Snapshots: Stratford-upon-Avon

I've just spent a lovely weekend in Stratford-upon-Avon with my sister. In between seeing both Cymbeline and Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, we had a wander around the town and down the Avon. It's a pretty little place so I thought I'd share some photos.

A pleasant stroll down the river brought us along to the Holy Trinity Church, site of Shakespeare's grave. The church wasn't open but it looked pretty from the outside.

We also spent a lot of time sitting in the square outside the theatre, enjoying the sunshine.

The second day we were there, there was some lovely live music in the square as well. It reminded me of Paris for some reason.

You can get some really nice Thai food from Giggling Squid, which I checked out just because of the funny name. It's also in a really cool old building.

We also checked out a few cool little statues. Amy decided to sit with Falstaff.

And then we found the Fool in the town centre.

Lovely weekend. Possibly more on the trip later when Amy gets round to writing it.

South Lakes: Sun, relish and dogs in pubs

This is the second part of my recap of a long weekend in the Lake District. You can find part 1 HERE.

Second full day in the Lake District was beautifully sunny, so we took a drive up to Ambleside which sits at the very north end of Windermere. Parked down by the lakeside and had a little look around the couple of shops down there, much to the dogs' delight when they were allowed in to join us. Even more so when one of the shops turned out to be a pet shop which sold ice cream for dogs. Picked up a tub and then grabbed ourselves a cuppa and a lovely blueberry scone while the dogs tucked into their ice cream. Lovely view from the Waterhead Cafe.

After that we took a stroll along the waterfront, enjoying the sunshine. There's the remains of a Roman fort down there, which are worth a look - there's not a huge amount left above ground, but there's a few little info boards dotted around. Plus the view of the mountains is pretty good from there.

Then on up the hill to Ambleside proper. It's a quaint little town, with plenty of little independent shops and cafes. I also noticed that there were quite a few with "Dogs Welcome" notes in the window, so great for dog owners too!

And from Ambleside back down to the waterfront. Beautiful day for a walk. In all, it's about 2-3 miles to go from the pier at the lakeside along the waterfront to the Roman fort, up the hill to Ambleside and then back down the main road to the car park.

From Ambleside, we headed back down the road which runs alongside the lake and stopped for a quick drink at the National Park Visitor Centre at Brockholes. More nice views across the lake, but it's a pain to get out of the car park and I imagine it's worse during the summer when the roads are busier.

Then back to the lodge before we took a walk to Cartmel to grab tea at one of the three pubs in the village square. As far as I could see, all three are dog friendly and The Kings Arms at least allows dogs into the pub (not certain about the other two). We had a lovely meal outside enjoying the spring sunshine, pretty reasonably priced and most delicious. I recommend the Cumbrian Rarebit Sandwich, but make sure to try the chips too.

And then a quick stop at the Village Shop to pick up some of the famous Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding. Om nom nom.

Just because you're in the pub, doesn't mean it belongs to you...

Our final day in the lakes started a bit dim and dismal, but since we needed to be out of the lodge by 10:30am we headed off north towards Windermere again, this time up the western side to the little village of Hawkshead. It's only a little place, but it's packed with craft shops and local produce. Checked out the Hawkshead Relish Company, which makes the most amazing preserves. Their Mojito marmalade is delicious.

There's also the recently opened Handmade in Hawkshead, which features the beautiful glasswork of James Stewardson. Definitely worth a look.

The Kings Arms in Hawkshead is also dog friendly, so we popped in there for a quick drink and a snack before moving on. Henry the dachshund decided the pub must belong to him and barked at anyone who came in.

And then home. Via the Windermere Ferry, which if you don't fancy taking a boat trip is another way to see a bit of the lake from a different perspective. It's also a really pretty drive between Hawkshead and the ferry crossing at Far Sawrey. Goes past Beatrix Potter's house, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

All in all, a great weekend. The Lake District really is a beautiful area.

Things to Do:
Windermere Ferry - £4.40 (single), runs between Ferry Nab (Bowness) and Ferry House (Far Sawrey)

South Lakes: Sun, walking and dogs on boats

The Lake District is beautiful - one of my favourite parts of the UK. Mountains overlooking long, narrow lakes, winding country roads... what more could you want?

