Bart Bear's Blog

One of the "must see" places in London is Madame Tussauds. This is a museum full of wax dummies of famous (and infamous) people. It is housed in the old London Planetarium, easy to get to by bus or tube from anywhere in London. The Oldies were there during their big overseas trip back in 2007 (the one that they didn't take me on because the customs people at Heathrow were impounding small critters). The display changes over the years, but there are around 100 statues on display at any time. Naturally, the Oldies misbehave when I am not around to keep them in line, so here they are hamming it up with some of their favourite dummies. Mum is snuggling up to Johnny Depp and Nicholas Cage. I can't show the photo of what she did with Tom Jones. Dad is trying to convince Admiral Nelson and Sir Francis Drake that jeans and t-shirt are far more comfortable than the gear they are wearing, and is discussing the finer points of cosmology with Albert Einstein. In the lower levels of the museum is the Chamber of Horrors. This is full of wax dummies of notorious murderers and criminals. A scary addition is the use of actors who creep around in the gloomy sections and scare visitors. I am not sure I would like the Chamber of Horrors, but I sure would like to see the rest and Mum would get a great kick out of snuggling up to Benedict Cumberbatch's replica.

Labels: England, London

Another place that the Oldies visited in 2007 was St Ives in Cornwall. They say that St Ives is one of the prettiest towns in the UK. Like many of the towns in Cornwall, it is built around a small harbour. The road into town is so narrow that tourist buses aren't allowed to drive into town. They have to stop at a parking area out of town and tourists are taken into town in small shuttle buses. The first photo was taken from this parking area. You can see the harbour and the tall tower of the church. The streets near the harbour were packed with people sunning themselves (it was a cloudless, warm day and the English grab every bit of sunshine they can get. It usually takes them around half a day to badly sunburn on Australian beaches:) What I find strange is that the harbour was almost empty of water. It is several metres deep when the tide comes in but at low tide the boats sit on the sand. At the entrance to the harbour is a small lighthouse, another one for Mum's growing collection of "lighthouses I have visited". Oh yes; there was no sign of a lot of kittens, cats, sacks and wives going or coming on the roads. The Oldies keep saying that they would like to go back and spend a few weeks driving around Cornwall and I keep encouraging them to go, provided they take me with them.

Labels: England, lighthouse

Here's some photos of one of the most famous ships in the world. It is HMS Victory, preserved at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in England since1922. The Oldies spent a day at the dockyard during their big trip in 2007. They were running out of time, so didn't get photos of the inside. Things would have been different if I was there, no excuses about spending too much time looking at the remains of the "Mary Rose". "Victory" has been the flagship of many English admirals at many battles. Admiral Keppel at Ushant in 1778, Howe at Cape Spartel in 1782, Jervis at Cape St Vincent in 1797 and, most famously, Nelson at Trafalgar in 1805. Actually, she is still a commissioned ship of the Royal Navy and is the flagship of the First Sea Lord. Not bad for a ship launched in 1765. Now look at that fantastic forest of ropes, spars and woodwork. It is an artwork as well as a ship and can't you just imagine the fun a small bear could have climbing and clambering all over it? Next time I go too.

Labels: boats, England

No doubt about it, people were smaller in the Middle Ages. Just look at this suit of armour that Dad is leaning on. Much as Dad would love to wear a suit of armour like that, there is a big problem - there is no way that he would fit into it. I should point out that I am not just referring to Dad's circumference, but his height and the length of his legs and arms as well. The Oldies saw lots of armour during their big trip and all of them were about the same size, too small for any adult in their tour group. Sadly, they didn't see any small ones that would fit me either. I would really like my own personal suit of armour so that dogs would not be a problem any more. With proper armour, a good sword and a long lance I would even tackle the nasty Alsatian that lives up the road. This armour is in Boringdon Hall near Plymouth. Boringdon Hall was the most interesting and comfortable place that the Oldies stayed. It is a big manor house that has been renovated and extended to a great hotel. In fact, the original Boringdon Hall was built before 1086, so it is a historic building and at some stage the armour was actually worn in battle .

