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March's Pictures
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Simple pic of a Gondola in Carnival season. I like the reflection from the water personally, it almost looks like it's reflecting off his hull which I think for me makes this picture. So as usual a complete chance causes a good picture. Well I say It's good. As in the (new) old tradition of Big Brother “You Decide”. Hmmm... perhaps I should put a voting thing on this site... on the other hand since comments didn't work then perhaps not.
| 0 comments have been left | 23:48 28 Mar 2009 | Tags: italy gondola boat venice |
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Tracking down U-534 was the order of the day on Sunday. We had previously seen the boat at the Warship Museum in Birkenhead. Since then it has been cut up and transferred to somewhere else. All I knew was that it was the ferry port in Liverpool. Sounding easy enough we set out and wandered about near the Liver Building until we were distracted by a bus tour of Liverpool.
£20 and 50 minutes later we were no nearer but hey we had seen a few of the things to see in Liverpool such as ”Turning the place over” a piece of artwork that is intriguing because you have to marvel at the fact that it could be done but left me feeling only on thing. I just wondered... why?
So the hunt was back on an after talking to the bus driver we found that we were the wrong side of the Mersey. So a trip in the Birkenhead Tunnel and just when I was beginning to think the signs for Woodend Ferry port were going to end us up on the road back through the tunnel the signs delivered on their promise with the Uboat Story. It's an interesting Museum. Perhaps I missed it but a little info on how they put the exhibit up would be nice such as how they are going to stop the thing rusting to nothing and why the chose to do what they did. I assume that fact that they didn't reconstruct it was for two reasons, the first being space and the second being that you would not be able to get the interesting views of the inside of the U-Boat.
What's strange is that it looked so much bigger at the Warship Museum but I assume that was to do with the fact that there the boat was above you, at the Uboat Story you're at the same level as someone would have been working in the boat. With so little space, it's amazing how they fitted 52 men and all that equipment into it.
On the way back through the tunnel the radio was interrupted by a Tunnel Police message which caused me to wonder how they did that, closely followed by the thought as to why we were getting radio down here in the first place. Along with all of this came the worry that if this was a Police message then what the heck was going on and what emergency had occurred until the scary clipped female voice announced that it was a test message. Personally I would have preferred the message to start “This is a test message” rather than “This is a Mersey Tunnel Police message” as the stern woman wasn't the quickest speaker.
| 0 comments have been left | 21:52 23 Mar 2009 | Tags: uboat submarine transport museum mersey |
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With no time this weekend we were coming back from the bike shop with my broken bike (well not too broken) I remembered an owl that I wanted to take a picture of, so I had to hop out and take a picture. Of course just like the the Squirrel this too has been carved from a tree trunk.
It's less impressive but it's a better picture that makes is feel better and it even tells you that it's East Victoria Park as if Victoria Park is big enough to have an East, West, North and South.
| 0 comments have been left | 22:13 19 Mar 2009 | Tags: tree chainsaws owl park |
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I decided not to see the the Uboat that has been moved to Liverpool from Birkenhead, thinking that it would be too far as I was feeling a little tired, so I left it to my Wife for advice. I wish I'd have just gone for my first instinct and gone to Liverpool and be done with it. Quite a lot of driving would have been saved and half a tank of petrol too.
So we headed out on the motorway towards the M62. Approaching the turn-off for Heaton Park she started looking for Abbeydale Industrial Village on the GPS. As soon as this was keyed in we were back on our way home because we were going in the wrong direction completely. So after a long drive there we found it closed for winter. Not wishing to be defeated I looked at the GPS to look for the nearest thing of interest and it came up with Revolution House Museum. With no idea what it was we set out. A while later we were in the vicinity but either we couldn't find it, or it too was closed. So since we were hungry we headed for The Fox Hall, a huge and nice looking pub for a rather late lunch. We saw it on the way to Abbydale but of course we were on a mission then and now we had time on our hands. On the way to the pub my Wife saw a sign for Beauchief Abbey, so in a mad dash to salvage something out of the mammoth drive we followed the sign, only to find a golf course and a closed Abbey. So back on the trail for The Fox Hall
On entering we were intercepted (yes there was no greeting about it) by what looked to be Paul O'Grady's brother who said that there were no tables but we could be put on his list. Looking at his list I spied we were the 6th on it so not bad but could be better. My Wife asked how long we might have to wait (a pretty reasonable question I thought) only to be told that it depended on how long people took to eat... Uhh well yes Einstein. He did finally give us a 10-30 minute guess. He only offered this after he saw our stunned looks after his initial response and then we were offered to the bar. A pint later we left it and it's toilet of the year 2009. Back on the road again, this time heading for home.
Through Hope we started looking for a place to eat, expecting little because we were just expecting anything we found the The Poachers Arms and decided to stop. What a strange place... and that's not bad. It did look like we had just stumbled into someone's house that they had converted into a pub but forgot to remove some of their own stuff. A cross between a pub, front room and restaurant it's a nice change, and the food is good and fresh, it's not been sitting there under heat lamps and the like. Too much fish on the menu for my liking but hey that's just my own personal flaw, not their fault. One Addlestones Premium Cloudy Cider and a full stomach later (I should have had the rump steak, there was nothing wrong with the chicken but I was in a chip mood and steak would have gone down very well too, again my fault) we left for home.
So to the picture. On the way back we came back through Disley. On the way we passed Torkington Park to find the picture I have been trying to take for ages, but since there were nearly zero pictures today I had to hop out and take the snap. I think it's pretty impressive carved out of an old tree that I assume is still in the ground. I'll be disappointed if it were carved off site and planted but suspect that isn't the case, I saw someone on North West Tonight about the very same thing and if it is the same then it'll be all done with chainsaws.
So there we have it, hours and hours of driving to find a picture only 20-30 minutes away.
| 0 comments have been left | 22:02 8 Mar 2009 | Tags: squirrel tree chainsaws torkington |
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