And so to London

Our last choice of an English B&B on this trip proved to be a great one.

The Dower House was built in the 1880’s by the owner of the Rousdon Estate which is situated approximately a mile to the south of the property on the top of cliffs overlooking the sea. It is believed that the house was originally built for his mother-in-law, hence the name Dower or Dowager House.
After All Hallows public school relocated to the Rousdon estate from Honiton in 1938 the Dower House became the headmaster’s residence.

We woke to the sounds of the countryside outside our window and after a substantial breakfast tackled the job of cleaning out the car and repacking prior to handing it back. It had virtually been our home for the past eight weeks and we would rather miss it.

Our path took us through more beautiful Devon countryside to the New Forest

and on to Fleet, the town I lived in in the early sixties.

Whilst the main street hadn’t really changed that much our search for the house proved fruitless. The area that I thought was right was covered with newer houses so I fear the house is no longer. We crisscrossed over the Fleet canal, which made us feel quite nostalgic – maybe the location for our next narrow boat experience!!

On to Heathrow and Hertz where we were met by Chris who Special Group Tours had arranged to meet us and take us to the Regency Hotel in Queen’s Gate, where our tour was due to start the next morning. We offloaded our extra bags (much to the displeasure of the Head Concierge, who marched me off to show me how small their baggage room was) and were shown to our small attic room where we had our first encounter with a Memory Foam mattress – hmmmm!

Slightly annoyed by the attitude of the hotel we decided to walk down Queen’s Gate and find a pub for dinner rather than dine in their restaurant. Despite it being a lovely walk we couldn’t find a pub that wasn’t standing room only so reluctantly returned to the hotel and the Pavilion Restaurant.

The meal was unmemorable but we did run into Pat, Hilary and Judy from Australia who, together with Linda from Canada, where to become good friends and travelling companions over the next eight days