Black to Blighty – May 2025 (Month 2)

I start the month with a Facebook post I made, which was commented on by cycling chum Andy… which says it all really!

Settling in

We have now been back in the UK for two months and have settled into a good routine.

I am doing WAAAAAY more than I used to do in Germany – my diary has things on pretty much every day. It’s much easier for me to join events here in England as living in a big town there is always something going on.

I also joined the u3a choir which is more of a fun choir than the Bury Bach Choir. I am singing tenor there too although the pitch of a lot of the music is too low for me – but they only have 3 other tenors and have loads of altos so I am singing along where I am able and sitting out the really deep bits.

I went to a u3a talk in the Apex (the concert and theatre venue) and was impressed to see an advert for the Mozart Requiem I am singing in on display.

What is also great is that the Tenors in the Bury Bach Choir tend to do a lot of social things, which is mainly going down the pub, the Rising Sun in Bury St Edmunds. And the Rising Sun do tea!

They also do pickled eggs which is something Klaus wanted to try. He and I went there one day but they had run out of pickled eggs so Klaus’s quest to try one had to be delayed (spoiler – he had one from a fish and chip shop in June and liked it!)

My sister was lucky enough to go on a cruise to Norway with her husband, daughter Hari and Hari’s partner Luke. I noticed that my phone decided she was bicycling in the North Atlantic Ocean!

Holiday to the Lake District

Klaus has his birthday mid-May and so we had arranged to go to the Lake District on the Saturday and stay five nights, returning on the Thursday. We booked the whole time at one B&B in Keswick. A few weeks after booking this Klaus realised that he would be in Scotland the next week, so we decided to go from Keswick to Edinburgh on the Thursday and have four nights there. Klaus would go off on his travels in Scotland on the following Monday morning and I would get the train home from Edinburgh. I bought myself first class tickets back which was only £113, which I thought was very good value! The hotel we found was very posh but very very pricey – but that seems to be the case with Edinburgh.

Unfortunately car woes (Klaus’s suspension problems) meant that his E Class wasn’t ready in time for us to go to the Lake District. He didn’t want to do the holidays and the work visit in the SLK with my small boot so we changed our plans to drive back home from the Lake District on the Thursday and then drive up to Edinburgh on the Saturday, hopefully in the E Class (and at least with some of the work equipment he would need). I would travel up with him on the Saturday to help with the driving as it is a 7 hour journey from Bury St Edmunds to Edinburgh.

We fitted all our stuff for the Lake District in the boot of the SLK no problem. This included our walking boots, walking poles and of course clothes for several days’ walking.

We set off by 8am in the two seater SLK, stopping after a couple of hours for a rather dull tea/coffee and cookie/pastry at Blyth Services on the A1.

Our next stop was at Barnard Castle (on the A66 past Scotch Corner) where Klaus checked his eyesight.

It was a really nice tea room and farm shop and Klaus had a very tasty Falafel lunch.

We then made the final push to Keswick and checked into our Guest House which was four doors up from the one we stayed in last year. We had a sofa and a kettle for tea-making so all was good with the world.

I was able to find a decent parking space for Samantha the SLK – we didn’t use her at all during the holiday (which was the plan). After a bit of a relax we went to visit Derwentwater.

We did a little wander around the shoreline and into some woodland with lots of spiderwebby blossom.

On our way back we stopped at a pub for our evening meal and Klaus had a pint of cider.

The next morning we had our breakfasts – I went for the full monty (and had some porridge first).

This was because we had planned to walk up the mountain Latrigg which looks over Keswick, in front of Skiddaw.

Latrigg

I had a route which took us along the old railway line (now a walking/cycle path) and this was really lovely.

There was this impressive tunnel too. So nice to walk without cars,

It was Klaus’s birthday and he got lots of phone calls wishing him happy birthday. It made for a leisurely walk as we stopped quite often for the phone chats.

After we had walked about 3km along this path we headed up the mountain to Latrigg summit, from which we had some lovely views. Below is a panorama taken by Klaus.

Klaus hasn’t done much hill climbing before and so this was a good achievement.

We sat down for a rest – it was so windy up there we had to put our hats away in our rucksacks or they would have blown off!

We looked down on Keswick and Derwentwater.

