Oldies On Tour

Wednesday 13th November 2024

In our “Relentless quest” to cover as as many tourist landmarks as possible, and today is no exception, our destination is the “Tower of London”, but first breakfast.  Last night we had such a good time we lost trace of the time as well as the alcohol consumption, so today we feel a little jaded, still it was worth it!!!

Back on the underground, my my, we’re getting quite adept at finding our way and more importantly, direct routes to get to where we’re going to; living in Spain for 18-years, one forgets these things!!!

Arriving at Tower Hill, we headed to the ticket office then went into the tower.   Firstly we joined a tour group with a “Beefeater” giving ua all a brief history of the tower; riveting but far too much to take in but he did point us in the right direction, where to go etc.   Our first stop were the Crown Jewels, what an array of diamonds, gold and other precious stones and apart from high security cameras, steel doors, and other electronic devices, everything was safe, the Gurkhas were on guard duty outside, in fact as we arrived, we watched the “changing of the guard”!!!

There is far too much to write in our blog about this visit so here is the link if anyone wants to go deeper into the history of the ‘Tower of London”. www.hrp.org.uk needless to say we enjoyed our visit and the sun was shining, that was a bonus.   We were impressed at the one-way “trail” linking the various perimeter towers and battlements, though at times there was the occasional “spiral staircase”, I have to say this part of the visit is certainly not wheelchair friendly!!!  In one section the spiral staircase heading up to the top of the Bloody Tower was so steep and so narrow, that both Christine and I had to use hands an feet to get up!!!!   Thank goodness I have my new knee, I could never have visited the Tower of London during the previous two years or so.   Thank you Mr Lancaster and Yeovil hospital.

Most of these towers had an exhibition of a particular period in its history which was interesting, but the White Tower, the original one built by William the Conquerer (started in 1070 and completed in 1079) I thought was disappointing.  Since 1825 the tower has been open as an exhibition and the custodian the royal Armouries through the centuries; I was a little disappointed.

Having walked our feet off it was time to leave as we had to be back to Marylebone, firstly for Christine to meet Elton from school, and secondly it was “street party time”; tonight the Christmas lights are being switched on and the local council close the streets and it fills with stalls and fairground rides etc., but first we needed some nourishment.

We headed to the local Gregg’s, our favoured “food-on-the-go” these days; fresh, quick and reasonably priced, besides I have their locality app!!!   Back on the underground and back home in time for Christine to do the school run.

We all headed out around 5.00pm and joined the throng of people already gathered in Marylebone high street eagerly waiting the big “switch-on” at 6,00pm though we were couldn’t pass the various kiddies rides, Elton always made a “bee-line” for the drivers seat in the various modes of transport on the roundabouts.

Due to the timings it was “Little-one’s” dinner time so headed into a restaurant but the irony of this was we actually missed the big switch on!!!

Back home and after Elton was in bed we watched a film though very tired and quite pleased when it had finished so we could head off.   Tonight was our last night, we head home tomorrow.

Thursday 14th November 2024

Up early to make sure we saw Elton leave for school, breakfast, pack and away, heading to Waterloo station.

Looking back over the last three days, wow we’ve covered some ground, did a number of touristy places and had a jolly good time. We were a little sceptical heading up to London as to what to expect now Andrew has full custody of Elton and more importantly what he had arranged for Elton’s “nana” to do.   Our fears were un-founded, Andrew has a part-time helper Anna from Denmark, who does a fair amount of looking after Elton they are very good together thus giving us the opportunity to do all the touristy bits, thank you

Train left Waterloo a minute early!!!! Arrived at Crewcerne on time and we headed off to Weston s Mare, Christine has booked to have her nails done.   For a change the traffic was light so arrived in plenty of time, in fact even had time for another visit to Greggs!!!

Nails done and we headed over to Jane’s to collect Tom-Tom and Rosie and my what a welcome, anybody would have thought we’d been away for six months!!  After collecting Mia from the school bus we headed home, at last.

As is our way, after a break, on the night we get back we normally head out for a curry or something, tonight it was the “something”.   For sometime I had fancied a Chinese but we haven’t found one around these parts so looked to see what’s in Yeovil.  After reading the various comments, we picked the one with the most glowing reviews and booked a table.

We arrived on time and entered a completely empty restaurant, obviously I hadn’t needed to book, it’s not looking promising, still keeping an open mind we sat down to study the menu.   Firstly we ordered 2-glasses of Chardonnay and waited, and waited, oh yes still waited but behind us there was a lot of activity and eventually they found a bottle and opened it and at that point we “clocked” it was a bottle of red!!!!   No, no Chardonnay was what we ordered so of they went again and eventually came back with a couple of “whites”, neither were Chardonnay so I pointed it out on “their” menu.   After a few mutters we were told it was upstairs but not cold.   By now I had gone off the idea and ordered a beer and Christine had the glass of red they had already poured and still the restaurant was empty.