Labels: England

One of the places in England that the Oldies liked best is Portsmouth. Here is one of their photos of the entrance to Portsmouth harbour. You can see that the entrance is fairly narrow and has forts on each side of the harbour mouth. The big white thing is the Spinnaker Tower. You get great views of the harbour and the historic dockyard from the tower's observation deck. Dad was a bit wobbly when they went up the tower. It has a glass floor in one place and he just wouldn't walk across it. Portsmouth is the main naval base in Britain and you can lots of warships there. In fact it has been the main navy port for centuries, since Roman times. You can see some famous ships here in the historic dockyard, "Warrior", "Victory" and "Mary Rose" among them. I will show you some of these later.

Labels: boats, England

These are photos of the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset, UK. The Oldies visited the ruins during their big trip in 2007. The abbey started out as a small church sometime in the 7th century. It survived both the Saxon and the Norman conquests of Britain and by the early 11th century it was the largest, richest and most powerful monastery and church in Britain. It was destroyed during the reign of King Henry VIII. The ruins are really impressive, so the abbey must have been really spectacular. Back in 1191 a fire destroyed lots of the buildings and in 1191 the monks claimed to have discovered the grave of King Arthur there. Nobody knows for sure if they did, but it sure increased the number of visitors to the abbey and helped the rebuilding program no end. There is a sign in the ruins that marks the place where the grave was claimed to be. Some people say that the ruins are haunted. I don't know about ghosts, but here is a picture of a strange creature that Mum saw lurking in the ruins.

Labels: England

Here's an incriminating picture from the Oldies' big trip through the UK back in 2007. The place is Denton Fort. The rocks are part of the remains of Hadrian's Wall. The old guy is my Dad and he is trying to swipe one of the rocks. Fortunately, the rocks are all firmly cemented in place so he couldn't get it and he didn't get into deep trouble. The wall was built around 1900 years ago during the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian. It stretched for 117 kilometres right across a narrow bit of England. The idea was to keep the Scots and Picts from raiding farms on what was the extreme border of the empire. In places the wall was up to 3 metres wide and 6 metres high. There were forts roughly every Roman mile. One of these was at Denton and you can see the foundations of the small tower there. This is not the most impressive remnant of the wall, but it has the advantage that tour buses can park right next to it so Oldies don't have to walk through muddy paddocks to see it.

Labels: England

Yesterday the Oldies took me to see the new Robin Hood movie. Robin Hood is one of my heroes, up there with Captain Cook and Smithy. Although the critics have been a bit negative about the movie, I thought it was great. None of this squeaky-clean men-in-tights thing, but real 13th century grimy reality; it was a tough and dangerous time to be alive. I didn't even mind the way that history was twisted for the sake of the plot, it is a story about a (possibly) mythical hero after all. One thing that I noticed was the trees. The "greenwood" is ever so different to Australian forests. The Oldies knew that, of course, because they saw what remains of some English and French forests while they were on their big trip overseas. Mind you, most of the "forests" are pretty tame now, very little wildwood left anywhere it seems. The photos are actually of trees in the parklands around castles, but the trees are the same as Robin and his men would have been living among. The most important type is the one in the central image. It is a yew tree. Yew wood is what Robin Hood's bow, and all of the famous English longbows, were made from. They are also trees with character, and they look like something a small bear could easily climb.

Labels: England, heroes

One of the things that the Oldies did while they were in England was to go for harbour cruises whenever they could. I have almost forgiven them for leaving me at home with my uncles..... Some of the harbours had not just ferrys, cargo ships and passenger liners, but warships as well. The most exciting ships are aircraft carriers. I mean, the Oldies and I love ships and aircraft, so carriers are the ultimate. When they were at Plymouth they could see, way off in the distance, HMS Ark Royal being guided out of the harbour by tugs and they could see destroyers going out to form the screen for her. She was so far away that the best photo they could get at maximum zoom was not too good, but they were really excited to have seen her at all. A week later they were at Portsmouth and there was the Ark, moored at the naval dockyard. Their little cruise boat went so close that they couldn't fit her into the camera frame from the side. Happy Oldies. Ark Royal is the fifth Royal Navy ship to carry that name, three of the earlier ones were also carriers. She went into service in 1985 and is the RN flagship. At present she only operates helicopters and is mostly used as a Commando Carrier. I would have liked to see her a few years back when she had Harriers on board. There were some more carriers at Portsmouth, a French one and HMS Illustrious. The only thing missing was a small bear or two. Oldies please note.