And whilst up at the top Klaus got a birthday message from friend Kai who is a hobby brewer and was really getting into the spirit of things…

Congratulations on your first birthday as a new Englander. I wish you all success, happiness and health in the new year and the new homeland. In your honour I got a beer from Bury and am enjoying it now (halfway, as it’s not so tasty). A brewing colleague has been to Bury and he really liked it so we chose a beer from Bury at the last hobby brewer meeting. Unfortunately there wasn’t any Greene King.

The walk down was extremely steep and I couldn’t have done it without two walking poles. It was the shortest route but I hadn’t quite reckoned with how steep it would be, but I managed (I am very afraid of falling due to my bad arm).

We then had a 2km walk back to the Guest House and arrived with tired feet, having done 9.62km in total.

That evening we went for a meal in a local hotel to celebrate Klaus’s birthday.

Lodore Falls, Surprise View, Ashness Bridge

The next day we decided to do an easy walk to Surprise View and Ashness Bridge. This involved using the Keswick Launch boat which was excellent value.

This took us to our start point where we could visiting Surprise View. We set off along a track that I had downloaded from the internet, someone else had walked it a couple of months ago. We wanted to see the Lodore waterfall first and then go up to Surprise View.

We arrived at the waterfall which was rather hidden away under all the greenery and then found that our route had rather disappeared.

We found ourselves clambering up very narrow, steep pathways which could well have been animal pathways rather than human ones. We could see the correct route on our watches and we were only 5-10 metres away but were having a very difficult scramble to get up to it. We were using hands and feet all the time and both had pretty high heart rates!

There’s a bit of GPS wandering in the image below from Strava but you can see how close together the contour lines are

Eventually we found ourselves back on the proper track, although it was only slightly wider than the scramble we had done. We were then able to cool down a bit with our walking through the forest on the relative flat before arriving at Surprise View.

We sat there for five minutes to recover as we were both fairly pooped from our scrambling!

We walked down the road and then across some fields on a footpath, and eventually ended up at Ashness Bridge.

From here it was a short walk down to the lake to wait for the Keswick Launch.

You can see our total route below.

Look how steep that climb is!!

The route was just over 6km but took us one hour 40 to walk as it was such slow going uphill.

When we got back to Keswick we were peckish so Klaus had a crumble cake and I had a cream tea.

In the evening we went out to a very nice Italian restaurant just around the corner from our hotel.

The old railway line to Threlkeld

The next day was theoretically a rest day but I fancied doing the old railway line walk again. I thought I would walk its length to Threlkeld and then get the bus back. Klaus decided to stay at home as his back was slightly off.

I set off, first walking into Keswick to join the old railway line at the old railway station.

As you can see from the photos, it was lovely weather again.

The railway line walk ends at the A66.

It was a surprisingly long way further to the tea room/community centre in Threlkeld where I had some coffee and walnut cake – which had actual coffee beans in it (which I didn’t particularly like). The rest of the cake was fine though!

I messaged Klaus to say I was going to walk back rather than get the bus and he said he would walk to meet me. I had thought to walk back via Castlerigg Stone Circle but realised it was rather hilly and I wanted a non-hilly walk after the last two days.

So I set off after finishing my cake, Klaus had had a head start and me me quite a long way along the walk. He had also been doing some photography.

In total I walked 12.5km but it was a nice gentle walk with lovely views, lots of wildlife and it was a beautiful day.

Our evening meal was in a Thai restaurant and Klaus went for another cider.

Catbells

The next day was our planned highest mountain climb which is Catbells, one of the most popular Lake District mountains. Klaus prepared by having beans on toast for breakfast!

We knew there is some rock scrambling at the top of Catbells which I was slightly nervous about but I saw some photos of it online and thought it would be OK – which it was.

We set off slightly later than planned and missed the direct boat to the landing stage so instead bought the round-the-lake ticket and went clockwise to Hawes End, in other words we had a nice 40 minute boat trip.

From here there was a well marked route which we followed without any problems.

There is a smaller peak you reach first which had lovely views towards Bassenthwaite Lake.

And then we had to carry on up the next steep bit with more scrambling at the very top.

The view from the top into the neighbouring valley was lovely.

Here is Klaus at the top.

We both had a sit down for 10 minutes out of the wind.

Below are Klaus’s photos from the walk.

Below are two panoramas.

We walked 7.5km in total, walking back down the less steep route.

Here you can see the elevation profile.

