Over the past four years, we haven't had anyone to report, as Covid has curtailed our travel, but this year, we more than made up for it.
At Chinese new year, we went on a ten day trip to Chongqing, Chengdu and Libin by train, bus and plane.
First of all, I don't recommend travelling at this time, why because over 1 billion people, decide to do the same thing!
First up was Chongqing, a mega city and wow this is an extraordinary place, our first stop was the cave in the cliff, houses literally hanging on the side of a cliff, and at night it was even more spectacular, as it was lit up with thousands of lights.
It got more amazing, as we saw the train going into a block of houses, yeah really, there is a train station in the middle of this block, with people living above and below it. This city is out of this world and the next day, we went to see an old town again built o a hillside, totally amazing.
Oh and of course, we had the famous Chongqing hotpot, it is very delicious, they bring you all the food and a big boiling pot and you boil the ham, the fish and everything else in this big pot, ours cost about 80 yuan, well worth it.
On to Chengdu, the food got so spicy, my wife and daughter loved it, but I was on the bread and rice diet, the street food was totally amazing and smelled really good.
Our final stop was Libin, a small city near Chengdu, near the city was an old Chinese town with many old houses and streets, which we found very interesting as Keith is an expert at History, well he was once long ago at school.
Subway travel was very difficult, as it was so crowded, we took an hour to go 200 yards and were packed in like sardines on the subway, so if you come to China, don't come at Chinese new year.
I haven‘t been back to my homeland of the Uk, for nine years, so we decided to take the whole of the summer there, to make it more interesting, my wife and daughter, got a months visa to travel in Europe.
My dear cousin Elaine and her wonderful children John and Claire hosted us, we arrived in the middle of June, staying near Cambridge, after day trips to afore mentioned Cambridge and London, we set off around Europe. We are so grateful to Elaine for hosting us, we owe you so much, Thank you.
Our first port of call, was Norway, arriving in Oslo, was amazing, it's midnight and it's still daytime. We got on a bus from Oslo to visit, Helen's cousin and her son in Avdal, a five hour journey. What can I say about the hospitality from Leyuene and Ole, we were taken up into the high mountains, had reindeer meat and walked around this beautiful location and saw some of the highest waterfalls in Norway.
On the Sunday, we had church in the forest, absolute amazing experience. After five days in Avdal I had to be dragged away, as i loved it so much, we departed for Prague.
This is the most wonderful city, the castle is absolutely huge and the climb up to it, is lung bursting. The city itself is a treasure trove, it is a place that is covered with history, with its cobbled streets, magnificent churches and coloured houses.
The euro football was on at that time, England were playing, this Englishmen was trying in vain to find a television in the middle of Prague to watch the football, eventually I found of all things an Irish bar, England losing 1-0, deep in Injury time, one last chance, a long throw, a header on and an overhead kick, this Englishman, jumped up and down and got very excited. England won 2-1!
Vienna was our next stop, now every year I used to watch the Strauss concert from the Golden hall, and we were able to go to an all Mozart concert played by an orchestra in period costume, we had to stand up, but that was on my bucket list, what a night! They played the Blue Daube and Radetzky march to finish, my hands have never been so sore after clapping... I was very happy clappy that night.
Onto Italy, Rome was amazing, the Coliseum was beyond words and it is a truly amazing place as is Florence, with its wonderful art galleries, which were free on that Sunday, my daughter, who is an artist, was so happy.
But my favourite was Pisa, the leaning tower is absolutely amazing, it is actually leaning quite a way. We finished off our time in Pisa by visiting the Mediterranean sea and placing my feet in its blue waters.
Back in the UK, we spent the next few days, before we were off again, our host had found us a place to rent in a lovely village in the Ribble valley called Hurst green, from there we visited Bolton abbey, Asygarth waterfalls, Clitheroe Castle and Hebden Bridge.
We had visits from my nephew James and family and another old friend, more of Him later.
After a week there, we went up to my hometown of Morecambe， where we were kindly hosted by Sandra and then Steve and Naomi in the small village of Scorton. They had two cars, both Porsches, one which seated five and one a two seater, Steve kindly took me for a drive in this one, oh boy whizzing down country roads, was and is one of the things that sticks in my memory.
