Robins

2008-09-10T12:25:00.001-07:00

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We had been told that Cherbourg was a small grubby port town, but we found it anything but!
We ventured off the ferry (always remembering to drive on the right hand side) and went straight for the town centre.
What a wonderful surprise. The shopping was fabulous, very quaint, very orderly, styley, tidy and all in all very pleasant (compared to Britain) - the food, the flowers, the magazine shops, the children's shops, the cafes, the clothes shops, mmmmmm - magnifique!!! (shame we don't have any money) I did purchase some french house magazines. We bought a baquette, some raspberry tarts and headed back to the car to drive south (toward Paris)!

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CHERBOURG!

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Driving out of the ferry and into France

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Leaving Poole

FRANCE

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And so to France!

We are not working anymore - our days are free, so we chose Tuesday 9th Sept to head over to France from Poole on the Condor Ferry. This is Rob at 7.00am having his breakfast - we were extremely excited here - this is our first ever experience with France - it was amazing!! (Of course it was raining)

2008-09-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

Went to Salisbury again last weekend - couldn't resist adding some photos!
This is a sculpture called "Madonna Walking"1998, with Cathedral backdrop - absolutely awesome place!

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Looking through the railing at 90metres above the ground - exhilarating!
There is green grass growing on the roof of that building.

Halfway down a smog-smugged window gives a view of the top of the columns holding up the dome

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Here I am at St Paul's Cathedral.
I couldn't resist having a look from the Stone Gallery - 376 steps up from the cathedral floor!
And what view - it was sunny and little wind, so most pleasant!!

The top photo has the London Eye wheel in the background upstream.

This photo is actually from the Golden Gallery (another153 steps up!!).
Looking down on the roof of the cathedral dome and the front clock tower.

And here is the Millenium Bridge with the Tate Modern Gallery on the Thames Southbank.
And now Robbo's name has been added to the many scribed around the Golden Gallery above the dome - can you see me waving? It was 4:45, Thursday, 28 August, 2008.

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I like these 2 buildings - modern interpretations of the classical stone buildings that are all around you in the financial sector of London.
The squared panel building is the HSBC HQ with sleet columns and cantilevered support arms mimicing the classical column capitals and the squared panels are sculptured sunscreens with another sunscreening forming the pediment at the top of the building. London (and England generally!) need to have more thoughtful constructions like this - their standard copies of older forms is OK, but their are too many Modern buildings without character or understanding of their heritage. (Enough architecting! - let's get on!)

2008-09-07T06:52:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love the english traditions - Lloyd's entrance, with all its stainless steel and concrete still has to have a conceirge in a red tunic coat.

2008-09-07T06:48:00.000-07:00

Don't know what to make of this Insurance company. Fancy choosing this location !

2008-09-07T06:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I missed the photo of me! - so here I am reflected in the triangular leg of the Gherkin.

2008-09-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

After my interview at the Recruitment company, I was wandering down Bishopsgate when I came upon this huge Gherkin!
This is a real finger in the air for the rest of London, and is quite spectacular. It is an office building and the girl on the front desk said there were no tours! One shot shows my reflection, just to prove I was there.
The other tall shiny metal building is the famous Lloyd's Insurance tower, with all its innards on the outside!!

2008-09-07T06:31:00.000-07:00

So, here is Rob on the train to London - not sure which station this is, but we did go past at a good speed.
In fact when travelling by train it is wise to take some reading material, as both sides of the tracks are heavily wooded and stations are a bit of light relief!

2008-08-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

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Robin is interested in the shop window. I'm looking up to the repairs being completed after the major fire last year (or perhaps the year before!). The castle sits high above the town and surrounding countryside - very solid looking.

2008-08-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

And here's Rob looking very upset at not finding any Wombles at Wimbledon Common

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And here we are at the Mill Pub at Elstead - with its water wheels still turning after 150 years

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And here is the front view of Chris Wren's house - now a Hotel

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Christopher Wren built this house and lived in it.

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A fabulous place which we will be returning to

Down by the Thames

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This is Robbo on the bridge between Windsor and Eton - the two towns occupy either side of the Thames River - yes the sun did appear for a short time - hence the disguise!

