Friday 15^th August                      PORTSMOUTH  -  DARTMOOR

Robyn writes: After a late night and a big day, I expected that I’d sleep like a baby – unfortunately, it was more like the sleep assassin type of baby so well known to our family. There was so much noise in the city area outside – the local hoons seemed all stirred up after the fireworks, and there were screeching tyres and bursts of loud music until well after midnight. It would have been too hot with the window closed, so we just had to put up with it. We finally dropped off, and I was hoping for a nice long sleep in, but the garbage truck arriving just under our window at 7.30 put paid to that!

We were all dressed and ready to head out for the day when I realised that I just didn’t want to do it – I had that light-headed feeling of fatigue, and all I wanted to do was lie down. So I told Lex and Glen to go off and have adventures, put on a load of washing, hit the bed and crashed out for an hour or so. I felt a bit brighter, so I washed my hair, hung out/ put the washing in the drier and headed out to find some lunch and something for tea. There’s a huge shopping centre about 10 minutes’ walk away called Drake’s Circus (Sir Francis Drake is very big here) and when I saw they had a Marks & Spencer, I went up to the café and had a very nice roll and cup of tea. Then I had a wander around, and discovered that they didn’t have a grocery store. A quick check of google discovered a Tesco’s Express in the nearby mall, though, so I went out there and found their curry meal deal for an easy tea. It was a hot walk home; I was glad I had my hat. There are so many sunburned Poms around – very few people seem to wear a hat, even on brightly sunny days like today.

Lex and Glen arrived home around 3.  

Lex continues: Using the navigator, we proceeded to Dartmoor National Park. At first, we stopped at a small creek and bridge where people were picnicking. After Glen took a photo, we proceeded on to Brisworthy Farm up a rough, windy, narrow track to a place marked by Google as the parking area for the stone circles we wanted to see. The Brisworthy Circle was nowhere to be seen! We walked up the hill through sheep trails and gorse but saw nothing until Glen had the idea to use Google to locate the circle. We overlanded, stomping across rough terrain eventually to the circle, a relief to both of us. It seems to be undocumented; no signs or information anywhere. From there, Glen used Google Maps to find a second circle, Ringmoor Stone Row and Cairn Circle. After walking for longer than it should have taken, we found the circle. As we approached, a man with two dogs came the other way. With hardly a nod of acknowledgement, he continued along the path and up the hill – he obviously knew exactly where he was going, unlike us! The circle was quite impressive and the stone row quite unique, even though half of it is missing.

                                                    Brisworthy Stone Circle

Dartmoor bridge    

                                                     Ringmoor Stone Circle

We made our way back to the car, and back to Plymouth Hoe, where we had lunch at the Waterfront with a view over the harbour, looked at the plaques and memorials on the Hoe, then came home.

Robyn continues:  I wanted to go and see the Plymouth Hoe, so Lex took me up there in the car. We’d seen it briefly on a rainy day in 2014, so it was nice to have time to wander around. It was in full holiday mode – people everywhere, and lots of swimmers down in the water. The harbour is very hilly, so lots of steps up and down. I had an overwhelming urge to eat ice cream, so I bought one and wandered along, enjoying the sea breezes. On the top of the Hoe are a series of memorials, so I looked at all of them. On the lookout, a nice bloke offered to take our photo, and we enjoyed chatting to him until we had to get back because our parking had run out. It was nice to go out and get some fresh air.

                                                    Memorial to Sir Francis Drake

                       RAF WWII memorial - thoughts of Lex's dad, Poss, who flew with the RAF

                                                       Iconic Plymouth Hoe lighthouse

                                   Layer upon layer of seaside summer fun!

                                         Plymouth Hoe - rather windy, but a lovely afternoon!

We decided to go out for tea tonight, so got ourselves dressed up a bit and headed out to look for somewhere nice on the harbour or Barbican. Lex had seen The Boathouse, and wanted to go there, so we walked right around the dockside area to it. The whole place was full of people, and absolutely buzzing for a Friday evening. It was also pleasantly cool and breezy; just a gorgeous evening. Unfortunately when we got there, we discovered that The Boathouse was closing – a daytime café only. We tried Rockfish next, but they weren’t taking any more bookings. Fortunately, we did find a table out in front of The Crown & Anchor, and had a lovely meal there, sitting on the pavement and watching the world go by.

                                                      Harbour-side this evening

                                                    This sculpture is called The Leviathan

                                                      Plymouth sunset

                                                The Crown & Anchor, where we had tea 

                                             All the pubs and restaurants were packed - such a lovely evening,

Here's hoping for a much better night’s sleep tonight for all!

 

Wednesday 14^th August                 BRISTOL  -  WELLS  -  GLASTONBURY  -  PLYMOUTH

                                             HAPPY  40^TH  BIRTHDAY, JIM!

