A mighty fine weekend in Bristol

We received a lovely welcome again from Tony & Ingrid on arriving in Bristol late Thursday afternoon.  It has been so hot here.  Into the mid-twenties each day from Thursday to Sunday.  We could carry on about how it has been just about too warm here, but no one would appreciate that.

On Friday Tony & Ingrid left for their trip to North Wales and we set off with a few errands to run.  We needed to get new front tyres for the car, and also to do some grocery shopping.  Both of these missions were accomplished pretty successfully, although it was amazing how the whole afternoon evaporated in the process.

On Saturday, Tony & Ingrid had recommended that we visit Leigh Woods.  It is another National Trust site and sounded like a nice change.  Having googled it and found that it would take only an hour or so to walk there, we packed a picnic lunch and hit the roads.  It was a nice walk, with the majority of it spent wandering through the downs.  For those unfamiliar, these are vast park like spaces with a few trees and then wide open spaces.  For a country with a population like it has it is incredible that these spaces have been preserved as such.  In New Zealand you get the feeling that somehow a developer would have wangled their way into acquiring these and they would be covered in townhouses.

Anyway, because we are slightly directionally challenged, we stumbled upon the Clifton Observatory.  As with most things we seem to have done, this was a stroke of luck.  From beside it we had a wonderful view of the Clifton suspension bridge, and it also had a camera obscura and a tunnel leading to the St Vincent cave.  The camera obscura projects a view of the surrounding countryside onto a big bowl shaped thingy inside a dark room.  It says that it works best on a sunny day and so we experienced it at its best.  It is right at the top of the observatory and so it was incredibly hot in the little room.  The views were quite cool.  A lesser person would have kept the focus on all of the young women sunbathing on the surrounding lawns, but luckily Siobhan is not that person.

After that excitement, we proceeded downstairs and then further downstairs until we were heading down into the cave.  If England was like NZ and prone to earthquakes we might not have been so keen to go down into the cave.  It was steep and the space was a bit small – you had to crouch down to get through it.  Anyway, once we reached the bottom we had a great view of the Avon gorge and the Clifton suspension bridge.  It was designed by Isambard Brunel.  For those of you following the blogs (and paying attention), you may recognise this name as the guy who also designed the SS Great Britain that we visited last time we were in Bristol.  Mr Brunel not only had a knack for designing things, he also had a knack for tricking people into making them.

The bridge is pretty cool.  It is a toll bridge for cars, but pedestrians can wander across for free.  So we did. 

The Clifton Observatory and the St Vincent cave (bottom left)

Once across, it was only a short walk until we were in Leigh Woods.  These woods are very picturesque.  They are very different to NZ woods as in NZ we would have a lot more undergrowth.  More ferns and manuka etc.  Over here the big trees tend to shade out everything below with the only things having much chance of surviving being the bluebells, blackberry and nettles.  Once again though, we were hardly out of the city at all and there is a lovely wooded area that you can stroll around for an hour or more.   

We stopped and had our picnic lunch and then having explored Leigh Woods headed home.  By the time we made it back to Saturday Cottage, we had been out walking for over 5 hours.  While thought that we had done pretty well, we both realised that we are a long way from the fitness that we will need to do the Wainwright’s coast to coast in England or the Santiago de Compostela in Spain.  Still, I’m sure that if we really wanted to do those things we’d have to start by getting out of bed before 9am.  Baby steps.

Throughout the course of Saturday, Siobhan had been texting Troy, a family friend from NZ.  Troy works as head chef at The Bear, a pub in Bath.  He suggested that we go over there on Sunday for lunch as he would be cooking.  He posted pictures of Yorkshire puddings and new season’s carrots on Facebook that sealed the deal.  We headed over to Bath on Sunday morning and went exploring.  It was surprising how much of it felt familiar from the one day that we had spent in Bath in 2006 for Siobhan’s Grandmother’s 100^th birthday.  We wandered around the shops and picked up a brochure for the spa baths for when we will return.  But we’ll make it a weekday as opposed to weekend, and we’ll also choose a day where it is not in the mid to high twenties.

