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We’ve just had a long but memorable day in London.  We all went down on the train to Kings Cross and then through the Tube to the Thames.  We’d booked to go on a sightseeing tour on the London Duck.  This is on an old (World War 2) amphibious vehicle.

The tour went around all the usual sights, such as Buckingham Palace and Big Ben etc. and then drives past MI6 and into the Thames.  It goes up and down the river for about 20 minutes before coming ashore again and driving back to the London Eye.

We then met up with Jane and all walked up to Covent Garden.  We had planned to go to the Transport Museum, but it was closed for refurbishment so we went down into the Underground and headed for the British Museum.

Here, we just looked at the Egyptian Mummies and then had a coffee.

We caught the train back over tea, in time for the kids to fall straight into bed.  They have been really good during the day and were very excited by the Duck trip and the long train ride.

Our Dutch friends Aad and Hilde have been visiting us yesterday and today.  They emigrated to New Zealand 2 years ago so they’ve been giving us some advise on shipping etc.

We spent a very sunny afternoon at Cannon Hall and then, once Jack and Grace had gone to bed, we had a barbeque.

We’ve had a very enjoyable cycle ride on the Spen Valley Greenway.  This is an old railway track that has been converted into a cycle route.  It starts near us in Dewsbury and heads towards Bradford.  Even though it passes through some fairly industrialised areas it is mostly on the side of open fields.  We took a picnic with us and stopped at the many sculptures along the way.

Jack enjoys pedalling on his trailer bike, and Grace enjoys sitting in her seat and watching veryone else putting in the effort.

This weekend Iain Russell and I took part in the Saunders Mountain Marathon.  This is an event we have done together a number of times before and is basically running around a course in the mountains over 2 days.  You have to carry a tent, stove and all your food with you so it is quite hard work.

Seeing as it is only 10 weeks since my knee operation we were unsure if we’d be able to complete the course but decide to give it a go anyway.

The start was in Grasmere, so we arrived on Friday evening, set up a tent and went to the pub.  Early on Saturday we made our way to the start line for the beginning of the race.  We’d dropped to a lower course and there were about 100 teams in our event.

The course went straight up onto the tops of the Langdale Pikes and could have been a good fast running course, if we’d been fit.  As it was we ran a lot of the morning, except for the very steep uphills, of which there were a few.

We arrived in Stonethwaite for the overnight stop and were ready to drop out and not complete the course the next day.  However, after an afternoon in the sun, listening to England getting knocked out of the World Cup on the radio and a good nights sleep, we decided to follow the route but to take it easy.

Sundays route did not have as many ups and downs as Saturdays but was very hard work.  The hot sun sapped out energy and we had to make sure we took in lots of water every time we passed a stream.

I almost gave up again when my fell shoes fell to pieces, but I was able to tie some elastic around them and we carried on to the last 2 checkpoints.

We finally finished in a combined time of about 14 hrs, which for the 35 kms wasn’t too bad.  This put us in 57th place.  We were amazed that we even finished the course, and had a great time despite the heat.

My legs are a bit stiff today, but my dodgy knee doesn’t seen to be suffering too much