Day 14 - Sun 11 Dec 2011 - Prague

Sunday in Prague, given the number churches everybody should be religious but 70% of the population is athiest, according to the tour guide on the Red Bus.

We started the day, after a Marriot breakfast, by going to the top of the Clock Tower in the Old Town Square, fortunately we didn't have to climb stairs but took the lift, wimps you say, but we're old folks even got a concession.

Icy in the morning....

After the lift they kindly had ramps rather than steps... great views though, every hour the clock goes off and the trumpeter stands at the top and plays then he stands around in his uniform.

Looking down on the Old town square and the markets..

 Pengy enjoying the view

Safely back on ground level we were on the lookout for Wenceslas Square the other square in Prague and supposedly full of Christmas Markets. Went via the old Jewish quarter.

The thing about mainland Europe is that the Nazi occupation to them was real. In the UK and other parts of the world its just what happened to others but to the people of the Czech republic, they were there and places take on a history of repression and unbelievable horror.  There were over 100,000 Jews in Czechoslovakia before the war, at the end it is estimated that under 5000 survived the camps. Here is the Old Jewish Cemetary.

On the way we stopped for a photo and a massage....!

just joking..........

Wenceslas Square, well it's not so much a square more a long rectangle. It's a great long street and the Christmas markets are a one end and not very big. So we walked up one side and down the other then had a coffee at Costas.

The other thing about big cities nowadays is that everywhere has the same shops, we saw Costas, Starbucks, H&M, Marks and Spencers and Debenams.. all stores we have seen everywhere we've been... We can firmly state that the Czechs have embraced capitalism.

Wenceslas Rectangle

As we walked through the markets at various times the smell of the roasting pork assails the nostrils. So we decided before we had dinner to give the pork a whirl.

and here it is

great chunks of pork and a slice of bread, the overall opinion was that the pork was very rich and was hard to finish. Alan had a sausage with his and the taste of that was very good. Anyway better in the anticipation.... onto dinner

U Zlate Konvice, The Golden Kettle, is a restaurant housed in Roman cellars in the the Old Town Square, we were not sure at first but it looked interesting so down we went.

Nice Czech menu and for 7500 Koruna you can have a whole suckling pig! That's £245 or $382, we were not sure wether we could finish the whole thing so we decided to give it a swerve.  Instead Peter had a plate of suckling pig....

here we all are in the cellars..

then there was the entertainment, authentic Czech music played by local musicians...

Day 13 - Sat 10 Dec 2011 - Prague

Breakfast in the Marriot, very nice, lots of it and setup for the day.

We decided that Prague Castle is the target for the day, how to get there , no idea. Set off walking the 10 minutes to the Old Town Square and the markets. The town was strangely quiet for 9:30 in the morning, maybe because the shops don't open until after 10.

The crowds still managed to gather in the Square for the hourly striking of the Astronomical clock, they stand there waiting for the event with mobiles poised, the the hour strikes and it's all over. Bit of an anti climax really, bells ring, cock crows and a trumpeter blows in the tower. Not a great spectical....

Chris mentioned in his last comment about Czech donuts or tredelniks,  a sweet dough rolled into a spiral and cooked on rollers over a fire, delicious, we didn't have one this morning but tried it last night.

Meanwhile Alan was trying his hand at the pump!

We came across some old red cars with signs advertising tours of Prague and the castle, it looked like fun so Penny picked the one with the cutist driver.

Turned out to be a 1934 Praga car, built in Prague by a company, like most British car companies, long since defunct. So off we went...

It was really great but very cold........so it was off to a cafe at the Castle for hot chocolate and rum.

we also came across this local beggar, silly beggar that is....

Onto the Castle proper, delayed slightly by the changing of the guard, after which Penny picked out the cutist one to stand next to..

Dancing into the St Vitus Cathedral we saw a quite impressive building but to sell more audio units or tours it was difficult to know what you were looking at...

 

Hay, but this was a great nativity scene

We were going to climb the bell tower of the Cathedral, over 350 steps but we met this character who claimed he had bad knees from years of playing sport, he claimed he was the Prat of Prague, but you can make up your own name, answers on a postcard to.........

This is the old palace and by this time we needed a sit down and more beer!

Great view from the cafe

 then is was back to the old town for more beer and that beggar was there too....

More walking around the Old Square

then back to the hotel

Quiz time:

Who among you noticed that the Praga motor car was right hand drive......!

The reason is, we found out, until Hitler entered Czechoslovakia in 1938 they drove on the left, he changed it and it has been that way ever since....

Not many people know that....

Day 12 - Fri 9 Dec 2011 - Prague

Here we are in Prague and despite making sure we had lots of cold weather gear it's warmer here than Coventry.

First impressions are that this is a very nice place to visit and very picturesque. There are also many dumplings.... good Czech fare consists of loads of stodge. We thought we would have local cuisine for our first meal, pork, duck, sauerkraut, bread dumplings and suet dumplings. Took 4 hours to roll back to the hotel...... no that's unfair, it was very nice food and we enjoyed it, especially the duck.

 coffee in the Marriot.... no sorry, beer!

Palladium shopping centre

hmmmmm Pork.....

more beer....