We were supposed to be at The Bear for lunch at 2.30pm, and so we decided to go for a walk along the canals.  This was slightly cooler temperature-wise, and majorly cooler in terms of watching the narrow boats navigate the various locks on the canals.  According to the people on the boats opening and closing the locks, there are six locks leading into Bristol and it takes about 2 hours to get through them all.  But that is if everything goes smoothly.  It was utterly fascinating, and we now have more confidence that we could manage all of that when and if we get to Siobhan’s parents’ narrow boat, Foxglove, which is somewhere in the Norfolk Broads.

Anyway, we made it to The Bear.  Troy cooked us a superb lunch.  We ate too much.  But it was a roast dinner and it was really yummy.  We think that you’re allowed to eat too much then.  After lunch, Troy finished his shift and so we had a couple of beers with him before heading back to Bristol.  All in all, a mighty fine weekend in Bristol.

Tasting notes:

At Tony & Ingrid's I have had a Hole Hearted from the Oakleaf Brewery in Gosport.  It was a nice ale. Nothing too sophisticated, just good solid ale goodness.  But with a definite hop flavour - some of the real ales have been lacking the flavour of this one.  I also had a Batch 9 black lager.  It didn't taste like a lager to me.  It was a lot thicker than some of the porters I have had on this trip.  It was full of malty goodness.  I liked it.  This beer is contract brewed for Batch Brew by the Oakleaf Brewery.  I also had a Black As Yer ‘At by the good people at Glastonbury brewery.  This was a nice stout with good texture and flavour.  Of course, I’d be lying if I didn’t also admit to having had a Meantime Chocolate Porter.  Mmmmm…chocolately goodness.  This is one beer I won’t tire of easily.

With Troy I had to try the local Bath real ales.  My favourite was the Gem ale from Bath Ales.  It was quite hoppy, but also quite malty.  The other one I tried was the original Butcombe Bitter from Butcombe ales.  Not so impressed with this. More of that real ale with no point of difference to me.

Dunster

After another lovely cooked breakfast, we headed off to Dunster Castle.  It was beautiful weather with t-shirt, shorts and jandals being the order of the day.  We arrived shortly after opening time which meant that we got a park in the shade under the trees.  Rather than racing straight for the Castle, we decided to wander the grounds first.  The grounds were beautifully presented, and had the river Avill plunging through them.  It wasn’t a very big river, but it made up for that with the speed at which it flowed.  We meandered around the gardens and walked across Lovers’ Bridge.  As with all of these, there was a story behind it.  We sat on the love seat built in to the bridge and got a nice man to take our photo.

Around the back of the Castle was an old watermill.  It was not as old as the original watermill that had been on the site.  Apparently the original watermill was listed in the Domesday Book (a national survey carried out by William the Conqueror in 1086 as a means of assessing the wealth of every landowner in the UK).  Anyway, this watermill was pretty neat.  It is still operational today, slowly grinding wheat into flour.  They could run it a lot faster, but they only run it as fast as required to keep up with demand.  Seeing the way in which they used the rotational energy of the waterwheel to perform a variety of tasks was very interesting.

The raw energy

The finished product

After the watermill, we headed back up to the Castle.  The castle was very grand and very big.  It was all in decent repair, although some of this was due to it being continually developed over the years.  It had withstood a number of sieges over the years, but Oliver Cromwell had eventually overseen the destruction of the outer fortifications and some of the exterior.  Luckily the castle itself wasn’t destroyed and was restored during the Restoration (funny that).  There was, as always, so much to see.  A couple of the rooms boasted amazing plaster ceilings that date back to 1642, and the carved timber balustrade is almost as old.  These are superb pieces of carving; each panel, long enough for 8 – 10 steps, is carved from a single piece of timber and depicts hunting scenes.

