Mill and caching

Today, on our last full day in the Manchester area, we went to the Helmshore Mill. As it didn't open till lunch time, we stopped at a pleasant little park and I did some caches while Mum and Neil went to a historic site mill place,. I only went the wrong way 3 times and walked way further than I needed to, but I did nine caches. They were mostly soooo close together.
We jumped back in the car and headed to the mill, first for some lunch then to look around. The tour man was very nice and he told us heaps of extra stuff. The machinery was mostly in working order, as the mill itself, which recycled scrap cotton, only closed down in the late 70's. We stayed at the mill for ages, I bought a little raccoon to sew up. oops

On the way home, we stopped at a much uglier little park, and I got another few caches. Bugger, only 2 short of my most caches in a day record!!!
The only task left for today is to try and pack, and get all my stuff back in my bag! Wish me luck! :)

caves and mountians

Well, maybe not mountians, but moors at least. Today we jumped into the car and drove down to the Blue John caves in the middle of the Peak District National Park. The cave had HEAPS of stairs so Mum decided not to go down. It was really hard work to get back up but it was really impressive. There was heaps of fossils visiable in the walls of the limestone caves, along with the Blue John (which is a relative of Flurite, so yay it flursess!)
After that we had a pleasent pub lunch in Castleton, then stopped at an EarthCache on the way home, along the seanic route.
I am getting quite tired I think. We only have one more day at this house. I took photos of it this morning. You won't believe it when you see it.

Mill and tower

First stop was the Saltaire model town. There was not a lot of information at the town, as it is still lived in etc, but it was really cool to go and see. We went on to the Queen St Mill, which actually has heaps of working looms in it. It was so noisy! But really cool to see some working ones. I bought a real live English woven tea towel, made at the mill. Neil spoke to the man running the boiler and engine for ages.

On the way home we stoped at a tower thing we could see from the road, and which we havce pasted almost evcery day we have been here. It is called Hartshead Pike. Handily there was a cache near by!! Yay :)

Tunnel

Today we went for a tour around the local country side to the start and end of the Standedge tunnel, which is on the Huddersfield Narrow Cannal. We went to Uppermill end of the tunnel first, which was a bit boring, so we had to drive over the huge mountain to the Marsden end. This end had a boat ride into the tunnel. It is over 3 miles long and take 3 hours to go right the way through it, so the little 30 minute trip turned out to be just right. The lady was really interesting and it was a good trip into the tunnel. My photos were a bit crappy looking. Neil and I then tried to go for a little walk to a nearby cache. The river we had to cross turned out to be a little too deep for my little runner shoes, so we had to give that one a miss.
We had found a hand out for a sculpture trail that was meant to be close by, and after stuffing around with tiny little streets that seemed to go nowhere, we had to give that one a miss too. Bugger. Luckily the road we had used to go from Marsden to Dingle (or where ever these theoretical sculptures where supposed to be) had had a conveniently located cache on it, so we had stopped at that and I dropped another travel bug. No all I need is a bit of internet to log it and this little write up.

Silk and Moreton

Today we drove to the Macklesfield Silk mill. This was really cool. The old bloke that was the guide of the old mills was really interesting and he didn't mind us asking questions after the tour. Most of them he even answered well. There is still one we haven't had answered ok, but I'm sure the internet can help us with that at some stage. I got a tiny tiny bit of jackard woven silk in a key ring.
After lunch we headed to Little Moreton Hall.
This had scaffolding all over the front of it and we nearly didn't go, but it turned out to be really good and interesting. It is just totally amazing that the thing has survived in as original state as it has. Many cool photos were to be hand on the parts that didn't have scaffold, and the lady running the tour was excellent.
Last stop for the day, before home and another excellent meal from Neil, was the Post Officer, were we off loaded a few bits and pieces of paper. Will really need to weigh the bags at some point. :S

Rest day

We all needed it. It was good

To Greenwich and beyond

In theory today was the first day of the tour. In reality the only thing on today was a dinner so Mum, Neil and I went to Greenwich. We travelled by tube and DLR and walked the last bit. Half the stuff we went to see was being used as a film set for the Pirates of the Caribbean 4 film which was partly interesting in its self but also a bit of a bum. It was a steep climb up to the main observatory but it was worth it. There were heaps of cool telescopes and other interesting instrumentation to look at but most importantly there was the east west meridian line to stand on and have my photo taken on :)
Also there is a virtual cache about the area, which I hopefully can log fairly soon.
Mum and I left Neil there and headed towards Oxford St to a cloths store we found out about. Mum got a nice top and I got some jeans and a pretty scarf. By this stage peak hour was starting and it was time to head home. Mum and I were due to have a flash dinner as the first night of our Stitches and Stately Homes tour. The service was average, but the food was quite good, man were we ready for bed by the end of it!

