Holiday Diary - Day 75

Today, after a late start, we headed over to the other side of Luton to find Stockwood Discovery Centre where they have the Mossman Carriage Collection. There was a bit more there to see and we took plenty of photos, so here are some of them.

We found some attractive gardens

Some old farm equipment

A blacksmiths shop

A Roman chariot

More farm equipment

An interesting tree

And some old cars and carriages

Even antique bikes

The carriages were stacked to the roof

I don't know what we will do tomorrow or where we will go. We will see what we will see, and if we get any good photos you will too.

Richard.

Holiday Diary - Day 74

Today we drove from Milton Keynes to Luton via Aylesbury, but we didn't see anything that we wanted to take a closer look at let alone take photos of, so tonight's update is very short and not particularly interesting.

On another note, it is now 10 days until we will be back in Australia.

We don't really have anything planned for tomorrow. Sue wants to have a look at Oxford and Windsor, just to say we've been there, and we're quite close to Oxford so that may be where we end up.

Richard.

Holiday Diary - Day 73

This morning we packed the washing into the car and headed for Dunstable with the intention of doing the washing after lunch, which would be after attending church at Dunstable Salvation Army Corps. Our reasons for choosing Dunstable was because that's where Tony and Sheila worshiped before moving to Australia.

We arrived there just before 11am and left just after 8pm. The reason for this is that it turns out that today was a special day for Dunstable Corps with an "All Comers Band Sunday", so I volunteered myself to join the band (so long as they could find me a trombone, which they did). This meant that after the service we headed for the local KFC for lunch, found a laundromat and put the washing in, then Sue drove me back to the corps for the afternoon practice session the drove back to the laundromat to finish the washing.

After practice the corps put on dinner which saved us the trouble of getting it ourselves.

The guest conductor for today's concert was Dean Jones, a name that most bandspeople should recognise as his name is on quite a few pieces that we play. It was a great day and we both enjoyed the afternoon and evening.

We didn't take our camera so all the photos were taken on someone else's, but they should appear on Facebook at sometime so those that are our friends should be able to see them.

Tomorrow we drive to Luton. We don't have any plans for any sightseeing but we may see something we want to take a closer look at, so who knows.

Richard.

Holiday Diary - Day 72

Today was another travel day (we seem to have a lot of them of this holiday). Today we traveled from Gloucester to Milton Keynes via Swindon where we visited the Steam Museum. We had lots of fun driving around in mobility scooters looking at all the displays.

Here are some of the things we saw in the museum.

I especially liked the early idea of a "sleek aerodynamic design" in that second last photo.

Tomorrow we're going to find a church and a laundromat, in that order, so don't expect any photos.

Richard.

Holiday Diary - Day 71

Today we got off to a late start and decided to check out the shopping centre next to the motel (it also happens to be where the care is parked). We didn't find anything of interest so we headed across the road to have some lunch and check out the Hobby Craft store nearby.

After this we drove to Filkins to check out Cotswold Woollen Weavers. We didn't take the camera so there are no photos but there wasn't really anything to take photos of. It was quite interesting and there was quite a bit there to see but the machines weren't being operated so we couldn't see them in action.

We still had a couple of hours to kill before we needed to be at cousin Janet's place so we drove into Swindon where we saw signs pointing us to Steam and Heritage Museum, so we followed them. Unfortunately we were a bit too late as they were just closing up when we got there. There is a good chance we will get back there tomorrow as it's not far out of our way to Milton Keynes.

So, the plan for tomorrow is to drive to Milton Keynes via Swindon, visit the steam museum and possibly catch a train that is also in that area. We will definitely have the camera with us for these so expect photos tomorrow night.

Richard.

Holiday Diary - Day 70

Today was another travel day, however, it is a 3 hour trip from Bradford to Gloucester and we had to break the trip somewhere, so we had a break in Bourneville. For those that don't know (or didn't read last night's blog), Bourneville is the home on Cadbury's Chocolates, and they have demonstrations, tours, samples and the largest Cadbury's shop in the world.

We couldn't take photos while at Cadbury's, although we did get our photo taken, so we did the next best thing, and here are today's photos.

While wandering around Cadbury World we had a little car ride

Our stash from today's visit to Cadbury's

I'm not sure what the plan is for tomorrow but I'm sure we will find something to do during the day. Tomorrow night we will be having dinner with cousin Janet.

Richard.

Holiday Diary - Day 69

Today we headed a little way north to Shipley to find Salts Mill. Salts Mill was originally a textile mill that handled the whole process from fleece to finished fabric, ready to be made into clothing or other items. These days the building houses an art gallery, restaurant and other shops as well as an electronics manufacturing firm. There was a small section that acted as a museum and gave the history of the mill and the town of Saltaire, which was pretty much where Shipley is now.

Part of the main building

The smoke stack for the steam engine

After visiting the Mill we went to find Shipley Station as Sue thought there was a steam tram running today but when the guy at the desk wanted 60+ pounds for the trip we figured that it wasn't worth it and that it was probably just the regular trains running. None of the historical trains charged anywhere near that amount.

Across the road  from the station was a Mcdonalds with a pleasant little creek next to it so we had lunch there.

Several bridges cross this creek

After lunch we decided to try and the Bradford Industrial Museum where we found quite a few different items of machinery.

An old crane next to the car park

Lots of old vehicles built by Jowett

A steam engine

A double decker tram

A trolly bus powered by electricity from overhead wires

There was quite a large workshop with several steam engines and machines that they powered with overhead belts and pullies.

A water wheel currently powered by an electric motor rather than water

The above water wheel currently runs the clock at the top of the picture.

Even Dr Who gets a display

We were a little disappointed about the train but I'm sure there will be more chances to ride steam trains in the next couple of weeks.

Tomorrow we go to Gloucester via Bourneville. Sue wants to visit Cadbury's.

Richard.