McLays in Europe

The moment we hit the Norwich airport we felt comfortable. As Ian handed his passport to the man he said in a very welcoming voice 'why you comin' to this bloody cold country mate?' and Ian replied to 'get out of a bloody hot one!'. They shared a giggle and soon we were picked up by our exchange partner's friends Ken & Judy. They are also home exchangers and knew how we felt and what our needs were. They drove us to the home and we shared a friendly chat - in English!
The owners of this house are currently in ours in Alice Springs and also have use of our car. So if anyone from Alice Springs has seen our car and thought we might have sold it, no; it is Michael and Janet, so please wave to them and smile.
It was great to be driving down the left hand side of the road again and didn't take long to feel right after several weeks of feeling wrong on the right hand side of the road. This was our first house exchange where a car was included so Ian was pleased that driving would be rather back to normal.
The house is two stories with three bedroom, typical English style house with a small tidy backyard.
First two days we did very little, just stayed home and went to the local supermarket to stock up on food and the rest of the time kept warm inside watching cable TV and reading newspapers, after all this was meant to be a holiday!
Next day we decided to discover Great Yarmouth, so we drove to the beach area and sought some advice from the Tourist Bureau. They put us onto a couple of good local museums and we went to one that had the historical background to Lord Nelson, the bravest sailor in British history, which coincidently was also covered on the History Channel on Cable TV that night, so we had a double dose. We had a walk down to the market and had some world famous chips and were a bit surprised it was getting dark at 4pm and soon after 4.30 was pitch black. So our day's plans were cut short and we decided to get up earlier the next day.
Day four came, and early to rise we drove down the coast to Essex to visit 'Constable Walk' which is the area landscape painter John Constable used for many of his paintings. This day involved a bit of driving and although the GPS was handy we were getting a little tired of the lady voice saying 'please drive one mile and then enter a roundabout and take the second exit' - Ian thought Alice Springs was becoming the city of roundabouts but this place is full of them. After a drizzly day, the sun came out just as we got there and we enjoyed the walk which was based around Flatford Mill which was owned by the painter's father from 1776 - 1837. We returned to Great Yarmouth in time to eat and then see Elizabeth, the movie about Queen Elizabeth 1, staring a couple of famous aussies, Kate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush.
Next day we went into Norwich (a major city about 21 miles away)and discovered that they have a great public scheme called 'park and ride' where you park the car at a terminal outside the city and catch a bus in and out. There were several terminals around the city and it only cost £3 for the day. The bus dropped us at Norwich Castle and due to extremely cold and windy conditions that is were we stayed with plenty to keep us occupied for the rest of the day. We were the only participants on a guided tour called Battlements, where the guide took us up on the top and explained the history of the Castle back to the Romans and some relevant WWII stuff, which we are both enjoying learning about. Later joined a Dungeon tour that included a true story of a man who luckily escaped the prison by seeking deportation to this place called Australia and who became quite successful in old Sydney town. It was so brutal in these days,and we were demonstrated torture methods for outspoken women or those that had disobeyed their husbands! We came to believe that if nothing else anyone who got through the British Penal system and then survived the ship ride to Australia must have been made of iron.
Another day in Great Yarmouth we visited a museum, called 'Time and Tide' which was built in an old Herring processing building. It depicted the life in Great Yarmouth through the years, including their way of life and type of houses called Row Houses. It was very well done and the displays were lifelike and supported by audio. The Herring industry was the backbone of Great Yarmouth and the displays of the hard life was unbelievable. Some parts still smelt like fish so this added to the atmosphere. We were very interested in the war section of the museum, which we came to last and again were asked to leave before we could get all the way through it. The place was closing at 4.30pm and looking outside it was dark again!
We decided to visit a local English pub on the next corner, just to see how the other half live. The White Lion turned out to be the oldest pub in Great Yarmouth, mind you it looked like it. It was small and quaint and run by a Scottish woman who had such a broad accent we had trouble following her. Only a dozen in the bar, and as we had a pint we had a pleasant chat with a few. They discussed the Australian soaps Neighbours and Home and Away. The Scottish woman said ' no way I would go to Australia it is full of spiders & snakes'. It seems they get this idea from watching shows on TV.
As we were leaving, a quiet bloke in the corner ( who obviously wanted to bring these Aussies down a peg or two) looked up and smiled with a mouth full of rotten teeth and said 'I come from Wombat near Adelaide'. We both looked at each other blank 'We don't know that place'. Then he fell foul of Alison by saying 'yeah it has lots of crocs there' The count went Aussies 1 and Poms zero , when Alison commented 'you are talking bullshit' and the bar erupted in laughter and a few blokes congratulated Alison for turning the tide on this bloke.
Then it was Sunday. After a sleep in we headed out of Great Yarmouth not really knowing where we were going. Some 10 miles down the road into the old English countryside we were enticed into a Pub for a Sunday Roast which we thoroughly enjoyed along with dessert - Alison could not resist the rhubarb crumble.
The English have just sacked their National soccer team coach after they failed to qualify for the European Competition, and when they heard he received a contract cancellation payment of £2.5M they have been spitting chips. Ian has spent much time reading up on this and can't believe how abusive the English press are, calling him names in the press that in Australia would not be allowed. Therefore, no one wants to talk football at present, so maybe they might like to talk about the cricket! Not so Ian has found, especially with an Australian. Ha Ha if only he could find someone to brag about the cats to.