Recently I took a trip up there with my mum, sister and two miniature dachshunds for a long weekend. We stayed in a lovely little lodge at Aynsome Manor Park, near the pretty village of Cartmel, famous for its racecourse and sticky toffee pudding.

We must have timed our arrival well, because we just caught the end of the monthly Food Market in the village, which meant I got to nab a delicious fresh loaf of chia seed bread. Never tried it before and it was yummy.

Several of the shops in Cartmel are happy for well-behaved dogs to come in, so we also had a quick wander around some of the little independent craft shops, which the dogs loved. They weren't quite so pleased that they had to wait outside while I perused the Village Shop, home of the famous sticky toffee pudding and a whole host of other delicious goods. Grabbed some bits for tea - the shop sells all sorts of pasta, rice, sauces and condiments, plus some meat.

There's some good walking around Cartmel as well. A footpath leads out of the back of the racecourse into the fields. Several paths to choose from - we headed up and along a little stream for a while. Such a peaceful walk.

Maybe we all died and this is some sort of weird limbo...

Our second day in Cartmel began with a sort of weird, sleep deprived hysteria brought on by the carbon monoxide alarm going off just after we went to bed, freaking us all out and subsequently unsettling one of the dogs enough that she whined and whimpered all night.

Suffice to say, the thought did cross my mind that maybe it hadn't been a false alarm and we had all died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the night. Giggling ensued.

Anyway, having finally got out of the house and satisfied ourselves that we weren't trapped in limbo, we head off up north to Bowness on Lake Windermere. It's a lovely drive - a winding road clings to the hillside and follows the lake from Newby Bridge at the south end, up to Bowness about halfway up. This is the main tourist hub on the lake, so expect it to be busy in the summer.

Grabbed a quick cuppa and then it was off for our first adventure - the dogs' first ever boat trip. They even got their own tickets - well behaved dogs are allowed on for free. A 45 minute cruise out on the lake turned out to be a great way to admire the scenery.

Spotted a few places we'd like to live, but with house prices in the area what they are... I think even a tiny boathouse would be out of our price range. Plus, when the lake floods, it really floods. During the last major flood, it peaked at 7 1/2 feet above the normal level. The little building in the picture below if the Temple of Heroes, commemorating Admirals Duncan, Nelson, Howe and St Vincent. That 7 1/2 foot flood brought the water up to the bottom of the plaques bearing the names.

Safely off the boat, which pleased the older dog no end, we headed up the hill to grab a bite to eat, relishing the warm spring sun. And then on into the town to explore some more shops. As with Cartmel, some shops will allow dogs in so long as they behave, so the two of them had great fun sniffing around in La Galerie d'Art while I tried to choose just a couple of photo prints for my postcard wall.

A few more shops and then onto Kendal to while away what remained of the afternoon. We headed over the top out of Bowness, across fields full of sheep (and some very cute spring lambs), stopping briefly to let a flock of sheep cross the road, complete with sheepdog and a farmer with a red flag.

Oddly enough, we found only one place in Kendal making a big deal out of selling the famous Kendal Mint Cake. Ah well. It's a lovely stroll from the town centre across the river to the remains of Kendal Castle. This seems to be on common land (or maybe council land?) so is open access and it's free to wander around the ruins.

Just be aware that as with all good castles, you have to climb up a bloody big hill to get there. It's worth it though - look at the views from the top.

All in all, a great couple of days to start the trip. And still a couple of days to go!

Things to do:
Cartmel Food Market - 3rd Friday of the month, Cartmel
Windermere Lake Cruise - from £7.70 (adult), departs Bowness, Ambleside, Brockholes & Lakeside
Kendal Castle - free, Kendal

Bournemouth & London: Fish, cuneiform and freaking out on the Tube

My final day in Bournemouth was wet. Soggy as anything. In search of somewhere dry to spend the day we headed to the Oceanarium on the seafront, stopping to coo over a group of ducklings on the way.

Can't resist cute fluffy ducklings. Anyhoo, we made it to the Oceanarium only to find that everyone else had had the same idea and the queue was out of the front doors. We'd booked our tickets online that morning but not knowing where the fast lane was, we didn't really want to push.

