Longest day ever!

Today is Friday the 13th, and as I sit and write this the day has gone for over 27 hours so far, and its only 7pm! This morning we were up early to make the most of our last few hours in London. After packing the bags, we checked out and headed to Harrods for breakfast – we missed the afternoon tea, so breakfast was substituted instead. To be honest, we originally intended to go to the bakery and get some goodies and a drink then wander down to do some shopping, but although the bakery was open, nothing to drink, so we found the Patisserie and had a wonderful breakfast of rolls and pastries.

After some shopping and photos, we wandered back across Kensington Park, which was still busy with joggers and cyclists, and on recommendation, bought some sandwiches to eat on the plane. The first leg was with American Airlines, and we had been told by a few people that the food was very ordinary and that they recommended to BYO food! We arrived at the airport in plenty of time – the tube is great, even with cancelled services!

After wandering around and finishing our shopping (still had a few pounds left, we just had to get rid of!), it was time to board the plane. We went to the gate, and were randomly selected to have our bags searched. Fortunately, it didn’t take long and soon enough we were on the plane and on our way home. This leg was 10 hours – the short leg – and we spent our time reading, listening to our ipods and watching the movies. Unfortunately, we have now finished our books, and with an 18 hour flight, the deck of cards might come out! We were hoping to purchase a new book or two at the airport, and were expecting, like all other airports we have been to, that after security control, we would be able to wander around the shops. We were wrong! There are only 4 shops, all of which are tiny and none sell books! Oh well, we will have to fill our time with the in-flight magazine – and some sleep! Also, we don’t have any US dollars, so even buying a bottle of water is out of the question, unless we want to pay by VISA…

West end show

Today was our last full day in the UK, and we wanted to make the most of it. We started with a quick breakfast near the hotel and then made our way via the tube and DLR (Docklands Light Rail) to Greenwich. We started by finding the meridian line with our GPS, which indicated it was a little to the east of the site where the line is at the Royal Observatory. We had a quick look through the museum there and at the exhibits there. They were really very interesting and well presented.

From Greenwich we made our way to Harrods for lunch. We hoped to have something similar to High Tea at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, but they were not starting that service until later than we could wait. Instead we made our way to the Chocolate Bar (formerly Max Brenner) and had a very healthy Chocolate Fondue! It was delicious.

After lunch we headed to Leicester Square and the Half-Tix office to see if we could catch a show tonight. It took a while to decide from the many available shows but we eventually decided to see Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. It was full price (+2.50 GBP service charge) so we walked to the box office, which was not far away, and purchased the tickets there.

Earlier in the day we had arranged to see Georgia and her partner Miles, friends from Bright. We made our way via Covent Garden, and the street performers, back to Leicester Square where we met at the Half-Tix office. We headed to the National Portrait Museum where we had tea and discussed their recent move to the UK, which was all very exciting. They are certainly set for lots of adventures if they get to go to half the places they plan.

Evening approached quickly, so we took the time to wander through St James Park, and then back to Leicester Square for a quick pizza before the show. The theatre and the show were great – its easy to see why it has been running for so long (since 1951, and in St Martins Theatre since 1974) – such a good story. The ending was … well if you haven’t seen it you’ll have to go and see for yourself.

(Andrew)

Visiting Family

We had a lovely sleep in this morning, with the time difference from Denmark; it felt like it was an hour later! Today we were heading to see my aunty Val, my father’s sister. She lives in Twickenham neat the rugby stadium. Before we headed off we grabbed a quick breakfast in a café up the road from our accommodation, using their wireless Internet to check emails etc.

After breakfast we arranged our tube tickets and then set off from Notting Hill Gate to Waterloo where we caught a train to Twickenham. The trip was quite quick, but we were later than expected. This turned out to be ok as Val had trouble finding a park and arrived a few minutes after us. It was quite strange meeting someone you don’t know for the first time. What do they look like, will they recognise you, etc.

Once Val arrived we headed back to her car then drove past the stadium to her flat in Twickenham. We chatted and looked over some of the photos that we had brought with us before heading to a garden centre that served good food nearby.