When we got back to Hawes End Landing Stage the first boat to arrive was going anticlockwise but as we had the full ticket for around the lake we did the long route back to Keswick. It was lovely to be on the cool lake as the walk had been pretty warm (except for in the wind at the top).

For our evening meal we went back to the good Italian restaurant.

The next morning we set off for home, driving back along the A66 and then down the A1, making a couple of stops on the way.

We both felt that the SLK had been a much better car than we expected for motorway driving. The engine is brilliant (it’s a 3.5 litre V6) but despite the sports suspension and low profile tyres it’s reasonably smooth on the motorway. The E Class would have been smoother though.

And when we got home and phoned the garage it turned out that the E Class would not be ready (they were having problems with the replacement suspension air bags which were not holding) so we realised we would be travelling to Edinburgh two days later in the SLK again.

To Edinburgh and back

Klaus had a couple of crates of work equipment in Samantha’s boot but I was able to just have a large rucksack with my travel items and we fitted all our luggage in the boot with no problems.

It would be a drive over 7 hours so I suggested that we switch drivers every hour. Although that would be a lot of stopping it would hopefully mean we weren’t too pooped at the end. So we did this and it worked well, neither of us felt really tired.

We stopped at the border of course.

Hotels in Edinburgh were all really expensive so we had chosen somewhere 30 minutes to the west of Edinburgh which was actually a golf course and country club, called Dalmahoy. The main building was impressive.

Our rooms were in a new annexe but were fine.

We wanted to go for a little walk around the grounds and did so, rather surprised that there were almost no pavements. We had to walk on the road or the grass. There were several huge car parks full of cars so clearly people there were keener on driving than walking.

We found a lovely church which was part of the Dalmahoy estate.

We had planned a walk to the west but very soon we were confronted with a field of cows so decided not to carry on and just headed back to the hotel.

We ate at the hotel’s bistro in the evening and it was pleasant enough.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel which was rather a disappointment. They had either sliced bread or pain au chocolat, no other choices (such as rolls or sourdough bread or darker bread). There were only a couple of sorts of cheese, no smoked salmon or anything like that – a very sparse breakfast considering the hotel was large and they had loads of guests. The following morning they also had normal croissants but overall we were very underwhelmed – I think it was one of the worst breakfast buffets I have seen in the UK.

Klaus and I decided to spend the day in Edinburgh so we caught the bus from Dalmahoy into the centre, a very bargains £2.20 each. Once there we had a bit of a walk around and then ended up in the National Museum of Scotland which we really liked! Particularly the building.

There were lots of very interesting exhibits, all a bit haphazard but fun. There were also some German engineering items, such as robotic arms from Kuka (where Rohallah now works – we sent him a photo and he said he had serviced once the week before!) and various bits and bobs Klaus recognised from different jobs. They also had old computers and mobile phones, including a BBC B computer which we had. Now a museum piece.

We got the lift up to to top for views across Edinburgh.

Not sure why the building on the left (below) looks like the poop emoji!

I was impressed by this staircase.

We had tea and cake at the museum and then did a bit more wandering around (there are some very steep roads in Edinburgh) before getting the bus back.

I went for a swim at the hotel (they had a very nice pool) and then it was time for our evening meal in the hotel’s other restaurant, also nice.

The next morning Klaus had to set off for a meeting in Glasgow at 10am. I packed up my rucksack with what I needed for my train journey home, Klaus kept a few of my bits in the boot of Samantha (spare shoes etc) that I didn’t need to carry home.

I waved him off…

My train wasn’t until 13:00 so I had plenty of time. I took the bus to Edinburgh again and did a bit more walking around.

I had booked a first class ticket so would be able to sit in the lounge at Edinburgh Waverley Station from 11:00. I had an hour to kill so walked a bit more around before heading to the station.

I found the First Class lounge eventually (it was very poorly signposted) and sat down for my free crisps, biscuits and tea. The same food was offered on the train too, so I had plenty of Fairfields Farm crisps that day.

The train was on time, comfortable and fast. I had several cups of tea on the four hour journey to Peterborough and also a coronation chicken sandwich for lunch.

At Peterborough I had an hour to wait for the next train so decided to walk to see the cathedral. I found the centre of Peterborough felt a bit rough, there were several groups of young lads and I felt slightly uncomfortable. The cathedral was closed to visitors so once I realised that I headed back to the railway station.

