Pembrokeshire Holiday and Beowulf.

    In early June, our pal Trudi came to stay for the weekend. On the Friday evening, we were joined by another friend, Toria, and we all drove over to Pailton village hall to see a live rendition of "Beowulf", the famous Anglo-Saxon tale. The actor reading the story, Hugh Lupton (together with his musical support Rick Wilson) did this wonderfully. It was very atmospheric and remarkably funny in places, as well as very dramatic. Great voice that man has! We also got a light snack from the organisers afterwards, so not bad for £9 each entry fee! Good little venue they have there as well. We may go there again for some classic film shows they are planning over the coming year.

    The next morning we made the short drive up to Tamworth Castle and had a look around. It is a magnificent (if smallish) medieval castle. Lovely place to walk around, as there are some very pleasant surrounding gardens, and the weather wasn't bad. We had a quick walk around the town afterwards, and had lunch at Subway. Afterwards, Trudi and I went to see "Prometheus" at our local Odeon in the afternoon, a screening we both thoroughly enjoyed. After three goes at it, I finally 'got' the film, can't wait to see the extended version on dvd/blu-ray. In the evening we watched "The Incredible Hulk" on disc as Trudi hadn't seen it and is a bit of a Marvel fan following on from the recent cinema hits they've had.
 

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    For our second little holiday break this year, we went down to Pembrokeshire (a county located at the extreme tip of S.W. Wales) as we enjoyed it there so much two years ago - it really is a beautiful part of the world. On the way over, we stopped off for a leg stretch and snack in Chepstow, a town on the river Wye, just into Wales. The castle there is very impressive and we felt worth a visit, especially as the weather was very sunny and warm that day. The views over the river from the castle were astounding, and as usual it was great to explore the rooms, corridors and interesting 'nooks' of the castle buildings. The town was interesting to wander around as well, and I found the first of three old cinemas on this holiday there.

Exploring Chepstow Castle.

    After a long but uneventful drive across South Wales, and after a quick stop off at Haverford West for fuel, we arrived at our place in  Pembrokeshire. We based ourselves in a very nice converted old post office in the middle of Marloes, a small village not far from the south side of St. Brides Bay. Once we got in and got settled a bit, we had a quick walk down to the coast which was only a few minutes away, and were treated to some breathtaking views of the wide bay - St.Brides - in the glorious sunshine.

The Pembrokeshire Coast Path, looking North, and the beautiful St. Brides Bay.

A stick for walking!

   On the second day, we did a seven mile walk around the nearby St. Anns's Head, starting and ending where we parked at the small village of Dale. Once again, we were able to take in lovely views of the dramatic coast and see some beautiful countryside, and on this walk, not get worried by cows for once! It was interesting to find the sheltered Mill Bay, where Henry Tudor and his troops landed in August 1485 (to take the kingdom by defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in Leicestershire only three weeks later.) Also evident along the trail were the remains of some World War II defences located at this important part of the coastline.

 

On the trail, near the start of the walk.

Looking over Mill Bay.

Building a cairn...I wonder if other walkers will add to it?

    On the third day, we did a long walk in the gorgeous sunshine, starting from our accommodation all the way round the peninsula and back, first walking west along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, past the lovely little bay of Martin's Haven and onto the end of the peninsular, Wooltack Point, where we could see Skomer and Stockholm Islands, famous for their large populations of seabirds such as puffins. From that exposed point, we noticed the small ferry taking day-trippers out to the island. Carrying on, we walked S.E. along the path, seeing more more tall cliffs and soaring seagulls against the washed out blue sky. We passed Gateholm Island and arrived at Marloes Sands, a very long and wide sandy beach, which served as our attractive lunch spot.....although sitting on that rock was a bad decision!

Looking West along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, with the blue of St. Brides Bay beyond.

 

On the coast path around the peninsula. The vast curve of Marloes Sands is in the distance.