From lunch we headed on a tour of the houses that Val and/or my father had lived in at various stages of their childhood. We started at Inveresk Gardens, then on to Craven Close, and lastly to Cavendish Avenue. It was really great to see these places, and to have Val explain what she recalled of them. This took most of the rest of the afternoon, so we said goodbye to Val and headed back to London.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at Waterloo and had a “flight” on the London Eye. It was quite fascinating to see the city from that height. It was quite a quick flight, but I think just the right amount of time as the pods are quite small, and there is only so much you can really see from them. We then had a quick walk through Kensington gardens to finish off the day.

(Andrew)

Last day in Denmark

Up early this morning to say goodbye to Ela before she left for work, and make sure everything was packed so we could head out with Robert. We dropped our bags off at Robert’s office, before heading over to Christiania. We took the train near Robert’s office to the Metro station that linked to Christiania. The Metro is an automated underground railway, so you can sit right up the front and look down the track as the train is moving along. We didn’t get front row seats, but were only a few from the front.

Christiania was very different from the rest of Copenhagen. The buildings and fences are covered in graffiti, people sitting around in the street smoking, and everything looked a little run down. It was quite an interesting walk, though you aren’t allowed to take photos so we don’t have much to show for it.

From Christiania we walked to the Christenborg Cathedral (cant remember the real name). You can climb the spire here that has 430 steps, the last 100ish of which wind round the outside. The stairs were tight and two way making for some interesting climbing. You could see many of the sights we had visited from the top.

After climbing the spire we made our way back to Robert’s office for another Sharwarma. It was hotter than I remembered, but great all the same. From lunch we had a quick walk around in the parks near the central square before heading to the airport via train. It was sad saying goodbye to Robert and Ela as we had such a great time.

We arrived in Gatwick airport a little ahead of the schedule we printed, and caught the Gatwick Express to Victoria station where we caught the underground to Notting Hill Gate. After checking in and freshening up we headed out for a quick bite to eat from a nearby pub. Only a few days now before we fly back home.

(Andrew)

One more castle

Today was our last day of driving around the UK sightseeing. We had just a single sight on our list, Warwick Castle. The castle was quite large and there were many different exhibits to visit within its buildings. The most interesting part of the castle was the many shows that run at different times outside the castle itself.

We were quite lucky to catch the first show that started just inside the gate as we entered. It was called Warwick Bowman and talked about the history of the English Longbow with a short demonstration where they shot at a shield, then at a “wand” (a one inch stick that stuck out from the target). Then they shot at a rubber duck that they hung down from the “wand”. The show was interesting, and very entertaining.

Following the archery demonstration we walked along around the castle and through the old mill and engine room. The next event of the day was the firing of the Trebuchet, so we wandered around the castle’s gardens, and looked at the birds of prey on their perches. The firing of the Trebuchet was great, though they couldn’t use the man powered winch due to the weather (in case you are wondering, yes it was raining).

After this we watched the start of the Winged Warriors show on falconry before heading into the castles buildings. There was quite a crowd in the castle, mostly school tours I think. The rooms were set out with mannequins dressed in period costume. This created a different atmosphere from the other castles we visited.

After Warwick Castle we had a quick lunch in Warwick itself before heading back and calling it a day. We finished off the day packing and weighing our bags, before we had a lovely dinner with Margaret and Ted.

Last big day in the UK

Looking through our list of things we wanted to see and do, there isn’t much left, which is lucky! We decided to head south, and take in the Avebury Stone Circle, Oxford and Blenheim Palace – our last ‘big day’ here.

We headed off early, in the hope the weather might fine up – and it did for a little while at least. We arrived in Avebury and although it was cool and cloudy, no rain (yay!). We had a bit of a look at the town (very confusing roads) and walked around the circle, which is cut in half by the town and main road. Half way around, it started raining, which was disappointing, as we wanted to spend a bit of time, but not to be.

Instead, we headed off towards Oxford. Along the way, we saw a sign to the Uffington White Horse, and thought we might as well take a look! So it was along some very skinny roads, and eventually made our way to a car park near the horse. It is quite impressive, but difficult to photograph, so when we saw the rain was coming, we headed back to the car and continued along to Oxford.

Oxford is a much more commercial place, with the university almost hidden amongst the shops. It is an industrial town that happens to have a university (rather than the University being the central focus, as it is in Cambridge). The buildings are beautiful, but unfortunately most were closed when we arrived! So after wandering around the town for a bit, we headed off to Blenheim Palace.