Ordering our food was the next challenge as the young lad who was the waiter hadn’t really got a clue about the various dishes.   At this point we realised this wasn’t actually a Chinese, oriental yes but not what we were expected.  Anyway moving forward, we eventually ordered one starter to share which was very tasty then the chef/owner/ whoever came out and informed us Christine had actually ordered  a soup and asked if that was correct.   Anyway after some discussions she offered her a prawn dish that sounded really nice but when it arrived was only about 6 out of 10.  I ordered a beef dish that sounded really exciting but turned out to be no more than overcooked slices of a cheap cut of beef in a sort of gravy, 2 out of 10.   We did go overboard with their chef’s special fried rice, it was full of all sorts of things from mixed meats to fish, plenty of it but bland in taste; it could do with some salt and or soy sauce to give it flavour, at this point we decided to leave “Fred Karno’s Circus” and still we were the only ones in there!!!!!   This proves you can’t always trust reviews on line!!!

Back home for a good nights sleep

Tuesday 12th November 2024

A slight variation today.   I’m heading off to the ExCel exhibition centre near Canary Wharf whilst Christine is heading off to Regents Park.

My ticket says I have a 0900hrs time slot to enter, so up and breakfasted fairly swiftly and I headed to Bond Street station to catch the “Elizabeth Line” train, the first time I’ve been on this new service.   Unfortunately today was not a good start, the trains were running late due to one on our “Eastbound” trains stuck at Paddington, apparently they couldn’t close the doors so trains were backing up behind it!!!   When a train did come along it was ”over full”; couldn’t get another person on so waited for the next which fortunately came along virtually immediately.   This was also full but I did manage to squeeze myself onto it but at Liverpool Street the train emptied phew, I can sit down and breathe!!!!!!

I arrived at the F1 Exhibition 15-minutes after my time slot, but all the information given to me when I bought the ticket about the importance of arriving early due to the volume of visitors; “poppycock”, no issue getting in, in fact I wandered in all by myself, no one around me!!!!! 

It took me 3-hours to get round the exhibition and it was fascinating, it told the history of Grand Prix racing between the wars and from the first F1 World Championship in 1950 to date.   Naturally there were a number of cars exhibited, but all aspects of the sport were on display especially accident protection.   The most dramatic exhibit was the film of Romain Grosjean’s crash at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix on the 29th November 2020 where his car was broken in two and it became one huge fireball.   Alongside this film was what was left of his car, “The Tub” that saved him; apart from burnt hands and losing one of his shoes, miraculously he was unscathed!!!   A few years earlier, it would have certainly meant his demise, the sport has come along way in the last 10-years.

Like all exhibitions, there is far too much information to assimilate but was fascinating and well worth the visit.   

Christine went off :-

After Geoff left, I decided to go to Marks  and Sparks, so set of about 9ish, followed my instructions from Apple Maps and soon found my way, and to my horror, they don’t open till 10.00am, went across to Selfridges, they also are not open. So set the maps to Regent Park, and wondered very happily around the park, it’s an amazing place considering right in the middle of town.

I love where Andrew lives, because it is like a little village, with lots of interesting streets, then if you want to do some serious shopping Oxford Street is a couple of streets away.

Having walked several miles around the park, I made my way back to Marks and Sparks did the shopping then went back to Andrew’s where Geoff joined me!

We hadn’t planned anything else for the day but as I had completed my visit earlier than I predicted. I remembered our visit to Padstow in September, but more importantly the visit to the “Prawn on the Lawn” restaurant; what an opportunity, their other restaurant is here in North London, so booked a table for tonight.  Second thought, I’ll contact Lee and Sarah and see if they are up for another visit and after a couple of minutes I got the message “YES!!!!!!”; I didn’t tell Christine, I thought it would be a surprise.

On route to the station, we met up with Andrew and Elton in the park, and watched little one enjoying himself with friends, he is very settled and happy with his new life.

We arrived at the POTL (short for Prawn on the Lawn) a little earlier and settled down with a bottle, hoping they would arrive before Christine was wanting to order, fortunately they did and the surprise on Christine’s face was a picture; she hadn’t got a clue even though Lee had telephoned me earlier and I had to answer in Christine’s presence,I’ll never go to heaven!!!