    After getting back to the accommodation for little rest, we went off to Milford Haven to get some provisions and have a look around to finish the day. Milford is one of the few large towns in the area, and is located on the North side of the vast expanse of the haven. It serves as a busy port for small private vessels and large oil tankers. The various oil terminals in the area spoil the view in some ways (although the lights on the towers looks amazing against the night sky), but I suppose they brought wide employment to the region. It was unfortunate that it started to rain while we were there, but it was good to see the clifftop gardens that look over look the river.

The attractive Hamilton Gardens overlooking the wide estuary at Milford Haven.

    On our last full day, we drove over to Tenby, a popular seaside holiday town and fishing port. The town is made up of interesting little sloping streets high above the beach. The roads feature some classic architecture, and are packed with little curio shops set amongst the usual chain stores, selling a wide variety of what my Mrs. calls 'tourist tat'. There is also the remains of a castle on small island just off the beach, although we couldn't work out if it was open to the public. One thing I thought was really attractive were the gardens and viewpoints up and down the cliffs on the castle side of the town. That was a great place to sit, eat a sandwich, throw some crumbs to the blackbirds, and look over the bay.
    A little way off the coast from Tenby, we spotted Caldey Island, a small island inhabited by some Benedictine monks. In the town, the Abbey has a small shop that sells various merchandise. I had to buy some of the monk's dark chocolate, which was rather nice!

Overlooking the small port at Tenby.

    Just as we were leaving, the rain came on hard, but on our way back we still took a slight detour and drove by the Manobier Castle. Shame it was too wet to get out and have a look...oh well, another time!

    Whilst at our accommodation, we plowed through series 3 of "The Big Bang Theory" over the nights we were  Brilliant to watch these in large chunks - the show is so funny!

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I enjoyed the Euro 2012 football competition (this time it was held in Poland and Ukraine), even though England's performance in the matches were average, and against Italy in the quarter final match there was a lack of possession of our part and of course, the dreaded penalties thing happened again. The semi-finals and final were very good to watch, I think the standout game was Germany v Italy, and Spain were deserved winners. Still, I'm looking forward to World Cup 2014 in Brazil.

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A couple of spring trips, cinema visits other events.

We recently had a couple of short breaks to get away and see some countryside and interesting historical sites. In May, for my birthday, we went to North Devon and based ourselves in a small village near to Ilfracombe and the coastline (a very pretty area on the edge of the Exmoor National Park, and by the coastal AONB). Here we had the opportunity to do some country and coastal walking and visit some really pretty towns and villages. Our first day was spent in Ilfracombe, a large town in the area, which is also a famous holiday resort and has an attractive harbour. We walked along the SW Coast Path to the west of the town. This was a wery good walk; there were some amazing views to see, but on the return we had to dodge some cows who seemed to think we were going to feed them! One of the best walks we did was around the headland near to Mortehoe, to the west of Ilfracombe. The walk provides some wild and stunning scenery and lots of sheep that seem unfazed by walkers. Another fantastic walk was SE of Lynmouth, along the wooded river valleys around Watersmeet. It was also fun to ride the famous cliff railway between Lynmouth and Lynton. On the way to Devon, there and back, we stopped off and looked around the Somerset towns of Glastonbury and Cheddar - it was very windy at the top of the Glastonbury Tor!

In June we stayed up in North Yorkshire and visited Harrogate, Ripon (to see the cathedral), Knaresborough (fantastic views of the river!), and the famous sites at Fountains Abbey and Brimham Rocks. Driving around we saw some lovely countryside and lots of cows! Also, it was fun to visit the oldest sweet shop in England in Pateley Bridge to pick up some treats....and it only rained on one day! Oh, on the way up to Yorkshire we also visited Brodsworth Hall and Gardens, but more impressive was Newby Hall and Gardens just to the East of Ripon. The gardens there are absolutely beautiful; the most impressive element was the extensive rock garden which was a joy to explore. Thankfully the sun was shining for the few hours we were there! There were interesting wicker animals (created by a local artist) located all over the park.

