'Tes praper warm in Plymouth.
We went shopping in Plymouth yesterday. It was lunchtime by the time we got there, so we parked on the Barbican, right next to the harbour and went for lunch. Pp had styled his facial hair in the manner of a star-fish. I am not sure if this was some sort of celebration of Plymouth's maritime location or simply coincidence, but it did provoke some comment from passing strangers :-D
We had a good view of the Mayflower Steps. They aren't quite where the Mayflower sailed from to take the Pilgrims off to America in 1620: after all, this place was a busy industrial* harbour and working fishing port for hundreds of years, so it's been pretty extensively rebuilt since then. I'm told that the actual Mayflower probably tied up off to the left of this photo, and that the quay and the steps are all newer. But obviously there is a demand for somewhere for people to go and stand and take photographs of each other celebrating, in some vague way, History, and therefore there is an archway and a sort of a little platform thing to stand on between a UK and a US flag.
I was interested to see this cheerful dog selling icecream. Somehow it seems very appropriate to have a Northern sort of dog selling a frozen food. He seemed to be very happy about his job.
Then we went up into the town and spent some time sweltering among shops with mostly-inadequate airconditioning, but there seemed no point taking photos of that.
Plymouth has definitely become more busy and prosperous and a lot more diverse than when I used to work here 15 years ago. In those days Plymouth was still mostly a Navy town with little other business, and definitely felt poor and a little down at heel, even in the Barbican where there are lovely medieval buildings and harbour views. Now the waterfront is full of little ferries carrying people between the parts of the city, and the quays and cliffs are stuffed with little cafes and shops. And the Hoe where Francis Drake played bowls, waiting for the Spanish Armada, is full of Pokemon-hunters as well as general holiday-makers.
I have found my camera with its broken LCD can still take photos if I use the autofocus lens and automatic settings. It works quite well for landscape photos in bright light, although I always find autofocus just a little frustrating if I am trying to focus on anything specific.
*Among them, piracy or to put it more politely 'privateering' and of course the important 18th century industry of storing unfortunate prisoners in rotting prison ships. I was expecting slavery as well, but apparently Plymouth was never a big slave trading port: that all went through Bristol. 'Dr Todd Gray, a county historian, said: "The good news is that Devon people were not slavers. The bad news is that they were thieves."'
We had a good view of the Mayflower Steps. They aren't quite where the Mayflower sailed from to take the Pilgrims off to America in 1620: after all, this place was a busy industrial* harbour and working fishing port for hundreds of years, so it's been pretty extensively rebuilt since then. I'm told that the actual Mayflower probably tied up off to the left of this photo, and that the quay and the steps are all newer. But obviously there is a demand for somewhere for people to go and stand and take photographs of each other celebrating, in some vague way, History, and therefore there is an archway and a sort of a little platform thing to stand on between a UK and a US flag.
I was interested to see this cheerful dog selling icecream. Somehow it seems very appropriate to have a Northern sort of dog selling a frozen food. He seemed to be very happy about his job.
Then we went up into the town and spent some time sweltering among shops with mostly-inadequate airconditioning, but there seemed no point taking photos of that.
Plymouth has definitely become more busy and prosperous and a lot more diverse than when I used to work here 15 years ago. In those days Plymouth was still mostly a Navy town with little other business, and definitely felt poor and a little down at heel, even in the Barbican where there are lovely medieval buildings and harbour views. Now the waterfront is full of little ferries carrying people between the parts of the city, and the quays and cliffs are stuffed with little cafes and shops. And the Hoe where Francis Drake played bowls, waiting for the Spanish Armada, is full of Pokemon-hunters as well as general holiday-makers.
I have found my camera with its broken LCD can still take photos if I use the autofocus lens and automatic settings. It works quite well for landscape photos in bright light, although I always find autofocus just a little frustrating if I am trying to focus on anything specific.
*Among them, piracy or to put it more politely 'privateering' and of course the important 18th century industry of storing unfortunate prisoners in rotting prison ships. I was expecting slavery as well, but apparently Plymouth was never a big slave trading port: that all went through Bristol. 'Dr Todd Gray, a county historian, said: "The good news is that Devon people were not slavers. The bad news is that they were thieves."'