We did our usual thing, work through all the starters and washed them down with copious amounts of wine.    The POTL has a “two hour” per table policy but naturally we ignored that and the staff did some reservation swapping, we were spending too much to kick us out.   On the way back to the station we stopped off for a couple of nightcaps in the local pub, just for good measure.

Arriving back at the flat where everything was in darkness, everyone had gone to bed, still another great day came to an end. The sun was 

Monday 11th November 2024.

Awoken early again, this time for school but fortunately Anna, Andrew’s Au Pair, gets him ready and after his breakfast, takes him to school.   We had a more leisurely morning before heading to Westminster pier to get on the Uber “River Clipper” and headed to Greenwich; today we are going to visit the Cutty Sark, the famous Tea Clipper.

When we booked the river Boat trip, naturally we ticked the concession box, but when we arrived at the pier, the “jobs-worth ticket checker” asked us why we had!!!!   We’re pensioners we said,  not acceptable she said.  To qualify we had to have a London bus pass, ours wasn’t good enough; Sadiq Khan looking after his woke lefties no doubt!!!!

Our intention was to stay on the boat to the end (Barking) to get our monies worth but unfortunately they only go as far as Barking in the rush hours, oh dear, so forced to got off at Greenwich.

After a quick diversion into the high street for a coffee and a bun at Greg’s, we went into the attraction, and attraction it is.   Since the major fire back in 2007 and the major restoration that was forced to take place, the old ship is now quite a sophisticated visit. It has been raised in its “dry dock” and there is a roof around the waterline with exhibitions and cafe below the keel.   My last visit was probably in the early 60’s; quite a difference; this was Christine’s first visit.

Catty Sark was built in Dumbarton, (Scotland) in 1869.   Its owner John “Jock” Willis, designer Hercules Linton and many of its crew members over the years were from Scotland.   But despite its proud Scottish heritage, London was to be Cutty Sark’s home port.  Her maiden voyage departed London on 15th February 1870, bound for Shanghai.   Cutty Sark was built exclusively for the China tea trade.   Tea that has been enjoyed in Asia for centuries, but it did not reach Britain until the 1650’s.   Later in its history she carried coal and wool from Australia.  The downfall of these fast, sleek tea clippers was steam and the opening of the Suez Canal in “1869”, the canal wasn’t deep enough for their draft, so Cutty Sark was sold in 1892 to a Portuguese company and re-named “Ferreira” and her home port was Lisbon.   In 1922 it changed hands again and was re-named “Maria do Amparo”, also sailing out of Lisbon.

In 1922 a “Wilfred Dowman” purchased the re-named “Cutty Sark” and turned it into a training school in Falmouth (Cornwall).   After his death, it was transferred to the Thames Nautical Training College in Greenhithe (Kent) in 1938. Here she became an auxiliary to HMS Worcester and was moored up-alongside.

By 1954 she ceased to be useful as a cadet ship and was transferred to a special dry dock that was specially built in Greenwich.  HRH the Duke of Edinburgh laid the foundation stone of the dry dock and became the patron of the Cutty Sark in June 1953.

Today the Cutty Sark is a preserved, Grade 1 listed monument and is a museum well worth visiting.

After leaving the ship we decided to walk through the old “Greenwich Foot Tunnel”, the pedestrian running under the Thames from Greenwich to Millwall.  This tunnel was opened in 1902 and is free to use and it certainly seems busy these days.   Fortunately lifts have been installed each end to save walking up/down 100 steps on the Greenwich side (only 87 on the Millwall side), this tunnel is 370-meters long, 15-meters deep with an internal diameter of just under 3-meters.   The total tunnel is lined with some 200,000 white glazed tiles.   There are notices everywhere telling people NOT to cycle but guess what, they all do, so walking was a little hazardous!!!

On the north side the access comes out into a rather pleasant park and being autumn, the colours and trees looked lovely. After an enjoyable tea and cake, we headed back down the tunnel to get to the pier and get back onto the boat.

On the return boat trip we decided to head to Putney, the end of the line though it was a lot further and slower than we anticipated, with the last few stops to Putney in the dark; still we did have the lights to look at!!   On the boat was a party of ladies who got on in Greenwich for the round trip to Putney and they were very entertaining, especially one who was “moaning” in a lighthearted way continually, in fact one of their party bought a packet of Rowntree,s fruit pastels hoping this would “shut-her-up”; fortunately they didn’t work and our entertainment continued.

We eventually got off the boat at the “Embankment pier”, apparently they don’t use theWestminster pier after dark: why???   No problem, just an extra stop on the underground.

Back at  Andrew’s where Christine produced dinner for the two of us, the others had already eaten.

