Family History 1.145

Gaze History

NSG Memoir

Noel's world tour diary 1956 continued

Then to Naples:

 

“like Wellington only much larger” and on 25 April “steaming through thick fog, visibility nil” two hours from Southampton. 

In London they had arranged to lodge with a lady near Marble Arch and set out to explore the metropolis. The diary is full of exclamations of wonder at the crowds, the shops and the eating places – and the bombed sites still unrepaired after the war. 

They got a warm reception at New Zealand House and the BNZ, but were not impressed with their visit to Cooks.  KLM, the Dutch airline, were better, though, and then they went to the Houses of Parliament to watch the Commons at work: Question Time. 

During the next few days they called at the Mission to Lepers and arranged to attend the AGM, and were taken to the Annual Meeting of the Baptist Union of Great Britain which was then in session. 

After seeing the sights of London, including the AA and the Tower, they caught a KLM flight to Holland to see tulips. In Amsterdam they were with a friend called Gladys. “We had great difficulty getting Glady past the Chocolate shops.  The sweets are simply scrumptious.  They are most attractively displayed and are a terrific temptation as are the cake shops with cakes and sponges reeling under mountains of cream, icing, nuts, etc.”  (Sweets never lasted long in the box when Noel was around). 

After seeing acres of tulips, and Mary buying a Box Brownie camera so she could compete with Noel at taking photos, they returned to London on a brand-new Viscount aircraft for more sightseeing.  They saw their first TV programmes, met Jennifer Bird, Win’s daughter, and also Geof Coop, son of Rito, widow of his old friend Joe. 

The Horse Guards parade persuaded him “I don’t mind if I don’t see the Trooping of the Colour”. And then they rented a car and drove themselves around southern England. 

Near Stonehenge they visited Shaftesbury, which disappointed them. “I feel that Shaftesbury let me down.” One of the oldest towns in England “and certainly looks it.”  But they liked Truro, and went on eventually to “Padstow and Wadebridge and across its bridge to Egloshayle where we spent some time in the church and in the graveyards seeing if we could find any Tremains but no luck….the town itself is rather doleful and grim. Mary thought her ancestors did the right thing in leaving it for NZ.”