Shanghai to London/Birmingham

Friday 10th August 2007 – Shanghai to Hong Kong

Today was another 35c day so we debated as to how to get to the airport. We wanted to take the Maglev train which travels at speeds of up to 400 kph but that would have involved a taxi from hotel to Maglev. Walk for 10 minutes with our 5 bags and then a walk at the other end so we opted for a taxi (air conditioned) from hotel door to airport departures, via the local computer store and picked up some more software. (Needless to say this was a Chinese original). We arrived at airport early and the check in lady advised us to take an earlier flight as Hong Kong had had delays due to the weather (typhoons in the area). We took her advice and although this flight was scheduled an hour earlier than our original it actually left an hour late getting us into HK as per original schedule. Because we were leaving for London early next morning decided to stay at the Airport Hotel called the “Regal”. This was a great idea as it is a walk from the terminal to the hotel reception, all undercover. Great hotel, well organised and we had a lovely meal. As we had an “on request” upgrade we rang Air NZ and found the upgrade had been confirmed so this meant another 14 hours in Business Premier with the 180 degree lie flat beds which made our flight from Auckland to HK so relaxing. Although this was a day flight we still had the opportunity for a snooze if we wanted it. In bed at 10.30 with a 5.30 wake up call.

Saturday 11th August 2007 – Hong Kong to London

Up early, breakfast, checkout and a walk to the airport. (The only way to travel, and certainly no traffic worries.) Flew to London and although a long flight we did manage to get a couple of hours sleep. Arrived in London at 2:30 local time which was 9:30pm to our bodies. Felt good – collected new Renault from Eurocar and drove to Birmingham on the Motorways until we got into the city centre and then had great difficulty and had to ring the manager of the Stay Birmingham Apartments who talked us in via mobile. The apartments were in the centre of town but fairly small and compact and comfortable. Had dinner at the local Chinese, bed by 10pm and ate fruit we picked up at the Chinese restaurant for breakfast.
Sunday 12th August 2007 - Birmingham
Programmed Garman to take us to the various points of interest that Pam had highlighted when she did her research into her family tree. These visits were fairly uneventful as everything had changed and been bulldozed. A few of the old local pubs in the streets still remained and it was lovely to see these. We visited a church which we thought was where Pam’s GGG G’mother was married. We noted that they had a 6:30 service that night so decided to attend. Prior to this we went to the Birmingham centre known as the Bullring to try and find some components for the phone (Simcard) and computer and had a look around the shops. Visited a cemetery in Bilston (part of family research). After lunch we visited Wolverhampton where Paul and I lived for a short time – 44 Lawnswood Avenue and had an early tea at The Claregate Pub – had liver and onions and Paul had a steak and ale pie with mushy peas. Returned to Birmingham and attended the church service and stayed for coffee. Collected a lot of info re this church and during coffee Pam realised that it was the wrong one! On way back to unit called into Tesco’s and bought some provisions. Tried to get computer working for a few hours at night.
Monday 13th August 2007 - Birmingham
Spent hours trying to get computer to work to no avail. Eventually gave up after realising via Tim that we had to reinstall the hard drive and reformat it. Drove out of Birmingham to purchase the 60gb hard-drive so Paul could back up his files before reformatting. Had lunch at a French restaurant near the Bullring. Had lovely French waiter who announced that he thought the French were arrogant! Found the right church today St Peter and St Pauls where my GGGG’mother was married in ?1851. Then drove to Bilston to the cemetery and had a wander. Found another church at Sedgley where the vicar’s wife saw us looking around and proceeded to inform us that people who havn’t done enough research make her cross. Guess we really made her cross! Returned to Birmingham and had dinner at a lovely little pub on the corner near our unit. Then back to the unit to work again on the computer.......to some avail! At least got the hard disc reformatted.