We toddled off round the corner instead, away from the sideways rain and wind to find somewhere to have a cuppa while the queue or the weather calmed down. Settled down in a nice little cafe/restaurant called West Beach, just round the corner from the Oceanarium. Amazing deluxe hot chocolate and, at least when we went in, friendly staff.

So far, so good. We blithered about in the cafe for a while before deciding to brave the rain again. Neither weather nor queue had really changed, but we stuck it out and eventually made it into the Oceanarium.

It was RAMMED. Mostly folks with kids who didn't understand the concept of not banging on the glass. Ugh. The actual content of the Oceanarium itself was pretty good, especially considering it's not a very big place. It includes such things as otters...

A new exhibit of penguins, which very few people seemed to have discovered...

A pair of Green Sea Turtles, called Friday and Crusoe...

An assortment of small (out of focus) sharks...

A group of African Dwarf Crocodiles that look like weird garden ornaments, they're that little...

Nautilus, which are super cool, if a little bit dim, photowise...

There's also a pair of Loggerhead Turtles, but I've got no even vaguely decent photos of them. And of course the obligatory tanks of tropical fish, without which no aquarium is complete. Oh, and seahorses. Cute seahorses.

Basically, the Oceanarium is pretty good. You get in cheaper if you book in advance online.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Wetherspoons with a nice pint of cider while it rained some more outside. And then I had a go at Limbo because Claire thought I should have another go at a video game while I was staying with her. Let's just say I'm not so great with gaming. Limbo's pretty cool though.

The next morning was an early start again to catch the train back to Grimsby. I stopped off in London on the way to break up the otherwise 6 hour train journey. I'd intended to visit the Hunterian Museum so headed off from Waterloo Station on foot, across the Thames, along the Strand and then up Kingsway. Found my way there just fine, only to find that it doesn't open on Mondays, so it'll have to wait for another trip.

Instead I found a bench in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the little park that the museum faces, and ate my breakfast. Saw a rat. Had a quick look on Google Maps for something else nearby that I could check out. Settled on the British Museum, just up the road.

A short walk later, during which someone asked me for directions to the British Museum (do I look like a non-tourist?), I went to dump my bag and coat at the cloakroom. Apparently it's £1.50 per item and given how short I was on change, I opted to just leave my bag and carry my coat. If I'd thought about it, I probably could have fit my coat inside the bag. I'll remember that next time.

I'd intended originally just to spend a couple of hours there and then find another place to check out. I ended up spending all day there. Good thing, really - there's so much to see that you need a good few hours to get the most out of it.

Managed to see quite a big chunk of the collections, which makes a change from previous visits. Some really fascinating objects, like this case full of cuneiform tablets.

Cuneiform is one of the earliest forms of writing, used in the ancient Middle East. It's awesome. And then there's this little tablet from Babylon, which is potentially the oldest map of the world (c. 500BC).

It's hard to tell from this photo, so here's a diagram of it from Wikipedia. The little spikes around the outside are islands of some sort and are partly why it's considered a map of the world and not just of the region around Babylon.

There's also a whole room about pre-Roman Italy, which is really interesting and an area I don't know much about. It includes these funky little figures. Look quite modern to me.

Also these beautiful pieces from the ship burial at Sutton Hoo. All intricate enamel, glass, stones and gold.

For any Time Team fans there's this case full of Samian Ware from Roman era Britain.

These little beads from an ancient burial that look like they belong in Mario Kart.

I also made sure to check out the Assyrian galleries. I hadn't realised how much Assyrian art and sculpture they had before. Things like these iconic gate guardians.

And these enormous gates.

There's also some pieces from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Wonders of the Ancient World. Pretty cool. These two statues are thought to be of Mausolos and his wife Artemisia (also his sister, ew).

There's a temporary exhibition on at the moment about Indigenous Australia. I lived out there for a year, so I figured I'd check it out (£10 entry). Not much that I hadn't already seen similar of in Australia, but interesting nonetheless. Intriguing to see how the Museum justifies its continued possession of Indigenous artefacts that their traditional owners feel should be returned. Even better to see that there was a reasonably large coverage of Tasmania, which sometimes seems to get a bit forgotten. Tasmania is awesome. No photos from this exhibition because of a request from the traditional owners that no photos be taken of the objects.

