Visit to Buckingham Palace

We went to visit the inside of Buckingham Palace with Rosemary, Nick and Sally. Wow, what opulent banquet halls - quite exquisite. The palace has 500 rooms and 78 bathrooms, so I doubt the queen and her hubby ever have rows about who takes a shower first or who is taking up the most cupboard space.

Lisbon

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New Lisbon

Off to Lisbon for a day and a night to get our Portuguese dealer sold on a web site. The meeting went very well and then it was straight off to do some sightseeing (first time in this part of the world).

My hotel was right accross from the grounds of the Expo 98 so that was my first port of call. Lots of very modern, flashy buildings. I took the lift to the top of the tower (see middle photo) for a good view. The Lisbon bridge is very impressive. Built specially for the Expo, it reaches 17 km's accross a very wide river.

Old Lisbon

It got pretty dark very quickly once I got to downtown Lisbon which was a pity because it was beautiful and there were photo opportunities galore. I walked up to the castle on the hill that looked down onto the city (see last photo) and it provided a relaxing spot to contemplate. I found the city to be suprsingly run down in parts, but very atmospheric and packed with history. Not that I had a chance to see that much! Hopefully, I'll be able to wrangle another trip in a month's time.

Trip to Brussels

I went on a whirlwind trip to Brussels but managed to stop off at the Manneken Piss and Grande Place in the evening for some photos. The light wasn't condusive for master pieces but here and below are a couple of snaps. The drawn version of the little boy is photo'd off a window. Who would have thought that a little boy peeing could cause so much excitement! The little flash of light in the window shot (giving him a bit of modesty) was a complete flook of the light, i certainly wasn't trying to do anything clever. Amazing co-incidental positioning!

Grande Place

Exploring Ely

We explored the town of Ely today with Mike and mum and had a lovely day. Started off with lunch at the local pub where we got to enjoy the stunning weather in the garden.

The highlight of Ely was the cathedral. Very impressive. Built in 1077, it took 292 years to build (stats provided by Mike after a bout of research!)

How is this for a skylight!

This swan was quite a friendly fellow.

Mike saw an antique shop full of old things an enthusiatically encouraged us in. I entertained myself by taking portrait photos of little figures around the shop.

Punting in Cambridge

We all went punting on the Cam on Friday evening (no trip to Cambrige is complete without a punt) and took a lovely picnic along. Here are some photos taken along the river. Good fun - The colleges in Cambridge always looks extra special from the river.

This duck was very inquisitive and came to say "hi" and ask to share some of our picnic. Mum and I had a little competition to see who could take the best photo and she won, despite the fact i took snapped five times more shots. Cute little fellow, isn't he. He swam around us for ages.

Titan Lilly

This lilly at the Cambridge botanical garden flowers only every thirty years and only then, for two days at a time. And Mum and Mike just happened to be there on the week it happened! The left photo (of the closed stem) was taken on Wednesday and the open flower (right photo) on Friday (Mike stood in a queue for over an hour to capture it on film.)

A stroll through Cambridge

Monday is a public holiday and since we have Kerry and Mum and Mike to stay (it's a wonderful, full flat!), we thought we'd go on a tour of Cambridge. We walked into town past the River Cam. Mike's got his handy rain proof hat on and it sure came in handy later on in thre day


A grand facade

Punting along

No tour of Cambridge would be complete without a shot of some punters!


Trinity College

We visited Trinity College. What beautiful lawns - though of course they're strictly out of bounds. Lawns in Britain are generally there to be admired, not walked on!

Trinity College

A pretty flower in Trinity College gardens

King´s College

Chapel always seems too lowly to decribe this awesome church. Catheral more like! The roof is my best part - absolutely spectacular. Ally and I loved watching the Choristers here at the Sunday service - brought back great memories of my own days in the choir.


Choir Pews

Inside King's College Chapel. This is where we came to watch the King's College Choir earlier this year. Brings back memories of my own choirs days thought the pews weren;t quite so grand. Nor were our voices if i have to be honest!