Day 11 - Thurs 8 Dec 2011 - Coventry

Quiet day after the trip to the West Country.  Trip into West Orchards car park and some shopping, so not a great deal to report, no new hats.....

Weather cool and some showers today.

Pie and chips for dinner though.

Off to Prague tomorrow.

Day 10 - Wed 7 Dec 2011 - Bristol

After breakfast we drove the 20 odd miles to Bristol. On our last trip we passed through the place and saw the SS Great Britain in its resting place on the Severn River and decided at some point in the future we would go and check it out. So todays that point!

Danger, danger, history warning........

When completed in 1845, Great Britain was a revolutionary vessel built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel—the first ship to combine an iron hull with screw propulsion, and at 322 ft (98 m) in length and with a 3,400-ton displacement, more than 100 ft (30 m) longer and 1,000 tons larger than any ship previously built. Her beam was 50 ft 6 in (15.39 m) and her height from keel to main deck, 32 ft 6 in (9.91 m). She had four decks, including the spar (upper deck), a crew of 120, and was fitted to accommodate a total of 360 passengers, along with 1,200 tons of cargo and 1,200 tons of coal for fuel.

This is a photo taken in 1845 by one of the founders of photography, William Fox Talbot.

Here she is 166 years later after a working life of over 90 years in the same dock in Bristol in which she was built.

Instead of plagiarising all of wikipedia here is the link.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Britain

From above the ship looks as though she is floating in the dock, but she is in fact in dry dock, the water you can see is only 6 inches deep sandwiched between sheets of glass, this forms a roof for the humidified area below and gives the false impression.

First class accommodation, with 2 foot wide bunks... 

Another new hat, call me Sir Peter......

Iron plates with pre stamped rivet holes, and the clinker construction, the build was so good that there was no caulking between the plates and the ship was completely watertight for a working life of over 90 years.

Replica of the original 6 bladed propeller and rudder.

Next, the original rudder...

Me and Isambard....

Penny on the simulator...

Beautiful ship, even now...

and now the finale,  the engine!

Day 9 - Tues 6 Dec 2011 - Bath

Another day, another Bath. Our aim today was to find the Royal Crescent and for Penny to perform her rendition of "Who will Buy" from the musical Oliver. We did find the Crescent , however it turns out that the Royal Crescent in the film was actually a set built at Shepparton Studios and not the original, Penny performed anyway!

Came upon the Royal Gardens, had been taken over by a motley crew to Occupy Bath and was full of tents. Not sure they will achieve much here in Bath, not exactly a financial hub!

Some of the Georgian architecture of Bath

the Royal Crescent

Several of the houses in the Crescent had famous owners with plaques on the outside, here's one, school for scandal no doubt.......

oh, and here's the performance, and jolly good it was too.......

If you thought the first hat was good, check this out

Some good shops in Bath...

Did you know that Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus from his garden here in Bath, and here's a picture of it.. the garden not Uranus... watch your comments please......

We know this from our visit to the Herschel Museum. In his work room is the lens grinder he invented to polish the lenses he needed for the telescopes he made by hand, it's the large round thingy in the centre...

Day 8 - Mon 5 Dec 2011 - Bath

Monday morning, after seeing Sue and Alan off to work.... (:-(   we made a easy drive down to Bath in the west country stopping off first in one of the prettiest villages in England, Bourton on the Water, for a bacon sandwich!

..and a very nice bacon sandwich it was too!

On to Bath and the Holiday Inn Express, functional but pleasant in a Stalinesque manner.

Bath of course is famous for...... baths, to be precise the Roman Baths. They were rediscovered in the 18th century but had been in use for thousands of years. Hot bubbling springs, however pleasant as it would be to bathe in them, the main consideration was of a religious nature and the pools were worshipped. When the Romans came along they continued the spiritual theme as they attributed the hot srings to the goddess Minerva, although having kept the main pool free from human contamination they built an elaborate bath house using the run off. They had spa baths, massage rooms, and mixed skinny dipping in a large warm pool, until they got prudish and banned the mixed nature. They even had a cold pool where they shipped in cold water from nearby natural springs.

There is a bath house you can go for a dip in these hot springs but for £24 each for 2 hours plus towel charges we gave it a swerve.

Then we read the sign about not touching the water as it could be dangerous! the Romans bathed in it, obviously ignorant of OH&S.

Gold head of the god Minerva.

Overflow drain with steam rising.....

At this time of year Bath is having, as are numerous towns, Christmas markets.  Gluhwein and sausage, again....

The famous Pulteney Bridge

Day 7 - Sun 4 Dec 2011 - Birmingham

With Sue and Alan we made a trip to Birmingham to see amongst other things the Christmas Markets.

We arrived at the Bull Ring and after a twenty minute ride around the car park we made it to the shops, we noticed there were a few people with the same idea!

The Christmas markets very good with many stalls selling all sorts of products.......

Peter also bought a new hat, for Prague....

hmmmmm, sausages and gluhwein.....

somebody put this up in lights, how romantic....

Day 6 - Sat 3 Dec 2011 - Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace is the ancestral home of the Dukes Of Marlborough and most famously, Winston Churchill. 

