Bournmouth Visit

We have been down to Bournemouth today to visit Carol's mum and dad. The last time we went was in August 2013 when we came back from our holiday in Ilfracome and tied in with Chloe and Steve's wedding in Ipplepen. We were due to go last Wednesday but Carol had developed a really bad sore throat and we didn't think it was a good idea to visit due to the possibility of infecting them with the bug. I was also threatening a similar thing but thankfully it didn't develop into anything.

We left Milton Keynes at around 7.a.m. and drove steadily towards the M40 and then onto the A34 just beyond Buckingham, the same route we took the other day when we drove for our day out at the National Trust property at Basildon Park. We hit roadworks on the way at the turn-off for Reading and were held up for a while but then the traffic began to flow steadily and we were able to maintain quite a good speed all the way down south. We stopped at a service area near the roundabout which lead westward towards Highclere Castle, another location for the television series Downton Abbey and also further on to the village of Burghclere which we visited several years ago when we went to the Sandham Memorial Chapel which houses painting of Stanley Spencer and also managed by the National Trust. We bought ourselves coffee to share in Costa Coffee and the drove on and eventually arrived at Carol's parents flat in Moordown, just outside Bournemouth. From there we all drove to Hengisbury Head for a walk along the seafront. This is a famous visitor spot in the area between Poole Harbour and Bournemouth and forms part of the main division between Poole and Christchurch Bays. We walked along the patch and stopped briefly at the newly-opened visitor centre. It was quite a walk and we went through some really attractive wooded areas and saw a lot of families with children and dogs enjoying the sunshine. We eventually arrived on the sandspit opposite Muddiford and the Beach House Cafe where we stopped for lunch, by which time we were well and truly ready for a rest and sit-down as it had been a good half-hour walk or more to our destination. I can, for one recommend this as somewhere for families to eat. The service was good and the food excellent, considering how busy it was. On the return to the car-park Carol's mum and dad decided to walk but myself and Carol returned using the land-train which was a pleasant way to travel. I don't, in all honesty, think we would have been able to walk back ourselves as by now we had been driving and walking more or less non-stop since very early this morning so a sit down on this mode of transport was well in order. We left the carpark once Carol's mum and dad appeared and got back to their flat a little while later. We left Bournemouth at around 6 p.m and I drove some of the way back on the A34 and got home to Milton Keynes a little after 9 p.m.

Back To Business

Hello folks! I'm posting to my blog  once again after the Summer Recess. I must say, I had really got into the swing of writing this, but, with Carol on holiday for the past month, we've been busy with one thing and another, so there wasn't a great deal of time to sit and keep this up to date. We had a few days away in Bournemouth a couple of weeks ago, visiting Carol's mum and dad who live there. We usually go down and back in the same day, but it makes for a very long and tiring day, so it was better to book a hotel in Bournemouth and stay over-night and visit her parents and then come back the next day. The hotel was on the sea-front, and preparations were going on for the Bournemouth Air Show, so we found that a lot of the streets around the seafront were closed off so we couldn't park the car, but we eventually found space in the hotel car park (very few spaces left when we got there, but we did manage to park.)

We arrived in Bournemouth on the Tuesday, the journey down seemed to take forever. We got our usual 'full English' breakfast, which was nice. (we don't very often have a fry-up, basically because it's so full of cholestrol, but  I do enjoy it, nevertheless!) After some deliberation we decided to drive to Christchurch and have something to eat. It turned out that we'd go to a cafe and have coffee, and wandered around near the river, where there was quite a crowd of people as the weather was fine. There was large number of swans and ducks and other birds gathered near the water's edge and people were feeding them bread, but they were becoming somewhat aggressive as we walked past.

The next day, having spent the night at the hotel, we got up early and walked along the seafront, taking some photographs as we walked. I may upload some of these onto this blog or my Facebook page when I have time, so look out for them!

On the way home I rather wanted to visit the  Sandham Memorial Chapel in Burghclere. We've been past the exit on the A34 several times on the way down to Bournemouth and back, and, as we're members of the National Trust, and this place is managed by the N.T. it seemed a worthwhile visit. Also, this chapel was painted by Stanley Spencer, who is one of my favourite artists. Carol's mum and dad visit Cookham regularly, staying at a hotel owned and run by John Lewis (Carol's mum used to work for Waitrose, which is part of the John Lewis Partnership.) and present and former employees are entitled to use this facility (a good company, John Lewis, treating their employees properly, although, as an employee, you are a 'partner' in the company, as they share all their profits, unlike most businesses who 'share' the profits with shareholders who don't usually work directly for the company.) What I'm attempting to get around to is that Stanley Spencer lived and worked in Cookham, and many of his paintings are set in and around that area. There is a gallery there which we have visited, and was recently renovated and re-opened, thanks to a National Lottery Grant. It was very well worth visiting. He was really a great painter, and his genius shows in this chapel. I was struck by how small the place was, and the fact that the painted walls covered virtually every single inch of space from floor to ceiling. Nothing he ever did was like anything else you are likely to see, his Biblical and particularly Christian-inspired work has an originality about it I don't think I have ever seen attempted by any other artist. I can genuinely say that it would be well worth visiting, if you are in the vacinity of Burghclere.