We were able to fellowship with my first church of Lancaster Baptist and also at my sending church of Heysham free methodist, thanks to my beloved Pastor Mark for helping us so much and for being able to see so many old friends.
Those included my dear friend Andrew, who took me to the meeting, where I came to faith.
After travelling back to Elaine's, we were given a choice, Elaine wanted to get a cottage for a week, it's either Cornwall or Norfolk, well Cornwall, It turned out to be Padstow, the second home of a certain person. It turned out he was busy, (washing his hair) so he sadly couldn't join us, but never mind.
On the Wednesday of this trip, I walked some of the south west coastal path, from Booty bay to Padstow, around ten miles. On the way I saw the most incredible scenery as the path runs within yards of the sea, I saw surfers surfing on the waves, I saw wild flower, birds and some small animals and other walkers, but sadly I never saw, the Lesser SPOTTED CORNISH RAMBLER, a strange and mythical creature that walks the coastal path on certain occasions, this rambler makes its home in pubs around the Cornish coast and likes to be fed ice cream and beer. Of course I am talking about my dear friend, David , who actually walked the 650 miles of the coastal path this year, his next jaunt, will be the walk the whole of the great wall. Thanks David for your continued friendship, see you on the great wall. Yes he's coming to China, if one old boy of Skerton school, isn't enough, you will have two soon.
Walking the coastal path was my highlight, just me and the Lord.
paddling in the sea at Falmouth, was another, seeing the southern most point of the Uk at the Lizard.
We also went to see the man who led me to Christ, dear Victor, what a wonderful weekend we had with him and his church. Also we had the most amazing fellowship with Godmanchester Baptist church and especially with our dear friends Paul and Karen and Craig and Nicky.
I think I need a rest, all this travel, where to next, still I have things on my bucket list;
Xian, Beijing, Israel, Northern Lights etc
But that's all for now, I hope you have got a flavour of our year.
Recently I managed to fracture some bones in my right foot, i have been doing my best Long John Silver impressions with crutches, but couldn't find a suitable parrot. Am getting back on my feet.. literally.
Happy Christmas and Blessed 2025 everyone
God bless you
KK and Family
At Chinese new year, we went on a ten day trip to Chongqing, Chengdu and Libin by train, bus and plane.
First of all, I don't recommend travelling at this time, why because over 1 billion people, decide to do the same thing!
First up was Chongqing, a mega city and wow this is an extraordinary place, our first stop was the cave in the cliff, houses literally hanging on the side of a cliff, and at night it was even more spectacular, as it was lit up with thousands of lights.
It got more amazing, as we saw the train going into a block of houses, yeah really, there is a train station in the middle of this block, with people living above and below it. This city is out of this world and the next day, we went to see an old town again built o a hillside, totally amazing.
Oh and of course, we had the famous Chongqing hotpot, it is very delicious, they bring you all the food and a big boiling pot and you boil the ham, the fish and everything else in this big pot, ours cost about 80 yuan, well worth it.
On to Chengdu, the food got so spicy, my wife and daughter loved it, but I was on the bread and rice diet, the street food was totally amazing and smelled really good.
Our final stop was Libin, a small city near Chengdu, near the city was an old Chinese town with many old houses and streets, which we found very interesting as Keith is an expert at History, well he was once long ago at school.
Subway travel was very difficult, as it was so crowded, we took an hour to go 200 yards and were packed in like sardines on the subway, so if you come to China, don't come at Chinese new year.
I haven‘t been back to my homeland of the Uk, for nine years, so we decided to take the whole of the summer there, to make it more interesting, my wife and daughter, got a months visa to travel in Europe.
My dear cousin Elaine and her wonderful children John and Claire hosted us, we arrived in the middle of June, staying near Cambridge, after day trips to afore mentioned Cambridge and London, we set off around Europe. We are so grateful to Elaine for hosting us, we owe you so much, Thank you.
Our first port of call, was Norway, arriving in Oslo, was amazing, it's midnight and it's still daytime. We got on a bus from Oslo to visit, Helen's cousin and her son in Avdal, a five hour journey. What can I say about the hospitality from Leyuene and Ole, we were taken up into the high mountains, had reindeer meat and walked around this beautiful location and saw some of the highest waterfalls in Norway.