Aside from all of the above interesting things, there's a great display of Chinese jade that I'd not noticed before, some fascinating cases of Mesoamerican objects and a whole gallery of Egyptian artefacts that I completely bypassed because it's always heaving and I've seen it before. Just had to nip back upstairs when I thought I was almost finished because I'd forgotten to find the Lewis Chessmen. Shame I didn't get a picture of the little berserker pieces biting their shields, but here you go.

If you're heading to the British Museum soon, there's some cool exhibitions coming up - Celts I think? Yup - Celts: Art & Identity, opens 24th September. Only thing to note, and it's probably obvious - food inside the Museum is expensive. Either bring your own or pop out and explore the surrounding streets for better value grub.

Finally left the museum just before 4 in an attempt to avoid rush hour on the Tube. Which I sort of half managed - Russell Square Station was empty but the actual train was busy. Have I mentioned how the Tube freaks me out? Yeah... so the train apparently stalling twice in the few seconds after we pulled away from the platform wasn't fun. Totally thought we were going to be stuck in the tunnel. Then the driver comes over the tannoy: "Can you please keep away from the doors, ladies and gentlemen?" Think the guy next to me was a bit worried by my almost silent mantra of "It's only 1 stop. It's only 1 stop. It's only 1 stop." Sorry, dude.

Basically, I had a great weekend. Really wish I'd managed to get into the Hunterian Museum though...

Bournemouth: Portland ho!

I seem to be going on rather a lot of trips at the moment. The latest was to see my friend Claire in Bournemouth for a long weekend.

Great plan, save that the weather forecast for the weekend turned out to be less than brilliant.

Trip started with a super long train journey down from Grimsby to Bournemouth. 6 hours, to be precise. That said, it wasn't too bad - the tube wasn't busy, the trains all ran on time and I only encountered one weirdo (read: addict of some description) a few stops away from Bournemouth. So far, so good.

Of course, as soon as I left the station building, I got a lovely reminder of that weather forecast. Rain. Rain. Rain. Ugh. Managed to find my way to the town centre (with instruction from Claire) and then on to the Pier for Claire's work summer do. Spent the afternoon drinking rum, running out to the zip line when the rain stopped and trying out the indoor climbing walls.

I've only been climbing once and it was amazing fun, so it was great to have another go at it. Apparently it's still fun. 'Nuff said. I'm not sure how much it costs normally at RockReef, but I think it's probably worth checking out. They have high ropes too, which were great fun even if Claire did get a little bit stuck at one point.

Aside from that, not much to say about the first day of the trip. It ended with muffins and tea at Claire's new flat. Yeah...

Day 2 got off to a much better start - the sun was out! Yay! We'd initially considered going to the Isle of Wight but been told that without a car it would be difficult to get around. Then Claire had found a tour of the Jurassic Coast, which would have been cool had it run on a Saturday and not a Sunday. We could have done the tour on our own, but train and bus connections to Lyme Regis and Charmouth aren't brilliant from Bournemouth.

So we settled instead for a day trip to Weymouth. Train tickets proved to be really reasonably priced (£10.10 return using a railcard), the trains run regularly throughout the day and take just short of an hour to make the trip. Great for us.

First stop, tourist info. Only, we couldn't find tourist info... Managed to grab some leaflets with bus times though. At which point we decided it was lunch time. Quick perusal of timetables over sandwiches suggested that while we could feasibly take a bus to Charmouth and/or Lyme Regis from Weymouth, it would take an hour and a half so most of our afternoon would be spent sitting on a bus.

Decided to catch the bus down to Portland in the end. The bus only runs once an hour from Weymouth, so we made a beeline for a cafe to pass the time. Had a delicious chocolate digestive milkshake. Sounds like it should be gross, actually amazing. If you're in Weymouth, head to Tom & Erin's cafe on the seafront and try it yourself. Seriously good.

Anyhoo, sugar high achieved, we hopped on the bus and instead of going all the way to Portland, hopped off on the causeway and went for a walk down Chesil Beach. Really nice views. Look.

