Our Holiday

This week we have visited Hinton Ampner, a National Trust house near Winchester. The house is lovely with beautifully restored rooms following a fire in the 1960's. The gardens were quite large with many paths winding around the borders. It also has a walled garden for vegetables and flowers.

Our next day trip was to London to visit Docklands Museum which tells the story of the Port of London from Roman times through to the present day covering slavery, world trade, the Second World War and todays regeneration. It was a fascinating visit which filled most of our day. Later we went for a ride on the Docklands Light Railway (Em and I hadn't been before but Tony uses DLR for work)

Tuesday afternoon we all went to see Wall. E. which we all enjoyed.
Wednesday we travelled up to London again, this time to visit Tower Bridge exhibition which took us up to the walkways above the bridge. We were able to look out across London and spot the places we knew, for Tony and Em it was a first visit but I had visited when I was the same age as Em is now with my Dad and a couple of friends. This time we went up in a lift but on my first visit we had to walk up a staircase that seemed to go on and on for ever. Later we also saw the engine room with the steam engine that used to lift the bridge until 1976 when it was replaced. We walked along the banks of the River Thames past City Hall and on to Hayes Galleria which gave us protection from a deluge of rain and provided a shopping opportunity.

Thursday we stayed at home. On Friday we went to Polesdon Lacey (National Trust) in Surrey which is the former home of Mrs Greville, a well known Edwardian hostess who entertained royalty including King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Yesterday and today have been full of odd jobs and house work.