We spotted some old cinemas in Ilfracombe, Lynton and up in Harrogate. The 1930's Odeon in Harrogate town centre was particularly impressive (see pic). Also, we manged to catch this year's Eurovision broadcasts at our rented cottage in Devon. Bizarre TV, but thoroughly enjoyable, particularly the Moldavian gnomes playing trumpets ...on unicycles!

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Since the last update, our friends Sarah and Mandy have visited us, and it was lovely to see them. When Mandy was here we went to Milton Keynes to attend the Collectormania show which was fun as always - I was very impressed with a friend's home made R2-D2! Also, last weekend I went to the London Film and Comic Con, which was very busy due, I think, to the presence of actress Karen Gillian (from the current "Doctor Who" series). Nice to see friends and 'celebrity spot' at both events, and chat with the cosplayers at LFFC. I got a couple of autographs at both events.

As for cinema films, I've been lucky enough to catch a few recent releases. I saw "Thor" with Sarah and "Kung Fu Panda 2" with Carla, and both films were very enjoyable. Contrary to many opinions on-line, Sarah and I both thought the 3D in "Thor" worked very well. The CGI in "Panda" was amazing; there were some really beautiful shots in the film, and Po's character is fab. :) My pal Gary came up for the weekend just gone and we saw "Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon" - more over the top (but fun) Michael Bay robot destruction -in glorious 'real 3D', followed by "Bad Teacher", a Cameron Diaz comedy. We also did some DVD watching by seeing all three "Star Wars: Robot Chicken" specials, and the first episodes of "The Time Tunnel" and "Land of the Giants". I introduced Gaz to the observational comedy of Chris Lilley in "Angry Boys" and "Summer Heights High". I have yet to buy his first series, "We Could Be Heroes". The shows work so well as the characters are so well realised, and they get themselves into some hilarious situations.

<--- Cameron Diaz in "Bad Teacher"

Country walking again....now the weather is improving!

The weather seems to be getting better, so Carla and I have started country walking at weekends again. Last weekend we went over to The Wrekin in Shropshire - an easy drive from here as its all via motorways, and there was little traffic about that Sunday. Starting the circular walk from the centre of the town of Wellington, our path took us through the lovely countryside to the East of the Wrekin (the route only marred by some horrid fly-tyipping on a country lane), then through the woods and up onto the summit where we had our packed lunch, then down the North and West side of the hill, then past two small reservoirs and onto the smaller hill, The Ercall, then back to Wellington. Nice walk of about four hours, featuring some lovely country views, and after that long winter it was great to get out and do a walk in fairly warm conditions.

<---- The view South from the summit of The Ercall: the summit of The Wrekin can been seen in the distance - we were there about 1 1/2 hours before!







Hopefully we'll be going somewhere nice tomorrow as well. We'll look through our walking guides and decide this evening.

...can't believe its been four months since I updated this blog! From now on, I hope to update it with every walk we do this summer, including our trip to the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales. :)

Various summer stuff (a catch-up!)

Just thought I would do a round-up of a few bits we've done over the summer.....

We did a couple of visits to places in East Anglia to tie in with staying with my mum and dad, the first being a few days break in July. On the way to their place we went to the impressive Framlingham Castle in Suffolk, then onto Saxmundham. The next day we went to the stunning North Norfolk coast, a definite favourite of ours. We drove up through the county in rather windy weather, first to Cromer to sort out a walking map and to have a look around (we adore Cromer!), then onto Wells-Next-the-Sea to have a look around the old harbour area. We then went back along the coast through the pretty village of Stiffkey and stopped off to do a circular walk from and to Blakeney Harbour, through the saltmarshes and via Cley, where there is a famous windmill. Shame about the rain that came on at Cley, but never mind -it was a showery day. Lastly, we stopped of on the shingle beach at Salthouse and then onto Sheringham before heading home.

The next day we did a coastal walk from Gorleston-on-Sea to Lowestoft which was wonderful. We started the walk from Gorleston-On-Sea cliffs and then down to the beach, and headed south along the coast. Between Hopton and Corton we had to leave the beach due to coastal erosion, and then head along inland, via Corton's partly ruined church. On the other side of Corton we found a nice area of protected woodland right next to the Pleasurewood Hills theme park (you could hear the screams from the rides!) It was really fun exploring that, especially when we found the lovely pond with the ducks. We found ourselves back on the beach and walked along this for a while before making our way into Lowestoft town centre, first to do a bit of shopping and then catch the bus back to Gorleston. Great walk of about 7 miles on a lovely day!