Eventually we had seen all there was to see in the castle, from the plaster ceilings to leather wall-hangings depicting scenes from Antony & Cleopatra to a silk bedspread embroidered nearly 400 years ago.  We emerged once more into glorious spring sunshine and a temperature that must have been mid-twenties.  Bliss.

Despite the fact that we had not noticed the castle as we drove through the village on the previous day, we found that the village was in fact right next to the castle – barely two minutes’ walk away.  We continued our wandering down tiny streets on cobbled footpaths and admired the red stone building we had driven past before.  We found the church, with the village Tithe Barn in its grounds; the Dove Cote (no sign of any doves though) and the Yarn Market.  This was particularly beautiful, being an octagonal roofed space for merchants to trade their wares even when the weather was bad.

Our final stop before returning to our car was a late lunch at Tessa’s Tea Shop – they make delicious cheese scones and the coffee wasn’t too bad either.  It had been a great day in a truly picturesque spot, a lovely way to wind up this particular road trip.  It was time to head to Bristol for a quiet week at Saturday Cottage.  Of course we have got lots of day trips planned to National Trust and English Heritage places; maybe it won’t be so quiet after all.

Tasting notes:

I didn’t have these all on the one night, but I can’t remember which night.  From the Dark Star brewery I had their espresso beer.  Good coffee flavour, but a bit too bitter. I'd like it more if they had smoothed it out a bit.  From the Oakleaf Brewery in Gosport, I had the Blake's Gosport Bitter. Quite a nice dark ale with nice malty flavour.  I also had their IPA.  It reminded me of Braedon.  He would have liked it. The Black Jack's porter was ok although it didn't excite me. 

Tintagel

Today was Grant’s birthday and it was great being able to Skype the kids before we went down to breakfast.  While it is tough being away from them, it is really pleasing to see how well they are faring without us.  Not that we really had too many doubts.  For Grant’s birthday the kids had photo-shopped five of the photos from earlier in our trip to include them in the photos too.  They had obviously spent hours on this and they are very creative.  They had even dressed up in the t-shirts that we had sent home for them.

Original

With our darlings too

 

It was also the day that we needed to say goodbye to our wonderful hosts at the Penrose B & B.  Chris and Heidi are such friendly, welcoming and generous hosts, and cooked us the yummiest breakfasts.  We have bookmarked their address, as we will certainly return to the little village of Lostwithiel should we travel back to Cornwall.

Our goal today was the castle of Tintagel, a familiar name to anyone interested in the legends of King Arthur; supposedly he was born there.  It was another drive along little lanes and narrow roads; while oncoming traffic can be a bit nerve-wracking, it is very pretty.  The village of Tintagel is clearly a tourist destination; plenty of car parking and numerous shops with names like Merlin’s Cave and Camelot Gifts (even though the rumoured site of Camelot is nowhere near Tintagel).  The most interesting building in the village itself is the old post office which is over 500 years old.

The ruins of the castle itself are quite a walk down from the village, and span from the very end of the mainland across to a craggy headland that is almost an island.  The remains of the walls are wonderful examples of the slate building material, while the stairways leading from one side to the other make the visit a real adventure.  We had another beautiful day, at least at the start of the visit, but even so it is easy to imagine the isolation that would have been felt by the castle’s occupants.  Later, as we explored the island part, the sea mist started to drift in – really the wrong geographical location to be the Mists of Avalon, but it certainly added to the atmosphere of ancient legend.















We had already had quite a work-out, going up and down some very steep (and quite scary) stairways, but we were now faced with a long steep hike back up the hill to Tintagel Village.  We decided to reward ourselves with a Cornish pasty for lunch – after all, we had not yet had one of these while actually in Cornwall, and our accommodation that night was in Somerset.  We felt very glad that we had had so much exercise as when the pasties were brought out they were enormous!  Luckily they were also delicious.

It was time to get back on the road.  We had booked another B & B in the coastal Somerset town of Minehead, and planned to detour through Barnstaple in search of the house where Siobhan lived for six months when she was 12.  While the detour was fun, and we must have got pretty close, in the end it seemed that 30 years is just too long.  None of the tiny country lanes around Loxhore threw out any clues, and we admitted defeat – for now!  Siobhan is going to do some more research and we will return to try again.