Meetings

Today was a day of meetings. First step was for me to make my way to ??? Area where I was to meet Clare. Unfortunately the tube was having some work done on it so I had to make my way there by bus. I was fairly early so I decided to walk to Albert Hall first, this is where the 'Proms' are preformed every year. I'll be truthful now, most of my reason for going was that there was a cache there. I had it in the bag fairly quickly. I also looked at the Albert Memorial, which is huge. I can only say that Victoria must have been impossibly grieved when her husband died.

Next I took the bus to ??? This turned out to be way closer than I thought. There also happened to be some close caches ;) one was even big enough for me to put one of my geo coins into! While caching I eventually heard from Clare who had decided we should meet else where, which was mile away for me, especially give the broken tube in the area. So I decided to finish finding the cache I was looking for at the time THEN head for the bus stop (which happened to have another cache nearby) so that made 4 caches.

Eventually I made it to Waterloo and found Clare. We had a very pleasant lunch and a good chat. It was great to catch up with her. Then we headed our separate way.

Neil and I were to meet at Mansion House station and try and find the Pearly Kings and Queens parade. We were both quite late and it was very cold and quite rainy. In the end I think we were too late and we couldn't find anything. Oh well.
After all this stuffing around, Neil and I were both stuffed, so we went back to the hotel to find mum. That accomplished we went out to the nice, if slightly more expensive, organic restaurant we had seen earlier (one time when we were lost) It was really delicious. We all ate to much but it was great food.

Museum x2

So, the plan was to briefly drop into the Natural History Museum and Science Museum. After getting slightly geographically embarrassed on the way there, we made it. Neither of them was open yet!! and the cues! I'm not sure if it's school holidays or not but there were kids and people everywhere. Both museums were great and in the end were where there all day and my feet are still sore. Dinner again was a disappointment :( Afternoon tea was good, or that could have been my sore feet simply enjoying the rest!

shopping in London

Ages ago on Shoeper Woman's blog a friend of my showed me a fantastic pair of shoes. I decided I might have to try and see if I could get them. So we headed off to the Irregular Choice store in Soho. We completely failed to find the Tourist Info place on the way there, and made it to the store at 10 to 10, before it had opened. We cruised around the insane lanes and little streets, getting slightly rained on, until the store opened. To cut a long story short, I now own some lovely shoes that I will be barely able to ware. I don't want to ware them outside either cos the soles have printing on them, of the white rabbit, of Alice in Wonderland fame, in a tea pot!

After some food and a stop at the Swatch shop (Neil managed to not bring his watch), we headed back down Regent St to try and find the Info place, we eventually found it. We got paper, cos you need paper when your on holiday (I should point out this is paper in the form of brochures, not just A4 ok, I just wanted to make that clear) and headed off to Covent Garden.

Wow. I didn't even know this place existed. It was cool. Sort of an older more permanent version of Vic Market, but different. Eventually we found the outdoors stores we were looking for, to procure the extra back we need. Check, it's red. We also found the Canadian pub for a rest, and beer (or in my case cider).

From there we walked down to Trafalgar Square, where there was an irresistible earth caching opportunity, and a festival about Malaysia (yummy food present and correct). Down the road again to Embankment station and back home, another long day!

Dinner was at a nearby pub and fairly average (lets not talk about it)

London 2

Day 2, our final day, as I discovered when I looked at our tickets. We both had in mind our flights left Heathrow at 4pm, but that when we leave Helsinki! We leave London at 10am ish therefore we have to be at the airport before 8am! So cos of the train strike and this being out last day, we did a slight change in plans. We walked to the V&A museum (after booking the expensive, but easy mini bus to the airport, to pick us up between 6.30 and 7am in the morning!)
The V&A was good, lots of things to play with, old stuff, costumes etc (not that you can ever have enough costumes.) 3hrs later and we were strolling up to Harrod's. I wanted to get a bag with a scottie on it (just for something different) :( They didn't have any :(
From there we went to a few shops to pick up a few last touristy things, to see Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square (Neil was wondering what all t he fuss was about). As we were getting tied again, by this stage, we decided to go on a boat trip up the Thames. Quite relaxing, and a good was to see the sights. Unfortunately I couldn't work out where Jack's had taken her really nice photo of herself in a red phone box with Big Ben in the back ground :(
We dropped in to the BBC (they don't have a shop like the ABC here, bugger it), the House of Fraser, where I bought a lovely, if expensive bag and the local sci-fi nerd shop, which was full of all sort of cool nerdy stuff (I could have bought a remote control K9!)
Last stop for the day was to meet up with an old school friend, who I hadn't seen for years, for some beverages. We had a great time catching up, then went on to dinner, which was delicious. A great way to end our last day in London!

