Europe Trip 2013: Last days in the UK [for now]

After my visit to Portsmouth [see previous couple of posts], I had another 3.5 days in the UK before heading off to Finland. Those days were filled up with clay pigeon shooting with my father, lunch with the family, then the next day off to a local bird sanctuary [the name of which escapes me, along with the photos which I seem to have lost... darn!].

The final full day started with babysitting my 2 year old niece. This was perhaps the most scary part of the whole trip, but I think that little Ferne must take after me - she was very well behaved and seemed to enjoy herself a lot :-). We spent about 2.5 hours out of the house - mainly down at the local park playing, then came back for lunch. What's more, there was no soiled nappy, and so my [proud] record of never having changed a nappy continues! Happy niece = very happy uncle!

Later that day we headed down to the "beach pond", which is just like its name - a pond with a sandy beach. Very popular and a good place for a bit of a swim, although we did see a snake in the water once. My sister says it was nothing to worry about - that it was not poisonous - just a pity she didn't sound convincing... Oh well! Oh yeah - the picture of a swan? There was one of them there also. I guess maybe the snake was safe since the swan was still alive :-)

Anyway, here is a very short video of the shooting then at the beach pond, a picture from the babysitting [yes, I did feed her while we were out!] and the beach pond's resident swan. Enjoy!

Europe Trip 2013: Spinnaker Tower

Just 5 minutes walk from Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard is one of the newer, and most obvious, attractions, the Spinnaker Tower. This tower gives fantastic [although not 360 degree] views of Portsmouth, including much of the historic and later day port areas and as a "special treat" includes a large perspex floor section that can be walked on... no thank you!

Anyway, here are some photos from the tower. Included is a photo of the HMS Warrior [as in my last post]. Enjoy!

Europe Trip 2013: Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

I've been in the UK for a few days now [and tomorrow I head off to Finland], but I'm just getting around to putting up a couple of posts about what I've been up to...

On 3 June my father and I headed off to Portsmouth to see the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. As its name suggests, it is an old dockyard [they say about 800 years of history!] and [as far as I can tell] is part of the current Royal Navy base at Portsmouth.

There are a number of attractions, including the HMS Warrior from 1860, the HMS Victory [launch in 1765!], the May Rose [being preserved after hundreds of years under water], as well as a 45 minute harbour cruise, the National Museum of the Royal Navy and much more. Well worth the 25 pound entry fee - especially since tickets appear to be valid for a whole 12 months.

 

Anyway, here are a few photos. Top to bottom are:

Outside then inside of the HMS Warrior

Outside then inside then front on shot of the HMS Victory

The Mary Rose under restoration, including a preserved cannon

Various pictures from the harbour cruise, which included a lot of commentary about the royal Navy vessels and the current port

In to Edinburgh

After leaving London, I arrived in Edinburgh for the first of 2 nights there, to be followed by 4 nights in Glasgow.

Arriving in Edinburgh, I was met by the ever-pleasant Moira [and later Ken], and after dropping off  the bags, headed off into town and a visit to Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh Castle was on my must do list, and it was good to spend some hours there.

What follows are a number of photos from this visit, and of Edinburgh itself.

Enjoy!

DLR, London City Airport and the Emirates Air Line Cable Car

Yesterday was my first day of going out "exploring". The main reason was I wanted to be sure of the route to London City Airport for my flight on Saturday, but I also wanted to have a general look around. I started by re-familiarising myself with the areas around the Embankment and Westminster tube stations [this is where Parliament is as well as a number of other attractions]. I then headed back to the Bank tube station and found my way to the Docklands Light Rail [DLR] station, to work out how to get to London City Airport.

I'm glad i did, because it appears there are no direct routes to London City Airport from Bank [I could be wrong]! In any case, it;'s just a matter of taking one of the other routes and changing to the correct route at a later station. No drama's as it turns out. Phew!

On the way back, I did a bit of exploring via the DLR and ended up at the Royal Victoria station, which is right next to the Emirates Air Line cable car. Take a guess at who the sponsor is :-)

It is expensive, but it does give a great view over the city at up to 200 feet above the ground as you'll see from some of the following photos. I reckon it is well worth doing at least once - a bit like the London Eye [which I've taken on my previous visits to London], or a Thames River cruise.

Anyway, here are some photos. The first is of the London City Airport DLR station, followed by a number of views of the cable car. The 5th photo shows the Olympic Statium at Stratford in the distance. Enjoy! Wish you were here! :-)

On holiday and at the Paralympics!

Well, I've made it to London and am now "officially" on holiday!

I won't bore you with all the details of the flight [it's probably enough of a description to say 31.5 hours of travel, 5 or so hours of sleep], but I'm here, relaxed and happy!

I'm staying with my sister, brother in law and little niece, so that makes for fun times as well. It seems that 14 month olds can go from super cute to super grumpy and back again, in the blink of an eye. Fun times!

On Tuesday Rochelle [my awesome sister], Ferne [the niece] and I went to London Zoo... I forgot to take my camera [!], but in my jetlagged state, I did manage to put on my "animals taste good" t-shirt... Doh! This was commented on by the staff at the zoo entrance [I think they had a sense of humour about it!], and I felt somewhat self conscious for the rest of the trip... not the mention mocked by Rochelle! ha ha. More fun times!

Tuesday evening, we went to the Paralympics at the Olympic stadium. Wow! It was awesome! The place looked almost packed out, and the crowd was in a great mood. All of the athletes got cheered, and every who was able stood for the national anthems, irrespective of who won. Mind you, and unsurprisingly, when "team GB" won, the cheers did get louder.

I only heard two "boos" the entire evening. One was very good natured when a long jump competitor, who had already won the gold, but had one jump left, gave it heaps and got red flagged for overstepping the line. The poor umpire, but I guess everyone knew it was fair enough :-)

The other was when the British Home Secretary, Teresa May, was announced as presenting some medals, virtually the entire crowd started booing! Ha! Looks like politicians the world over are loved the same! Oh well.

Security was well organised, and everything flowed well. Even that great British tradition, the queue, was mercifully short to get in, get food, whatever.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the evening. Enjoy!

Europe Trip 2011 #4: Shopping and St Pauls Cathedral

After a lazy start to the day, I ended up shopping with my sister. Apparently [none of you would believe this], I don't have enough style sense to purchase jeans and shirts for myself! Good news however, we went to the local Gap store, and after trying on EVERY pair of jeans and ALMOST every shirt, I came away with some clothing that passes the "sister style test".

The good news is that it was then time for Rochelle [my sister, not the met-guru-flying-instructor] to have a look in a store, so I got to babysit for a few minutes outside with Ferne, who, as could be expected, behaved for her uncle impeccably! :-)

Following this we split up for the day and I ended up doing a bit more sight seeing, including St Pauls Cathedral. What an awesome place this is! It would be hard enough designing and building something like this today, much less several hundred years ago! the "tourist's ticket" [permitting entry to the tower and the crypt] is a tad expensive, but the views around London are great. Here's hoping it doesn't get crowded out by skyscrapers!

Anyway, here are a few photos. Two from the outside and two from the very top of the tower/ dome looking down on the river. BTW - the red arrow in the second picture was where I took the last two pictures from. Nothing but an old iron fence and a thin walkway to stop you from falling! Awesome!