(no subject)
Days 8-11,
Day 8, Aug. 29- Beach day! Drove down to Dorset, to Lyme Regis. It's a cute little beach town on the Jurassic Coast. We explored the beach and the town, then went down to a different part of the beach that's under some cliffs, where there are a lot of fossils you can find, from the constantly deteriorating cliffs (hence, Jurassic Coast). We spent a while hunting for fossils (West found a really good one imprinted into a huge rock, we couldn't take it with us because the rock was too huge), and another smaller one that we took home. After a good amount of fossil hunting we headed back to town to seek out lunch. Did an unnecessary long walk up a steep hill looking for someplace that was 1) not crowded, 2) had food West would eat, and 3) was still open, struck out on that walk, and went back to the center of town and found a tiny 17th century pub, the Bell Cliff, that ended up having good food and was in a super cool old building. Nice! Drove back to Salisbury and settled into The Haunch of Venison, a 700 year old pub in Salisbury that is totes haunted. Decades ago they found a severed hand hidden behind the wall near the fireplace, in what used to be a bread oven, so now they have a fake hand displayed in the old bread oven, and we got a table right next to it. Had a friendly conversation with an old guy in the pub.
Day 9, Aug. 30- Drew's birthday! Started the day with breakfast at a place called The Boston Tea Party, in a medieval building in Salisbury (Shakespeare supposedly spent time there back in the day). We went to Oxford, which again, Drew and I had been to on a previous trip years ago. West was a total delight. Went to the Natural History Museum, the Pitt-Rivers Museum, got lunch at the Eagle & Child, and went to the Ashmolean Museum. We were pretty museum-ed out by the end of the day! West really like the Pitt-Rivers. Unfortunately, we were one day too early for an exhibit at the Ashmolean about witchcraft, Drew tried to talk his way into seeing it, but no dice. We should have done our research a little better, but it was still a nice day. I think this was the evening we spent some time in the Wig & Quill and the Chapter House, a couple of super old (and haunted!) pubs in Salisbury, they both had nice outdoors gardens for sitting around and reading books/drawing while sipping beers.
Day 10, Aug. 31- Last full day. In an effort to give me a break from driving, since I'd been driving every single day of vacation, we took a bus to Bournemouth to check out the air show festival there. Bournemouth is a beach town, but it doesn't have much old stuff to see, and it's not cute the way Lyme Regis is. It reminded me of Old Orchard Beach in Maine, it has an air of vague seediness. There isn't much to do there besides be on the beach, eat beach food, or let you kid do the various kid activities. West had a great day, he got to bounce around in some bouncy houses, and then in the festival part (which was basically a giant recruitment tool for the British military), he got to sit in a tank, a helicopter, a tiny airplane, and check out all the military equipment that was out to dazzle children and convince them that joining the army/air force/navy is cool. So, West had fun, Drew and I maybe could have lived with a different choice if we'd known it would be kinda boring for adults. We got some lunch at a fancy pizza place, then caught a bus back to Salisbury. We got back in time for Drew to check out an antiques store he wanted to visit, and I dragged us to the totally haunted cafe in a Debenham's department store. Later that evening we went on a ghost walk that was super interesting, and totally made up for a slightly bummer earlier day.
Day 11, Sept. 1- Flight day, but our flight wasn't until 4:00, so we had plenty of time to pack up and wend our back towards Heathrow. We stopped in Winchester on our way. Wandered around the town. Checked out the medieval Great Hall, which has King Arthur's Round Table (I think science has now disproved that it was actually from Arthurian times), and that was a nice little fun time. There isn't much to see besides the huge table up on the wall, but they had dress up clothes that West had fun with. After that, there was a tiny hidden museum in the city wall gate close to the Great Hall, so we popped up there to check it out, again, not much to see, but still fun and interesting. Then it was really time to get going, we got to Heathrow, turned in the car, had a leisurely lunch, and then it was time to fly back home.
All in all, a fantastic trip, with some old hits and new gems, and I feel like we saw a bunch of places that are off the beaten path from the usual tourist spots.