As it says above, it is indeed 40 years since our beloved firstborn arrived! Sadly for him, it’s not a very happy birthday – he is sick, coughed all night, and in his opinion, being 40 sucks so far. Sad.

On the other hand, for a travelling day, we’ve had an excellent day. We are now happily ensconced in our Plymouth flat (3^rd floor, so lovely breezes) and Glen joined us this afternoon.

We woke up quite late this morning, but were organised enough to get out of our Bristol flat by not long after nine, and headed south. I wanted to see Glastonbury, so we set our course for there. Very soon after leaving Bristol, we started climbing into the Mendip Hills, and some lovely rural scenery. When we saw that Wells was close by, we decided to take a detour into there. Lex had gone there in 2014 and seen the outsides of the Cathedral and the Bishop’s Palace, but I’d never been. We navigated into the Cathedral Close, and by a miracle (thank you, Lord) got a park right next to the Cathedral! Superlative time again, but it really is awe-inspiring and HUGE. Our first port of call was the café, The Loft, where we had a lovely morning tea with proper bone china. We walked into the entrance, and when I saw that tickets were 15 pounds each, I wanted to just leave and take photos of the outside, but Lex talked me into it, and I must say he was absolutely right. I am so glad we went in.

                                                      Our flat in Bristol

                        We went past the SS Great Britain, Brunel's ship in the river Avon

                                                    The Loft, cafe at Wells Cathedral

                                                                Wells Cathedral and Close

Wells Cathedral dates back to the 11^th century, and is one of the great cathedrals of England. It’s miraculously survived not only the Cromwell of Henry VIII’s reign, but also the Cromwell of the Civil War – his thugs did a lot of damage, too. The architecture is amazing, with painted floral details on the ceiling I’ve never seen before. We spent nearly two hours in there – Lex did a guided tour, while I preferred to just wander around on my own. The cathedral has a wonderful medieval clock, which chimes every quarter hour, and has models of knights on horseback that chase each other around! It’s also a calendar, and shows the cycle of the moon as well. I have never seen anything like it. There is a model of a puppet up from the clock which rings or kicks a bell to make the chimes.

                                                         Chapter House             

                                                         Medieval clock

I also visited the Chapter House and the Library, which is a proper medieval chained library, and also still has the original medieval stained glass – apparently even Cromwell’s thugs couldn’t think of a good reason to smash it like they did a lot of the glass downstairs. The cathedral is full of the graves and effigies of the bishops through the centuries – and given that it’s nine centuries or so, there are a lot of them!

                                       Medieval Bishop's Crozier dating back to the 13th Century

                                                     Medieval stained glass in the library

                                                           Chained books in the library

After Lex had finished his tour, we met up in the shop and then went to have a look at the Bishop’s Palace next door, dating back to the early 1200s. The Bishops of the day were very militarily minded, though – the gatehouse contains a portcullis and murder holes – the holes in the ceiling that hot oil could be poured onto unwanted visitors through. (Not really Christian charity, but there you go.) We didn’t go into the palace itself, but looked at the gardens, and had a lovely lunch in the café, The Bishop’s Table. Wells is really a lovely place to visit.

                                                  Bishop's Palace gateway and moat

                                                      Bishop's palace

                                                       Murder holes

                                                 Lunch at the Bishop's Table

It was getting late so we thought we’d better move on – we set a course for Glastonbury, and the parking area that the National Trust had suggested. However, once we arrived, it was the middle of the day, and the place was thronged with tourists. It looks like a lovely town, but we had no chance to find a park anywhere, so we just decided to head out of town and drive around Glastonbury Tor to see it. It is a huge mound, and the one tower, remnant of the monastery church which was once there can be seen for miles around. It was a shame we didn’t get the chance to climb it; I’m sure it’s an amazing view.

                                             Glastonbury Tor

From there, we continued south, and made our way across to the M5, which was much faster. It was about 2 hours altogether, and by the time we arrived we were able to book right into our flat. Glen arrived soon after on the train. It’s on the third floor (no lift – ugh!) but has lovely big windows, so we have been able to cool it down nicely. Today it was only about 25 degrees, so not too hot anyway. It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, so quite luxurious! We are right near the harbour, so after we’d walked to the nearby Sainsbury’s for food for tea, we walked down there for a look. Lex and Glen went next door to the bar for a drink, while I nobly stayed home to start the blog, sip the wine I’d bought earlier, and put tea in the oven. We’ve since had lovely BBQ pork ribs, cauliflower cheese, potatoes and greens, and are enjoying the nice cool evening.

