Mablethorp England 2006

England - Mablethorp - A couple times a year, the paper has a "special" offer, where you can stay in a selection of about 100 caravan parks for 3 or 4 nights for an amazing £7.50/pp. Since we're only 3, that'd only be £22.50. But, then they charge you for minimum 4 people. Then sheets. And park passes. And parking. And electricity. And propane. Don't get me wrong, it's probably the cheapest holiday you'll ever see in the UK, and, if you pick your park right, you can get a nice holiday. This is probably our fourth that we've been to, so we knew what to expect. It is better if you have your own car, so that you see the surrounding area and use the park as a base. So, onto the holiday!!!

Not sure if we've mentioned this character on other holidays, but this friendly monkey is McGreedy. Now, just looking at him, he's a fairly harmless monkey. If you ever go see one of the children's shows, it is McGreedy that steals everyone's bananas and doesn't share, and is very cheap. I think they're taking a very easy shot at the Scottish. But, then, it is in England. 'nuff said.

This was by far Seth's favourite video game. We ordered lunch, and when it came, we couldn't pull him off of it. And, if you ever think that you get fat playing video games, try this one. If you just sit there, all you'll see is the back of the other horses. Not a good way to end a game.

As you can tell, this game had a little more appeal to, ehem, the over 3's. Yes, I'll admit, I put more than a couple bob into this machine. On my defense, I was saving the world from dishonest truckers in the midwest.

And, obviously driving an 18 wheeler also needs assistance. All those wheels aren't going to drive themselves!

Going from the park to the city centre was this cute little land train. Ok, it wasn't steam (I think it was a converted bug) but it sure looked the part. For those of you out of the loop, that is obviously Thomas, who's taken a vacation from Sodor.

One other mode of transport (other than Thomas) is, of course, having your very own motorcycle. Seth tried and tried, but this bike was firmly welded to the post, and no matter how much he tried to rev the engine, it just wasn't getting unstuck. Better luck next time. Maybe one of his grandparents wouldn't mind sending a bike across, say for his next birthday... maybe???

I think we picked the perfect time to go. This was taken on Sept 13, 2006, so it was just after the summer break. All the school children were back at school, and the beach was deserted.

We went to the local bargin place and bought a kite. I recommend not to pay more than a couple squid for a triangle kite. They always fly, you get enough string to fly them pretty high, and you'll embarras the people with the dual/quad stringed kites. There's nothing worse than spending half an hour trying to get the thing up. And, if it doesn't work, you've not spent much.

Here's Seth flying all by himself. See? Anyone can do it!!!

After mastering the train and motorcycle, Seth has decided to try his hand at horse rustlin'. Look mom! All by myself!

We did walk becide him for a little bit, but, let's face it - he's much better on one than me, so we let him lead the herd.

Come on people! You're holding me back!!!

Don't you think he's a natural? Grand National, here we come!!!

Eat my dust!! Going for the home stretch now!!!

Air War Museum - Last year the UK had just celebrated the Battle Of Britain, and we went to the Air Museum. The man difference between this and other museums is they rebuild the planes, and most of them are in working order. Most of the time in rebuilding the planes is done by volunteers, and money is either brought in by sponsers, paying guests, or donations. The plane behind me is a Hurricane. The other plane that is very similar is the Spitfire. Any guesses on the main differences between the two? The Hurricane's outer shell is (and this I wouldn't have believe it) is canvas. Here, you can see it stretched over it's frame. This makes the plane quite light, and if it gets shot, all you have to do is glue another bit of canvas on it, and you can have the plane in the air in less than 30 minutes. With the Spitfire, it is made out of metal - you'd have to punch out the hole and weld a new bit in. The other main difference is the guns on the Hurricane are wider apart than on the Spitfire.

Now, remembering what I said from the last photo, is this a Hurricane or Spitfire? This is a Spitfire. I think this is a Mark IV, so it's quite a few versions into development. A couple thing to note: The nose is very long. The engine on this plane is about 50% larger than the previous Hurricane. And, to cope with the extra horsepower, the propeller has 6 blades. The one thing I can't understand is the stripes on the wings. I'd have thought this would be a dead giveaway. If you go back to the Hurricane, you'll also notice that under the cockpit are 11 swatstika's, but, this plane has none. The main reason this plane has the extra horsepower, is this plane is a spotter plane, and doesn't have any guns. It's main defense is to get out of the way quickly.

