Tag Archives: vacation

Sheep Checking Us Out

Our wanderings through the lanes of Longparish took us past a bunch of fields filled with sheep. When they are young, sheep are super cute. As they get older, not so much! Also, my encounters with them over the years have suggested that they aren’t the brightest of creatures. Doesn’t stop me finding them interesting, though. These guys were munching their way around the fields, hiding under trees, licking tree trunks for some reason and occasionally coming close to the road to see who it was that was the other side of the fence. There was no way I wasn’t going to take some pictures of them!

Can I Sneak In Another Hovercraft Encounter

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Our trips to the UK that involve some time on the Isle of Wight also are likely to include me trying to get a little time with the hovercraft. On our most recent trip, we didn’t go to the Island. However, we did pick up and drop off my mum when she came across and what form of transport did she use? Yep. I had a reason to be hanging around at the hovercraft terminal.

I did get some photos of the hovercraft but, this time, I decided to focus on some video of them coming and going. Not only were they running the regular service but there was also some training underway so we got an arrival that didn’t come up on the slipway but instead headed back out to see. Here is the video I edited.

SS Great Britain

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Bristol Docks are the home of the SS Great Britain. The first iron hulled ship with screw propulsion, the Great Britain ended up in Port Stanley. It was rescued in the 80s and brought to Bristol where it was restored over many years. Now it is in something like its original condition. It was not open to the public on the day we were there but it was visible from the opposite side of the docks as we walked down and then, as we came back up the other side, I could get a quick glimpse through the fence.

Snowdrop Carpets

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Not far from where we were staying while in the UK and en route to the wedding venue was Welford Park. Nancy was interested in this place because it is the location for the filming of Bake Off. However, it isn’t normally open to the public. Spring is the one exception when the snowdrops flower in huge numbers in the woods on the estate and they open up for visitors. Fortunately, the timing of this coincided with our visit so we scheduled a stop on our way to the wedding.

The weather was not looking like it would play ball. Just as we arrived in the parking area – a field – the heavens opened. We figured it was the UK so things could change quickly so waited it out. Sure enough, ten minutes later the sun was out and we headed in. There were a couple of times when the rain threatened again but we stayed basically dry, and we walked around the wood checking out the snowdrops.

They weren’t kidding. We saw quite a few as we walked into the estate but then we got to the woods and the place was carpeted with them. At first, I thought it was just the distance that made it look so dense but, no, when you got closer, it was really that many flowers. We wandered around the grounds taking them all in. It didn’t take too long, of course, before you started to get a little blasé about just how many there were. Sure, more snowdrops! No biggie!

Birmingham Sunday Stroll

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Our UK trip was focused on the wedding of Chris and Sam. Chris had his stag do (bachelor party for the US readers) the weekend before the wedding and we timed our arrival so I could attend. I won’t cover any of the events that were organized by the best man but it was a bloody good time and being twice the age of the rest of the attendees might have been a touch tough, but I held my own. The whole thing was based up in Birmingham and that is the point of this post. It is a long time since I was last in Birmingham and even that was a brief visit. It is a city I didn’t know at all.

During the festivities, we were out and about in the center of Birmingham, and I was quite impressed by the buildings in the city both old and new. The following morning, after the crew had finished breakfast and before we needed to head home, I decided I was going to take a quick trip back around the surrounding area. Things were a lot quieter on Sunday morning than they had been on Saturday night when the place was absolutely buzzing.

There are lots of new buildings that have been developed while lots of the older buildings have been well maintained. There is also a lot of development along the canal with shops, bars and restaurants providing a ton of options for visitors and residents. There are several squares throughout the center with a variety of monuments and sculptures. One is in the process of being rebuilt and, while it was behind screens, it was possible to get the phone over the fencing to get some shots.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by the center of Birmingham. When I was last there twenty odd years ago, I don’t remember it making any impression on me. Either I didn’t see the right parts or it has been improved a lot. Either way, it is really a pleasant city center and well worth a visit.

Bristol Docks

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When I am chatting with my sister, she often mentions her trips to Bristol for work. While talking with her one weekend, I pulled up the map of Bristol to see where the office is that she goes to. As I looked around the area, I realized that the docks area of Bristol looked really interesting and is somewhere that I haven’t explored before. When it seemed that we would have one free day while in the UK and the Bristol was only about 90 minutes away, we decided to pay it a visit.