After a very enjoyable touristy day, we were ready for bed, we’re not used to all this walking on paved streets etc!!

 

Saturday 9th November

Today we are heading to London to stay at Andrew’s and no doubt do some babysitting, but first a visit to “Sue’’s Cafe” for a hearty breakfast to set us up for the day.

As usual the journey from Crewkerne to Waterloo was comfortable and un-eventful, though between Basingstoke and Clapham Junction the train was quite crowded with England fans heading to Twickenham for the match against Australia; naturally I was jealous not to have a ticket😡😡😡

Arrived at Andrew’s where Christine volunteered to collect Elton from school, then they went to the local park, I watched the rugby; another England defeat👹👹

Sunday 10th November

A lie in is out of the question with a 4-year old.  Christine was about at 0730am thanks to Elton, I managed to hang on ‘till a more acceptable time!!!    We had our breakfast but had to keep quiet as Andrew had made the best of a resident babysitter and hadn’t return home ‘till the wee hours.

Eventually we headed out to the Farmers market, a regular occurrence in Marylebone on a Sunday morning.    London is a very busy bustling large city but strangely enough Marylebone manages to keep its character and remain a village surrounded by London.  We then went to the local park where the children enjoyed themselves in the play area before walking back to the flat.  It was 1100hrs en route home so we stopped, along with many others outside Waitrose to observe the 2-minute silence.

After a couple of games of crib decision made.  Andrew was heading off with Elton to meet up with friends and Christine and I headed to Bond Street Station and got the tube to Westminster.

Today being Remembrance Sunday we decided to get out at Westminster and walk up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square; do the “touristy” bit.  Though the day’s Cenotaph services had finished, there were still a lot of folk about, in fact as we exited Westminster tube station we caught the back of the band of the Scots guard playing as they marched off towards their barracks.   We fought our way along Whitehall against the crowds heading back. to Westminster, stopping at the Cenotaph to see all the wreaths laid by the various departments and veterans as they had marched past earlier.

We reached Trafalgar Square and mingled with crowds and did the tourist bit, taking ‘photos!!!   We then headed past Charing Cross station and headed down Villiers Street to an old “haunt” of mine, “Gordon’s Wine Bar” with its vaulted candlelit cellar and old oak barrels and it’s been there since 1890.   We enjoyed a “meagre” glass of wine, but not so sure of the price, £11.50 each; ouch; We didn’t have another!!!!!

Leaving Gordon’s we headed along the embankment then turned up past the Savoy up to the strand and headed to Covent Garden Market.   As usual the place was heaving and the Buskers were drawing in the crowds and one in particular got our attention.   This busker was singing various light operas but added into his performance, he did “illusions”; he had the crowd spellbound.    We also watched a juggler standing atop of a ladder entertaining the crowd with his “rhetoric” and juggling with knives.

It was getting a bit cold so headed to the Covent Garden tube station but en route passed a McMullens pub.   McMullens brewery established in 1827, another blast from the past, I thought they had been swallowed up by a larger brewery But apparently not, still a family business.   Naturally we went in and I enjoyed a couple of pints of their AK, still as good as it was back in the1970’s when I was regular participant of it,   Time to head out, so off to the station.

Back at the “ranch” we had dinner and a cosy evening in front of the TV; Andrew has gone away on business so babysitting!!!

Friday 20th September 2024

Again we awoke to sunshine beating down on us, lucky or what?   Today we are heading to East Pool Mine, a museum near Redruth but en-route we’ll visit Basset Monument, a world heritage site monument but no hurry.

After a leisurely breakfast we headed out, first stop Basset Monument, about half ‘n hour away but only 9-miles, Cornish lanes!!!

About a couple of miles away we spotted the monument high on a hill overlooking Cornwall, but the last mile was interesting; the narrow lane went one further, no tarmac just a hardcore surface with numerous potholes, naturally we questioned if we were on the right route, but carried on remembering the saying, “always trust your instruments”.

Finally arrived and first impression: my-my it is a big monument on top of a Carn Brea (hill) giving a 360 degree view, Overlooking both Camborne and Redruth and much of Cornwall reaching up to 738 feet above sea level.   The Basset Monument was  constructed in 1836 in memory of Francis Bassett, Lord de Dunstaville. The interior of the monument can be accessed by a gate, but locked!! The inside is hollow with a staircase leading up to a viewing platform (allegedly) I didn’t see the stairs as there is no lighting so maybe a torch is needed!!!!

