Category: #50places2025

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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.

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Guines #50places2025

Over the last few years I have visited France quite a bit. 

I first visited France as a child where it was a regular destination for family holidays, day trips and school exchanges. There was then about a ten year gap. I remember doing a ferry trip to Caen in the mid 1990s, and visiting Honfleur.

I then didn’t visit France until September 2018 when I took the train from London to Brest in Brittany, via Paris, for a library conference. It was quite a fleeting visit. I travelled from London on one day and then travelled back the following day. Arriving at Gard de Nord on the way back I realised that I had been to Paris, but in name only. I had a little time before I needed to pass through passport control, so I popped out onto the street. Took a few photographs and admired the street scene.

My next visit to France was a holiday to Brittany in 2019. We also went to France the following year this time staying in Picardy and visiting Paris.

Last year I was in France again on a driving holiday to France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium.

I did a day trip to Calais and Dunkerque earlier this year.

In July I did another holiday to France staying outside Calais in Guines. This is a lovely French town complete with shops, a regular market and some nice historical buildings. It was more of a base for us, but I did explore some of the town when I was there.

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Nottingham #50places2025

I was attending a conference at Nottingham Trent University. I did have a chance to explore some of Nottingham while I was there.

My first visit to Nottingham was as a child visiting my aunt and uncle. My main memory was thinking how small Sherwood Forest was and how on earth did Robin Hood hide from the Sheriff of Nottingham when the forest was so small… Of course what I didn’t realise was back then the forest was huge in comparison to the size of the forest today.

Over the last twenty five years I have made quite a few visits to Nottingham, for events, conferences, and sometimes staying there when travelling further north.  I’ve also had some nice meals there too.

Exploring the city now I realise I still don’t really know the place and found it hard to get my bearings. I would walk up one street and find myself somewhere completely different to where I expected to be. 

As we approach the half way point in the year, I planned to visit fifty different places and so far I have done thirty six, so well on target.

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Plymouth #50places2025

lighthouse

I have been visiting various universities across the South West with my daughter for their open days. I’ve not been posting those visits here as most times we have just been visiting the university campus, so didn’t really consider it being a place for my #50places2025 posts. However when we went to Plymouth we arrived early, so after visiting the university we had some time, we went to explore Plymouth. We visited the city centre, Plymouth Hoe, the quayside and the old town. The sun was shining and it was a lovely walk around the city.

My first visit to Plymouth was back in the 1980s on a school trip, well not quite a visit but was departing from there to Roscoff in France. It was quite a hike in the coach as at that time I was living in Cambridge.

In the early 2000s I would visit Plymouth quite often for meetings and attending conferences at the University of Plymouth. With changes in my job, I no longer needed to visit Plymouth. We did stop off there once in 2016 when we were travelling down to Cornwall, that was the last time I had been there until now.

Plymouth is an interesting city in many ways, the historic naval connections and the destruction during the second world war has influence how the city has grown and changed over the years.

The city centre is being redeveloped when we were there and you could see that the sea of concrete needed some much greenery and trees.

Plymouth Hoe is so different to the concrete of the centre. The green grass, Smeaton’s lighthouse, and the lido.

I do like the dockside and I remember going to bars there when I was attending conferences at the University of Plymouth.

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Brighton #50places2025

I first visited Brighton in the 1980s when as a family we would sail over to France. Sometimes we would sail from Ramsgate to Calais (or Boulgone), but if we were on our way to Normandy, we would sail from Brighton, arriving in Dieppe, Fecamp, or Le Harve.

I also made a trip there for a JISC programmes meeting in July 2004. Then I had stayed at The Grand Hotel. I remember thinking it was a little too posh for me. I headed out for dinner finding a nice French place in The Lanes. 

I also visited Brighton in June 2005 when I was on holiday in Bognor Regis. Then we stayed mainly on the seafront, visiting the Pier and the Doctor Who Exhibition there.

I had planned to stop there last year on my way to Newhaven on a driving holiday to the continent, but ran out of time and stopped at Horsham instead for something to eat.

This time I was attending a conference all week and it was nice to see Brighton once more.

We had a fun conference dinner on the Brighton Palace Pier and I had some nice meals in some of the restaurants in the Lanes. The conference kept me busy so I didn’t have much time to do too much exploring, but did manage to see the Pavilions, a building I hadn’t got around to seeing on previous visits to Brighton. The conference itself was in the of the Pavilions buildings, The Dome.

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Belfast #50places2025

I first visited Belfast back in the early 2000s as part of a JISC programmes meeting. The last time I was there was in 2017 running a leadership programme for Jisc.

I was back in Belfast last week for a conference. I didn’t get a chance to explore much of Belfast, but I did see quite a bit of the area around the hotel and the university. Part of the conference was a gala dinner at Titanic Belfast, a new(ish) attraction about the construction of the infamous Titanic.

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Brussels #50places2025

I have visited Belgium quite a few times over the years, we went to Ostend a lot when I was a child.  When I did some college trips to Amsterdam in the 1990s we obviously travelled by coach through Belgium, we also stopped at Bruges, which I am planning to visit again in the future.  Last year on the way back from Germany we stopped for a flying visit to Ghent. We had thought about visiting Brussels, but time was against us.

I was in Brussels for a couple of in-person meetings. I had caught the Eurostar from St Pancras, having travelled up to London from Weston to Paddington. I find it quite amazing that the train from London to Brussels takes just two hours. In between my meetings, I did have some free time for exploring and taking some photographs.

Brussels is a beautiful city with some amazing buildings and parks.