We spent two weeks of our summer vacation in the UK visiting family. Not many words but plenty of pictures. Bristol first staying with my cousin Jo and her husband Jim and their three kids - Millie, Elliott and Lexie. Day 1 - a walking tour of Bristol. We did about 8 km without one complaint from the boys. At M shed the Wallace and Gromit exhibition was free for the one day of the month we were visiting - bonus!
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| Nails where business was done in Bristol |
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| Public House where press gangs would collect a few extra crew |
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| Volunteer - that's me! |
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| Half price is good, free is better! |
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| Good boy Gromit |
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| Wallace and Gromit exhibition |
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| Say Cheese! |
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| We don't know where he gets it but Harry is a talented artist. |
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| Harry, Millie and Millies' friend in front of SS Great Britain |
We took a day trip to Cadbury at Bourneville. Still in awe of what the Cadbury family started in the Nineteenth Century.
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| Freddos! |
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| Cousins |
We borrowed bikes and caught the train to Bath, then rode back to Bristol along the Rail Trail - about 20 km.
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| Bath to Bristol Bike Trail |
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| Tam on the Bristol to Bath Rail Trail |
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| Photo bomber! |
My Aunt and Uncle - Jo and Jack - took us for a day trip on their beautiful canal boat - Kottingham. All three boys had a steer and helped with the sixteen locks we did. After dinner I rode the death trap folding bike back to the car to come and collect the family.
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| Lock workers. |
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| Jack as a very serious helmsman watched closely by the Master! |
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| Child labourer! |
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| Mark has the con! |
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| Jack supervising Harry closely |
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Mick riding the most unstable excuse for a bike he has ever ridden.
Should have chucked it in the canal and done Jack a favour. |
After Bristol we moved onto Caversham where we stayed with my other cousin, Katie and her husband Angus and their two daughters, Ella and Tabitha. Jim offers me the chance to go waterskiing at his wakeboarding and waterskiing club, not something I anticipated doing on holidays in the UK. I think it was 12 years and two broken collarbones since I last skied. I got up on my third attempt to enormous whooping and hollering from the boat by the boys who were very impressed by what their old Dad could do!
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| How long since I last water skied? |
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| Woohoo! |
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| I'm knackered! |
Whilst staying at Caversham we visited ex-Bayside Community Church friends - Sheridan and Merryn Voysey - now living in Oxford and were lucky enough to also coincide our visit with Ian and Deidre Willis, also from Bayside and visiting UK on holiday.
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| Bayside gathering in Oxford. |
We took a day trip to the Roald Dahl Story Centre at Great Missenden, where Roald Dahl lived for about forty years and where he wrote most of his published works.
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| Mmmmm - chocolate! |
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| Willy Wonka! |
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| BFG footprints |
Katie and Angus arranged a day at Legoland getting us a great discount.
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| Cousins at Legoland |
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| Jack, Mark and Mum selfie |
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| Mini London |
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| Star Wars Lego = heaven |
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| Harry, Mark and Emmett, the guy from the Lego Movie |
Finally we stayed in Ash, Somerset with Jo and Jack. Day 1 we lucked in again as the Yeovilton Fleet Air Arm Air Show was on. We had seen this before in 2008 but it had been a windy wet day whereas this year it was beautiful sunshine all day. The highlights were many including Pitt aerobatic biplane, Vulcan bomber, F-16 and F-18 displays and Sea Hunter doing low passes.
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| Yeovilton Air Show - with a Junglie Seaking |
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| Mick and Vulcan bomber - awesome, the bomber, not Mick |
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| Jack and Vulcan bomber |
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| Mick, Jack and Harrier |
The following day we attended the Lowland games which are a bit of a send up of the Highland games. Events included raft races - down a river about the size of a large irrigation ditch - running races, terrier racing, bale racing, ferret racing, wife carrying and mud wrestling. Mark entered the running race and came third. Jack assisted with ferret racing.
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| Raft Racing |
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| Raft Racing |
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| Raft Racing |
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| Mark lining up at for Lowland games running race |
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| Third! |
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| Jack with ferrets |
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| Jack assisting with ferret racing |
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| Who will be teaching this pair to drive in a few years? |
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| Mark found someones dog to adopt for a while - pure joy for him. |
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| Wife carrying at the Lowland games |
All in all we had a great break, reconnecting with family. Thanks to Jo & Jim, Katie & Angus, all the kids, Jo & Jack and to my grandmother Betty who left me some money in her will a few years ago that allowed us to have a holiday in Europe this year.
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