The Bassetts where the most important mining family in the area and had lived in Tehidy for over 700 years. Francis Bassett was however the first to be elevated to the nobility due to his efforts to raise an army of miners to defend the port of Plymouth from the combined Spanish and French fleets.    Another legacy of the Bassett family is Carn Brea Castle, situated the other side of Carn Brea, all within walking distance of the car “ha-ha” park.    It is thought that it started out as an Elizabethan hunting lodge  though the building in its current form is a Victorian folly, and now it is a restaurant.   We walked up to look and hopefully have a coffee but unfortunately it was all closed up until 1830hrs.  

We had a good nose around and the dogs had a good time climbing the big boulders that were scattered around before heading to East Pool Mine, situated at the back of Morrisons Supermarket, about 10-minutes away.   It’s strange, everything is fairly close in mileage terms, but not in time, every trip seems to take “for-ages”.

After weaving our way around Morrisons carpark, there was the entrance to the mine, all locked up!!!   At this point I headed back into the store for personal issues whilst Christine looked up the opening times, before joining me in the cafe for a bacon bap, as it was  lunch time now.

The mine only opens by appointment, presumably for a party and a guided tour, so no visit today🥵🥵

We headed back to camp but decided to stop at one of the coves and let the dogs fly about the beach.   Unfortunately each cove we passed was teaming and all the car parks were full so we went back to base for an early dinner.  Later we headed back out to Weal Coates where the dogs and us had  fond farewell walk, home tomorrow😩😩

Saturday 21st September 2024

My my how the weather has changed, dull very, very grey skies and lots of rain, thank goodness we cleared the site last night; the skies are full of it!!!

No stopping in this miserable weather on the way home today but strangely when we got back to our neck of the woods, it had stopped and everywhere had brightened up, so much so we could empty Rosie in the dry; bonus, and return her to storage

Thursday 19th September 2024

We have nothing particularly planned for today, we are staying local as it is such a nice sunny morning.

Just a tiny bay we thought!

Around mid morning we decided to head down to Chapel Porth, our local beach knowing the tide will be out and the dogs can have a wale of a time.   Easier said than done, there was a sign at the top of the hill stating  the car park was full, so naturally we ignored this and drove down; no kidding, the car park was heaving, no doubt as the tide was out.    The decision was taken, Christine would get out and take the dogs and leave me to sort things out!!

I hung around the car park and eventually got my space, flashed my National Trust membership card and I was off to catch-up Christine on the beach, shouldn’t be too difficult as it is only a small cove.      After clambering over the small rocks and stones I was on the sandy beach and as I walked towards the sea I was “gobsmacked”;  tucked around the corner the beach opened up and it was enormous, probably a couple of miles long and a real hidden gem when the tide was in, so big I couldn’t see Christine or the dogs.    I headed on round the corner and eventually “clocked” two pooches charging around that had to be Tom-Tom and Rosie, soon after, and trailing, was Christine on her way back having been nearly to the end.   We now understood why the car park was so busy, a wonderful beach for sun worshipers, surfers and dogs not to mention walkers, who would have guessed this beach was here when we came down the other night at high tide.

Heading up the hill from the beach is a cottage with a couple of containers in the garden, all looks a bit “Steptoe & Son” but Wednesday to Saturday they sell fresh fish so we decided to have a look.   Inside the shop was quite different, a very modern fishmonger so was tempted and bought his last pot of fresh crab.

Back at base we sat down to an extremely fresh crab salad lunch, you could certainly taste the sea it was so fresh; just goes to show looks can be deceiving!!   Our snack lunch turned out to be a full meal!!!

About a mile away from this camp site is “Wheal Coates”, an old derelict tin/copper mine so headed over to take a look.   Again parking was National Trust, we must have re-cooped our annual fee to the N. T., in parking charges alone, we just flash our membership card and “hey presto” we gat a “fee paid” ticket for the car!!

Wheal Coates is only the dramatic ruins hanging on the edge of the cliffs, carpeted with heather and gorse and crisscrossed with narrow footpaths, but again the dogs were limited to charging up and down the paths, the gorse obviously hurts their feet!!!   We enjoyed the walk looking out to a bright blue sea with the sun beating down on us and no wind, idyllic.

Eventually we arrived back at site, dogs “panting for England” and we just collapsed into chairs, poured a couple of drinks and sat in the late afternoon sun, very contented.   Though the earlier part of this break was not blessed with sunshine, these last few days have made up for it.   Eventually our thoughts turned to dinner but as we had had such a big lunch, “grazing” was the decision.

After the sun went down with some spectacular sights in the sky, we went inside for a spot of tv and bed.   Tomorrow is our last full day 🥵🥵, just hope the weather holds again