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Thames boatsheds and steam boat and geese and neverending people.

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Perhaps the Queen comes here to the Theatre!

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Queen Victoria in one of her black moods

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A view of the township with Castle

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After we had had enough of Nottinghill - we drove to Windsor. We were amazed at this place - its soooo different and fabulous. Well of course - with the Queen for a neighbour and Eton connected to it. OOpps! this is an ivy covered house at Elstead on our way home - we stopped for a mid-afternoon Pub Lunch (Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pud!!).

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Someone said this is Ruby Wax's house

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Comforting to see these wonderful people in their uniforms!! There was a lot of booze around

2008-08-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

Nottinghill is a very very nice part of London - remember "
The man who walked up a mountain and came down a hill"

2008-08-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

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Mmmmm - this one, or the black????

2008-08-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

While enjoying our Pimms and beer - Robbo sat looking at the Maserati car sales - set in the middle of a little village! (I was facing the other way)

2008-08-26T11:26:00.000-07:00

This is my ( Robin's) photo. We had a Pimms at this hotel - sorry about the woman in pink - I didn't notice her until I saw this photo!!

2008-08-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

Isn''t it pretty - fab restaurants here too!!

Lyndhurst

2008-08-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hello All, hope you are well!! Thanks for checking our site!
This dear village is about 1/2 an hour from Bournemouth. We visited it on Thursday last on our way back from Southampton (no photos of Southampton) - too boring. Whereas this place was very very cute.
Its called Lyndhurst

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Wales has a lot more style than any other city in England (apart from London and Bath) that we have discovered so far!!

2008-08-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

We went to this pub for dinner and made friends with some Welsh people who were sitting beside us. We were so enjoying talking that by the time we went to order dinner, they had stopped serving food!!!! And this at 6.45!!!! so we took our new friends advice and crossed the open area (in the rain) to a Chinese restaurant - and we were pleased we did. The meal was wonderful. It was my (Robin's) turn to drive - so I was faced with 3 hours of black, wet roads.. Arrived home at midnight very tired, but very content. Wonderful to discover a new city in a new country!!!!

2008-08-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

This is part of the university! (I think) anyway - its nice isn't it?

2008-08-17T11:42:00.000-07:00

This is Cardiff Castle - we will return here if the weather
EVER improves and have a really good look!

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The outlook onto the Bay area

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The customs house

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A view of the Bay area which would have been wonderful had it been fine.

2008-08-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

Here he is sitting on an Arne Jacobsen chair in the Welsh assembly

2008-08-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

Robbo says this is a beautiful contrast to the other buildings. He says these buildings were all so individual and didn't gel together.

2008-08-17T11:36:00.001-07:00

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Look at this magnificent stonework!! Robbo LOVED this building - so you can imagine how LONNNNNGGGGGG we spent here!!

2008-08-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

For the Pomeroys amongst us!!! Rob made me get out of the car for this photo! This one's for you Lane!

2008-08-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

This is the Cardiff Town Theatre which is in Cardiff Bay. Cardiff Bay was once the docklands - a festering block, Cardiff's forgotten fringe due to the collapse of coal mining in Wales. In 2006 this area was restored and it houses this building, the Welsh Assembly and copious cafes, restaurants and other buildings - its very sophisticated and we just loved wandering around it. It seems that Cardiff has married the new with the old extremely well and we were surprisingly taken with this place. We will return for a longer period time.

2008-08-17T11:23:00.001-07:00

The bridge between England and Wales

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Passing a Tesco's truck

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!!!

2008-08-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

SO with the help of our dear little friend "Lottie" we got back on to the M4 and headed to Wales!

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ON THE WAY TO WALES

2008-08-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

So, on a wet, overcast day, we decided it was time to visit Wales, wet or not!
So, here I am in a wheat field somewher near Westbury. As you can see there is a very large White Horse carved into the hill.
There is also a Cement works nearby with a tall chimney - interesting to be standing here with beautiful landscape and strange objects as counterpoints!

2008-08-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

We had lunch in a little pub - Rob and John ordered 'whitebait'!! look at them!

You'll note Robin sitting at the other table - couldn't stand the smell of the fish.

Apparently they were lovely.