As we approached Minehead, we drove through a little village called Dunster.  This was very beautiful, with cottages built from a wonderful red stone that must be the local building material.  Arriving in Minehead was also quite stunning.  Mainly because the sun had come out to play and it was very warm.  We checked into another lovely B&B, and on their recommendation headed down to the Queen’s Head to celebrate Grant’s birthday with one of their local real ales.  I guess it bears out the observation that most people say that their birthday is just like any other day.  While at the pub planning our next move, we discovered that Dunster had a castle, and even better, it was a National Trust site.  Fresh in this knowledge, we decided we would have to return the next day to explore further – and so we did.

Tasting Notes:

At the Queens Head in Minehead  I had the St Austell's Tribute real ale following Rob's recommendation.  It is ok but these real ales don't seem to go in for big flavour like some of the beers we're getting used to at home.  I also had the Exmoor Gold.  It is another local ale, and a light ale. Not too bad, a good session ale.

Down the Mousehole to the End of the Land

Today was a day to explore Cornwall.  The first stop was the tiny and beautiful village of Mousehole (“Mauzle”), which is the setting for the truly excellent urban fantasy book “The Little Country” by Charles de Lint.  For Siobhan, this was a must visit spot.  All the literature we had found about visiting Mousehole recommended parking outside the village and walking in, so we did.  They tourism people seem prepared for this and have kindly provided several parking bays along the cliff road on the way to the village.  We parked in one of the earlier ones which gave us a good ten minute walk into the village, past some very creative Cliffside gardens and of course the village name sign.

Mousehole is very picturesque, with lovely stone cottages and ridiculously tiny streets.  We were very glad we were on foot as we wandered about.  The village has a little crescent shaped harbour where the fishing boats are moored, protected by two long stone jetties.  The entrance between these is quite small so only little fishing boats live here.

We had seen a concrete walkway below the cliff on the way in, and had read about a coastal walk from Penzance to Mousehole.  As there were steps down to the beach beside where we parked our car, we thought we would walk back along the beach.  Sadly, after about 400 metres we found the path ended and gave way to a very rocky area.  We had a bit of a scramble to see if the path began again but it looked pretty daunting for at least another 200 metres.  We couldn’t see any further than that.  We played it safe and retraced our steps to return to the car.

From here we drove to another tiny village called Sennen Cove, close to Land’s End, in order to do our first long hike in the UK.  We had found details in the Daily Telegraph of a coastal walk that takes in Land’s End itself; this seemed a lot more interesting than just driving there, looking around and leaving.

Sennen Cove

We were proved right; the day was gorgeous, the scenery was even better and we just loved getting out in the fresh air and peace of the countryside.  Our walk took us about 4 hours, including a half hour break for cream tea (scones with jam and clotted cream) in a tiny café and a brief detour to view one of the prettiest beaches we have ever seen.  It is called Nanjizal (which seems very Arabic for a Cornish beach, but what do we know?) and can only be reached by foot over several hundred metres of farmland (public access, for the record).  The Cornish coast is truly spectacular, so rugged and at the same time so pretty with all the spring flowers blooming. 














Land’s End was near the end of our circuit, and we were very glad we had taken the scenic route.  We think the getting there was much more interesting than the being there.  As we returned along the last stretch of coast back to Sennen Cove, we passed the remains of Maen Cliff Fort, which was an Iron Age fort.  Unsurprisingly there is not much left, but we had to explore it – it is a National Trust site!

It was about 5.45pm when we finally reached our car once more, and we had over an hour’s drive ahead of us – we were going to St. Ives to visit one of the oldest pubs in England, The Sloop Inn.  It seemed like the right thing to do while down that end of the world.  Well, St. Ives is just gorgeous – or it would have been if we weren’t in a car.  Honestly, it should not be legal for such roads to allow two way traffic!!  Siobhan was very glad that Grant was driving, and Grant was subsequently worried that he wouldn’t be allowed any beer at the pub.

