Touring Knights

Today started off a bit slower, we did have a tour booked however we didn't depart until 1pm and as we had seen most of the things on our bucket list we really had time to wander. We visited the post office to ship some souvenirs home. And then wandered to a yarn shop to have a look, across the road from the yarn shop was a glass blowing workshop, we wandered in to have a look and was fortunate that they were about to start a demonstration on glass blowing and we had the opportunity to "blow" our own glass bauble. This is myn, at this point it was still hot and the colours aren't true, shortly after this photo the glass blowers added a glass loop to the top.  It was really interesting to watch the demonstration and amazing to have something this special to add to our Christmas tree. Our tour took us to several places of interest , the first was the town of  Wells Like Bath was originally settled due to the exis...

For the first time Since the holiday began I think we both really just breathed a great big sigh and relaxed, the suitcases got unpacked ( not totally, but more than previously) and we actually just sat and enjoyed our surroundings, well not the first full day , but I m writing this three days after we arrived so . . .  Anyway back to our first full day for the sake of getting a tourist free photo I went out early. The beautiful Bath Abbey , 3 hours later it was swarming with tourists and a busker entertaining the crowds. Bath was first settled in about 60AD by the romans as a spa and was named aquae sulis  because of the hot springs present, however the springs were well known prior to the roman spa. In the 16th and 17th centuries the spa became popular due to it's healing properties and an abbey / religious centre was founded.       In the Georgian period it became even more popular with the introduction of gambling hous...

Okay here's were you get to realise that I am a total nerd and am incredibly proud of it.  The main reason poor gadget had to brave an hour in grid lock traffic was so that his wife could see the The Dr Who exhibition, yep he's a really good husband but then I am attending an international soccer game with him in London so it sort of evens out ... lol So any dire hard Whovian knows that the modern day Dr Who is filmed in Cardiff in Wales and as such they have, well at least for another two weeks, the Dr Who Experience and a museum where you can come face to face with a dalek and see the Tardis up close. And for people of my Vintage you can see K9 ( pictured above) who was a major character in Dr Who in my teenage years.   So some history , Dr Who first aired in the UK in 1963 and in Australia in 1964, so a few years before I was born. It ran continuously from 1963 to 1989, then re launched again in 2005.  I can't remember when I started watching it ...

This morning we packed up again and headed back north this time to Cardiff. We headed off straight after breakfast and thought we would arrive by just after lunchtime. After leaving the Cornwall narrow country lanes we were mainly on the free way, we were pretty pleased with our decision to head to Cornwall on this day (previously we had planned to do it in reverse which would of had us travelling into Cornwall on the Saturday of the bank holiday weekend) as we could see the traffic was grid locked heading south, however the smiles on our faces soon disappeared not long after as we ourselves ended up in the midst of traffic, instead of a 3 hr drive it became a four hour with the last hour the car travelling at no more than 10miles per hour. We discovered the reason as we entered Cardiff, it was their pride weekend and everyone was heading to the city .  But we managed to get through the city pretty easily and found our hotel / car park with no problems. Taking the opportunit...

This morning I got to tick another box as I had the opportunity to visit the site of Tintagel castle, as a long term Arthurian fan I really couldn't miss this opportunity, Tintagel is believed to be the place that King Arthur was conceived and born. "All the British nobles gather including Gorlois with his wife Ygerna "who was the most beautiful woman in Britain" . Upon seeing her, Uther is immediately filled with desire for her. Gorlois notes the flirtatious attention Uther bestows on his wife and leaves the court without permission. Enraged, Uther vows to destroy Gorlois' land until he gets "satisfaction for the way in which he had been insulted" . Hiding away his beautiful wife at Tintagel, Gorlois leaves to battle against his king. Consumed with desire for Ygerna, Uther seeks advice from Merlin. The magician helps Uther by changing him into the likeness of Gorlois. Easily gaining entrance into the castle, Uther goes to Ygerna "and satisfie...

This morning we visited Highclere castle, this was definetly on my bucket list and to be honest I felt I already knew it so well. Of course it is otherwise known as "Downton Abbey". There has been a building on this site since 749AD, sometime during the 12-13th century a red brick Tudor mansion was built and then in 18th century the Tudor mansion was converted into a Georgian mansion and then in 1839, the reknowned architet George Barry ( he designed the parliament houses in London) transformed it into a mansion that would " impress the world" and it does, it is ornate but not too ornate. Highclere is the home of the Earl and Countess of Carnavon, and there family has some great history . . .   At the age of 19 Almina the illegitimate daughter of the banker Alfred de Rothschild married the 5th earl of Carnavon. She came with a huge dowry and had to learn how to run a British nobles family estate. Almina fulfilled her role well and became well loved ...

Today was another big day of driving as Gadget tried to tick all my "wish to see" boxes.  We left the lakes District at around 9am and travelled about 3.5 hrs to  Stratford upon Avon Stratford upon Avon's most famous resident was William Shakespeare And he was born in this house in around 1564. The house is open to the public and we fortunate to have a wander through. It was furnished according to the period And this is how they believed Shakespeare s childhood bedroom would have looked, they believed he would have shared this room with his two brothers. The gentleman above was one of two actors performing on the day and they were amazing. They asked for any requests and were able to cite them verbatim. Not long after we arrived they performed two sonnets accompanied by guitar. When they next called for requests Gadget couldn't help himself and requested the  "St Crisp...