The weather was not as cooperative as we might have hoped but it was just about okay and we headed off. We parked up right in the middle of the docks area so were able to start exploring straight away. There was a ton to see and there will be more blog posts that cover some of the specific aspects of the area. This is more of an introduction post. The docks are connected to the River Avon but, as I discovered while we walked around, the river is very tidal and the docks are only functional because the access is via locks. This allows the maintenance of a decent water level in the port.

We wandered around the docks for quite a while. There are commercial vessels, some small remaining boatyards, lots of pleasure craft and all of the ancillary businesses that support them. The docks boomed in the 1800s after the construction of the current configuration at the beginning of that century. The docks are along the original Avon course but, once the locks were created to maintain the water level, a new cut was made for the river south of the docks to connect up with the river course upstream. Consequently the river flows normally without the docks being affected.

The housing up on the hills overlooking the docks might be similarly old but they seem to be painted up in a variety of colors to provide quite a cheerful appearance on what would otherwise be rather dull architecture. One thing about Bristol that you can’t ignore is the terrain. There is low lying ground near the river and docks but the hills rising up are steep and you certainly notice it when you start walking around. This means that rows of houses are visible from the docks as they are layered up the side of the hills.

Longparish – Like A Postcard

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The first part of our UK trip in February involved staying in the village of Longparish. This is the combination of a few hamlets into one “long parish”. We had some spare time when we first arrived to wander around the village. It was so picturesque, it was almost like someone had taken the instructions, make a cute English village and done exactly that.

It is situated along the River Test. The river is in multiple branches at this location and they all seem to be running quite fast. There are also streams running through the village that are feeding the main river. Thatched cottages abound and a couple of pubs provide the right village feel. There are a couple of large houses – one at each end of the village – which, presumably, owned the majority of the land in days gone by. They still seem to have a lot of land. The village cricket club finishes things off but, since it was not yet the season, we didn’t get to watch any matches.

Fishes In The Test

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The River Test runs through the grounds of Mottisfont and there is a diverted section of it that runs through a very unnaturally straight section of river near the house. As we walked along the path by this section, we saw a couple of fish in the water. As we moved on, we realized that there were loads of them. To my untrained eye, they looked like they might be trout but I am not an angler or any sort of sim expert. I got some photos of them but video seemed like the best bet so I had a good at that too. Can you identify them?

Osborne House Itself

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I’ve posted a few times about our visit to Osborne House but I have not actually shown anything from inside the house in those previous posts. Finally we have gone inside. When it comes to visiting old houses, I often don’t bother with the inside but this one definitely seemed worth a look since we had come all that way. It is definitely interesting but it is also quite bizarre in places.

Talking to some of the guides in the rooms, we discovered that the whole place was put together rather rapidly. Things that look like marble columns are in fact plaster or concrete and painted to look like marble. I think some of that speedy construction means that there is a lot to do in maintaining things. When Victoria died, the house was handed over the country and was used as a place for sailors recovering – presumably from wounds sustained. Bits of the house were locked off from them including her old bedroom which was treated like a shrine by the family. Only in later years did the place start to get preserved and restored in parts.

There is plenty of art scattered around although I think quite a lot of it is replicas of originals which are elsewhere in the royal collection. Grandiose displays abound but then other areas are a lot more practical. The rooms for the kids (of which they had plenty) are very busy. No individual rooms for the youngsters it seems.

The tour takes you on a route through the building and the final section includes the Durbar Room. This is a seriously over the top space. Decorated in styles reminiscent of India, it is an example of what Britain controlled at the time and could easily been considered gaudy. I was both amazed at it and also rather put off. If you give someone free rein to design something, don’t be surprised if they overdo it!

The house itself is Italianate in design but the interior is a combination of all sorts of things be it traditional English, Indian, Greek or anything else that came to mind. It is an interesting thing to see but not a place that I could ever imagine spending a lot of time.

Gull’s Crab Lunch Under Threat

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As we walked along the shore trail in Stanley Park, we came up on a gull that had just caught a crab. The gull was intent on eating the crab, as well you might imagine. However, its lunch had also caught the attention of a bunch of crows (could hardly call them a murder). Consequently, the gull was trying to find a way to avoid the crows and eat its food. It was not going to escape them, of course. Instead, it had to do the best it could and accept that they were going to get a few scraps.