CATCHING UP

 Andy, Sarah - how are you?

I am just trying my hand at creating pdf's on my mobile phone (again). I find it difficult to get the formatting OK. Touching base, is that an Americanism? Lin & I do puzzles jointly every day. They are of US origin from newspaper/encyclopedias and you may know them - Tightrope;- Connections;- Revealed. Because they have those US origins we struggle sometimes. Two nations separated by a common language.

The 4 great grandchildren we took delivery of in 2023 are all developing. They have been visiting in the last couple of months and are a handful. 

Willow

Robert

Tommy

Ada

Travelling still remains a big part of our life, we are exhausting ourselves while we can. We've done some same old and some new travelling so far this year. Started with same old cruising, this time with P&O to visit Lin's German relatives in Hamburg. Didn't really go to plan. We were supposed to have 2 days in Hamburg, but on arrival the captain announced there was a port workers strike and we had only 1 day there. Quite a kerfuffle for both us & the family who were expecting us in the late afternoon. It didn't finish there, we have planned a nice Bruges visit on the Belgian railway. Nope, the train drivers were on strike.

Searching for poffertjes in Rotterdam

Next up was a Danube river cruise, we didn't notice any blue, but the highlight for us was the opera in the Viennese palace. We had never been to the opera, & it was quite an eye opener for us. I guess it would help if you understood the stories being portrayed.

Vienna

Munich, Soviet Coke

Now for something completely different (was that Monty Python?) We had never been on a coach trip...so off we went, 4 days on an historical tour of the D-Day beaches, 2 historians on the coach, picked us up from our home town, across on the channel ferries, P&O again, stayed in Caen and visited all the allied beaches and battlefields up until the break out towards Paris. So many stories. Normandy is a beautiful area.

Being an engineer, the machines are of interest, the above have different roles, the Sherman, tank destroyer, armoured car, AVRE bunker buster, German Tiger & the only tank that could regularly defeat the Tiger,  the Sherman Firefly - a Frankenstein development that replaced the standard gun with a British Quick Firing 17 pounder gun.

The exhaustion continued, golfing trip, fishing trip, family holiday to Turkey, atomic weapons research establishment, a road trip around the west country that took in the Roman centre of Britain, a town full of scarecrows and a Concorde supersonic airliner equipped with parachutes and a rope ladder.

Cirencester - map of Roman roads

Scarecrow town Lynmouth

Concorde rope ladder

Atomic weapon development Orfordness

Finally we have been on a steam train weekend at Eastbourne, a Victorian seaside town not far from London and  charity hare walk in Ipswich.

We really need a rest! Are we going to get it? Apparently not, we are child minding the great grand children for the next 2 weeks - crazy golf, VR games, beach & swimming looms. Happy days.

Love Linda & Wally

FLEET AIR ARM

 Visited the museum at Royal Navy Air Station, Yeovilton.

The Royal Navy led the way in developing naval aviation starting only a few years after the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk.

This is a really nice exhibit. It recreates the deck and inside the 1970s Ark Royal. It starts as you enter the aircraft lift taking you through the innards of the ship, hangars, mess areas, machinery space up to the bridge. There you are greeted by auto activated video presentations given by actually serving current people who contrast the 70's with today.

This is a Concorde that was used for development. It contains lots of 60's instrumentation although it's safety equipment includes a rope ladder and parachutes.

The museum has several historic videos of the role of the RN in several disasters. The actual footage and stories of the Fastnet race storm in 1979 and the Boscastle flood in 2004 are amazing.

Wally doing his bit!

ON OUR WAY...

 ..... home. Left Barnstaple this morning & now heading eastwards. Now in Yeovil calling in on Montacute house on the way for our first Devon Cream Tea (which goes on first, I can never recall). Montacute was built in 1601 in Liz 1's time. Lots of original features but when it was passed to the NT in 1930 all the interior had been sold off. The NT advertised for suitable stuff & several wealthy folk obliged. It was built by Sir Edward Phelips, who was a courtier for Elizabeth I, speaker of the House of Commons and a lawyer involved in the prosecution of Gut Foulkes. He invented the corridor when he bought the front of another stately home & installed it on the front of his house.

Another beautiful garden with yellow flowered tree that really attracted the bees. There were so many that the buzzing was loud. Anyone know what the tree is? 

Had a nice dinner in the Manor.

SCARECROWS, ARLINGTON COURT & CARRIAGE MUSEUM

Don't understand why it's this time of year, but Linton & Lynmouth have a scarecrow festival. Town is stuffed with them

We also visited Arlington Court which was the home of the Chichester family, Sir Francis, the RTW sailor you would know. It was last owned by Rosalie who made the house beautiful, so light & airy and with lovely gardens. It also houses the National Carriage Museum. I never knew there were so many types of carriage. Can you pronounce Brougham correctly. It was one of the carriage designs on show.

This would suit Ada

MINEHEAD, LYNTON & LYNMOUTH

 Nice scenic drive into Devon along the coast, enlivened by still more scarily steep hills. Went up and down by the water powered cliff railway. The whole place seems designed to take money off you, I calculated the railway must take £200 grand per year, and even a pee costs 50p.

DRUG ADDICT,

 drunkard, revolutionary, romantic poet, friends of many who subsequently became enemies, composed;-

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan. A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.....

who was Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Complex man who many thought a genius. Went to Cambridge University but drank & womanised into so much debt that he fled & joined the army under a fake name. Couldn't hack it & left after 6 months. Lived in a house we visited today in the Quantock Hills (some 1:4 hills there, you know) Had friends who sponsored him and successfully published some of his work. Successful poems then was a bit like getting a hit record today, very rewarding.

The house was mouse infested, hence all the mice for the kids to find. Nice sitting room where you could chill & listen to his poems.

Visited Taunton but it was closed. Nice walk along the River Tone.

DAY OFF

Last week played golf with Des, Rob & Pete at Dyrham Park, today visited Dyrham Park,  built in two stages between 1692 and 1704 for King William III's Secretary of State, William Blathwayt, Dyrham contains one of the best surviving Baroque interiors in the country. Small world. Talk about changeable, the weather today was 16 degrees C, rainy and blowing 25mph+. Took the buggy to & from the house, no walking. As I said - day off.

Visited Weston-Super-Mare and had fish & chips lunch in the oldest house in town. Nice house, good grub. Weston is a bit of a dump in some parts, has a drug reputation, but nice in other parts. Council said they were reviving the town with that spike & the big cock. There were toilets with a council message - " All toilets closed to improve the town". All pricks if you ask me.

Went to the oldest golf course in England - Burnham & Barrow. 

Now based in Bridgwater for next 2 days. Watching TV tonight with sushi and drinks - day off.