London 1

Day one of our two day assault on London. As out transport tickets are off peak, there is no rush to get going, which is good after the shit sleep we have both had.
The train we needed had had a few 'issues' earlier in the day and was a bit busy, but we made it to the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels. the London Pass made getting in very quick and easy. the jewels were very shiny! The Tower and all it's associated bits, in much the same was as Stirling and Edinburgh Castles, were really interesting, needed all day to look at and had too many people at them, but for some reason, the people aren't bother me as much. Maybe I'm used to it now?
Next we went to the Tower Bridge, which is just down the road. Neil was very impressed with the engines that drove the bridge. I was just a shame they only have them running on compressed air.
Just down the read from there is a really old surgery, that was built for pre-anesthetics and pre-proper hygiene practices. So the whole thing is made of wood. It was built into the roof of a church. When the hospital moved, they closed the surgery and everyone forgot about it. It was found again in (from memory) the 1950's still in almost perfect condition. It was really yukkie.
Heading to the train we discovered that a rail strike was in full swing! Oh No! This meant we had to brave the buses. These were large, red, sardine tins, but we made it home, exhausted again!

Train trip 2: to London

With a minimum of fuss, Mum and Dad dropped us off at Salisbury station. We said goodbye. I hope they have a fun time, I have to admit that Mum's driving had improved with more sleep.
We had an uneventful trip into London and got off at Waterloo station. As we were both fairly tired, we decided not to brave the public transport system for the trip to the hotel. For me it was the ticketing system rather than the trains or the baggage that beat me, I just couldn't work out what to buy!
On the way in the taxi we saw a 'big red bus' shop that we might have to go back and find. By the time we got there (Hyde Park Towers..... oooo flash sounding) it was 1pm. Too early to check in, but we left the bags. Still feeling to scared to use PT, we deiced to walk to the tourist info place, it didn't look very far on the map.
So we made it along Oxford Street to Regent Street, with only a short stop to get food. Then we discovered that Regent Street was having a massive festival and that we were at the wrong end of the street for the i place (we were at ~50ish, the i place was at ~350ish) Eventually we made it there. We picked up our London Passes, with their attached transport passes and headed off into the crowd again. Man there are a lot of people here.
We wondered fairly aimlessly for a bit til we accidentally found the Queen's house, of course a few pictures needed to be taken at this point. Getting tireder and tireder by the step, we walked trough Hyde Park and Kensington Garden back to the Hotel. Then after a short nap in our hot and humid room, we went for dinner.
Approximately every second shop here seems to be a souvenir shop, so there is no shortage of purchasing opportunities.

Rest day

Finally we got a proper rest day. I spent most of it in bed. To be honest, most of the real reason for it was probable to avoid being driven round by either Mum or Dad. Mum and Dad went out to a castle. Eventually we got up and took a stroll 2 miles down the road to the pub, where we chatted with the people there and I drank cider. Mum and Dad turned up eventually and we had dinner.

Great Dorset Steam Fair

Today was the day of the rally. 4 - 5 miles of car que to get in there. Acres and acres of car park and camping ground. The acres of:

• engines,
  
• cars,
  
• motorbikes,
  
• stationary engines,
  
• market stalls,
  
• fairground stuff,
  
• woodworking,
  
• craft,
  
• food
  
• and more

I was big. I mean I was expecting big, but this was really BIG!
We wondered round all day, loosing each other, with Mum and me both cracking the shits at various stages cos the boys wondered off. But they both had a good time chatting with old freaky steam men and that the important bit. Neil only bought 2 t-shirts. I got a new card for my camera. :)

Train trip 1

After breakfast we did out last things in Bath. Neil went to the Cathedral and I went to the Jane Austin Center. I had to wait out the front for 1/2 and hour to get in. I knew I'd only have 3/4 of an hour in there before I have to get to the station to catch our train. Then I found out it would cost £6.50. Not good value, so I gave it a miss altogether. Out train ride was fun. Only for an hour, from Bath to Salisbury.
After we got off the train, I was just about to say to Neil 'Right, where shall we wiat for Mum and Dad?' When he said 'There they are!' Mum and Dad had just pulled into the car park. So we piled everything into the are (a bit of a squeeze) and headed into town for lunch and for me, to Marks and Spencer's to get a towel. There two tasks duely completed there was a quick stop off at Shaftesbury i place to pick up the Steam Rally ticket and then it was time to find the accom Mum had booked.
Dinner was nice at the local pub. Neil risked steak again and it was excellent!