                                                     Plymouth Harbour

                                                       Our block of units

Lex at the harbour

We had a lovely surprise after tea, when suddenly loud bangs started coming from the harbour at 9.30, and we realised it was fireworks. Glen and Lex decided to go down and see them, but I was sure they’d be over by the time we got there, so elected to stay. Wrong! I googled, to find that Plymouth is hosting the British Fireworks Championships, and there would be two more displays. I sent off texts to both of them, hoping they’d come back and get me (we only have one set of keys – it’s a real pain.) Unfortunately neither of them noticed, so after the second display, I rang and plaintively asked to be collected! They came right back – Lex was tired, so stayed here, but Glen and I went down for the final display, which was just lovely. A perfect night to be watching by the harbour.

                                                     The reflections were lovely

                                                             Glen's photos

Tomorrow, the plan is to go and explore Cornwall.

 

 

Wednesday 13^th August         BRISTOL  -  SEVERN ESTUARY  -  FILTON  -  STOKE GIFFORD

This morning dawned fine but very overcast and hazy in the city; thankfully a much lower maximum temperature of only 26 degrees was the forecast for today, after 33 yesterday. Our flat had stayed nice and cool overnight, though, thanks to the gale force fan in the lounge room blowing enough air around!

For our last full day in Bristol, Lex wanted to start early by going down to the waterside of the Severn Estuary to see the scenery. We navigated through the winding streets of the city centre, and along the Avon Riverside under the Clifton Suspension Bridge. From there, there was the usual nightmare of complicated roundabout after complicated roundabout, so several wrong turns along the way. We also discovered that it’s very hard to find a vantage point along the Severn. Scotland gives tourists lots of viewing points to pull up and park in, but England just doesn’t seem to. Anyway, near Portishead, I found a pub, the Windmill Inn, with a parking area behind it, so we were able to pull up there and look across the Severn at Wales – what we could see. It was still very hazy and cloudy. We could just make out the Severn River bridge in the distance.                                            

                          We drove through some very picturesque villages with scary roads.

             Near Portishead: I swear that is the coast of Wales and the Severn Bridge there!

After this, we set a course for our main excursion of the day – Aerospace, the museum of aero engineering manufacturing in Bristol, on the old airfields at Filton. As it was now well after ten, we had morning tea in the cafe first before getting our tickets and heading in. They were 22 pounds each, so not cheap. Our first port of call was the purpose-built hanger where they store their star attraction – the last Concorde to fly. These supersonic planes were the fastest passenger planes ever, and flew just below space. They flew from 1969 until 2003, but passengers declined dramatically after the crash in France in 2000 which killed everyone on board. (Not surprisingly, really.) It actually seemed strange to me that there was no mention anywhere in the museum of that crash – maybe because it was a French Concorde? The British ones were built in Filton, so this one was brought home to stay, and they are very proud of it. We got to go into the cabin and look into the cockpit – it all looks very simple compared to today’s planes, but of course it was the height of luxury then. It was certainly something to see. It’s also really not a big plane, compared to the monsters which fly us on the major routes today – the Concorde only held 100 pampered passengers. It definitely catered to the luxury market.

                                   We found Space Grommit - the Beagle has landed! 

                                                Lex with the last Concorde.

         Several of the volunteers here worked on Concorde, and are still quite misty-eyed about her.

                                                 Seen from the upper viewing deck.

Next we went back to the main museum, which is located in a heritage listed hangar from WWI. Bristol was pretty much the hot spot for aero inventions during that war, which caused a massive acceleration in aero technology and plane development. They had real and reproduction aircraft and models, and traced the development of flying right through last century, two world wars, the cold war and the space race. It took several hours to look at it all.

               Bristol Scout in the foreground; Bristol F2B Fighter in the background.                                                               Both are replicas built by RAF and Rolls Royce apprentices.

                                        Harrier Jump Jet

                            Twin-rotor helicopter

                                             Hubble Space Telescope

After this, we looked for a pub for lunch, and settled on The Beaufort Arms in the nearby suburb of Stoke Gifford. It was only a few miles away, but due to traffic works, it took us at least 20 minutes to get there. It was worth it, anyway – it was a nice, friendly pub looking out onto what would once have been a village green. We both had macaroni cheese, and Lex had the soup as well.

                                                  The Beaufort Arms

                                        Still very grey and hazy heading back into the city.

Then we headed home for a rest and to pack – tomorrow we are off to Plymouth, and Glen is coming to join us for the weekend. After that, we’ll have two days in Salisbury, a bit over a week in London, then home (via Dubai). Much sorting and repacking is needed. It does look as though the warmer weather is here for a while, but I’m not quite ready to take all my expendable winter clothes off to the op shop just yet!

                                Clifton Suspension Bridge seen from the roadway below.

Lex went for two walks before tea; once to go to the Tesco's Express and get a few groceries, and then he had a drink at one of the local pubs. Tea was a chicken and vege stir fry that was actually very tasty.  Here are some of the lovely Bristol buildings he passed on his way.

                                    Note the unicorn on the building on the right!