Blenheim is the seat of the Duke of Marlborough, and a huge estate! The house was impressive, with an ‘untold story’ of the history of the palace, and a tour through the state rooms. The gardens were also lovely, the rain had stopped, so we were able to spend some time to wandering around. It was a lovely day.

Nothing doing

A quiet day today, phone calls home this morning, and lunch out at the Red Lion (local pub) took up most of the day. The rain cleared for the afternoon, but Andrew was giving Margaret a computer lesson (we have set up her internet, email, VOIP phone etc while we have been here) so didn’t really venture outside as we should have. Margaret is going really well with the computer, and really underestimates her abilities. I think she will enjoy Google Earth and the other bits and pieces Andrew has taught her.

Not long now till we go home, although we are in Denmark for a week between now and then, so that will be good. Tomorrow its off to Oxford and Avebury, then Tuesday to Warwick Castle (last of the English Castles!) and home to pack. Increased terror threat in UK means an early start on Wednesday to get to Gatwick in plenty of time for any extra security measures in place.

Rainy Days are here again!

Another rainy morning this morning, but we had a lovely sleep in and got some washing done before heading out for a few hours in Bath. We wandered down to Bath late in the morning, and started at the Fashion Museum, which was good – its interesting how each period in fashion builds on and makes slight changes to previous periods.

It had stopped raining, so we spent some time wandering around the town, and wandered up to the Royal Crescent, and decided not to go in to the Georgian Terrace that is open, but head back towards town and to the Jane Austin museum. Unfortunately, this didn’t live up to the expectation (or the 6.50 entry fee).

We had decided already to have lunch here, and, although the museum was disappointing, the lunch was lovely!

It was raining when we came out of the museum, so we decided against walking along the river, and instead, headed back to Margaret & Ted’s for a quiet afternoon/evening.

(Alison)

Royalty and the ‘Upper Crust’

Alas, our run of good weather appeared over this morning, as it was drizzling when we got up. We decided to brave it and go for a walk anyway, to take some more photos of the sights Cambridge has to offer. The rain steadily got heavier, until we were almost back at the B&B, and the sun shone through – of course we were wet through by then!

The rest of the day was fine though (apart from one shower as soon as we got to Windsor, but that passed quickly), so we were able to spend lots of time at Windsor and the Windsor Castle in comfort. The Castle complex is a lot larger than we expected, although it does house a military troupe, as well as the state apartments, Queens private apartments and many offices. It is the Queens ‘home’ so our guide told us to keep an eye out for the flag to change some time in the afternoon, as she usually comes in late on a Friday afternoon to spend the weekend.

Although there were people wandering in and out of the private apartments, she didn’t arrive while we were there, so couldn’t say hello! We did tour around the dolls house – an amazing structure, complete with real china, real wine in the bottles, original paintings etc, and fully wired with electricity. Then went on to the State Apartments, which were much grander than any others we had seen, as expected I suppose. It was a beautiful day, so after spending quite a bit of time at the Castle, we headed across the river to Eton and Eton College.

Eton is a lovely little town, although you do get the feeling it is a bit snobby! Eton College had just finished for the Summer holidays, so there weren’t any students around – bit of a shame really, it would have been good to see them in their tails (yes, the uniform really is bow tie and tails with pin stripe trousers). The school is very proud of their history, and having taught many high ranking politicians, civil servants and royalty, its not really surprising. We didn’t get to see inside much of the school, it has expanded significantly, taking up a large number of the buildings at the far end of the main street and now educates around 1300 students a year – at 25000 pounds a student, they are not doing too badly. We did get to see the original school building, chapel and quadrangles though.

From here it was back to Margaret and Teds, Andrew got straight in to setting up their internet, the bits and pieces arrived while we were touring around, and soon enough it was off to bed.

(Alison)

Cambridge

This morning we started the day by going to the Old Original Bakewell Pudding Company, followed by Bloomers Original Bakewell Puddings. After our purchases, we headed out of town and meandered our way to Derby and the Royal Crown Derby China.

We had a really fascinating factory tour, showing us everything from pouring the moulds, to completing the gold edging. Seeing the plates ‘pressed’ through to the complete, fired product was really interesting (really, it was just great to see something other than a castle or house!). The products in the shop were lovely, but very expensive!

