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Back at the boat
Back at the boat. Copyright © 2014 Ginger Allman, all rights reserved. -
Watching The Weather
Gary watching the weather. Copyright © 2014 Ginger Allman, all rights reserved. Vacation Day 12 – Tied up for the night
We tried anchoring in a sheltered spot in Horsea Mere, but the wind was too strong for the mud anchor and we started dragging it almost immediately. I prefer to anchor well away from everyone, but unless I was prepared to stay up all night on ‘anchor watch’, we had to move. We motored back to the river and found a fairly quiet mooring for the night. And while I was watching the weather Ginger took this great picture of me.
Here’s a picture I took of Lanie at the the same time.
Tied up for the night. Copyright © 2014 Ginger Allman, all rights reserved. -
The Norfolk Broads
Lanie steering our sailboat on the Norfolk Broads Vacation Day 12 – We hired a sailboat in the vain hope of getting in some sailing
Having taken our leave of my son and his family we decided to go sailing for a few days. When Ginger’s UK contacts found out she was in England, she got lots of invites to meet up. It would be a great shame to miss the opportunity to meet up with people, so, we’re going to fit in a trip to Wales, plus another visit, and cut out a tour of the Scottish Highlands. With that in mind, now seemed like a good time to head to Norfolk and let Ginger and Lanie have a trip in a sailboat.
Unfortunately, the weather didn’t want to cooperate at all. We did very little sailing and lots of motoring in very dismal weather. At least the yacht had a heater and hot water.
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St Edmundsbury Cathedral
Vacation Day 11 – St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Bury St Edmunds
We arrived at the cathedral just a few minutes before they closed it for the day. Unfortunately that didn’t leave a lot of time to take pictures.
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Lanie: Afternoon Tea at Bury St Edmunds
Lanie, she is who she is (We say the same thing about Getzger…). Copyright © 2014 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Here we have a picture of Lanie taken during a stop for tea at Bury St Edmunds.
There’s really not a lot else I can say…
Lanie at Bury St Edmunds. Copyright © 2014 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Lanie’s First Knickerbocker Glory
Vacation Day 10 – Lunch & Tea
My son’s friend joined us for lunch. We’ve not seen him since August 2009, when they popped into Springfield on a surprise second visit during their 3 month tour of the US.
After lunch we went for a walk around Cambridge, followed by tea at the hotel where the wedding reception was held. For a June day it was jolly cold, but Lanie still wanted an ice cream. So we bought her a knickerbocker Glory. In fact, I think we all had ice cream as we watched a succession of drunk and not so drunk people in punts try to negotiate a weir on the river by the hotel…
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Some Nostalgia for Lanie
St. Nicholas’ Church, Great Hormead Vacation Day 9 – Saint Nicholas’ Church, Great Hormead
Today we rented a car and embarked on two-and-a-half weeks of traveling around the county. First, we’re on our way to see my son and his family. We’ve visited my old haunts before, but I thought it’d be nice for Lanie to see some of them on our way. Our first stop was my old Senior School. I didn’t take any pictures as it’s not changed since I last took pictures of it in 2007. Then we took Lanie to see the village I grew up in and went for a look in the church.
Stained Glass, St. Nicholas’ Church, Great Hormead
St. Nicholas’ Church, Great Hormead
Lanie examining a plaque
My spot in the choir – behind the organist where she could keep and eye on me!Link: My earlier pictures of Saint Nicholas’
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The River Thames from Tower Bridge
The River Thames from Tower Bridge. Copyright © 2014 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. We took a leisurely stroll along the South Bank, passing the Globe Theatre and The Golden Hinde. We stopped for a while at the Tate Modern (I like the Tate Modern). Unfortunately, all this walking had tired us out, and it wasn’t long before we headed back to the train – beating the commuter rush.
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The Tower of London
The Tower of London. Copyright © 2014 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. The tour of the Tour of London was very good, and I highly commend it. Though you might like to consider leaving any pissy teenagers behind. Speaking of which, Lanie would not believe that the Crown Jewels were real and initially didn’t realize that the display included some very precious items. She went back for another, closer look once we’d enlightened her.
