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August's Pictures
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Another one to add to my signs collection. Not as daft as the rest but still a little daft. This is in Dungeness with the obligatory Wikipedia article which is pretty interesting so I recommend reading it.
It's a confusing trip to the headland, there are two roads and the one we took takes you down a really bad road past a military firing range which was a bit of a worry as we headed down the road because we the signs aren't exactly explicit, so perhaps someone's turned a couple around. Not wishing to be put off by a few signs we carried on only to find that we were being followed by a white van travelling over this really bumpy damaged road faster than we were. Naturally my first thought was that we were soon to be faced with a few angry military men. Luckily when we stopped we found that in actual fact we were on the right road. We had turned up at the coast which is a site of special scientific interest with fines for doing the wrong thing. It also turned out that the white van people were interested in what was at Dungeness like us and they disappeared soon after appearing. There's nothing much there really though the beach is tranquil if you have time for such things which at the time we didn't.
Anyway back to the sign. It's not a strange sign in itself. In fact it's pretty self explanatory unless you see the other signs that are there. Further down there's a sign to say that you should not enter the firing range which is pretty good advise really so in what way would I be staring at any military debris if I were to obey the first sign. Also bearing in mind they're talking about debris would I be able to distinguish military debris from other debris? Well I hope so. The other strange thing is that the site is only fenced off on three sides. Get to the beach and there's no fence. Mind you you'll have to be either really unlucky or really stupid to stray. It's not as if the range has been decommissioned because there are firing dates on one of the gates.
As I finished this picture we were passed by a military security van. Knowing how they love people taking pictures of military land it's possible we were only seconds away from a serious questioning... phew.
| 0 comments have been left | 19:49 23 Aug 2009 | Tags: sign dungeness military debris |
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The town of Battle, mainly famous for the podgy pop boys of Keane and rightly so, but did you know it was also famous for something else? Oh yes, in a little known battle in 1066 King Harold and Duke William had a bit of a tiff. Oh of course you know, it was the battle of Hastings... just not in Hastings but I suppose then Battle wasn't Battle and the nearest town was Hastings so I'll let them off.
I must admit I turned up here not expecting much. I liked Culloden in a similarly unexpected way. I was expecting the same there, but I shouldn't have worried. So long as you're interested in what happened before and during the battle then both places are interesting but then again I suspect that's obvious really.
This picture is of the walls surrounding the Abbey that William erected on the top of the hill where Harold's men were killed. Battle is a pretty town but the main building is the English Heritage site so there's probably little else to see there but don't ask me, ask the guys from Keane.
| 0 comments have been left | 22:48 22 Aug 2009 | Tags: battle hastings abbey clouds |
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Dr Who seems to get about a bit which being a Time Lord I suspect is rather easy. Last time I spotted his vehicle at a Dr Who museum, before that I saw it at Crich Tram museum and now the latest spotting was at the Kent Police Museum strangely enough in Chatham's Historic Dock. The Police museum is small but rather interesting with a full display of cap badges for the whole of England a mock prison cell and a cheery retired policeman of 30 years to answer any questions.
Of course that museum wasn't the point of the trip. We were at the historic dock with a range of ships to walk around including a submarine and a ropewalk tour which sort of explained ropemaking giving you the opportunity to view the longest rope shed in thw world at a quarter of a mile long. Unfortunately whilst they were making rope at the time we didn't see anything much going on.
| 0 comments have been left | 14:42 21 Aug 2009 | Tags: dr. who phonebox museum chatham |
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With the sun out again it was time to head out to the beach because it appears that I was in possetion of far too much white skin apparently red or brown is preferable. So as the title suggested we popped down to Herne Bay which is just down from Reculver, a place we visited on Sunday. It's a smallish seaside town filled with people who sound like Ray Winston (when he's playing the part of Londoner which is all the time). Nothing much to report other than it was one of the places (the only place if the blurb is to be belived) that the bouncing bomb was tested and a place with not just one pier but two.
In this picture you can see both... Honest. The new one is obvious and not have friends trying to save it. We didn't look round it but it doesn't look like mutch. The old one is the small dark thing on the horizon and the only part left of it which is the pier head and apparently used to ttake passengers to France by boat of course but by the looks of it by the time they got there they would have travelled most of the 20 odd miles. Abandon in th early 1800's because of lack of interest and a deterioration of the structure this is all that remains.
| 0 comments have been left | 14:03 20 Aug 2009 | Tags: beach pier sea sand |
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Today was Dover Castle just thirty minutes away unless you believe the GPS then it one and a half hours away just off the coast from Ipswich. We would have to get a ferry from Harwich and drive overboard some time into the trip to Holland. Guess what? Today no-one got wet.
So to the real Dover Castle instead of badly input point somewhere in the sea. It's huge and similar to Pendennis Castle as it was a castle used right up to and including World War II. The difference is Dover Castle is huge but in some ways less interesting but a full day out anyway as there's lots to do. The medieval tunnels are OK with a tour of the larger medieval tunnels that were extended and reused for WWII which was pretty impressive if not a little rushed (at 50 minutes mind you). The Great Tower is good too with an impressive view of Dover from the top.
The picture is a statue of Admiral Ramsay at Dover who organised Operation Dynamo an operation to rescue troops from occupied France. He also organised the Normandy landings.
| 0 comments have been left | 12:04 19 Aug 2009 | Tags: admiral statue ramsay dover |
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What I have found strange is that there no car parks where you park you car and pay when you leave, only pay and display down here which makes it very difficult when you have absolutely no money on you. Despite this we took advantage of a Sainsburys to buy one pack of mints with a tenner.
Anyway on to Canterbury Cathedral, it's huge as you can imagine and similar to Seville's Cathedral in that respect. Unfortunately I felt tired and a bit uninterested in Cathedrals and the like (probably not the best day to be here but never mind). Despite this the Cathedral is beautiful and I'm hoping the picture come out OK so I can share them here at a a later date.
| 0 comments have been left | 13:18 17 Aug 2009 | Tags: canterbury cathedral clouds tower |
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In an attempt to recover out English Heritage membership we went to Reculver Tower which turned out to be free. The tower threatened by the sea was OK, but the off shore gun emplacements were more interesting and viewable with a really strong zoom lens. Unfortunately I left the tripod in the car so it was all a bit jittery.
With Margate looking as good as Blackpool we moved on to Ramsgate, my current location with a mobile signal. More than can be said for the holiday cottage.
| 0 comments have been left | 14:46 16 Aug 2009 | Tags: tower reculver clouds ruin |
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My Wife would hate this one for two reasons. For a start it's too dark and as for the angle that's just bad... So it's a good job that my wife doesn't run this site otherwise the Llandudno picture would have been more bland and dark to have been on the site... she said.
This time I took the shot for the clouds and the angle because I couldn't go any further back, so this was the only way to get the whole thing in.
We did the the tour and it was OK and I must admit I was surprised, mainly because I'd been to the hall twice before other than as a tourist and I'd never seen the whole place.
| 0 comments have been left | 23:56 3 Aug 2009 | Tags: hall clouds bramhall grass |
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