The Sloop Inn was certainly both very old and very picturesque.  It seemed reasonably popular too, although not so busy that we couldn’t squeeze in for some fresh fish and chips.  Contrary to people’s warning about English fish and chips, this was actually very nice.  Grant’s fears about the beer restriction proved to be unfounded, as the selection wasn’t inspiring anyway.  Siobhan was very relieved that she wouldn’t need to do the driving home.

Tasting notes: 

Just another Doom Bar.  If the pubs around here are going to have a real ale, it seems that Doom Bar is it.

The Eden Project

Today we only planned one activity – to visit the Eden Project.  This is an incredible labour love by many hundreds over the years, transforming the barren pit left over from mining for kaolin into an amazing series of gardens, including two massive ‘biomes’ that mimic the rainforest and the Mediterranean respectively. 

We arrived at Eden at about 10.45am, after a leisurely (and delicious) breakfast at our b & b.  We wondered where the gardens were, as we have seen pictures and knew about the biomes.  They are huge – surely we would be able to see them by the time we parked the car?  Actually, no.  They really are right down in the pit and the top of the tallest bubble does not rise above the edges of the old clay pit.  This is saying something as that bubble is 55m tall at its highest point.

 

They have really done a fantastic job here.  We spent the first hour or so strolling around the gardens that are outside.  The grounds are huge and they have done all sorts of creative planting. There are also extensive vegetable gardens where they try to grow all of the veges that they need to feed the masses of people that visit there each day.  One thing we thought was really interesting – in the South American bed there is a root crop called ‘oca’, and apparently the only country to really cultivate it outside South America is New Zealand.  On inspection of the actual plant, it turned out to be yams. Yum.

Our next stop was the Eden Canteen and despite all the amazing looking food on offer we only had coffee (breakfast was too good).  Then it was on to the Mediterranean Biome.  This is really designed to represent a number of arid parts of the world, having gardens that mimic the Mediterranean, South Africa and California.  We have to be honest and say that we never saw gardens like that actually in California!  Near the entry they had a small café with the biggest wok I have ever seen containing a tomato chickpea dish that smelled amazing and was made from the produce of the biome.  We still weren’t hungry though so we just appreciated the aoma before moving on.

From here we went into the Rainforest Biome.  This place is huge and takes over an hour to appreciate properly.  It is of course very warm and humid, and as we were dressed for the English spring, we were soon far too hot (jeans, singlets and t-shirts in 27° heat and 74% humidity!).  We were undaunted however, and not only did we wander the whole forest, we climbed the 162 steps into the very top of the dome to see out over the whole domain.  It was truly spectacular, although even more hot and humid!  On the way out there was a stand selling baobab smoothies, made with baobab and pineapple juices mixed with coconut milk.  Very cold and very delicious!  They certainly know how to target the market there.

On returning to the welcome cool spring air outside, there were still plenty of outdoor gardens to admire.  They have been so creative, and the different areas showcase what is possible with even the most barren starting point. 

On the way home we thought that we would detour through St Austell.  As we were approaching St Austell there were signs to the St Austell Brewery.  I took this as a sign and followed them.  Unfortunately, the brewery wasn't open on a Sunday.  Not to be deterred, we went into St Austell and discovered the Hop & Vine pub.  I was able to have a St Austell brewery beer anyway.

After this we headed back to cook our dinner in the kitchen in our b & b suite and spend the evening catching up with our blogging and emails.  It doesn’t take long to fall behind!

Tasting notes: 

At the Hop & Vine in St Austell I had an HSD (or Hicks Special Draught) from St Austell's Brewery. Another real ale and quite smooth and creamy.

