Had a quick visit to Cheddar Gorge.
Cheddar Gorge
Walking down Sand Point
Took a nice walk along Sand Bay, up Sand Point and back again.
The view from Brent Knoll
The other day we walked up Brent Knoll.
Back to Honfleur
In July I made a trip over to France and Germany. The first stage of the trip was a sea crossing from Newhaven to Dieppe. We were staying at a campsite close to the village of Nesles-la-Vallée, however after Dieppe, we went to Fecamp and then crossed the Seine and went to Honfleur.
Back in the 1970s and 1980s we would go on family holidays to Normandy and Honfleur was one of those places that stuck in my young memory. It was so very different to the English towns I had experienced, with it’s tall buildings, narrow streets and strange shops. Back then I didn’t have a camera at first and when I eventually did get one it was a 110 film instamatic style camera. This was a terrible camera (from Boots I think it was) and the quality of the prints were awful, covered in all those stickers and usually blurred. Well you could blame the photographer.
In the late 1990s I made a weekend trip to Normandy, and I did want to visit Honfleur again. This time I took my 35mm SLR and took some photographs, which I posted to the blog back in 2015.
This time I used my iPhone 13 to take some photographs.
Nesles-la-Vallée
In July I made a trip over to France and Germany. The first stage of the trip was a sea crossing from Newhaven to Dieppe. We then stayed at a campsite close to the village of Nesles-la-Vallée.
Dieppe at Dawn
In July I made a trip over to France and Germany. The first stage of the trip was a sea crossing from Newhaven to Dieppe and we arrived in Dieppe at 5am.
The last time I had been in Dieppe was in the 1980s on a family holiday. It was surprising how little had changed. Though the railway and harbour station had disappeared.
Combined rail and ferry services ended in 1994 after Stena Line, at that time operating as Stena Sealink on the Newhaven-Dieppe and Dover-Calais crossings, had transferred to a new terminal on the other side of the harbour. These changes coincided with the opening of the Channel Tunnel and the concomitant withdrawal of all SNCF Channel boat trains. The whole station was demolished in early 1995, and virtually no physical traces now remain.
The castle was still there at the top of the cliff.
Many of the restaurants and shops I had experienced in the 1980s were no longer there, which wasn’t a surprise, but the Monoprix department store was still there.
We had intended to have breakfast in the port, stay a a few hours and potentially even have lunch. However there wasn’t anything open (we could see) so headed off to Fecamp instead.
Axbridge in Somerset
At the weekend I took a short walk around the Somerset town of Axbridge, close to Cheddar.
Clevedon Pier
Clevedon Pier is a seaside pier in the town of Clevedon, North Somerset, England on the east shore of the Severn Estuary. It was described by Sir John Betjeman, as “the most beautiful pier in England”.
The pier opened in 1869 and served as an embarkation point for paddle steamer excursions for almost exactly 100 years. Two of the spans collapsed during stress testing in 1970 and demolition was proposed, but local fund raising and heritage grants allowed the pier to be dismantled for restoration and reassembled.
It reopened in 1989, the pier now, once again, offers a landing stage for steamers and is a popular attraction for tourists and anglers.
Visiting Edinburgh
Though I have visited Edinburgh lots of times, it has always been for work. My first holiday to Edinburgh was in 2021. Then we had a lot more time to explore the city. However on a recent return visit for work, I had some time for some exploring.
I would have explored more during my visit, but we had lots of rain.
Taking the train to Edinburgh
I recently visited Edinburgh for a conference. As I was in London I caught the train from Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley.
It was a damp early evening when I arrived at Kings Cross.
Went to platform one to get on my train.
The seat I was booked into was a table seat by the window. There was four of us on the table, so it was quite cramped.
I was quite impressed with the speed of the train, taking just four hours and twenty minutes from platform to platform.
Arrived at Edinburgh Waverley.
Walked along the platform to the overbridge.
