Family
Last weekend was a family reunion. Over the years I’ve kept in touch with family on my mothers side. Not so much my fathers. I’m not sure why, I think maybe it was that they lived further away and were older. My sister had been conversing with a cousin for a number of years investigating this side of the family, as well as dads war record. He died on 2001 and since then we have both wished we’d asked him more about this period of his life.
She stopped in to see John on her way to Cornwall and our sister Sheila.
During the planning he had suggested I might like to visit.
I work half days on Friday so at just after 12 I headed out on my bike. Seventy miles later the journey was over. It was more fatiguing than anticipated. At first I couldn’t work out why, and then I realised. The roads were very busy, even lanes I thought would have been quiet had a constant stream of cars. It was similar to the ride last year to Hungerford on the way to Bristol. Link. The sprawl of London reached a long way. It was past Alton before I felt comfortable. Some of it was fimiliar from this ride.
Arriving at John and Sallys place we tried to work out when we had last met. John is much older than me, and we thought maybe it was forty.
Any trepidation I had about this visit didn’t last long. It was the start of a very relaxed weekend. They have a great house with views over the South Downs from the patio. It was here we talked until late, after a tasty home cooked meal.
Saturday there were decisions to be made; where were we going to have lunch? Wincheter wasn’t far, and I’d been there once before. It was only fleeting though. I rode the South Downs Way with some friends in 2012 and this was the start.
As was the case the previous night the conversation flowed easily as we wandered around the city.
Both John and Sally had worked for the Environment Agency before retiring. John was also employed by the water board before it was privatised. So they were a wealth of knowledge about the city not normally contained in guided tours. The river Itchen flows under many parts.
It was a walled city, with many gates.
A tasty coffee and cake kept us going until an oriental lunch.
The roads are pretty small as you’d expect of a medieval city, but they are very congested. It would be a massive improvement if this were reduced.
I now know more about my dads early life plus his family reaching back two centuries. And have extended my family circle.
I will continue to delve into this and am planning a cycling trip next year to France. The idea is to include many World War One sites; I can now add a cemetery where relatives are buried.
I’ll be visitng John and Sally again. They are very experienced saiIors so a new challenge awaits.
The ride home on Sunday was much better, and more comfortable. I arrived home only a little sooner, but it felt much quicker.