Bath 2

Not a real early morning today, we went first to the main Bath tourist attraction, the Roman Baths. These were great, we were there for ages and look heaps of photos. Out accom package comes with a hop on hop off bus ticket. As we were tired, we jumped on and decided to do the whole trip round Bath in one go. The recording commentary was good, not as good as a real person, but good.
There are quite a lot of chocolate shops in Bath. I had to go into one and just sniff. We wondered around for a bit after the chocolate, til we found the glassblowing shop. We bought 2 matching glasses, which we have had mailed back, by the shop, this also means they minus the VAT, which is 17.5%
After this we had a long walk to the place where the actual glassblowing was done. As they were charging £3.50 per person to watch, we decided to 'pass' on that one! (What a rip-off, every where else they let you watch for free, Bastards!)
We jumped on the out of town hop on hop off bus and did that loop too. Then it was rest time again, we're both sooooo tired, I even had a snooze this time.
Latter we had a few drama's, which I won't go into, but sufficed to say we didn't succeed in getting my photos off my camera.
Last stop for the evening was an 'eat in' version of the night before, Yum!
Mum and Dad are meant to have arrived this afternoon, but I've not managed to get hold of the yet. I'll try them again first thing.

Bath 1

We started the day with a nice chat with the lady that runs the property. She breeds horses and has a great sense of humor. Probable enough said, really funny.
Next we went through heaps of traffic to the Hotel, to drop our bags and then through heaps more traffic to drop the car.
Then we walked slowly through Bath, via the i place and the fashion museum, where i 'accidentally' spent £75 on books :s, back to the hotel. Then we had a rest.
After a couple of hours sleep, (for Neil anyway, I was reading) we went to the station to pick up our railway tickets, then went to the local rip off internet to check email an bank balances, all looks acceptable.
We marched back into town for the evening "Mayor's" free tour of Bath. This was great. The man, Bob, was really interesting and entertaining. It lasted over 2hrs. By this time we were starving, but luckily we had passed a delicious smelling Turkish place near the end of the tour, so we nipped back there for a kebab. Delicious. We have to go back there!

Ironbridge to Bath

Today I accidentally bought a bear. He was £76. Oops. He's loverly :)

The Neil got new foot stuff as he has been putting Canastian on his mankie foot for weeks and it hasn't been doing squat. Hopefully this stuff will, as his feet are starting to bleed. I'd be whining like a bitch if it were my feet!
Packing the bags into the car we headed, by all sorts of A & B roads, to Hereford. On the way I noticed Thornbury on the map, so of course, I had to navigate us via there! The town consisted of a sign.... thats it. We saw heaps of huge farm machinery on the tiny little roads there and a rubbish truck.
After the Hereford i place the next stop was the Weston's cider mill. We had lunch there, mine accompanied by 2 pints of cider, here all the navigation for the rest of the day was carried out pissed.
Next we went to Clearwell Caves which have been mined continually for 2000 years. There were some awful stories about children miners during the Victorian period, but really interesting all the same.
Then the last bit of the day was motorway heading towards Bath. We are staying in a really lovely self contained place that actually has a fridge, so I can drink my pear cider cold!!
My main job for tonight is to re-pack all the stuff we have acquired and get it to fit better in our bag, cos tomorrow we are getting rid of the car.

Ironbridge 2

Today was museum day. We started off taking the free bus down to the tile museum. This was way better than we expected, we spent a couple of hours there. Next we wondered down to the Maws craft market/workshop. A few too many of the stalls were shut cos of the long weekend, bummer. I got a cross stitch pattern of Ironbridge. Neil got some cuff links made of old coins.
Next we stopped in for a snack near an old channel. Then we wondered on to the Tar Tunnel, which was cool, and had been lost until the 1950's or so.
Back on the free bus we went back to our room for a pit stop and a shoe change. We wondered the 2km or so up the road to the last 2 museums we plan to visit. Of course as we were going past the bear shop, of course I had to go in again and look at all the lovely hand made bears.
At the iron museum Neil got a door knocker in the shape of a traction engine. I'm still not sure why he needed this! Another tea towel was duely acquired.
Last stop on the museum trail for us was the kid museum 'enginuity'. This was great, heaps of toys and games, I completely wrecked myself playing with the machines that had convarer belts and handles to turn. Great!
We wondered back home, grabbed some cider for our regular sit beside the bridge and relaxed. Then an early night!