From here, we continued on to Cambridge, and arrived much earlier than we originally expected to. We had a lovely time wandering around the grounds of Kings College, then along to look at the other colleges. Unfortunately, most were closed, as it is graduation week, but we did get to see a procession for one of the colleges. Each student belongs to a college, as well as the University, and it looks like they graduate from both! It was very interesting to see how it worked.

We were in Cambridge at 5pm, so thought we would like up and stay for Evensong in the Kings College Chapel. It was a wonderful experience. The acoustics in the chapel are amazing! We were certainly glad we were able to experience it.

From here it was off to the B&B to book in. Booking on the internet, your not always sure of what you will get or where you will be. We found that the B&B was only about a mile from where we parked – right near the centre of town! So once settled in, we walked back to town for a yummy dinner at a Turkish restaurant, then wandered back again in time for the fireworks over some of the colleges graduating today. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the camera with us, so its up early for a walk tomorrow before breakfast.

(Alison)

Views around Castleton

Today we headed from York down to Bakewell where we will stay for one night before heading to Cambridge. The day was looking pretty stormy when we went for a walk, but there were only a few sprinkles during the day, quite surprising.

Our first stop of the day was Chesterfield, where we parked in the shopping centre and then walked around from there. The main attraction of Chesterfield is the church, or more specifically the church’s spire. Its not quite straight, well it’s not really straight at all. You could see it coming into town, and it does make quite a sight.

From Chesterfield we headed for the main attraction of the day Chatsworth House, another day, another house and garden to look through. We started with the garden, which was enormous. While it was all very impressive the maze was the most fun and took some time to get through. After a while exploring the gardens we looked to the house. We purchased an audio tour, and made our way in. The house had a large number of rooms open, and the audio tour covered just the right balance of history and details of the furniture etc. Overall Chatsworth was one of the better houses that we have visited.

After Chatsworth we headed for the hills, and the village of Eyam. When we arrived Eyam Hall was closed, but we had a look around the streets and read some of the history of the town. Including lovely places like Plague Cottages…

To end the days site seeing we went to Castleton, and walked from the town up to Peveril Castle. The hill was very steep, and we had a few stops on the way up, but it was all worth it for the view. The castle is a ruin and it wasn’t that interesting, but the views really were spectacular. From here it was back to Bakewell, and our B&B for the evening. Bakewell has 2 ‘Original Bakewell Tart’ companies, so we had to try it for dinner – it took a few goes to find a restaurant that was serving dinner, at a reasonable price, and had the tart for dessert, but we found one and it was yummy!

(Andrew)

York and surrounds

After a big sleep in this morning we headed out to wander the streets of York. We purchased our engagement ring here on our first trip in 2001, so thought it might be worth checking out the jewellery shop again! Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything we liked, that was within the price range… maybe next trip.

We headed out to Castle Howard, hoping it hadn’t been flooded out. It wasn’t, and we were able to spend quite a bit of time wandering around the castle grounds, because – amazingly, it wasn’t raining!!! It was cold, but not wet, so we were happy… The Castle has a lovely, manicured garden, with lots of statues, fountains etc to look at. The house tour was shorter than expected, as they are currently filming “Brideshead Revisited” – which was actually quite exciting.

From here, we wandered along to Harewood House, near Leeds. This was another large property, which was lovely to wander around. We spent lots of time at both properties today, I think because it was such fine weather. The house was very well presented, with the Earl of Harewood presenting the audio commentary, which gave it a personal touch. He was able to talk about the house and furnishings much more personally than other commentaries we have heard.

Following this, we headed to Otley, Shipley and Bradford, where Alison’s family is from. Alisons Great-Grandparents were from Otley, and spent time in Shipley, and Grandfather was born in Bradford. Quite an industrial area, the houses and streets looked comfortable and friendly.

We soon wandered back to York, to turn on the news and see more footage of the horrendous floods in Sheffield and surrounding areas. Roads have been cut, including the M1 motorway, and a reservoir wall is threatening to burst its banks – the surrounding town have been evacuated. Here in York, the waters are still rising, and driving around, there is water everywhere. Hopefully the next few days are clear, like today, so the water can wash out to sea before any more rain.