On the following Sunday, having driven back home the day before, we went over to Shropshire to climb the Wrekin Hill (near Telford.) It was a lovely walk through the trees to the summit, where there are good views over the countryside. We hope to go back there one day, as there are many more paths to explore. Then, as a 'spur of the moment' choice, we drove over to Ironbridge. Having eventually found a parking space, we got out and had a look around the town, and (of course) photographed the famous bridge in the hot afternoon sun. The town was packed with day trippers - not surprising really, as it is a world heritage site and definitely on the tourist trail.

On our second trip to my parent's, we were able to visit Burgh Castle - the site of the Roman town - near Gorleston. Looks like we could do some good country walking around there on another trip.

We also did another fun country walk locally one weekend in the summer, in the countryside outside of Nuneaton, to Caldecote Hall and back along the Coventry canal. We were also lucky enough to visit the Battle of Bosworth re-enactment day again this year.

In August, we went for a little summer break on the Yorkshire coast. We stayed in a fantastic apartment in a converted barn on a farm near to Bridlington. It was so quiet out there! We did a lot of country walking on the trip, the first being around Flamborough Head, a very scenic area of coast that juts out into the North Sea near Bridlington. This was wonderful: a quiet coastal path, lots of sea birds, stunning views along the cliffs, fresh sea air, and bright skies. We also visited Whitby (what an amazing and interesting town that is - doing the Dracula walk was brilliant!) and then walked back along the clifftops to Robin Hood's Bay along the Cleveland Way. It was a gorgeous day, very hot and sunny and the North sea was a clear deep blue. The cliff views were stunning - shame about the bugs though! Robin Hood's Bay is quirky place, an old fishing village that marches down the steep cliffs to the sea. We also went to Filey Bay (good to walk along the Filey Brigg, and the town was great,) Bempton Cliffs (alas, no puffins on view!) and to Scarborough town and castle - bought some seaside rock for my work pals. Another walk we did was in the countryside on the edge of the North York Moors just outside Scarborough, which was fun even though the weather was very up and down. A pretty wooded river valley, open countryside and sheep!

We also visited Castle Howard (on the way up there) and Bolsover Castle (on the way back) I liked both, but I think Bolsover had far more character, maybe because it was partly ruined and older. Also, on the way back we stopped on in the market town of Beverley (very pretty and surpisingly olde worlde) and then had lunch by the river in the village of North Cave. What a wonderful trip!

A couple of weeks after that we went back up to Derbyshire to visit Hardwick Hall and gardens, which were very interesting, but disappointing, as the hall's very famous windows (rare at the time of construction in the 1500's) were partially covered up to protect the tapestries! Oh well. The walk down to the fish ponds was good, and we got some lovely photos.
Oh, the Mrs. passed her driving test first time, and drove us up to Hardwick! :) Well done, Carla!
There are some photos of this on Carla's blog entry here.

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I went to the London Film and Comic Con at the end of July, which was great as I got to catch up with some old friends amongst the film and TV celebrities and stalls selling merchandise. I managed to get some autographs for a friend. Then, the weekend after there was the annual "Star Wars" fan 'park meet', in London's Hyde Park. Not a big turn out this year, but a fun and relaxing time had by all. It was good that Carla was able to come with me this year.

I haven't seen many films at the cinema since "Transformers 2", but I did go and see the excellent "District 9" when I was at my parent's place the other weekend. I went with my pal Kevin who (like me) enjoys his sci-fi movies. We saw it at the Hollywood cinema Great Yarmouth. I loved the film and was particularly impressed with what they did with a small budget - the animation on the aliens was brilliant. The week before, Carla and her work pals went to see "Julie and Julia" which she enjoyed. See here, and Joe's review here.