On the Sunday, we had church in the forest, absolute amazing experience. After five days in Avdal I had to be dragged away, as i loved it so much, we departed for Prague.
This is the most wonderful city, the castle is absolutely huge and the climb up to it, is lung bursting. The city itself is a treasure trove, it is a place that is covered with history, with its cobbled streets, magnificent churches and coloured houses.
The euro football was on at that time, England were playing, this Englishmen was trying in vain to find a television in the middle of Prague to watch the football, eventually I found of all things an Irish bar, England losing 1-0, deep in Injury time, one last chance, a long throw, a header on and an overhead kick, this Englishman, jumped up and down and got very excited. England won 2-1!
Vienna was our next stop, now every year I used to watch the Strauss concert from the Golden hall, and we were able to go to an all Mozart concert played by an orchestra in period costume, we had to stand up, but that was on my bucket list, what a night! They played the Blue Daube and Radetzky march to finish, my hands have never been so sore after clapping... I was very happy clappy that night.
Onto Italy, Rome was amazing, the Coliseum was beyond words and it is a truly amazing place as is Florence, with its wonderful art galleries, which were free on that Sunday, my daughter, who is an artist, was so happy.
But my favourite was Pisa, the leaning tower is absolutely amazing, it is actually leaning quite a way. We finished off our time in Pisa by visiting the Mediterranean sea and placing my feet in its blue waters.
Back in the UK, we spent the next few days, before we were off again, our host had found us a place to rent in a lovely village in the Ribble valley called Hurst green, from there we visited Bolton abbey, Asygarth waterfalls, Clitheroe Castle and Hebden Bridge.
We had visits from my nephew James and family and another old friend, more of Him later.
After a week there, we went up to my hometown of Morecambe， where we were kindly hosted by Sandra and then Steve and Naomi in the small village of Scorton. They had two cars, both Porsches, one which seated five and one a two seater, Steve kindly took me for a drive in this one, oh boy whizzing down country roads, was and is one of the things that sticks in my memory.
We were able to fellowship with my first church of Lancaster Baptist and also at my sending church of Heysham free methodist, thanks to my beloved Pastor Mark for helping us so much and for being able to see so many old friends.
Those included my dear friend Andrew, who took me to the meeting, where I came to faith.
After travelling back to Elaine's, we were given a choice, Elaine wanted to get a cottage for a week, it's either Cornwall or Norfolk, well Cornwall, It turned out to be Padstow, the second home of a certain person. It turned out he was busy, (washing his hair) so he sadly couldn't join us, but never mind.
On the Wednesday of this trip, I walked some of the south west coastal path, from Booty bay to Padstow, around ten miles. On the way I saw the most incredible scenery as the path runs within yards of the sea, I saw surfers surfing on the waves, I saw wild flower, birds and some small animals and other walkers, but sadly I never saw, the Lesser SPOTTED CORNISH RAMBLER, a strange and mythical creature that walks the coastal path on certain occasions, this rambler makes its home in pubs around the Cornish coast and likes to be fed ice cream and beer. Of course I am talking about my dear friend, David , who actually walked the 650 miles of the coastal path this year, his next jaunt, will be the walk the whole of the great wall. Thanks David for your continued friendship, see you on the great wall. Yes he's coming to China, if one old boy of Skerton school, isn't enough, you will have two soon.
Walking the coastal path was my highlight, just me and the Lord.
paddling in the sea at Falmouth, was another, seeing the southern most point of the Uk at the Lizard.
We also went to see the man who led me to Christ, dear Victor, what a wonderful weekend we had with him and his church. Also we had the most amazing fellowship with Godmanchester Baptist church and especially with our dear friends Paul and Karen and Craig and Nicky.
I think I need a rest, all this travel, where to next, still I have things on my bucket list;
Xian, Beijing, Israel, Northern Lights etc
But that's all for now, I hope you have got a flavour of our year.
Recently I managed to fracture some bones in my right foot, i have been doing my best Long John Silver impressions with crutches, but couldn't find a suitable parrot. Am getting back on my feet.. literally.
Happy Christmas and Blessed 2025 everyone
God bless you
KK and Family