There was also a dead (or dying) jellyfish.

We also found some funky pebbles and made silly faces with them.

I'm not sure we really planned on spending so long on the beach, but it was a lovely day so we lounged around for an hour or so, throwing stones at the sea and inspecting the washed up jellyfish that was just along from us.

Stomachs started grumbling ever so slightly, so we strolled down the causeway to Portland proper. Nice walk, that. Mile and a half or so from the end of the beach to the village. Sadly disappointed to find that there was very little in the way of eateries - at least not as far as we could see. Grabbed a drink instead at a pub and then caught the bus back into Weymouth.

By which point Weymouth was much quieter and we managed to get a table in King Edwards fish and chip shop before the big rush of people turned up for tea. Pretty good, actually. Much better than the last time I ate in Weymouth when the fish cake blatantly came out of a packet. This time I had prawns in filo pastry with some rather excellent chips. Not bad value either - about £8 for the meal and £2 for a pot of tea.

And then it was back to Bournemouth on the train with some very drunk men who were hilarious the entire trip back. The day ended with a lovely cup of tea up on the roof of Claire's flat. Bournemouth's really quite pretty from up there. Great day. More on this trip next time.

London: Maritime Heritage and Local Heroes

5:15am on a Saturday morning is a bizarre time to be listening to podcasts teaching Spanish. But hey, it woke me up. Obviously, there was a reason for being up so early in that the train I was catching that morning left the station at 6:30am.

Spanish lesson consumed, I headed off to the station with Rebecca, caught the train, acquired Gemma at Scunthorpe and then carried on down to London. Much boredom ensued - train journeys are relaxing, but not all that interesting. Woo.

Arrival in London resulted in the inevitable "yay, no Oyster Card" discussion. Fortunately Gemma's got a contactless card, so I've commandeered her Oyster Card. Makes travelling on the Underground so much easier. Why didn't I think of this before? Also met up with Rebecca's friend Huw and then set off in search of adventure.

I say adventure... what actually happened was that we got on the Tube heading for Embankment and got off at Charing Cross because I can't stand the Tube. Clarification here: I'm really not very tall, I do not cope well with crowds, the Tube has been known to well and truly freak me out. Oh, and I have this weird irrational fear that the doors will open while the train's in the tunnel and someone will fall out. I know this is irrational and highly unlikely (the logical part of my brain thinks I'm being an idiot) but it doesn't help.

Ahem, anyhoo...

So we hopped off at Charing Cross and took the very short walk down to the Embankment. Someone had suggested we took a boat trip down the river since we were staying in Greenwich. Sounded like a great plan to me. So we joined the queue for tickets. For 15 minutes. In the sun. With no suncream. I'm amazed I'm not bright pink. And then we joined another queue. In the sun. With no suncream. For 20 minutes. Huw went and found us ice cream, which rather made up for the heat. And then we joined yet another damn queue.

Fortunately this was the last one and we finally made it aboard one of the Thames Clippers. £7.15 for a single ticket (if you don't have an Oyster Card). Not bad considering how far down the river it takes you - about 7 miles from Embankment down to Greenwich Pier. It's also a really lovely way to see the city, as demonstrated in this wonderful series of photos. Yes, I know some of the horizons are wonky - let's see you take perfect photos from the deck of a speeding catamaran.

Well, that's two of Torchwood's sites I've seen. I jumped up and down on the perception filter in Cardiff, but they wouldn't let me in.

Moving on. Having admired London from the water, it seems oddly apt that we then headed into Greenwich with it's maritime heritage. The first real stop of our trip was the Old Royal Naval College (free entry! Yay!) and its beautiful Painted Hall.

I think the photo makes it clear that the Painted Hall does what it says on the tin - almost the entire thing is painted. Even the columns are painted to give the impression of carving - they're completely flat, but at first glance it's very convincing.

Across the way from the Hall is the Chapel, which is lovely, but not quite so impressive. Personally, I found the two memorials in the foyer more interesting.

The first is to Franklin's lost expedition to the Arctic in 1845. History time: Franklin went to explore the last section of the Northwest Passage, the two ships got icebound and everyone on board, 129 people, died. Little traces were found in the intervening years and finally one of the ships, HMS Erebus, was located in 2014.