Into The West

On Friday morning it was time to move on once more and head West into Devon.  It needs a capital “W” as the road signs all direct us to “The West”.  Our first planned stop was Kingston Lacy, another National Trust stately home.  Our original plan for the day was to visit Kingston Lacy, for maybe as long as two hours, then go on to Corfe Castle (now a ruin sadly) before stopping at the start of the Jurassic coast for a walk.  Well, Kingston Lacy was just amazing – we spent nearly two hours in the garden alone, before a brief lunch and another two hours admiring the house itself.  The house was the home of the Bankes family for over 300 years, until the last family member bequeathed the whole estate including all the furniture, art, sculptures, everything, to the National Trust in 1981.  As a result, all the rooms have large and impressive collections of the family’s possessions, accumulated and kept over the last 300 years.  We found the whole place completely fascinating and have had to leave both Corfe Castle and the walk on the Jurassic Coast for another time.

Since we had decided not to make any more stops, we also decided we were not in a great hurry and took the scenic route to our bed & breakfast in Budleigh Salterton (the name is bigger than the village!).  The scenic route took us along the coast, across the Exmouth estuary and through a gorgeous little village called Beer.  No, we didn’t stop to sample the wares but the detour just had to be made.

The drive through the countryside is just beautiful.  The verges (where there are verges)are covered in spring flowers and the trees with their spring green foliage are so gorgeous.  Siobhan was lucky enough to see New Forest ponies, three fallow deer grazing (surprisingly we were on a main road at that time), the occasional pheasant and lots of rabbits.  We have not yet seen any live foxes or badgers but sadly have seen a couple that have lost altercations with cars.

Tidwell Manor

Our B & B, Tidwell Manor, was a lovely Georgian home in the middle of nowhere.  Well, not quite, the village of Budleigh was only a five minute drive, while Budleigh Salterton was probably a bit closer but so small it hardly counts.  Our room was on the third floor, and very comfortable.  Once we had turned off the radiator and opened the window it even cooled down to a comfortable temperature.

Once we settled ourselves in, we went off to Budleigh in search of a meal.  Our host recommended the Sir Walter Raleigh pub and we did indeed get a delicious meal there.  Grant sampled a couple of the local hand-pull beers and was quite impressed.

Saturday started with a delicious cooked breakfast in a very formal and beautiful dining room.  The tables are all laid out with room numbers and our host took our orders while we helped ourselves to juice.  The whole place was really quite grand and we felt very spoilt.  It was however time to move on. 

Our explorations began with A La Ronde, a local National Trust property (we reckon we are now on to free visits, our membership fee being covered by the three places we have now seen).  A La Ronde is a unique little stone house with sixteen sides, built in the late 1790’s by two cousins who had returned from a seven year Grand Tour of Europe.  These two women were quite eccentric it seems and collected all sorts of oddments which still adorn the house.  The most stunning of the decorations were the different ornaments and the tower which was decorated with shells.  We never did get to see Fred & Myrtle’s paua shell house down south in NZ, but the creativity of these two women with shells seems likely to have surpassed what Fred & Myrtle did.  The house was very cleverly designed and built (apparently with the assistance of ship-builders) and Siobhan now wants a sixteen-sided house (with perhaps a few more modern touches).

From here we drove to Torquay, again by a scenic coastal route.  This part of England is very beautiful indeed, and while its weather is still on the cool and overcast side it is clear to see why they call this the “English Riviera”.  We didn’t stop for long in Torquay; while it is pretty it was also pretty crowded and we wanted to get to our next accommodation and do mundane things like getting this blog up-to-date!

We took the direct route for most of this journey, and arrived at Penrose B & B in Lostwithiel in a fairly timely fashion.  The place is just wonderful.  The hosts, Chris and Heidi, came out to meet us on our arrival, and proudly showed us the public areas of their lovely old home.  Our accommodation (for less per night than the last place) is essentially a one bedroom flat, with a full kitchen and very comfy furnishings. And the rate includes a full cooked breakfast!  We are very pleased we have planned to spend three nights here and are sort of wondering if we need to organise fourth one.