Battle of Bannockburn

Today we didn’t have much on our list. We started by setting the GPS to navigate us to Stirling Castle. Yes… another castle, they seem to have a few around here, and they are on our Great British Pass making them free. When we arrived at Stirling castle it was bright and sunny, we wish! Yes it was raining, and quite heavily. We started the visit to the castle with a guided tour. The tour was quick but interesting, which really helped. They were creating a tapestry on the grounds, and will finish it on Tuesday after having taken over three years to get to this point. The tapestry was really fantastic, a great work of art.

From Stirling Castle we headed to the Wallace Monument. It wasn’t on the GPS, and we were already in Stirling so we just headed north and hoped for the best. It all worked really well and we made it to the monument with ease. The monument was not on our pass, so we didn’t go in. We did walk to the top of the mountain and have a look around before heading to Bannockburn.

Bannockburn was the most interesting site of the day. Today was the anniversary of the second day of the battle of Bannockburn. The site was housing a re-enactment of the battle. It was quite different to walk around the site with people dressed in battle gear. Unfortunately it was really cold and windy. We managed to stay for about an hour and a half before we needed to move on.

We ended the day with a walk down the Royal Mile, and a really great dinner at an Italian restaurant need the B&B. We had a really great day, even if we are getting a little tired.

(Andrew)

Is summer always this wet in England? (or, It rained again today!)

This morning we were up early to make the most of our time in this beautiful location. We started with a 3 mile wander along the Rothay, behind Rydal Hall and back into Ambleside. It was a lovely morning – cool, but the sun was (almost) shining and the dark clouds had moved on.

Back with a big appetite for breakfast, we then enjoyed the company of our hosts, George and Ann, before setting out for the day. We started with the Beatrix Potter Gallery in nearby Hawkshead. This tiny gallery is located in Beatrix’s husbands original solicitors office and displays originals of her pictures for a number of her stories. They are wonderful, the reproduction in the books is amazing – particularly considering a lot of the books were originally printed in the very early 1900’s.

From here it was a couple of miles down the road to Hill Top Farm, the first farm Beatrix Potter purchased with the proceeds from her books. It has a lovely little cottage – quite comfortable. The house is as it was left to the National Trust by Beatrix. She left a number of properties to the National Trust. As an avid conservationist, Beatrix purchased a number of large farms in the Lake District to preserve the area, and bequested them to the National Trust. Some of these are open, like Hill Top, and others are run as working farms.

A number of pieces of furtniture, and part of the house and landscape have been used in various books of Beatrix’s. The house has some of these books, with the relevant page open, to look at as you wander through – it is really interesting to see how it is incorporated and where the inspiration came from.

After Hill Top, we headed north to the Derwent Pencil Museum, which, in all honesty, was pretty boring! And then on to the Castlerigg Stone Circle. It was the Summer Solstice today, and Castlerigg Stone Circle is a particularly important place, so there were a lot of people there – many of which had been there all night, ready to celebrate the dawn at around 4:30am, and since that time had been celebrating and welcoming other visitors to the circle. The location was amazing, the views were really breathtaking.

We then wandered back through to Ambleside, and on to the Grizedale Forest. This had been advertised as a great place to walk, with wonderful sculptures along the forest trails. The forest is not what we expected – essentially it is mostly a pine plantation – but the walking track was pretty good. That was until it rained. We decided to tackle two walks – neither of them very long (1.5 miles and 3 miles) and it was as we set out on the 3 mile walk that the rain started – lightly at first, and then quite a bit stronger. So of the 4.5 miles we walked in total, it would have rained for about half! Luckily we had our rain jackets, but they only help so much!

We are beginning to wonder if they ever have sunny weather in the UK. Since we have been here, we have driven and walked through rain ourselves, other parts of the country have suffered from torrential downpours and flooding – are we going to see the sun at all before we head home for ‘winter’!

(Alison)

Lakes District

We had another long trip today from North Wales to the lakes district. The trip went quite quickly, and so we decided to detour into Blackpool, and to visit one of my dad’s (John) old homes. Blackpool was very interesting. After finding dad’s old house we drove down the promenade, and then headed for Levens Hall just south of Kendal.