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HMS Belfast
HMS Belfast. Copyright © 2014 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
The Shard, River Thames and HMS Belfast.
The Shard, River Thames and HMS Belfast. Copyright © 2014 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. After visiting the Tower, we took a stroll around St. Catherine’s Docks – mainly because I wanted to see the barges. Lanie & Ginger were more interested in a bunch of marines maneuvering a modern landing craft into a berth than with my thoughts on the finer details of the rigging and handling of a Thames Barge. I surmised the landing craft was probably related to the D-Day festivities and tried to ignore it.
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Lanie, Ginger, and Tower Bridge (The one that goes up and down…)
Lanie, Ginger & Tower Bridge Vacation Day 8 – Tower of London & Tate Modern
I last visited the Tower of London in early November 1964. I know this because we went the week before the Buntingford Branch line closed on November 16 1964. I’ve been to the Tower of London Many times, but that was the only time I went in. I worked for a year in the near-by American Square, which (in 2008) had the very appropriately named, to my mind anyway, Missouri Angel Bar across the road from the office. Most lunch times I’d walk around the Tower of London and visit St. Catherine’s Docks and look at the barges.
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A Short Stay in London
One cannot visit London without having one’s picture taken in front of the Houses of Parliament. Vacation Day 7 – The National Gallery and St. Paul’s Cathedral
Lanie on the train to London Our plan was to visit the National Gallery, Tate Modern and the Tower of London.
Ginger, Lanie and the London Eye (from Westminster Bridge) 
The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838 The queues to get on the London Eye were formidable, so we decided to not bother. Which was an excellent decision as we found a much better way to view London from on-high later in the day. Our first stop was the National Gallery. We spent several hours enjoying the paintings. Lanie got quite excited about seeing pictures she’d only seen before as prints. I was particularly impressed with one of the Turner’s. Most of the pictures I’ve seen of this painting show it as dull and insipid. The picture as it is shown here is much closer to the painting I saw at the National Gallery in 2014.
It was so vibrant and ‘glowing’ it startled me. I’d often wondered what the fuss was about this painting, now I knew. The prints I had seen just did not do it justice.
In Trafalgar Square, Outside the National Gallery After the National Gallery we went to St. Paul’s, taking a ‘self-guided’ tour. We hadn’t realized you can get right up to the top (some 500+ steps) The views were excellent, and just as high as the Eye.
Even better, we arrived on the Feast Day of St. Barnabus the Apostle and there was a scheduled mid-week sung Holy Eucharist. We were able to take Communion at Saint Paul’s and hear the choir sing. Magic.
View from the Top of St. Paul’s Cathedral
After visiting Saint Paul’s we found an Indian Restaurant, had a meal and then headed west to our hotel.
Link: A panoramic, high-detail view from the top of St. Paul’s.
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The Fighting Temeraire
The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838 The queues to get on the London Eye were formidable, so we decided to not bother. This was an excellent decision as we found a much better way to view London from on-high later in the day. Our first stop was the National Gallery. We spent several hours enjoying the paintings. Lanie got quite excited about seeing pictures she’d only seen before as prints. I was particularly impressed with one of the Turner’s. Most of the pictures I’ve seen of this painting show it as dull and insipid. The picture as it is shown here is much closer to the painting I saw at the National Gallery in 2014.
It was so vibrant and ‘glowing’ it startled me. I’d often wondered what the fuss was about this painting, now I knew. The prints I had seen just did not do it justice. Link: an interesting article on this painting from the BBC.
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Lanie on HMS Warrior
Vacation Day 6 – Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
We caught the train to Portsmouth Harbour and after a minor mix-up managed to meet up with Robert to visit the dockyard. We crammed far too much in, what with HMS Warrior, HMS Victory and the Mary Rose.
The day started with an attack of cuteness on HMS Warrior. Some visiting school kids recognized Robert and were falling over themselves to say hello. I’m pretty sure Robert was mumbling something about not being able to get away from work even on a day off.