I picked up some sandwiches for my evening meal (no first class service on the train from Peterborough to Bury) and a drink and had a good journey back. I walked home from the station in Bury, which takes about 30 minutes. All in all the train journey was fine – I would do it again. Edinburgh to Bury St Edmunds first class was £113, which I thought was very good value.

A visit from Lara

Lara had arranged to visit over the Christi Himmelfahrt/Ascension Day public holiday in Germany. We had no public holiday here so when she arrived on the Wednesday Klaus was working and I collected her from Stansted.

We walked into Bury and wanted a cream tea so went to the very nice café Bailey’s 2. They were closing in 2o minutes but we still had time for our cream tea.

After this we did some charity shop shopping and Lara found a blouse and a shirt for a great bargain price.

I had my choir in the evening so Klaus, once he had finished work, had a chance for a good natter with his daughter.

The next day (Thursday) Klaus was also working so I took Lara to Risby Barns Antiques Centre where we had a good look around and she bought a pair of earrings. And we stopped for refreshment.

The following day (Friday) we decided to go to Dedham for cream tea. On the way I stopped at my Mum’s house to pick up the hosepipe there as we needed it. It was nice to drive with the roof down, the first time in over a month since the roof had a problem (we now know it is a bit of plastic which has come loose but can position it correctly before putting the roof down and it all works),

We then went to Dedham to The Essex Rose Tea room for our much-anticipated Afternoon Tea!

We had a look around the church in Dedham (it has been converted into an antiques and jewellery shop) and then headed over to see my friend Kirstie. We had a cup of tea with Kirstie and Howard which was lovely. It was then time for us to go home and we all walked into Bury in the evening and had fish and chips at Hendo’s.

The plan for the next day, Saturday, was to visit my family in Benfleet (near Southend). Anna my sister had a funeral just after lunch so we decided to stop for our lunch on the way, and went to the garden centre that niece Gwen had recommended to me before. We had a lunch of sandwiches but the cakes were calling to us so Lara and I shared a slice of Strawberries and Champagne cake.

Klaus had a smaller slice of cheesecake.

We then drove to Anna’s and spent some time with her and the dog Chip, also going for a walk on Thundersley Common. That evening we all had a curry in Benfleet before Klaus, Lara and I headed back to Bury St Edmunds. Lara really enjoys these visits with her cousins.

On the Sunday my niece Gwen and her husband Harley were coming to visit, and also bringing Chip the dog. We were doing them a lunchtime barbecue and it was very tasty (Klaus is the chef!)

When I left Germany friend Bella gave me a little bag with messages for me to read – and I decided to read one a month. While Gwen and Harley were here I opened the bag and took out a message and it was about their wedding (which Bella came to with me). Very spooky!

After the barbecue we walked into Bury and, unsurprisingly, stopped for cake.

Chip was very good and enjoyed being in our house and going on a new walk.

After they headed off we just had cheese and biscuits for dinner as the BBQ had been very filling.

The next day was Monday and Lara was due to fly back later in the afternoon. I was feeling mega pooped so we didn’t do anything in the morning. I had my u3a choir after lunch so went to that. When I came back Klaus was on a work call which was massively overrunning so I ended up last minute having to take Lara to the airport. Her flight back was delayed and she ended up getting home to Dortmund really late – good thing she is still young and can cope with late nights!

More about cars

Last month I finished with the ongoing car situation – Klaus’s suspension was non-functional and my SLK had an engine warning light due to the NOx sensor.

Carl the Mercedes E Class

Carl the E Class took much longer to repair than we expected. This was because the second rear suspension air bag that they needed to fit kept popping (they ordered 3 separate ones from the supplier and all of them did not maintain pressure overnight). So eventually they said they would have to order a genuine Mercedes Benz part (much more expensive) but that did the trick – after we had returned from our Edinburgh trip..

However, when I drove away with Carl I noticed a weird sound at low speeds, particularly when going over bumps or on cambered roads with the right side lower. So I took it back to the garage and they did a test drive and said they could hear the sound, it seemed that it was rotational rather than to do with the suspension, and they would have a look at it the following week (no space in the diary before then). They thought it might be something to do with the brakes.

Klaus continued using Carl and a week later when Gwen and Harley were driving behind us during our visit to the Curry House in Benfleet Harley pointed out that something was hanging down underneath the car behind the back wheel. It turned out to be a bit of trim – he pulled it off and lo and behold the mystery noise stopped, so we were able to cancel the appointment to check. At the time of writing Carl is driving OK and the suspension is staying up.