The garden at Levens Hall was just as described in the Lonely Planet, “Like stepping into Alice in Wonderland”. The various hedges are cut into some quite amazing shapes. We spent a good amount of time wandering through the garden, enjoying the various sights.

From Levens Hall we travelled to Sizergh Castle, another large castle run by the National Trust. Approaching the castle we were confronted with a high, almost skyscraper, covered scaffolding. The castle was packed up for the wint… I mean summer. The castle was still open, just there was no view from the outside, other than that of the covers. The inside was interesting, and a talk on the roof restoration, the real reason for the covers, was also interesting.

Kendal was our next stop, a great little town with an equally great chocolate shop. We grabbed a quick cake and sandwich before walking around the town and then heading to Ambleside. After checking in, and carrying the bags up to the room, we decided to go for a walk. We had purchased a set of small walks around Ambleside, and the weather was looking ok. By the time we had chosen a walk there was a loud clap of thunder, and the skies opened up to… is it really summer? Fortunately within a few minutes the rain had passed and we headed off on the walk.

The walk went up past the Stock Ghyll waterfall, and then followed along some small lanes and public footpaths. We got a little lost at a few points, but in general it was a really good walk. We got a glimpse of a deer in the distance, and the waterfall was quite spectacular. At the end of the walk we were back in town, and grabbed a salad and some rolls from a shop before heading down to the lake for a quick picnic dinner.

(Andrew)

Castles Galore!

This morning we had a bit of a sleep in – things open later on Sundays! We started at the lovely city of Ludlow. The castle is in the middle of the town (as some are) and so we had wander through the city to get to the castle. The town is setting up for a festival, so the castle was ‘under renovation’ with a stage and set and various wardrobes and other tents to go along with the performance, so we couldn’t see the whole thing.

We soon had to get back to Margaret & Ted’s for lunch and then headed out to Wilton Castle in Ross-on-Wye. This castle is privately owned, but is being restored in consultation with (and funding from) English Heritage. It is only open a few days each year, although now that the restoration is nearly complete they are hoping to hire it as a wedding reception/function venue. Margarets grandfather researched and wrote a book about the castle in 1939, so she was quite keen to take a look! The original castle, and subsequent tudor manor house are now ruins, but are set in a spectacular English garden, complete with lilies, roses and lavender!

Following a wander around Wilton, it was a short trip down the road to Goodrich Castle. Again, we were able to spend quite a bit of time wandering around the ruins (with audio guide!) – it has wonderful views over the Wye valley. We were close to Ted’s daughter, Mary, and her husband Martin’s place, so we went to say hello before setting off home again.

A long walk along the gorge

With many of our sites in the South of England visited, we headed north from Portwrinkle to Peterstow in Herefordshire. Along the way we decided to visit Cotehele, another fascinating old building. Many of the rooms were decorated with old tapestries, and there was a large collection of old weapons and armour on display. The weather was a cloudy and there were some showers, so we only quickly looked through the gardens.

From Cotehele we made our way north again to Lydford Gorge. The gorge had a 3 mile walk, which we decided to brave regardless of the rain. The views were spectacular, and the walk had some heart pounding moments and was quite challenging. The path was cut into the rockface at many spots, and with the rain the rocks were quite slippery. Standing on the edge of cliff, taking photos was an interesting task. Overall the walk and views were really great, well worth doing regardless of the rain.

Our next stop was quite a way north at Glastonbury. We were too late for the bus to the Tor, so we had a quick Somerset Tea (tea, and scone with cream and jam), and then walked around the town for a few minutes before heading to a pub “of great historical significance*”, the Puritan Inn. Dinner was really tasty, and large. After dinner we finished the trip to Peterstow just in time to catch a TV show on the Wye Valley, a part of which was filmed just down the road from where we were staying.

*The Puriton Inn used to be owned by Andrews Great Uncle, and his Mum lived and worked in the pub when she lived in England.

A big day out

We wanted to make the most of our time in the South West, so headed down to St Michaels Mount. It is a very impressive location, about 100 meters off the coast is the island. It was low tide when we got there, so we were able to walk across. By the time we had wandered around, the tide had come in, and the island was cut off from the mainland, and we had to catch a boat back!

From here, we started heading back north, and went to Trerice. We were able to have our picnic today in the grounds, as the rain had passed, and really enjoyed the gardens there. The local primary school are now looking after the medieval vegetable gardens that were recovered only a few years ago.