The second is to the convoys operated during the Second World War.

The Old Royal Naval College itself is a gorgeous building - I'd quite like to explore some more of it if I get the chance.

Oh, and for the film fans, this building turns up in the second Thor film. And promptly gets wrecked. Such a shame...

Flying visit to the College over, we headed on up the hill intent on visiting the Royal Observatory. Timed to perfection, evidently, because just as we reached the National Maritime Museum at the bottom of the hill, the Time Ball dropped to mark 1pm. Here's a close up of it from later in the day.

The Time Ball was used back in the day when clocks were needed to determine longitude at sea - sailors moored on the Thames would use the dropping of the Time Ball up on the hill to set their clocks to the right time so that they could make accurate measurements of their position once they got out into the ocean. More on this later.

Bit of a trek up the hill, given how warm it was. Made it up to the Observatory in the end though and went for a wander around the exhibition. Some amazing old timepieces and of course the wonderful timekeepers of John Harrison.

John Harrison should be a bit of a local hero around Northern Lincolnshire. He grew up in Barrow on the south bank of the Humber and was a carpenter by trade. He also had a fascination with clocks, later to prove useful when the Longitude Act was passed in order to find a solution to the Longitude Problem.

The problem was this: finding latitude while at sea had been fairly easy for centuries, but longitude proved more difficult. As such, when long distance voyages became more common, it became necessary to find a way round this. One way of doing this was to measure the time difference between your position at sea and a fixed point - say, London. If you knew what time it was in London and what time it was where you were, you could work out the longitude.

Unfortunately, this hinged on having with you an accurate clock telling the time in London and at the time of the Longitude Act no such clock existed. John Harrison set out to build such a clock. Here's the first attempt, H1:

The Board of Longitude obviously found it promising, because they funded work into further timekeepers. Harrison produced H2 and H3, was rewarded some more and then created this beautiful object, H4:

H4 was brilliant. It was accurate and kept time even in rough seas. It's the first accurate marine chronometer and it's such a shame Harrison isn't more well known in his home patch.

Well, that was a bit of an extended ramble about keeping time at sea...

Moving on.

By this point it was becoming apparent that all the science and history wasn't really to Rebecca's liking, but I did at least manage to drag both her and Gemma up the old Observatory tower to have a look at this lovely telescope.

I think by then we were all just a little bit worn out - it had been an early start and gone 2pm and we still hadn't had any lunch, so we toddled off down to the cafe. Expensive, but to be expected in such a touristy area.

Took a nice walk back down the hill through Greenwich Park to the Cutty Sark, where we left Huw for a while. Woo, pictures of the Cutty Sark. Somewhere else I would have liked to have a look around if we'd had the time.

Rebecca then got her first taste of the DLR. I'm not sure she was entirely convinced. Personally I find it much more pleasant than the Tube - not as busy for a start. Does make some funny noises sometimes though...

Checked into the hotel, refreshed tired feet and grabbed a cuppa before Huw joined us again and we headed out for the evening. We took the scenic route - DLR to Canary Wharf, stroll through Canary Wharf to Poplar DLR Station, DLR to Royal Victoria on the north bank. From there we hopped on the Emirates Air Line, the cable car over the Thames. A nice little detour - it's not overly expensive and there's commentary included on the 10 minute crossing. Another lovely way to see a bit more of London - first time I'd seen the Thames Barrier, for example.

Safely back on the ground, where Rebecca was much happier, we strolled over to the O2 - another place I'd never been - and went in search of tea. We were planning on going to a gig at the Brooklyn Bowl, so that was of course the obvious place to grab some food. Considering what a tourist trap it must be, the prices weren't bad and the food was great. Would definitely recommend.

The gig was also good. A brass band by the name of Old Dirty Brasstards who play covers of pop songs. So much fun and helped along by a couple of pints of fairly decent cider (expensive by my standards).

Having missed out on the cliched photo on the Greenwich Meridian at the Observatory, I grabbed this last shot of Gemma and Rebecca on the Meridian Line outside the O2 - had to be done!

All in all, a lovely day and a great evening. Day 2 recap will be coming later in the week.