Category: Driving All the Way – England

Road trip in England.

Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 8

Posted on By sweet surrender No Comments on Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 8

25/6/2013, Goodbye Paris! We went to the train station to take Eurostar to go back to London. Finally saw the train went into Euro Tunnel and then it was just pitch black out there *LOL* Nothing interesting.



We arrived London St. Pancras International and waited at the station for our rented car. While waiting, I took a peek at the desserts found at the station from Pattsserie Valerie.


Finally got our car after about 45 minutes delay. We drove straight to Cambridge. Many planes flying in and out of London. You’ll see one every few minutes, that’s how busy Heathrow is. Can even see them clearly. The photo was just taken with normal digital camera with 3x zoom from a moving car. You can imagine how low it flew.


Luck was with us. We initially booked the Travelodge near the highway but we got a call while on the way telling us that they had relocated us to another Travelodge in Cambridge at Newmarket Road. New one! Also, to compensate us, they threw in breakfast for us! Excited!


It was so new that we could still smell the smell of the paint. People were still putting finishing touch on the building. What’s more! It’s in the middle of Cambridge. Great location!


Left: Everything was new and clean. This is the best stay we had on our road trip.

Right: After checking in, we headed out again. To discover Cambridge.

I’ll just let the photo show you the views that I saw when I was there. As it was already evening, most places were closed. First came to mind was University of Cambridge. This is basically the highlight of this place. It’s really a place with many students and academicians. Visited the university. The university buildings are everywhere! Views were amazing too. At the same time, felt a bit haunted because of the architecture.










We basically discover Cambridge on foot. Our dinner was KFC from Cambridge. Then we called it a night.

We had to drive to Nottingham, York, and Thornaby the next day.

Driving All the Way - England, Food Porn, Going Places

Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 2

Posted on By sweet surrender No Comments on Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 2


Day 2 (21/6/2013), we went to Westfield London Shopping Centre for window shopping and lunch.


High end shopping place *gulp*


Good thing there’s area for people like us. More affordable options.


It was a rather cold day. Not summer at all for me! I felt a bit cheated *LOL* To me, it’s autunm/winter of Australia! Summer means I can wear sleeveless, short skirt but I had to wear like it’s Autumn in Adelaide. Worst, most of the clothes I brought was really summer clothes!


After walking around, we decided to have our lunch at The Bull (Wood Lane, Unit 1033 Westfield Shopping Centre, London W12 7SL, United Kingdom).


The Bull is the first pub in Westfield London. The first and last pub I visited for this trip without alcohol too *LOL* Really love the interior, very classy. Don’t even feel like you’re in a pub. There’s 3 levels if I’m not mistaken. We were at the dining area.

We ordered 4 types of food.

Left: English Asparagus and brie, wrapped ham, pomegranate dressing (£7.50). I quite like this dish.

Right: Special of the day, Grilled Fillet of Sea Bream with warm lyonnaise potato salad, tomato, and coriander salsa (£12.50). The fish was fresh and I quite like the potato. Not a fan of coriander but this was acceptable to me.


Left: Another special of the day, Lamb Two Ways, crispy shoulder of lamb and lamb cutlet, warm salad of tomato and cowgette, aubergine caviar (£13+). As my usual saying, nothing to rave about.

Right: The British Board which consisted of Scotch egg, pork pie, salted beef, honey and mustard sausage, piccalili, and toast (£13.95). Of all on the board, I love the sausage!

Overall, great environment, food was average, portion was rather small though.

After lunch, we went back to check-out and headed to St Pancras International (I kept wanting to read it as PANCREAS! :p) to take the train to Paris.

I figure there won’t be any update with pictures for the time being until I have a new laptop. My laptop just died two days ago sigh… Now hunting hunting…

Driving All the Way - England, Going Places

Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 1

Posted on By sweet surrender 3 Comments on Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 1

More than 18 hours taking flight and transit, finally we arrived at Heathrow Airport Terminal 4. It’s quite an agony in the plane as it’s a non-stop flight direct from KL to London. The entertainment system wasn’t that up to date and nothing much to do. Trying to sleep but the seat didn’t favour short people like me, there’s no foot rest!


We went to Travelodge at Wembley for check in before going for dinner.


You get what you pay for (if not mistaken, 20 Pound/night). Not so bad. We booked 2 family rooms, each room slept 3. There were 6 of us.


Don’t really need to stay in anywhere posh, we’re just staying for a night and this is good enough. We’re on a budget too.


I wasn’t feeling very well as was just recovered from a bout of fever one week before the trip and what’s more with Aunty Flo came for a visit. Was having headache and was so tired but still had to go out to eat. No time to be sick! I’m not gonna spend so much money and let my sickness ruin my holiday.


We went to Four Seasons, a Chinese restaurant that specialised in Roasted duck. So many people! We had to queue for a table. They have quite a number of branches in London. The one we went was at Queensway (84 Queensway, London, Greater London) if not mistaken, I didn’t even bother about the location, was already half dead! 😛

Seriously, I’m already half dead, I didn’t bother to find out what the the food they had ordered. I even didn’t bother with the taste.