After looking through the house (which has lots of ‘hands on’ exhibits, including some interesting musical instruments), we drove about 20miles to Lanhydrock House. We had been advised to make sure we had lots of time to spend here, and once we arrived, we could see why. It took over an hour just to wander through the house. The kitchens, with separate rooms for dairy, meat cellar, fish cellar, etc, were huge, but needed to be to cater for up to 17 in the Earls household, 50 staff and many guests. We then wandered around the gardens, which are quite extensive.

It as around 5:30 by the time we finished in the garden, and missed out on a couple of castles we had thought we might get to. One of Andrews colleagues had suggested to go to Polperro, a little fishing village. We looked it up on the map, and it was on our way back to Portwrinkle, so off we went.

It is a lovely little village, tiny little port, but self-sustaining, which is great. We were recommended to a restaurant, and headed in for dinner. The chef at The Cottage Restaurant used to be head chef at the Waldorf Hotel, and it showed. Using local seafood, we had a delicious dinner, Andrew a whole baked fish, and Alison, mixed seafood sautéed in garlic with a chilli sauce. Scrumptious!

A long drive South West

This morning we said goodbye to Martin and Karina from Pebble Villa, and Weymouth and were on our way to Portwrinkle, visiting a few sites along the way. Our first port of call was A la Ronde, a quaint 16-sided house built by two sisters, and based on a church in Europe. The strange building shape meant that there were some interestingly shaped rooms inside. The sisters obviously loved shells and had rooms full of them, in display cabinets and rooms decorated with them.

From A la Ronde we made our way from Exmouth back up to Exeter and then down to Powderham Castle. This is a living castle, with the Earl and his family still living in the building. As part of the entry we were able to take a guided tour of the building. The history and significance of each room were explained, making it really come to life. We only quickly looked around the gardens as it was raining, so not many photos.

After a quick lunch in the car (we had planned a picnic) we made our way to Dartmouth. The traffic was very slow, but we did eventually make it. The castle itself sits on the mouth of the Dart river, and provided defence for the town of Dartmouth. The castle itself was not that interesting, but the scenery was great and the roads “interesting”.

From here it was a short trip to Plymouth Hoe, where Sir Francis Drake was said to have been playing bowls before going out to battle, and win, against the Spanish Armada. It is a lovely area, with views over the sea, and is obviously very popular for the locals – there were lots of families out walking in the gardens, and swimming in the sea.

It was early evening when we made our way to The Bungalow in Portwrinkle, our accommodation for the next couple of nights. The Bungalow has a wonderful outlook, perched on top of the cliff, overlooking a paddock of cows and then out to the sea. We went for a wander into Portwrinkle itself – a very small village with only a few dozen houses, and of course, a golf course and pub. There were a few people in attempting to surf – crazy in the cold and rocky beach. Unfortunately the waves weren’t very big, and were breaking close to shore, so they weren’t having much luck!

A big drive tomorrow to try and get as south as we can – don’t know that we will make it to Lands End, might be a bit too far – but will try and make St Michaels Mount.

A giant of a day

Today we had a lovely breakfast out on the front porch overlooking Weymouth and Portland. What a way to start the day.

After breakfast we headed off north up to Sherbourne to see the Sherbourne Old Castle, and the Sherbourne New Castle. One the way we passed the Cerne Giant, so we stopped and took a quick photo before heading off to the castles.

The old castle is a ruin, but was really interesting to walk around and we got some really good photos. The new castle was more of a large stately home than a fortified castle, and was furnished with period furniture.

From Sherbourne we headed to Montacute house. On the way we stopped in Yeovil Where there was a market on in the main street. We purchased some bread, olives, and artichokes and then continued to Montacute house where we had a picnic lunch in the gardens.

After Montacute we headed to Dorchester and found the Dorchester circle of nine stones. From here we had a quick drive through Dorchester and then made our way to Portland castle. We only had a few minutes before closing time so it was a quick look through, but it was only a small fort so it really was enough time. To finish the day off we had a look through the Tout Sculptures in the quarry that was not overly interesting, and then to the lighthouse for a quick look around. We had a quick dinner in an Indian restaurant before heading back for the night. Tomorrow we are off to Portwrinkle…