Day 8, Aug. 29- Beach day! Drove down to Dorset, to Lyme Regis. It's a cute little beach town on the Jurassic Coast. We explored the beach and the town, then went down to a different part of the beach that's under some cliffs, where there are a lot of fossils you can find, from the constantly deteriorating cliffs (hence, Jurassic Coast). We spent a while hunting for fossils (West found a really good one imprinted into a huge rock, we couldn't take it with us because the rock was too huge), and another smaller one that we took home. After a good amount of fossil hunting we headed back to town to seek out lunch. Did an unnecessary long walk up a steep hill looking for someplace that was 1) not crowded, 2) had food West would eat, and 3) was still open, struck out on that walk, and went back to the center of town and found a tiny 17th century pub, the Bell Cliff, that ended up having good food and was in a super cool old building. Nice! Drove back to Salisbury and settled into The Haunch of Venison, a 700 year old pub in Salisbury that is totes haunted. Decades ago they found a severed hand hidden behind the wall near the fireplace, in what used to be a bread oven, so now they have a fake hand displayed in the old bread oven, and we got a table right next to it. Had a friendly conversation with an old guy in the pub.
Day 9, Aug. 30- Drew's birthday! Started the day with breakfast at a place called The Boston Tea Party, in a medieval building in Salisbury (Shakespeare supposedly spent time there back in the day). We went to Oxford, which again, Drew and I had been to on a previous trip years ago. West was a total delight. Went to the Natural History Museum, the Pitt-Rivers Museum, got lunch at the Eagle & Child, and went to the Ashmolean Museum. We were pretty museum-ed out by the end of the day! West really like the Pitt-Rivers. Unfortunately, we were one day too early for an exhibit at the Ashmolean about witchcraft, Drew tried to talk his way into seeing it, but no dice. We should have done our research a little better, but it was still a nice day. I think this was the evening we spent some time in the Wig & Quill and the Chapter House, a couple of super old (and haunted!) pubs in Salisbury, they both had nice outdoors gardens for sitting around and reading books/drawing while sipping beers.
Day 10, Aug. 31- Last full day. In an effort to give me a break from driving, since I'd been driving every single day of vacation, we took a bus to Bournemouth to check out the air show festival there. Bournemouth is a beach town, but it doesn't have much old stuff to see, and it's not cute the way Lyme Regis is. It reminded me of Old Orchard Beach in Maine, it has an air of vague seediness. There isn't much to do there besides be on the beach, eat beach food, or let you kid do the various kid activities. West had a great day, he got to bounce around in some bouncy houses, and then in the festival part (which was basically a giant recruitment tool for the British military), he got to sit in a tank, a helicopter, a tiny airplane, and check out all the military equipment that was out to dazzle children and convince them that joining the army/air force/navy is cool. So, West had fun, Drew and I maybe could have lived with a different choice if we'd known it would be kinda boring for adults. We got some lunch at a fancy pizza place, then caught a bus back to Salisbury. We got back in time for Drew to check out an antiques store he wanted to visit, and I dragged us to the totally haunted cafe in a Debenham's department store. Later that evening we went on a ghost walk that was super interesting, and totally made up for a slightly bummer earlier day.
Day 11, Sept. 1- Flight day, but our flight wasn't until 4:00, so we had plenty of time to pack up and wend our back towards Heathrow. We stopped in Winchester on our way. Wandered around the town. Checked out the medieval Great Hall, which has King Arthur's Round Table (I think science has now disproved that it was actually from Arthurian times), and that was a nice little fun time. There isn't much to see besides the huge table up on the wall, but they had dress up clothes that West had fun with. After that, there was a tiny hidden museum in the city wall gate close to the Great Hall, so we popped up there to check it out, again, not much to see, but still fun and interesting. Then it was really time to get going, we got to Heathrow, turned in the car, had a leisurely lunch, and then it was time to fly back home.
All in all, a fantastic trip, with some old hits and new gems, and I feel like we saw a bunch of places that are off the beaten path from the usual tourist spots.