Not sure if we've tried this before but how about a running piece on travels and stays around UK?
Like similar threads you either reply to running subject or start a new one by replying to OP with a modified subject line.
I'll start.
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Been out for long weekend in caravan staying on a Caravan and Motorhome Club site in Buckinghamshire. We are however only a hop, skip and jump from Middlesex (Greater London), Berkshire, Surrey and even Hertfordshire (Rickmansworth)
Arrived Friday and set up venturing to Gerrards Cross for supplies.
Yesterday took us into the Colne Valley Regional Park - countryside developed from around gravel pits etc. Nice ride up the Grand Union canal towpath in what felt almost like spring. If we'd carried on we'd have (theoretically) got home to Northampton but in spite of views and lots of birdlife - Coots, Moorhens, Herons, Red Kites, various Tits and usual Corvids the mud dragged us down after a few miles.
Promising canal side pub turned out to be useless as nothing less than £12 burgers - just wanted a pint and a sarnie. Groundwork charity cafe at Denham Country Park much better with decent Panini at £5.50, albeit no beer. And a thousand curses on person who left a perfectly formed dog poo in the mud. Fortunately spotted it on Mrs B's bike tyre before I got bike in car. I'll never get back the twenty minutes I spent scraping it off, riding bike over grass and finally rinsing tyres in River Misbourne to eliminate the damn stuff.
Return via Waitrose in Beaconsfield for more supplies. Now while our home locality is, for most of us, far from deprived this is almost another country. Nearest analogue I can thin of is Alderley Edge. So many Range Rovers, Porsches, high end Beemers etc!!
Today's destination was supposed to be Windsor Great Park but it's not exactly inviting in Winter is it?
Skirted round fringes of Zero land (Virginia Water, Sunnigdale etc) and alighted at Runnymede where we used our NT membership to park up and see stuff. Hour or so's walk along the river and view of The Jurors art installation and back to car. Jurors well worth a look but other attractions involved wading through too much mud.
Being a plane nut Heathrow departures were of course a focus. Modern jets climb so rapidly and quietly compared with 707s and DC8s of my youth. And 30 years ago you'd not have been round there for a couple of hours and seen just two 747s.
Returned via Windsor town and yet more supplies via its weirdly hidden Waitrose on level 6 of a multi-storey develompemt. Sat nav say's you've arrived but no sign of a bloomin supermarket!!
Might nip round Watford and NW London tomorrow in pursuit of our old haunts.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sun 18 Feb 18 at 21:44
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Read somewhere that all of BA's 747s will be gone by 2025. We never made it down that area in the Motor Home - lots of things to see I'm sure. Now that we've sold it (sigh of relief after this winter) we take our hols by taking dog friendly holiday lets. We did Aberaeron in November and heading to the east coast (Filey) at the end of next month. Good way to see the country.
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>> Being a plane nut Heathrow departures were of course a focus. Modern jets climb so
>> rapidly and quietly compared with 707s and DC8s of my youth. And 30 years ago
>> you'd not have been round there for a couple of hours and seen just two
>> 747s.
Often see the A380s leaving. They are so large they always look tho they are too slow and on the edge of a stall. Best place to see it is from the Air Force memorial at Englefield Green that overlooks Runnymead.
And yes Waitrose in Windsor is tacked onto the side of floor 7 of the car park
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I miss the days of dodging the security patrols on the perimeter road and parking up at the end of 09L, just as Concorde took off, setting off every car alarm in the staff car park on the other side of the road.
Noisy, smelly, antisocial, and completely wonderful thing it was.
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>> Might nip round Watford and NW London tomorrow in pursuit of our old haunts.
Morning walk round the site's adjacent nature reserve complete with water woods and sink holes was followed with a coffee in crew room at Denham Aerodrome, not much moving though due low cloud.
Afternoon took us along A40 to Target Roundabout then through Northolt to Harrow where we located our first home together - a converted flat opposite Harrow Synagogue. Apart from new windows it was little chaged tbh. Parked the car close to where my old Pug 104 lived in 85/6 and followed up with a walk up onto Harrow Hill and the viewpoint by the Church.
Memories of Betjeman's lines imagining Harrow as a rocky island:
famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/john_betjeman/poems/819
Returned via The Castle pub where we used to meet before we lived together; still looks the same.
Harrow itself almost unrecognisable as whole landscape immediately north of Harrow Met station has been completely changed by development. Morrisons was useful though as once again supplies were running low......