And YES - it was raincoat weather yet again. However we had a lovely time and ambled around the village, visited an ancient and gorgeous church. Had a look at some old Roman discoveries and left for home about 6pm.

2008-08-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

Sunday we met Jacqui and John in a place called Bosham (pronounced Bosom)!!
A very cute little village with 1500years of history

Bella, Felix, Zoe, Ari and Maia

2008-08-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

This is one of the squirrells who live in the trees outside our kitchen window.
I threw some nuts out and waited for a while - look what happened.
Aren't they cute?
They are very very shy so to get this photo I had to move very quietly onto the deck - he ran away when he saw the flash!

2008-08-06T13:01:00.000-07:00

Lane, here is how I want our Griselinia hedge looking by the time we get home!!
You might also be interested in the white cliffs of Dover in the background, with Dover Castle on top.
This was part of our Canterbury trip (which included me leaving my Italian sandles behind at our B&B (which I found out today).

2008-08-06T12:43:00.000-07:00

This is the Market building at Prince Charlie's new town, Poundbury (with our red car in front).
The town is the result of PC wanting to prove that the old ways of designing a town were better than the Modernist mantra of square, cold,glass and steel!! The town is impressive and delightful to walk through, with cars taking second place.

2008-08-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

Beck you might recognise this plant - in NZ it is a nasty - Wild Ginger in the Wisley Hot House!!

2008-08-06T12:32:00.000-07:00

Zoe and Ari might like this picture of a Moor hen and her chick in a pond at Wisley

2008-08-06T12:30:00.000-07:00

Beck thought you might like the patterns of these flax-type plant's at Wisley

Rob's Garden explore

2008-08-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, they do have fine old houses here. This one is at Wisley Gardens - it is their Laboratory and was built in 1916! (so it is quite recent!). These Gardens are the Royal Horticultural Society's headquarters - and beautiful they are, with all sorts of garden types and backdrops like this! Hey, Lane these lawns are absolutely perfect - we will not get the 30A lawns this good!!

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Pretty spectacular fireworks display - but I guess you had to be there!

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And a spitfire display - um a little difficult to photograph!! Very spectacular and for some reason both Jacq and I were quite emotional during this display!! Perhaps as we thought of how Dad would have loved it.

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There were Napoleonic Cavalry and Infrantry Displays.

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On Saturday we went to a concert called 'Battle Proms' at a place called Highclere Castle.

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The back of J&J's little cottage

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We went to Jacqui and Johns after work on Friday - quite a nice evening - so Rob and John cooked up a BBQ tea. J & J work for the people who own this house - theirs is the little cottage! The vapour trails are all over the sky in Ockham - they look spectacular!

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AND this is for the girls!
A few of Bouremouth's shops I passed today. Many more of course. Have a Great week everyone.

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On our way home we decided to take the cable car route instead of walking back up the path.

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A few other people had the same idea as us

a beautiful late July South Coast summer day

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How do you like this kids?

2008-07-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

This train travels along the promenade to Bournemouth - We walked it!!

Though we were tempted on the way home

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Arriving at beach

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Half way point

2008-07-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

Today is Saturday the 26th July (Nana Hannah's birthday)

We decided to explore Bournemouth.

This is Robbo as we begin our descent to the beach on our path through the woods. Remember our flat is called 'Woodsview'

2008-07-26T10:16:00.001-07:00

This photo is for you B F - knowing your LOVE of volley ball - I took this photo for you. Dream on!!!

2008-07-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

Robbo and I are taking a picnic dinner down to the beach making the most of the summer weather.

I have the time to prepare salads etc and when Robbo gets home we set off down our path. Here he is enjoying the relaxation that comes with it after a busy day.

2008-07-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

This is my darling sister at Winchester on Wednesday. She and I met there and spent the day together. Winchester is midway between us.

Beautiful Tuesday Morning

2008-07-22T01:53:00.000-07:00

I was pottering around the flat this morning in the beautiful sunshine and thought I would share it with you. Its 8pm Tuesday your time. Today promises to be gorgeous as yesterday was, I think I'll take my book and wander down to the beach and hire a deck chair for a couple of hours.

2008-07-21T02:14:00.000-07:00

This Family have come off the ferry from France well prepared for their holidays!!