Left: The condiments.
Right: Vegetables with garlic.


Left: A type of tofu dish.
Right: Another vegetable dish this time with egg.


Left: A type of fish dish.
Right: Orange and mints to conclude the meal.

Opsss… Where’s the duck? I forgot to edit this photo -.- Anyway, it was pretty blur to be able to see much. The duck wasn’t bad.

After dinner, we headed back to the lodge and called it a night. EXHAUSTED!

Driving All the Way - England, Food Porn, Going Places

Summary of Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013)

Posted on By sweet surrender 2 Comments on Summary of Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013)

Got back on Wednesday night. Only managed to update something now. Even so, it’s just a summary (I don’t even quite remember where we’ve been to as there’s too many places!) and it’s just a compilation from my Twitpic while I was on the go the past 2 weeks. So, here you go… Click the pictures for bigger and complete version.

20/6/2013: Arrived Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 then check-in to the travel lodge followed up with dinner at Bayswater 4 Season Restaurant.

Lunch at The Bull, London before heading to Paris. on Twitpic 21/6/2013: Went to Westfield London Shopping Centre to have lunch at The Bull before heading to the train station to take the train, Eurostar, to Paris.

Hello Paris! on Twitpic 21/6/2013: Arrived Paris, check-in our apartment and had a rest preserving energy for the adventure the next day. There was a music festival happening down where we stayed.

Yesterday, last stop of the day, Eiffel Tower. Only reached &... on Twitpic 22/6/2013: Pantheon, Luxembourg Gardens, Notre Dame Cathedral, and Tube Building. The highlight of the day, Eiffel Tower, queued in the cold, long queue, and tonnes of people.

The rain spoilt the day, now back "home", the night... on Twitpic 23/6/2013: Arc de Triomphe, window shopping at Champs-Elysées (cannot afford to buy anything but nice to look and touch them first hand), had the most expensive lunch in my whole life (portion was small and not nice which cost us more than EUR100!), Grand Palais, Pont Alexandre III, and Place de la Concorde. It rained and we had to called it a day.

Goodbye Paris, hello Cambridge. on Twitpic 24/6/2013: Tourists are everywhere in Paris! The crowd was massive at Musée du Louvre where you can find Mona Lisa half-length portrait. Seriously? Is there even anything special? Sorry but I can’t see any hahaha… I’m blind towards this thing. The crowd just couldn’t stop taking pictures of it (including me ;p)! In the afternoon we headed to the Sacred Heart Basilica of Montmartre and had a souvenirs shopping spree. For dinner, we had French food in a restaurant near where we stayed.

Hello Cambridge! on Twitpic 25/6/2013: Check-out of our apartment and went to the train station. Went back to London using Eurostar, finally saw the train went into the Euro Tunnel. Once we reached London, we drove to Cambridge, lucky to be given with a new travel lodge!

Nottingham & York, the end of road trip for now. on Twitpic 26/6/2013: Headed to Nottingham and York for sight seeing. Then, went back to my sister’s place at Thornaby, one hour away from Newcastle.

Shopping day in Thornaby and Newcastle. on Twitpic 27/6/2013: Shopping day near my sister’s place and in the evening we went to Newcastle for another shopping spree! Bought a lot! So cheap! What’s more, found my size.

Whitby, a fishing town, a change of view. on Twitpic 28/6/2013: Went to Whitby for a change of view. Something different from what we’ve seen the previous days. Had fish and chips dinner at Magpie Cafe.

Bowness, where U can find the largest lake in UK. on Twitpic Food? Soap? At Bowness-on-Windermere. on Twitpic Shopping in Birmingham but came back empty handed. Off to Lon... on Twitpic 29/6/2013: Bowness-on-Windermere where you can find the largest lake of UK. Another different view. Found nicely made soap and sweets. From the photo alone, it’s confusing whether it’s food or soap. We then drove almost 3 hours to Birmingham for another shopping spree but came back empty handed.

Brands I likely never own. Spent more than 5 hours shopping a... on Twitpic 30/6/2013: Got to touch and see those branded stuff for the second time in my life. Tried on Jimmy Choo, Bally, Prada, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Coach and more! Bags and shoes cost thousands of Ringgit, so far fetch for me. Yet I made an unbelievable purchase at Bicester Village. A Micheal Kors tote bag, my biggest buy in my entire life for a bag. I still can’t believe that I ended up buying it! It’s an outlet store so the price is cheaper but still expensive! Let’s put it this way, original price cost almost RM1K and I got it for almost RM700! One thing I don’t understand, it’s such an expensive bag but no storage bag provided. A bit disappointed. Oh well… No more turning back. After shopping, we drove back to London.

Goodbye London in 12 hours... on Twitpic 1/7/2013: Visited some tourist spots in London.

Angus beef steak and mix grill at Heathrow. *slurp* on Twitpic 2/7/2013: Went for a drive to the Warner Bros. Studio featuring Harry Potter, then to B&Q and lastly to IKEA for lunch before heading to the airport. Time to leave London and go back to Kuching.

Will update about it in details once I found the time and mood ;p

Driving All the Way - England, Going Places, People Everywhere - Paris