This is a Lancaster, which is obvioulsy a bomber. This plane saw over 120 missions and also dropped rose pedals for the Queen Mom's 100th birthday. Our tour operator actually served on this plane. He had a couple stories about several of their missions, including being chased by a couple of Messerschmits. One of the other features of the Lancaster is it's H shaped tail (you'll see more of that in the next pic) which allowed a tail gunner.

This little black and white badboy is one of Canada's contributions - it is "The Chipmunk". For obvious reasons, it was mainly used as a spotter plane.

This is one of the earlier Spitfires - it has a shorter nose, and only 3 blades on the propeller.

Mablethorp Windmill - The next day, we went to visit the local windmill. Yes, this is actually an old working windmill. They sell flour and biscuits - the works. Now, everyone knows that there's only two places to see real windmills right? Holland, and Fantasy Gardens (everyone remember Bill V?) Anyway, we got to thinking, and this part of England is quite a bit like Holland, and, Holland isn't really that far away. So, why not and have a couple windmills. Actually, there's quite a few windmills dotted around the countryside. Since modern mills are a lot more practicle, quite a few windmills have been converted into houses.

Here, we're about half way up the windmill, taking a peek out of one of the windows.

See? Told you - nice and flat - just like Holland.

One thing that the British people love is their steam trains. You've seen the steam train from Scotland in "Harry Potter" (yes, that's a real bridge - it's not CGI). Since they require to get from A to B, and if A and B aren't that far apart, then they need a little a and little b. Hence, they have little steam trains. When you see your first little steam train, you think "oh neat" but when you see enough of them it's just like seeing a Mini Cooper or something. These trains aren't only for the tourists either. You quite often see business people and school children taking the train to work or school.

Lincoln - Castle - Like most castles, Lincoln Castle housed the main city, and then as the city grew, the walls of the castle couldn't cope, so people started living around it. Of course, we don't usually get attacked by people with bows and arrows (or do we??) much anymore, so castle walls aren't required as much as they were.

Did I say that nobody invaded with bows and arrows? The two tips I can give is: stay behind the archers, and don't dare say that rifles are better than arrows. They get very grumpy with the latter. I was told that anybody can shoot a rifle but it takes years of practice to master a longbow. Personally, I don't have the time. Click ;-p Don't get me wrong, I have done a little archery, but I'd never dream of hunting or taking over a castle with arrows. A crossbow or compound bow, maybe...

Just outside the castle walls is the Cathedral. I believe they started working on the Cathedral about 800 years ago, on the original church and on the supporting buildings.

In the distance is the Cathedral, and just beyond this building is the world famous Lincoln Archers. Ok, they're not world famous. Actually, most of them were having trouble coming close to the target, never mind the bulls eye. The building infront is part of Lincoln's courts. Since it was the weekend, we weren't able to have a look around. Actually, it's probably better not to know what's in there, first hand anyway.

Here we're peeking over the law courts at the archers. Just beyond them is the entrance (and building that has the Magna Carta to the right becide the archers).

I have tried to search for what exactly this building is on the web, but one of the guys at work believe this was a prison. I guess, if there's no windows or yard, it makes it harder to escape. Tough sentance for stealing a loaf of bread.

Kim and Seth are exploring the rest of the wall. If you notice at the very end, the wall appears to take a nasty left into the trees.

One thing I didn't really take notice of until typing this out was there is no fence originally to the left. Which ment that if you did slip, or get hit with a rock or arrow and lost your balance, you'd be off the wall.

Looking at the cathedral and the archers from the castle wall.

Looking at the museum from ontop of the castle wall.

Looking at the cathedral from ontop the castle walls.

Here is the observatory / observation tower. It has had many purposes over the years. It was originally designed as an observation post when the castle was used as a prision. As well, John Merryweather was an astronomer and he used it as an obsevatory. And, lastly, it was used in the Second World War for fire watching.

I always love the gargoyles that they use for drainage spouts. No piece of metal or plastic that we use nowadays, but everything decorated, even in a castle.

