travel Archives - Page 7 of 9

November 16, 2015

Out and about in the Lake District in 1998

Following on from my last blog post, here are the final pictures from that Lake District trip. It was rather cold up there and every so often you would see something that reminded you of this, this frozen waterfall is a good example.

I loved how this bridge was more than just stones as the local fauna dover the sides, making it look like a living bridge.

This is one of those images that has uses for presentations that talk about barriers. It was used to keep the sheep in the field…

One thing you find a lot of in the Lake District are sheep!

November 2, 2015

Some more holiday pics from Normandy.

I’ve already published some blog posts about a trip I took to Normandy in the 1990s. In the first I talked about Honfleur and the second was on Caen. Here are the remaining pictures. Back then of course I was using film in my 35mm SLR, which I was quite conservative about the number of photographs I would take and in some cases there would also be prints with the little stickers that the developers would place on those underexposed, blurred images that I would occasionally take.

There was something quite special (as well as quite annoying) in taking photographs with film and then once you had handed it into Boots (or similar place) and then a few days later, collected your prints in the wallet, leafing through them as you walked through the town to see how they turned out. We seemed to have less coffee shops back then too, otherwise I am sure I would have sat down in one of those, ordered a coffee and looked over the photographs. These images, looking at the “box” they came in, were sent off for developing and the postman would have delivered them to the house. In today’s digital world, I now take substantially more images (as I did on a recent visit to London) and there is more instant gratification, as you see them on the small screen on the back of the camera (or phone); or as you load them onto the computer or laptop.

The first stop of the trip was arriving into Ouistreham, it serves as the port of the city of Caen. We had undertaken an overnight trip to France and this was the early morning arival at the port.

As well as serving large ferries, many sailboats also are moored in Ouistreham, used for cruising up and down the Normandy coast.

Of course with no GPS, I have no idea where the following images were taken. I remember stopping at a cafe for coffee and a croissant for breakfast. Knowing the journey we took from Ouistreham to Honfleur, before driving back to Caen, I would guess this was Cabourg, but could be Houlgate, or somewhere different. I did take a quick look at Google Maps and Streetview, but to be honest there was so much to look through I didn’t think it was worth the effort.

I do think that this final shot is Honfleur, but I could be wrong…

Looking back over these old photographs, makes me realise how much I enjoyed visiting Normandy back then, so I think I might start planning a return visit soon.

October 14, 2015

Ludlow Castle

I have taken quite a few photographs of Ludlow Castle, but I have never actually visited the castle itself.

These were taken back in 2000 (or possibly earlier).

Click the images for larger versions.

October 11, 2015

Caen in Normandy

In the late 1990s I made a weekend trip to Normandy, and we stayed in Caen having first visited Honfleur. On this trip I had taken my relatively new at the time, 35mm SLR and took some photographs.

All down the Normandy coast are marinas full of boats, this appears to be very much part of the culture of the place, but also they welcome hordes of visiting sailing boats from the south of England, as well as Spanish, Belgian and Dutch seafarers.

One of my overwhelming memories of that trip was a visit to the local market in Cane and the smell of tomatoes. You could smell them from some distance away from the stall.

Even today I have never found an English market come close to those that I found in Normandy on that trip. Certaiinly the Italian markets I visited at the same kind of time were similar, full of fresh produce.

There were things there that you would never find in the British markets (or supermarkets) at the time, but things have changed.

I wonder if these markets still exist?

I remember at the time noticing this jeep like car, only later did I know it was a Citroën Méhari.

The Citroën Méhari is a light utility car and off-roader produced by the French automaker Citroën, a variant of the Citroën 2CV. nearly 150,000 Méharis were built between the car’s French launch in May 1968 and 1988 when production stopped. This means that this car was at least ten years old, but may have been even older. In case you didn’t know a méhari is a type of fast-running dromedary camel, which can be used for racing or transport.

October 5, 2015

Mountains and hills in the Lake District

Back in 1998 I made one of my last visits to the Lake District, after quite a few years of visiting the place on a regular basis. These photographs are from that final trip, where in the Lake District, to be honest I have no real idea, but I think some of these are around Buttermere.

Click the images to see larger versions.

This was down by one of the lakes, no idea which one, but I think it’s Buttermere.

Even then I wasn’t sure where we were, just went with the flow with the group I was with at the time. This may have been after leaving Buttermere on the way to Wasdale Head.

This is from a walk around Buttermere.

September 17, 2015

Honfleur in Normandy

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.

It was very much as I remembered from my childhood visits, not much had changed.

The harbour was still the centrepiece of the town and had a range of boats moored within it.

The streets were still narrow and crowded with cars, trucks and people.

Off to the sides were narrow streets and alleys.

This building sticks in my memory, it always looked as though it was thrown together over time.

Would I like to go again, yes I would. One day…

August 19, 2015

Pembrokeshire coast

The coastal pathways in Pembrokeshire are stunning, as these photographs of mine from 1998 show.

Beautiful cliff paths, that as you walk along, you can see the waves crash against the rocks below.

July 27, 2015

That’s one scary landing…

The big storm in the Netherlands made for some difficult landings at Schipol Airport as you can see with his landing captured on video.

Glad I wasn’t in that plane.

July 2, 2015

15 Classic Cars in Weston-super-Mare

So let’s be frank about this, I really don’t know that much about classic cars, however I have recently thought it would be nice to own an old classic motor.

These photographs were taken at a recent classic car event in Weston-super-Mare, I can guess what some of them are, but please add a comment if you are more confident than me in what they are.

1. 1931 Austin Seven Swallow