Category: #50places2025

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Canary Wharf #50places2025

I had already included London in my #50places2025 list, but London is a big place.

Recently I did another day trip to London, and this time one of the places we visited was Canary Wharf. In the past I would rarely visit East London, as it was such a trek from Paddington or the centre of London. However the Elizabeth Line now makes it really quick and easy to get to that side of London now.

Canary Wharf is a modern suite of tower blocks with food courts, shopping arcades, a sky garden, and lovely views of the Thames.

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Newark Park #50places2025

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025. 

My last (proper) visit to a National Trust property was back in May. I did try and visit Westwood Manor in July, however, I couldn’t find any parking.

There have been lots of reasons for not visiting, in the main as I have been travelling going to University Open Days, throw in a holiday to France, various work trips, and let’s not forget the weather! I realised that if I was going to continue to take advantage of my membership I would need to make a bit of an effort. So with a nice day forecast I headed up to Gloucestershire to visit Newark Park.

I had visited the property before in May 2018 however when we went, the house was closed to visitors. We did have an enjoyable walk in the grounds, but it was a pity to miss the inside of the house.

This time not only was the house open, but there was also a basement tour which I managed the snaffle the final ticket for.

The house started off as a Tudor hunting lodge, before being converted into a Georgian mansion. It fell into disrepair before being leased to a Texan who brought the house back from potential ruin.

Newark Park

A secluded estate with glorious views, providing country house hospitality, garden strolls and woodland walks

Current saving £163.90
One adult £14.00
Parking £3.00
Total saving £17.00
Cumulative saving £272.10
Membership cost £91.20
Net cumulative saving £180.90

It’s a lovely house with some nice walks around the estate. There are some incredible views as well.

I really enjoyed my time at Newark Park and I am planning to ensure that there isn’t such a huge gap between this visit and my next visit to a National Trust property.

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Cheddar #50places2025

I made a visit to Cheddar, in the main to grab a photograph of the Gromit sculpture, but also have a walk. Cheddar can be slightly cheesy in places, but the magnificence and natural splendour of the gorge makes all that tack and cheese pale into insignificance.

It was a rather hot day, so made the decision to not walk up the gorge itself, but did drive through it up the road.

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Bristol Balloon Fiesta #50places2025

 

For the first time in nearly thirty years I was up early enough to head to Ashton Court for the morning ascent of the International Bristol Balloon Fiesta.

Since I moved to the South West in the early 1990s I have visited the Bristol Balloon Fiesta a number of times, but the last time I managed to make the 6am morning ascent was back in the 1990s.

We were lucky and we had green smoke and a lot of hot air balloons ascended and drifted across Bristol.

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Boulogne-sur-Mere #50places2025

The last time I was in Boulogne was probably sometime in the early 1980s, or even the late 1970s. It wasn’t really a place we stayed long at, usually it was an overnight stay after crossing the channel in our sailing yacht before we then moved down to Dieppe or Fecamp.

In July I did a driving holiday to France staying outside Calais in Guines. One of the places we did visit whilst we were there was Boulogne.

We arrived and followed the signs for the parking, but we had a little trouble in parking, as there was a market on. We found an underground car park so we parked there.

We walked down to the harbour and then down to the seafront. We walked along the breakwater.

Walked back into town and up to the castle. The castle was really impressive as were the old city walls. I did initially think that the city walls would be like those in York with a narrow walkway, but no these walls were very wide and there was lots of room as we walked.

Inside the walls were some lovely old traditional French buildings.

I did wonder if any of the town would be familiar, it wasn’t. Though I think a lot had changed over the last forty or so years.

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Bristol Harbour Festival #50places2025

Over the last thirty odd years I have often visited the Bristol Harbour Festival which takes place in July in the heart of the city around the docks.

I made a visit there this year and though I enjoyed my visit I do feel that it both wasn’t as good as previous years, but also wasn’t as busy. I was expecting there to be a lot more market stalls and food places, but Queen’s Square which is usually heaving with stalls on both sides of the road on all four sides was quite bare in comparison.

The highlight for me was the Spanish galleon, the Galeón Andalucía at Bristol which was looking magnificent. Though back in the day there were a lot more ships and boats in the harbour compared to this year.

There were a lot of stages and bands playing, and I enjoyed some of the music in Queen’s Square.

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La Coupole Centre D’histoire #50places2025

La Coupole Centre D’histoire

In July I did a holiday to France staying outside Calais in Guines. One of the places we did visit whilst there was La Coupole Centre D’histoire.

This was a planned German V2 launching base, which was abandoned following a devastating bombing raid by the RAF. Still in existence are some of the tunnels and the huge concrete cupola.

The museum was excellent, though slightly reliant on using a tablet computer as you walked around with videos on it.

We really enjoyed our visit to the museum and what I anticipated would be a couple of hours at most, actually we spent most of the day there and even then didn’t experience all that was on offer.

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Cap Gris-Nez #50places2025

The closest part of France to the United Kingdom is Cap Gris-Nez in Nord in France. In July I did a driving holiday to France staying outside Calais in Guines. One of the places we did visit whilst we were there was Cap Gris-Nez. You can see England quite easily from the top of the cliff. There are quite a few footpaths around as well. The area was heavily fortified during the second world war and the remains of the various bunkers and fortification can be seen. Also there was the remains of a castle built by Henry VIII.

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Bruges #50places2025

I had visited Bruges in the mid 1990s when I did a college trip to Amsterdam and we stopped at Bruges on the way back from Amsterdam to Bristol. It was only a quick visit, that was dampened (literally) by the heavy rain. So, much so, very little time for sightseeing as we walked from the coach park to the heart of the city, finding a restaurant and having steak and chips before heading back to the coach. As a result I was always planing to make a return visit if I was ever close by. Well thirty years later I made that return visit.

When I was planning my holiday to the Calais area, initially I didn’t even think about venturing much further from that area, did think about Paris, and other French places. Then using Google maps seeing where Bruges was I was pleasantly surprised to see that Bruges was just 76 miles (122km) away from our campsite, and as it was mainly motorway was less than ninety minutes away. Discussion with the family followed and they were all keen to go. So, in the middle of our holiday, we got in the car and headed into Belgium.

Upon arrival we parked in the underground parking garage ‘t Zand and there were charging facilities there as well, they had 65 charging stations for EVs. It took a couple of attempts to charge, but mainly because I picked the wrong charger on my first attempt. Also due to the vagaries of the mobile connection, I wasn’t sure if it was working until I was above ground. These were 22kW chargers so slower, but perfect for charging the Funky Cat whilst we spent the day in Bruges.

Bruges is the capital of West Flanders situated in northwest Belgium. The city is distinguished by its canals, cobbled streets and medieval buildings.