Labels: boats, England

Did you know that bears are found all over the world? Not just travelling bears like Scruffy and I, but bears that live in the same country all the time. Of course, some countries have the big dangerous type of bear, like the Grizzlies and Kodiaks, but in just about every town around the world there is a shop with a sign a bit like this. (Dad says that there are some countries where there is so much trouble that there aren't shops like this, but I bet there is some sort of bear available somehow). This sign is on a shop in a place called York in the UK. York has lots of interesting things, a really big cathedral, ruins of ancient buildings and some preserved ones as well and a really great museum about the Vikings, who founded York (or Jorvik as they called it), way back in the tenth century. For me, the most interesting thing is that right in the middle of the old part of town there is a shop that is full of my cousins waiting for a home.

Labels: England

Here's another photo of the Oldies on their big trip last year. They are at Land's End, as far to the west as you can go in England. Actually they could have gone a bit further down a narrow, winding, steep path onto some rocks but sometimes they show surprising common sense. It was an unusual day when they were there. The weather was fine and sunny. Usually it is cold, windy and wet and tourists can't get pictures like this. The lighthouse on the rocks in the background (I think that should be backocean) is called Longships Light. The first lighthouse on this rock was put there in 1795 but it was only 12 metres high and waves often broke right over it so a taller one was built there in 1872. There is a helipad on top of the lighthouse now so that workers don't have to make the dangerous trip out to the light in boats any more.

Labels: England, lighthouse

Dad isn't into fancy cheeses with fancy names. His favourite is ordinary old cheddar. On their big trip last year the Oldies visited the place where this cheese was first made. It is called Cheddar Gorge and is in Somerset in England. The village is inside the biggest gorge in the UK. There are lots of caves in the gorge walls and you can go into some of them if you have time. The oldest complete human skeleton in the UK, over 9,000 years old, was found in one of the caves. Some caves have been used as houses, barns and cheese factories since prehistoric times. The locals say that "modern" cheddar cheese was invented way back in the 12th century when a milkmaid forgot a bucket of milk in one of the caves and when she found it months later the greeblies in the cave and the cool air had turned the milk into cheese. Cheddar Gorge is a very pretty place so visit it if you are in the UK, try real cheddar cheese and sample the other Somerset specialty, an innocent-tasting vicious cider called Scrumpy (the Oldies found out about that one the hard way).

Labels: England

They finally caught up with Dad and put him under lock and key. Just kidding. This is a set of "stocks" in the grounds of Warwick castle in England. Back in the bad old days they used to put people that the authorities didn't like in these things. They even had smaller ones for kids (actually, I know a few kids that need to be put in stocks for a day or two). The stocks were usually in the castle courtyard or near the side of a road where everybody could see who was in trouble and throw things at them. This set is only used by tourists today. The top bar is left unlocked so that visitors can have their photo taken in them. I am glad that they let Dad go.

Labels: England

You can always cause an energetic debate at our place by talking about your favourite aircraft. For instance, Mum likes modern, fast, noisy jet planes while Dad likes the old, slow propellor ones, preferably with more than one wing and lots of wire. I like all sorts. If Mum has to admit to liking any propellor type, she goes for this one, the Boeing B-17 Fortress. I think it is because she likes old war movies and the Yanks always make a big thing out of their B-17s. Dad won't have it. He points out that the British planes of the same period were much superior. The Lancaster carried a bigger load, further, and the Mosquito (at half the size and with less than a quarter the crew of the B-17) flew faster, higher and further with around the same load. I notice that doesn't stop him building models of the B-17 though. We have 5 different versions of it on our model shelves, but then we do have 7 different marks of Mosquito. Anyhow, on their big trip last year Mum got to see B-17s in the aviation museums at Duxford and Hendon. This one is at Duxford and is painted to represent a famous B-17 called "Memphis Belle". Mum was so excited by being able to get close to it that she kept getting between Dad's camera and the plane, so most of his photos of it have a bit of Mum's head in them as well.

