We are almost done now. Today and tomorrow are repositioning days to get us back to Manchester for the trip home. Today we left the amazing Boringdon Hall early for the trip to Bath. 
We have finally got coffee worked out. Took a while to discover that a double espresso (dopio) at a Costa takeaway makes an excellent Long Black.
We spent time on the motorways into Bath and I was again so impressed with British motorway etiquette. They do it so well indeed. 3 Lanes on a highway is perfect. 

We have done many great things in this past 3 weeks but today was an especially good, good day. 
Last night we spent a great evening in a wonderful hotel in Torquay. The Marquis Hotel was a great place with lots of history in the hotel itself. It was close to all we wanted to be near and was a comfortable place to be. 
And the internet worked well!
It has to rate as one of the better places we have stayed.
We ended the day in the best, best place we have stumbled across. In the intervening hours what we have seen and explored has made this a highlight day on all counts.
All this regardless of having to drop one of our selected tourist stops in order to fit one more in.

London is big, smelly, dirty, grubby and yes it is the centre of the western world. Perhaps NYC will argue. Paris most certainly will argue. Most of the world will however quietly agree that London is it.
London’s public transport is amazing. The tube is the most efficient system imaginable. One train every 3 minutes, stretching the full length of the platform, moving the maximum number of people possible - and it is full for hours. 
We laugh at Japanese stuffing people into their transit system but boy the tube I rode today was so solid with bodies. 
I wanted to check my pocket to see my wallet was still there, but there was no path for my arm to move legally towards my pocket. (My Wallet was still there.)
The city is clogged. 

We are in the last days of our journey. This part is to see some things we never got to see as children. Places that we recall mentioned never visited. The first step from Portsmouth is to Torquay. Oh, by the way, the hotel in Portsmouth was all I wanted. The internet worked a charm and there was an elevator. 
Score!!!

Somebody asked me in 1965, what did I miss most of all about leaving UK for Australia? I was 11 and there was one thing that I truly, deeply missed as I set foot in Essendon Airport. I was so sad and upset that I no longer lived at the centre of time. I was no longer in the place that invented time. Time was no longer based in my home. I was 11, perspectives change but at that time I was quite upset to depart the home of time. 
London’s last contribution to this migrating Englisher was to teach me the 24 hour clock. It was so fitting to set the depart time of my BOAC Comet IV Jetliner at 1515. Yes - 50 years later I still know exactly what time we departed LHR. I asked dad what time 1515 was. He told me I had all the flight to Australia to figure it out and if I couldn’t he would tell me in Melbourne. 
So where should I pilgrimage on my one day in London? 
Greenwich!

Enough heavy stuff let me tell you about the graffiti grannies. The pier at Saltburn is a wonderful walk in the brisk, bracing air. It was windy. Probably the reason there is now a wind farm just off the coast standing in the North Sea. We walked its 1500 feet out into the ocean but had to stop part way along. Sitting on the guard rail along the pier we discovered works of knitting. You can’t believe it I am sure but it is true. Knitted onto the tubular steel work we discovered these amazing works. They are wonderfully creative and perfectly executed but there was no notice to explain the craft.
We stopped a couple of locals walking past and asked what it was all about. We expected it to be a celebration of the life of some wonderfully important local hero. Maybe the world knitting champion came from round these parts.
No!