.

190504
Today is the last day we gonna based in Salisbury.
We did our walking tour one more time in Salisbury, and have our home prepared BBQ at my sis home. It was so fun having BBQ at 11 degrees Celsius. My sis said we are crazy, but I think this was my best meal in England.
Even after the trip, while writing this blog, I am still missing Salisbury and the BBQ at her home.