Windswept Ally and co

Ally and Mike outside the chapel

Taking a breather

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Twitching at Fowlmere

We went to Fowlmere Reserve just 10 minutes drive from where we live. It's a peaceful place with wide expanses of reed and lakes that attract lots of birds. Needless to say, I went armed with my bins and bird book, and was on the look out for megaticks to add to my life list. Did you know they call us birders "twitchers"? That's because when we see an exciting new bird, we tend to twitch so much we can harldy hold our binoculars. Birding is fast becoming a hot pursuit in the UK and is even starting to lose it's dowdy perception as little old ladies in tweed jackets peering at lesser spotted thingameebobs.

Hornet´s Nest

One of the birding hides had been taken over by a hornets nest. What a beautiful structure. Hornets eat wood and then regurgitate it to create a sculptured palace of warrens as thin as paper. Each warren contains a little grub that will later become a hornet. We were fascinated. This photo was taken behind the safety of a glass window.

A megatick



I was most excited (almost twitched in fact!) to see this lovely lesser spotted pink fairy wren. She was perched by tree, so close i didn't even need binoculars. A gorgeous speciment to be sure...

The thirsty bee

We decided to give the "macro" on my little camera a try and were very impressed with the results. When I was hunched over taking this shot, Ally suddenly started an emergency bout of murmuring and I looked up to see a bee perched on her lip, sipping at the juice from the apple she had just eaten. I managed to flick it away but it wasn't a happy bee. Ah, the dangers of an English country walk!

Red berries

Another challenge for our macro lens. Lovely red berries that looked like cranberries, but we're not sure. Looks a bit like a Xmas card.

A weekend in Guernsey

Puffin Air

It was off to Guernsey this weekend to spend time with Rosemarie and Nick. What a great weekend we had. I was immediately impressed with Aurigny, the airline with whom we flew, because their symbol is a Puffin, one of my favourite birds. We didn't see any puffins this weekend but apparently there are plenty of them on island, so next time i come, i'll definitely have my bins on me!

Nutters!
Rosemarie and Nick were as wonderful as ever and it was brilliant to spend some time with them. They took us to their favourite fish and chip restaurant where the fish very much lived up to its reputation. The restaurant had a great sense of humour. On the menu were the words: Food may contain, be cooked by and be served by nuts! (and enjoyed by us nuts too I might add..) We then went off for a brisk swim in the ocean, an important landmark as it was Nick's first dip in the Guernsey sea.

What a lovely pair of Scollops
Saturay nignt, Rosemarie and Nick went out to watch Shrek some friends (which they loved) but we opted for a quiet evening together. Went to a quaint pub restaurant for local scollops (delicious) and Ally wore a new dress. Lovely she looked...

A Sunday Stroll

Sunday it was off for a brisk stroll. As you can see, the roads in Guernsey are very narrow and quaint. The island really does have a delightful atmosphere, especially with it's mix of English and French influences.

The Navigators

We left the important role of navigation to the girls but never found the elusive reservoire we were heading for. But never mind, we found something far more exciting and historic...

The German Bunker

A tiny gap in the hedge piqued our interest. Nick and i being the boys we are dived in to explore - and found it led to a brilliantly disguised second world war bunker set deep in the thicket. It was fascinating to explore a slice of history. Guernsey was occupied by the Germans during the war and the island is riddled with German defense structures. If you look at the photo on the left, you'd never know there is a bunker set in the hedge. The view through the peep hole was panaramic; you could understand why the Germans chose this spot...

The intrepid explorer

To get into the bunker, we had to climb up a small "chimney" Here's Nick making his way back down. The girls stayed on the road and let the boys be boys...

Guernsey Castle

After a delicious lunch (we haven't eaten so well in a very long time!) where we met two lovely friends of R&N, we went for a drive around Guernsey and got to see some great views. Here is a view of the local castle. We look forward to exploring the island in more detail in the future. Thanks to R&N for a great weekend - they always make us feel like family.