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 19 Feb 18 at 20:28
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I lived not very far from Northolt 85/86
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Last place I had any time off in the UK was in Northumberland, great time up there. We stayed near Alnwick loads of great little pubs and villages. Stopped in a nice village house, rented out all year round complaints at all. We'd definitely go back there, the beaches alone were worth it.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 19 Feb 18 at 02:04
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I agree Sooty and it's probably a bit late to say don't tell everybody. Not a fan of Alnwick, except for Barter Books and a couple of pubs, but usually fit in fish and chips in Seahouses and a pint in the Ship, a crab sandwich in Craster, a walk on the beach at Embleton or getting blown about at Dunstanburgh castle, pottering in Rothbury and Morpeth, usually a trip or two into Newcastle, or Tynemouth station at the weekend for the market. Holy Island of course - Lindisfarne 'castle' will reopen in April after being covered in scaffolding for year for some major conservation.
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>> I agree Sooty and it's probably a bit late to say don't tell everybody. Not
>> a fan of Alnwick, except for Barter Books
is that the shop that used to be a train station?
Only downside is it's a fair old trek to get there. I remember passing Newcastle and thinking it's not long, I think it ended up being an hour and half (maybe 2) hours before we got to the cottage.
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I was born and brought up in Northumberland and went to school in Alnwick so know the area like the back of my hand Sooty.
Went back there last year in April and it was as cold as a polar bears paws..but I just loved being able to walk again on lonely beaches and moors where the views ( Holy Island , Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh Castles )are spectacular and no noise except birdsong.
Stayed in a village inn where the food was all locally sourced and the ale was well kept and the talk on the bar was on the price of sheep and the misfortunes of Newcastle United.
I will be heading back again soon to revisit the home in the Cheviot hills where my parents started their married life.
It is three miles from the nearest road and 20 miles from the nearest shop and nothing more than a pile of stones near the border but to me it is one of the most beautiful places on earth.
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Northumbria is almost undiscoverd Britain - apart from Vera that is :) Wonderful area.
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It is a fab county for holidays. Don't chose the time when Raul Moat is on the loose tho, and certainly don't stay in the next village to where he was found. I arrived the morning after it all kicked off....
Oh And give Alnwick Castle a miss.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 19 Feb 18 at 14:51
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S'funny.
Here I am, sat under a tree by a beautifully clear 45sq mile lake, not another person in sight, blue skies, temperature consistently in the low 30s, the back drop is a very large, active yet snow-covered volcano.
Thinking how much I miss quiet, blustery, British beaches and stormy seas, particularly in winter.
Nowt so strange...
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>>Here I am, sat under a tree by a beautifully clear 45sq mile lake, not another person in sight, blue skies, temperature consistently in the low 30s
Stick 'Hebrides Beach' into google images.
Anything like that?
(let's use fahrenheit instead of centigrade...)
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www.tripadvisor.co.uk/LocationPhotos-g504035-Bamburgh_Northumberland_England.html
Hope this link helps you NoFM2R.
Plenty of deserted beaches.
Last edited by: helicopter on Mon 19 Feb 18 at 17:09
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The clan and myself were ripping about Bamburgh beaches at New Year, having booked a stay at a very nice cottage a couple of miles from Corbridge.
www.picturesofengland.com/England/Northumberland/Slaley/Southwood_Lodge
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I remember that beach and Castle. We'd didn't go as far as the castle, lovely coastline. I can't remember the name of the pub, it couldn't have been far from where that picture was taken. Down a track I remember that you couldn't actually drive right up to it.
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>> Stick 'Hebrides Beach' into google images.
Most of those are on South Harris, will be there for 21 June this year.
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You doing the full outer Hebrides Brompton??
Seriously thinking of cycling it this year.
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>> You doing the full outer Hebrides Brompton??
>>
>> Seriously thinking of cycling it this year.
I'd regard full thing as Butt of Lewis to Vatersay. Much as I'd like to do it on a bike I think at pushing 60 it's probably beyond Mrs B and I.
We're renting a cottage just outside Tarbert (Harris) for a week. Place we've been to before when kids were young. Will range from Obbe to the Butt and might do a day trip to Uist but watching sunset on longest day is definitely part of plan.
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No, not much like that.
Quite a bit like this.
www.visitchile.com/es/lago-panguipulli/
I'd swap.
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Sunset on the longest day in the Hebrides, Bromp?! Don’t get your hopes up! And take a brolly...
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We used to drive to Bolton Abbey regulary.Cost has gone up for parking the car ten pounds.
Lovely area follow the river with nice footpaths it is a protected area.Not to far from our house to drive about two hrs which is just nice to be back home at a reasonable hr for us.
Doncaster wildlife park is also taken off.Our trip twice a year with the grandchildren.I might by the granddaughter a season ticket for her birthday and she requested a computer tablet.
Kids are not daft are they? They know what they want and I am soft.
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Bucks Berks and Surrey Borders - Bromptonaut