Looking up at the observatory tower, still on the inside of the castle. If this is from the inside, aka friendly, imagine how hard it would have been from the other side!

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Looking at the cathedral from the castle walls. I think this one could actually be a postcard. What do you think? Like how I placed the red flowers on the castle walls for added affect?

And, how Lincoln has spralled from the once small castle walls. This is looking down (opposite way from the cathedral) onto the city.

This is looking down from the observation tower at the courtyard. Directly infront of us is the museum, and in the distance is the courts and just off to the right is the prison.

They were recently invaded by the "Northerners" (village by Newcastle) so they had to repair the castle wall on the right. You can just see Kim's legs in the shade of the tree in the middle.

Here is a look outside the castle, towards the cathedral. We had lunch at a beautiful little restaurant where that tree is in the bottom right. Very beautiful settings.

Here is a look across the courtyard, towards the town. Not sure why it's so blury. Think the camera had too many at lunch!

And a final pic of the cathedral from ontop of the observation tower. Lucky that John had it built, as it does allow us beautiful pictures of the area.

And here is two cheeky smiles from just outside the castle walls. Just down the street on the left is the Leigh Pemberton House.

I like the cheek of the builders of this house. On the left side, they had to build the walls straight up, due to the other building, but on the right, since the building is over a street, each floor outstreches more over the street. This house was built around 1543 over the Roman street, the Via Principalis, that ran North through the upper enclosure of Lindum Coloniae.

Lincoln Cathedral - The work on the cathedral was started around 1220. I'm not sure how old the building below is,

In some cathedrals, they place the organ off the side, or at the very back, but here, they have placed it in the middle of the cathedral. Probably to allow the entire cathedral to be filled with it's music.

Here is a pane describing Jesus's life. Shame that the picture is blury, but then it is pretty hard to take a good pic of stained glass sometimes.

As it was the anniversary of the "Battle Of Britain", they had a band, and a lot of army personall walking around Lincoln and the cathedral grounds. They were just having one last practice before they put on their uniforms and have the actual performance. We were able to watch, but tried not to stare. They were much better than my Grade 8 band. Course, that being said, royality never came to any of my performances.

Now, I think that if I'd had these sourroundings, our Grade 8 band would have sounded much better. Either that, or else you could really hear the squeaking sax's and the adhoc drumming. My section, was of course always perfect! ;-)

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The next pic is a description on how they conserve the Midieval Glass. Over the years, (almost 800 for some of them) the glass has to be repaired. In this example, the lead is being removed, the window repaired and then new lead being added. On the new version, they don't have to use as much lead, so the icons can be easier seen.

When looking at this stained glass and building, you know that these types of buildings will never be ever built again. The churches of today are more practile in terms of size and heating. As well, the vast size of the stained glass windows and high ceilings.

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This is one of the Monk's rooms, just off the main section of the cathedral. Do you know what famous movie this has been in? Give you a hint... it was about religion.

While some people get to be burried in the courtyard, if you're really special, and have done great work for the church, then you get to be burried in the church. Or, you could just be rich, and buy your way in. Either way, probably not where I'm going to be buried.

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Here is stained glass within the Monk's room. Not half as elaborate as the main building, but, this is just their getaway - their hideaway from the general public. Guessed the famous movie that was recently filmed here yet? One of the lead actors has been a northern train conductor, a prison guard, a plane crash survivor, a war vet and a multi-millionaire.

These are the original, untouched murals in the Monks room. Shame that they're fading so much. Even with the fading, you can still make out how elaborate they must have been. Any halo that you see is painted in gold. I'm thinking, if you are holy enough to have a halo, then you might as well have it in real gold.

I think that the bottoms of the pictures have faded due to the years and years of people leaning on them. The answer to the movie quiz, was obviously Tom Hanks in the Davinci Code. The other set location was Roswell Cathedral close to Edinburgh (which I also have pics of somewhere).

Lincoln - Battle Of Britain March - Today the UK was celebrating the Battle of Britain. The BoB is where the British fought back the Germans in a major air battle, and it was one of the turning points in WWII.

There were quite a few military bands and military groups around the cathedral. We were fortunate to have this group perform in front of us.

Good bye o' band. Good bye o' Lincoln.