Labels: aircraft, England

Here's Mum at one of the great pieces of engineering the Oldies visited on their big trip. This is part of the Thames Barrier at Woolwich in London. The barrier is there to prevent London being flooded by a combination of high tides and storm surges. To get to the barrier the oldies had to take a long boat trip down the river. I would have enjoyed that, but they left me behind with Unka Paddy. The silver shells house the big motors that raise and lower the floodgates. The gates were all down when the oldies were there. I think it would have been fun if the gates had come up while they were on the outside and locked them out for a while.

Labels: boats, engineering, England

Here's my globe-tottering oldies at a place called Stonehenge in England. This is a place they are interested in because it is one of the oldest astronomical calculators in the world, and both my oldies are astronomers. Stonehenge was build about 4000 years ago, around about the time the Egyptians stopped building pyramids. The stones are set out in patterns that show things like solstices and equinoxes, and can even predict eclipses. Great stuff for the ancient British astronomers who only had years of eyeball observations to work from. They were pretty good engineers as well. Imagine moving those heavy stone blocks cross-country from the quarries to the site and then putting them together in exactly the right spots. Our ancestors were really clever people.

Labels: England

Here's another photo from my Oldies' Big Trip. They took this one while they were riding the London Eye (without the benefit of a small bear to point out interesting things for them). Dad says it is the scene that really says "London" to him because it shows so many famous London places. You can see the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, some of Whitehall and Big Ben. I like Big Ben best, because there was a movie bear called that. According to Dad the most interesting thing is the river, because the bit to the left of the bridge is where Sir Alan Cobham landed his DH.50 at the end of his England-Australia-and-return flight in 1926. Dad sure likes aviation history. Mum liked the ride.

Labels: England, London

Here's another photo of a place my globe-tottering Oldies visited while I was at Unka Patrick's. This is Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in England. They took this photo from up a high tower called the Spinnaker Tower. Dad must have been a bit green. The big ship with lots of masts and yellow funnels is HMS Warrior. This was the first iron battleship to be driven by a steam engine and propellor and back in 1860 was the largest and fastest ship in the world. If you look carefully at the picture you can see lots of ships. HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar is in the middle of the picture. It is a bit hidden because it is not in the water. You can see two aircraft carriers. The closer one is HMS Ark Royal and the other one is a French one. There are lots of destroyers and smaller ships there as well. I wish I had been with them; I do like boats.

Labels: boats, England

I didn't mind having to stay with Unka Patrick while the oldies were away, but there was a couple of places they visited that I really would like to have seen. This is one of them. It is the RAF museum at Hendon, north of London. Hendon used to be one of London's airports and a fighter base. Now it is mostly warehouses and this great museum . The museum has examples of just about every type of aircraft the RAF ever used, and some "enemy" types as well. The oldies spent a day there and took hundreds of photos. This is part of just one display hall and in it I can see a Bf 109, a Kawasaki Ki-100, a P-51D Mustang, a DH Mosquito, an Me 262, a Eurofighter Typhoon, a Fokker D.7, a Sopwith Camel, a Sikorsky R-4, a Hawker Hart, an airship gondola and a cruise missile. Honest, it looks just like a bigger version of one of Dad's model shelves.

Labels: aircraft, England

Here's my mad Dad at a rather special place. The line on the ground that he is standing over is the Prime Meridian of the Earth. It is at Greenwich Observatory in London, where the astronomy was done to set up the navigation system for sailors. If you look at a map of the world you will see this line marked as 0 degrees of longitude, running from pole to pole. All east-west distances on the Earth are measured from this line. Dad is standing with a foot in the eastern half of the world and one in the western half, pretty good for an old codger. Now he has the urge to stand on the other side of the world straddling the 180 degree line. That sounds good to me, because the 180 line crosses land in my favourite place. You guessed it, it's in eastern Fiji and Captain Cook has a cruise that takes you right there. If they do go there I will be going with them because the Fijian customs guys all know me and I just love Captain Cook's boat.

Labels: astronomy, Captain Cook, England, Fiji