Category Archives: Travel

Swiss Cottage in Osborne’s Grounds

Some kids are lucky and get to have a tree house or something in the garden to play with. If you are a member of the royal family and the child of Queen Victoria, things are a little bit more extreme. The Swiss Cottage in the grounds of Osborne House is quite something. Here the royal children got to play all sorts of pretend. I’m sure they had plenty of staff to make sure things worked out the way they wanted.

The house itself is good enough for anyone to live in. The interior is fitted out to provide any sort of entertainment you might want. Now it is also a museum of various artifacts from the household. Some of these are rather suspect items to a modern eye. Things that were taken from conquered countries and clothing from someone killed in battle make for a slightly uncomfortable viewing.

The grounds around the cottage are also interesting. There is a fort that was built by one of the princes. I think by looking at it that the prince had no real effort in building it. Some military staff were apparently roped in to this process. This fort looks a lot more impressive than the average fort a kid might make. This is not cardboard boxes and sofa cushions.

Vancouver Christmas Market

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We took a trip up to Vancouver at the end of November. They had set up their Christmas market near where we were staying and our hotel rate included tickets. It was only open at peak times while we were there but I think the hours were expanding not long after our visit. These markets are always interesting to walk around but they rarely have anything that I would actually want to buy – other than food and booze! In this case, we were heading out to dinner with friends afterwards so we even skipped that side of things. They are always a colorful and popular place so you can just enjoy watching everyone enjoying themselves and occasionally wonder at some of the strange things people will buy!

The Most Unpopular Bridge

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I spent a lot of my childhood in a town called Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Cowes was on the coast by the outfall of the River Medina. The other side of the river was East Cowes and the two were connected by a chain ferry known to everyone as the floating bridge. I remember as a small boy when the previous floating bridge got replaced with a newer and larger version. This same one was in service until relatively recently. A new one was ordered and its introduction to service has not been smooth.

I see the content of some Isle of Wight Facebook groups and complaints about the new bridge are widespread. Like most people, I don’t know the actual details of what is behind the problems, but the online experts know everything, and the accusations of corruption are widespread. In my experience, the most likely problem is just a screw up. People make mistakes a lot and looking for a deeper reason is usually fruitless. I don’t even know if it is all working properly now, and everyone is rehashing old stories or whether it is still problematic.

We did take a trip on it though. It was working and we needed to get from East Cowes to Cowes so we gave it a go. Everything was fine. However, it was busy and the car in front of us was the last one to get on. That did give me some time to get some photos of it and I also took a little video too. As an aside, while we were in Portsmouth, I saw the old bridge laid up awaiting its fate.

Hatton Cross Horses Ignore The Planes

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My visit to Hatton Cross was to shoot airplanes but, as I came out of the tube station and walked along the A30 to Myrtle Avenue, I passed some fields that had a bunch of horses grazing in them. This seemed like such an incongruous thing to see. I was in amongst the housing and right next to an international airport with a major road passing through. Having so many horses there seemed like the last thing I would have expected.

Some of them looked like large working horses while others were either ponies or foals. I am not a specialist so can’t tell the difference. The approach lights for the runway were in the field surrounded by fencing which seemed to attract some of the ponies for some reason. They looked pretty tranquil and clearly had no interest in the planes passing overhead. How could they not be looking???

Argosy Still Hanging On

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I bumped into a guy I had met before while at Fox Field outside Lancaster CA. He had just arranged a ride out on to the ramp with one of the airport staff and invited me to come along. One of the old airframes stored at Fox Field, near the air tanker ramp, is an old Armstrong Whitworth Argosy. I have no idea of the history of this airframe and how it ended up here but here it is. We were free to wander around and get some shots of it.

I understand it has been at Fox Field for a long time. It isn’t going anywhere in a hurry but, courtesy of the dry climate, it is only decaying slowly. I have no idea how long it will be before it becomes unsafe to have around any longer but I imagine it will be a while. Definitely an unusual aircraft to get to shoot these days.

Camden Lock

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Every once in a while, you have a moment when you realize something obvious. I used to occasionally go to Camden Market when I lived in Town and I knew of Camden Lock but it never occurred to me that Camden Lock was called that because it had a lock. How did that never register? Anyway, it became obvious as we came to Camden during our walk along the Regents Canal. There were the locks and a bridge over the top of them. It was absolutely heaving with people. Camden is a tourist magnet and so I was keen to keep moving through. I did stop long enough to have a look at the locks, though.

Lancaster Jets On Sticks

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My friend, Paul, had advised me that Lancaster CA had a couple of aircraft on poles that were worth a look. One is a retired Air Force test F-4 that sits at a busy intersection next to a rail station. The other is a NASA F/A-18A that is at the entrance to a baseball stadium. I decided to try and photograph both one evening when the light would be most favorable.

The guys hanging out near the F-4 looked a little perplexed as I drove up and started photographing this plane on a pole. I think they didn’t see the interest in it that I did. I think I attracted a few strange glances and I grabbed some shots and then headed back to the car. The Hornet at the baseball stadium was a different story. Not too many people around at that time so I took some shots and then headed off. There was one more target of interest but that would have to wait for a morning visit.

Parliament In The Morning

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The day after we arrived in Town, I headed out on my own for a while. Before I hopped on the tube to go east, the sun was up and illuminating the Houses of Parliament rather nicely so I strolled along the South Bank and across Westminster Bridge to get some shots of the newly refurbished clock tower before heading off. It was very busy with tourists but it was great to see everything looking so nice on a sunny morning. (Besides, while I may have considered this area my manor, I am just a tourist too at this point.)

A Brewery Close To My Heart

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When we lived in the UK, there were plenty of good local breweries producing bitter that I could sample. Some of the larger brands would have national reach and one of those was Wadworth and their 6X bitter. I am very partial to this beer. I have had occasion when I have had a bad 6X but that is down to pubs that don’t keep their beer well. Wadworth is based in Devizes and this was where we went to see the Caen Hill Locks. It would have been churlish not to pay a brief visit to the brewery. It is alongside the main road through the town so getting a clean shot of it took some patience but I was successful. I think went to the gift shop because how could I not?

Cars in Kings Cross

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Our walk along the Regents Canal took us to Kings Cross and, when we got there, plenty of people were out enjoying the sunny Saturday. This included a bunch of car enthusiasts that had brought a variety of vehicles. These were not the sort of thing I see at Exotics@RTC. This was more a focus on enthusiasts for older vehicles that they have restored with much love. Old vehicles from my childhood were all over the place. I liked lots of them but the Bond Bug was a particular favorite. I had quite forgotten about this type of car until I saw it here.