Meet Rex

With all the car woes over the month I started looking to see if I could get a cheap runaround car to use when one of the others is out of action (having two Mercedes you would think this wasn’t necessary but hey). I found myself looking at the BMW i3 electric car with range extender (scooter engine in the boot to keep the battery topped up if necessary) and ended up going to see a very keenly priced one in Norwich. Chris, the seller, had bought it as a non-runner (something to do with the motor) and repaired it and done lots of other things. He is a lecturer in car mechanics and had several cars in progress on his driveway. He seems to like having project cars!

We did a test drive and both of us were happy with the car. Chris was not one for haggling, he just wanted it to go to a good home so we got the car for what I think was a very fair price.

The car is now called Rex (Rex = Range Extender, this motor in the boot) and although he is absolutely the base model (doesn’t have heated seats) he is ideal for our uses.

We can charge him up using the granny charger (3 pin plug) and have the Octopus tariff which gives us very cheap overnight electricity for charging. What is also interesting is although the car is 11 years old the BMW App will speak to the Octopus App about the smart charging – I tell it what time I want the car to be charged and it chooses the best time to do this, with 6 hours charging at just 7p per kwh..

Rex’s range is 70 miles electric, with of course the Range Extender that will do another 70+ miles before needing more petrol (it has a 9 litre petrol tank). In our usage it will be very rare that we need to use the Range Extender, apart from to run it periodically to keep it in good nick.

I am really enjoying driving Rex, particularly on the short trips to Sainsbury’s where I really didn’t like to use the SLK. The i3 has a fairly rough ride so is not so much fun on motorways but with its really good turning circle it’s an excellent city car.

Samantha’s Sensor

Samantha the SLK had a NOx sensor problem, diagnosed by one of the Mercedes specialist in Stowmarket. I bought an ODBC reader thingie which showed me what it was (generally, not specifically – Bank 1 Sensor 3 is a NOx sensor, not oxygen) and enabled me to clear the error code, which stayed off for 150 miles!

When we went to buy Rex, Chris the owner said he would happily read the codes on the SLK for me (Klaus and I had had an almost 2 hour phone chat with him two days before as he’s a very keen Mercedes man!) So I drove home with Rex and Klaus took Chris for a drive in the SLK (the car needs to drive for 20 minutes or so before this bank of sensors starts working).

Chris’s Mercedes laptop showed that the NOx sensor was completely dead – zero functionality. The one on the other side was working but slightly flaky too. He recommended we buy two from a place in Germany where he got them and see if we can solve the problem that way – the ones he is referring to are second hand but apparently pretty much perfect. This is on our list of things to do but we are waiting a bit to ensure the other cars are all fine and when things have calmed down a bit. Our usual Mercedes garage can do the NOx sensor swaps but they are massively overloaded at the moment so we want to wait until things are a bit less pressured as this isn’t an urgent repair.

Chris cleared the error code and 250 miles later the engine light still hasn’t come on so that’s a bonus.

On our long journeys to the Lake District and to Edinburgh we also realised the air con in Samantha wasn’t as good as it should be. I took her to a different garage which specialises in such things (and could offer me a quick appointment) and they diagnosed a leaky compressor so that would have to be replaced before our June Wales Road Trip.

More car expense. These things are not cheap. But useful!

More walking

This month I continued my walking, including Klaus and I doing a walk with a lady I met at Ramblers.

I also took Klaus for a walk at Long Melford which I had done with the Ramblers.

On that walk we heard a very slow aeroplane and looked it up – it was a DC3 on its way to NL for events related to VE Day.

A visit from Gwenllian and Mark (& dogs)

When we were looking for somewhere to live in the UK some friends of mine, Gwenllian and Mark, recommended Halstead and we went to visit. Now we were living in Bury we invited them to come for a barbecue with us. And to bring their two dogs, Molly and Storm.

They arrived and it was time to take them and the dogs for a walk into Bury for some cake.

This was obviously a tiring experience as when we got home Molly just flaked out.

Summary

In summary, this month has been busy busy busy. Which is how I like it! Klaus has been away a fair bit for work and that will continue, but he is settling in and getting to know his boss and colleagues.

We both still really love living in Bury St Edmunds – the decision to come here was the right one!