Transportation Turmoil

Buskers at the market on Saturday

It was a bit of a "white knuckler" driving down from Lincolnshire to Cambridge because it was raining so hard that large puddles were accumulating in the slow lane of the highway. We found the B&B we had booked in Cambridge then headed off on foot to see the town. It was quite a long walk but a lot of it was along the banks of the River Cam. We wandered around and did some shopping. There were thousands of bikes everywhere - being ridden along the specially marked bike routes or being locked to every possible railing and bike stand. The inundation of large groups of foreign
students/tourist has begun. The academic year has finished and I think they rent out the college residences to them.

Entrance to King's College

Drinking at a pub beside the river and enjoying the show

We took a punting trip that unfortunately we purchased from one of the rogue companies that wander the King's Parade soliciting your business. We did get to go punting but we had to walk a short distance down to a field full of cow pies which abutted the river where six of us gingerly climbed aboard a punt.The route promised was a behind many of the colleges of Cambridge and under many of the bridges that connect them. We were sitting in the front and had a clear view of the complete mayhem on the river. We did laugh a lot. There were a great number of punts in general but the self punters in rented boats caused a lot of chaos, blocking the canal sideways - generally looking terrified and frustrated.

Mathematical bridge

Traffic jam

Bridge of Sighs

King's College

Wren's library

We were too tired to walk back to our accommodation so we took a bus - quite the transit sampling today.

Lincolnshire

Ginger and Debbie

We have been spending our time in Lincolnshire between two cousins, each from either side of my family. Debbie Buckland is from my mother's side.

Rob Munday

We had dinner on Thursday night with Rob and Hilary Munday.  Rob is from my father's side. He recorded the France vs Germany game so we came back to their little cottage to watch it.

Fruit and flower shop in Horncastle

Laurie did not attempt to look through these records

Bell for front door

We had a free day today in Scramblesby, Lincolnshire so I decided it was time we found an antique front door knocker. We had seen as we drove through Horncastle that in 2001 it had won some title such as antique centre of England. In the intervening 15 years ago it seems to have slipped to junk shop central. We plodded through shop after shop.  They had various degrees of organization. Mostly the spaces were leased by individuals so no-one knew the overall stock picture. We only found two knockers the whole day and both were incomplete and/or ugly so we bought the bell. We figured the grandsons could ring it to announce their arrival.

Lincoln

Laurie and I went into Lincoln on Wednesday to see the castle and cathedral. There was also an installation to commemorate the centenary of the commencement of WWI called a Poppy Wave which appeared at the Tower of London. In front of the cathedral there was also a memorial garden for those that lost their lives at the Battle of the Somme. We wrote Ivor Burgess (great uncle's name) on a little cross and planted it in the sand.

Tan Vats

We arrived at The Old School House on
Monday afternoon. This is Cousin Debbie and Ginger's home now but originally it was a school for 100 kids. It was built in 1950 but was decommissioned in 1985 as the population diminished. This is a farming area primarily and the tanning industry and the pubs and other services has long departed.

Living room

The hall

Their building is very different from others in England - its a timber frame building with wood cladding. Most houses here are built of stone or brick. It is a huge home with 14 rooms all on one level. A newcomer spends the first while just trying to locate his/her allocated bedroom. The house is situated on 1 3/4 acres with many outbuildings - greenhouses, motorcycle garages, caravans, sheds etc.












This area is flat; it is very fertile because it was land drained by the Romans. We went for a walk on Tuesday. There was one footpath and the rest was walking on the road which skirt fields. Walking was not a consideration when Debbie and Ginger bought this place 10 years ago. They both have disabilities and liked the fact that the house was all on one level. The closest village shops are 20 minutes away by car and Lincoln, the biggest town is 45 minutes away.

No, not likely a crop circle

Bletchley Park

We took a roundabout route to cousin Debbie's in Lincolnshire,  via Bletchley Park - a place Laurie was keen to see. This was the site of the undercover and decoding operations in WWII recently made famous in the movie The Imitation Game. We joined a tour with an enthusiastic guide who told us the story of the site and the work that was done here.

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 Bletchley was chosen for its secluded location,  halfway between Oxford and Cambridge yet accessible by road and rail. At the height of the war 9,000 people worked here on 3 three shifts in a 24 hour a day. 80% of them were women. After the war their efforts were unsung and they had to remain quiet because of working under the restrictions of the Official Secrets Acts.

Motoring to Reading

One of things I had really wanted to do on this trip was to visit the place I was born. I hadn't been back there since I was five. I only had sketchy recollections to rely on and now that both of my parents are dead, no one to ask.

Fortunately a lot of the driving route was on motorways so we made better speed. Reading, as you CBC radio listeners will know, is the distance reference point from which CBC says things in England are measured e.g. Watford is (_) miles from Reading. It is the first stop outside of metropolitan London. I have no idea how this tradition got started. Unfortunately for drivers new to the city it is very difficult to find your way around. There are many one way streets and on a Saturday afternoon it is very busy with shoppers. We did eventually find the hotel and later the parking lot where we could just leave the car and see the town on foot.



Town Hall - many buildings in this area use brick.

By happy coincidence again Laurie had booked a room in the Ibis hotel which was just down the street from the place I lived. The Ibis is ultra modern, pod-like rooms with two surfboard shaped planks fitted together like Lego with a boogey-board shaped top. The bathroom was a cylinder-shaped pod in the corner. It was quite a jarring contrast to the fussy Victorian style of the last hotel.

St. Laurence church

We went for a walk - just down the street was the Town Hall and St. Laurence church where I was christened and whose church bells I remember hearing on Sunday mornings from a very early age. We happened into a business where they were very helpful with solving the address numbering problem. (There isn't any logic to it.) The older chap there remembered a tailoring shop across the road. That location was similar to my recollection of a door that opened from the street to a steep set of stairs to the third floor where we lived.




Building with yellow doors was my dad's business

Forbury Gardens with ruins of Abbey behind

Canal boats

Porlock Weir

It was a long drive from the north coast of Cornwall - lots of it on narrow roads with roundabouts every four kilometres or so. Part of the way we drove through Exmoor National Park. I was hoping to get a glimpse of the famous Exmoor ponies that live wild here but they proved to be as illusive as the moose at home.

Porlock Weir Hotel and boats aground

Finally we arrived on the north coast of Somerset. This is directly across from the south coast of Wales. The weather has been alternately rainy, cold, cloudy, windy and sunny. Porlock Weir is a little fishing village at the end of the road.

 We had booked a room in a quirky old hotel not knowing that this was the weekend of the fundraising event for the Lifeboat Society. We did our bit to support the cause. T
here were 20 different craft beers a day plus 12 different ciders from which to choose. There was live music all day too.

We took a walk along the footpath that lead along the beach and by the marsh. Trees have died over the years due to the encroachment of the salt water.