Bridge in Lostwithiel

This evening we followed the advice of our hosts and wandered along to the Globe pub and restaurant for dinner.  They managed to fit us in at short notice, and while the meal was delicious, the staff seemed very disorganised.  The highlight of the evening was chatting to the couple at the next table who are from Gloustershire.  Grant had a Doom Bar real ale on their recommendation, and we now have a microbrewery to look up in Tintern as well.

Tasting Notes:

At the Sir Walter Raleigh in East Budleigh I had an Otter real ale. These real ales are starting to grow on me.  I then had a Martha's Mild. That was dark creamy goodness.  It was another local real ale, and I'm not sure why all the locals weren't drinking this. It is really yummy. 

At the Globe Inn, Lostwithiel, I had a Doom Bar.  The Doom Bar is made by Sharp’s Brewery and is named after a sand bar where “the river Camel meets the Atlantic on Cornwall’s rugged north coast”.  “Doom Bar the beer embodies many characteristics which make it worthy to carry the name of this natural wonder.”  Really?  It was average.  Nice enough, but nothing that would make you want to go back and have another.

On the road again

With the prospects of finding work immediately looking pretty slim, we have decided to carry on travelling and aim to get something when the new school term starts in September.  Siobhan seems assured to get work then and I’m sure that I’ll find something.  Decision made, the next question was where to next.  As Tony & Ingrid are heading away soon and have said that we would be welcome to house-sit for them in Bristol, we hatched a plan to journey through Devon & Cornwall on our way there.  That also provided an opportunity to get down to Gosport to catch up with Barbara and to see Jane & Phil (the English Jane & Phil – Phil is our inaugural blog follower).

After lunch on Wednesday we said goodbye to Mark & Paula and the girls (after having spent a lovely morning with Emma while Paula and Squiggs McLickey aka Alice were at Tumbletots) and headed south to Gosport.  We had no trouble getting there and our sat-nav did not send us down any weird or wonderful detours.  After spending some time reminiscing with Barbara, we went out exploring.  We went to find 42 The Avenue, where Barbara and her family lived when Siobhan stayed with them as a child.  It was a lovely walk, with part of it along the waterfront admiring the Isle of Wight.  We found a little hotel in Stanley Park and stopped there for a drink on the way back.

Barbara’s friend Tim came over to say hello in the evening, and shared his expertise about the Isle of Wight.  Based on this, we decided to leave visiting the island for another time – it is much bigger than we had appreciated and we didn’t want to be too rushed.

We had a lazy start to Thursday, enjoying a leisurely breakfast with Barbara before going to explore Portsmouth.  We drove to the Gosport waterfront and took the ferry across (as the Gosport ferry slogan says “It’s shorter by water”).  

We walked from the Portsmouth dock into the town proper, about a 20 minute walk, and did a little shopping before walking up to the birthplace of Charles Dickens.  This lovely little Regency house has now been turned into a museum and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring it.  We both agree that Siobhan needs to get a few favourite Dickens’ stories onto her Kindle!

On our return to the Portsmouth dock, we headed around to the Spinnaker Tower.  This is a rather beautiful sculptural viewing tower, on the Gunwharf.  The Gunwharf is a very elegant shopping and restaurant complex which is surprisingly well hidden from the road.  We didn’t have any more shopping to do (those who know Siobhan are to stop laughing now please) so we went up the Tower in order to enjoy the view.  The weather had really fined up so the view was superb.  Siobhan enjoyed trying to locate places she knew, although Haslar Naval Hospital was the only easy one.

On the way back to Barbara’s Grant managed to find a small local brewery, and bought some of their wares to sample on our travels.

In the evening, we went to have dinner with Barbara’s daughter Jane and her family.  Jane and Phil have brought their son and daughter out to NZ a couple of times and visited Siobhan’s family there so it was lovely to go to their place and catch up once again.  Thank you Jane and Phil for a lovely evening.

Tasting notes:

At a little hotel in Gosport I had a real ale Caledonian 2.8. Not what I'd normally drink but quite nice. Apparently it is a response to the alcohol tax as it might sneak under the radar at 2.8% ABV.