We set out on a bright December day and made a detour to a little village in Oxfordshire called Hanwell. This a place that plays a part in Peter's ancestry. Several relative on his mother's side, the Gunns were born and lived here so we went to the church and checked out the graveyard to see if we could find any. Inside the church there is a World War I memorial and we found the name,  A.Gunn of the Royal Field Artillery. Later we found out that he was killed in 1916 and that he was a cousin of Peter's grandfather, have to make further investigations.

St. Peter's Church, Hanwell 

Blenheim Palace was a gift from Queen Anne to John Churchill, who was a Colonel in the English Army at the age of 25, his claim to fame was that he never lost a battle and the property was in recognition of his exploits. He was the victor over the French at the Battle of Blenheim and this was where the Palace got its name. It is a lovely house in beautiful grounds that took the landscape gardener, Capability Brown, ten years to complete.

As a Christmas present Sue and Alan bought us high tea at Blenheim. Very nice, sandwiches, cake and tea......  yum!

 

Uniparts, the car parts company, were having a Christmas dinner and all was being prepared as we were leaving, antique cars, red carpets and James Martin as chef....  we couldn't get an invite although Alan tried really hard......

 

 

Day 5 - Friday 3 Dec 2011 - Hatton

There is a country park near Warwick at a place called Hatton. We have been there every trip and it has become one of those things that we DO.  It has crafts, antiques and food stuffs.

It's also cold........

As with most places at this time of the year, Santa plays a big part in things, so the reindeer have to live somewhere....

The other place is Guys Cliffe, the Saxon Mill..  on a cold day, creamy onion soup, hmmmmmm!

Day 4 - Thursday 1 Dec - Leicester

Today is one of those days with no plan and in long flight recovery mode, but we made a plan and decided to have a country drive to Leicester a city aound 30 miles away from Coventry.

The journy did not start well as I wrapped the nearside bumper of the car around Alan's little wall in the front yard, travel insurance claim coming up!!!!

However after that little mishap the trip was very nice and we arrived in Leicester. It's a pleasant place and if I'm honest a bit upmarket from Coventry even though they have a scum of a football team, nothing partisan there then!

The city centre is decked out for Christmas and we met by a very enthusiastic singing group.

Leicester at Christmas, the markets where bananas are one pound a bowl, and another Weatherspoons Pub.

 

New Hat

Day Three - Wed 30 November - Coventry

After a few hours sleep we went into the city to check out some favourite haunts. West Orchards carpark, the Precinct and Wetherspoons Pub.

As this was the day of the strike we ran across the march and rally, so we had lunch at Weatherstone's across the road from the Council House and watched it all in comfort.

Other than buying a few essentials and some none essentials the day was quiet and we went to bed early.

Below;

New Twinn layout with off street parking

West Orchards ready for Christmas

March and Rally

Watching it all from Weatherspoons

 

  

Day Two - Singapore to London

Leaving Singapore we were heading into the unknown will we get caught up in the Civil Servant strike or we we arrive before it starts. They airline were making dire predictions of passengers having to remain on the planes for anything up to 12 hours before being allowed into the immigration and customs area.........

As it turns out we arrived well before it started and went through as normal, in fact as I write this the strike has finished and at Heathrow things were even easier with no delays whatsoever....

Our only scare was that we we arrived an annoucement was made by the pilot asking us all to remain in our seats until the London authorities said otherwise, thoughts of long delays ensued... however it turned out we were waiting for a pair of policemen who came on board escorted a young man off the plane from the section before us, panic over.

The flight was smooth and we got some sleep, some of scenery as we flew over Afganistan was amazing and you could see the terrain that makes it difficult for our troops to succeed in their mission.

We picked our car up at Heathrow and finally got to Coventry at around 11pm, just manged to stay awake.....

Penny and the jumbo

 

Images of Afganistan

Day One - Brisbane - Singapore

After spending the weekend down at Camp Shiraz, new house down at Tweed Heads for those who don't know, mainly in the pool and entertaining for the first time in 34 degree heat, we came back to Brisbane to welcome the housesitter Jenni and leave Ben in her capable hands.

Normal delivery by Jonathan to Brisbane Airport, thanks Jono....   Lined up for the check in, no upgrade again, and went through the normal procedure before settling down to wait for departure time.  Believe it or not they are still doing building work at night on the departure lounge, they were at it last year, but no matter how hard they try it's still second rate. The lounge chairs were old and dirty, as were the toilets, they still have a lot to learn from Changi....... but maybe not Heathrow..... but I get ahead we're not there yet!

Managed some sleep on the first leg and arrived at Singapore in not bad condition. At present sitting in the T3 Ambassador lounge, having some real food and a shower, next leg is about 3 hours away. 

There is a civil servant strike planned in the UK for Wed 30 November at midnight, we arrive in UK at around 7pm on the 29th, lets hope for no delays as we will be stuck in long queues at immigration and customs........

 Arriving Brisbane Airport

Pengy looking forward to some cold weather

Christmas trees and the Eiffel Tower

Nice display

Ambassador Transit Lounge for food and shower!

Your A380 awaits!