Ginger and I have visited HMS Warrior and HMS Victory before and it was great to be back. Lanie found it all very interesting. We spent a long time looking over the three ships. The Mary Rose museum was new to us all. I was surprised just how big she was.
Some Family History. Back in the seventies I did some voluntary work for the Mary Rose conservation team with my father. If I remember correctly, we installed hydrogen lines for special ovens used in the conservation process. It was a fascinating experience as there were hundreds of arrows being preserved in large flat bowls of what looked like water. There were also a couple of cannons waiting to go into the big vertical ovens. I was lucky enough to be out on the Solent watching from a friend’s boat the first time they tried to raise the Mary Rose. There was a problem at the end of the day, with the whole structure slipping with a huge shudder. We got to see her break the surface even if we weren’t there when she was raised and towed to shore.
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Lanie Flies The Flag and Eats Her First Fish & Chips
Vacation Day 5 – D-Day Celebrations and an Evening Meal
Gail organized a trip to the common to take part in some of the weekend’s D-Day celebrations. We enjoyed an afternoon of forties music, British food, sunshine and people watching.
Gail was having some problems though. She was getting all worked up about the evening’s forthcoming meal, because it was the first time we’d be meeting her parents. I could only chuckle and enjoy her discomfiture. We were not in the least bit worried. The meal had taken on a life of its own: initially a small family affair, it had grown until there were over twenty people expected. It was good to have so many people turnout, but it was too many people to have a decent chat with each of them. I did enjoy talking with Gail’s parents, I have no idea what she was so worried about.
I also had a meal here on May 22, 2008. It doesn’t look like the furniture’s been changed since then.
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A day out with friends of the family
Alma, Mick and Lanie at Hobby Craft Vacation Day 4 – Off to Dorset with Mick
I’ve known Mick and his parents since I was an infant, so that’s a long time. Leaving people behind is one of the hard things to live with when you emigrate. Which makes it all so much the better when we get a chance to meet up.
It was super to be spoiled, reminisce, and learn things about my parents and my youth. Lanie seemed to enjoy it. Ginger as always liked getting someone to fill in details on my background. Unfortunately, I was, and remain, ignorant on such matters.
Mick and I did some running around (well fast walking actually) before lunch. In the afternoon we visited HobbyCraft, where Ginger wanted to do some business research, checking out what crafting supplies are available in the UK.
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Lanie gets to ride in a double-decker bus…
Lanie gets to ride in a double-decker bus… Copyright © 2014 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Vacation Day 3 – A walk along the seafront
I was expecting too much to think we’d be able to get to the D-Day memorial in time for the remembrance service. Too much traveling and a six-hour time-zone change slowed us down significantly.
We caught the train into Fratton and walked down to the seafront. First stop, a visit to Southsea castle. Then we visited the very busy D-Day museum. As you’d expect being present on the seventieth anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, the museum was full. There were visitors, families of veterans, and a few veterans, some of whom looked to be deeply wrapped in their own thoughts. I was horrified to catch Lanie performing a Nazi salute, and some immediate parenting was required. Once Lanie had been obliged to carefully read some of the displays she had a better understanding of the sacrifices made by those involved.
My plan, duly executed, was to walk along the seafront to the Harbour Station and catch the train back to Havant from there. At Clarence Pier, Lanie could not resist getting into this double-decker bus.
Lanie gets to ride in a double-decker bus… Copyright © 2014 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Lanie gets to ride in a double-decker bus… Copyright © 2014 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.And that would have been that for the day – except walking along the seafront between Clarence Pier and Old Portsmouth we bumped into my niece – Emily. That was an unexpected and pleasant surprise.
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Fratton – Portsmouth UK
Fratton – Portsmouth UK. Copyright © 2014 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Fratton – Portsmouth UK
Fratton – Portsmouth, UK. Copyright © 2014 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I cannot resist an architectural shot every now and then, and this was one of those times.
