We're in Winchester

After we'd been to Winchester Cathedral we visited the Great Hall, which is virtually all that is left of Winchester Castle.

This amazing building has seen lots of important historic events, and was in use as a court room as recently as the 1970s, but is best known as the home of the Round Table.

We now know this isn't the original Round Table from the Arthurian legend but it's still very old.






There are more modern works of art too: a big statue celebrating Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee and a smaller, but very good, engraving of our present Queen celebrating her Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

 

Alongside is Queen Eleanor's beautiful Garden 

 

And here I am exploring the only other part of Winchester Castle which survives:

Barnaby

Half term holiday

I might not have had a summer holiday this year but I have had an autumn break.  It’s half term and my buddy Morris and I have been exploring Winchester.

Here I am by the memorial to St Swithun, who is the patron saint of Winchester Cathedral. 

You may have heard the legend that if it rains on the day St Swithun was buried (15 July) it will rain continuously for 40 days afterwards (see the verse on the memorial)

Fortunately we weren’t visiting in July and it was a dry but cold day, as you can see from this picture of me beside an old-fashioned drinking fountain in one of the city gates.

St Swithuns is also the name of a local school which we drove past on the way to the city centre from our hotel. 

Barnaby

London: Day One Hundred and Forty-Eight (15 March)

After five months travelling and three different continents, we landed at Heathrow and I was finally back on English soil. I was sad my Big Adventure was over but pleased to be home to see family and friends, including Gerald and Zippy.

I'm going to take a break now to concentrate on my school work but I'll be back later to tell you more about my other travels at home and abroad.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this Blog as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

Bye for now

Barnaby

New York: Day One Hundred and Forty-Seven (14 March)

Our flight to London wasn't until this evening so we took one last chance to visit our favourite place in New York - you've guessed it: Central Park.

But first we visited New York's famous toy emporium, FAO Schwartz, to buy a present for one of Miss Robb's Godchildren.

We went to Strawberry Fields (which was created in memory of John Lennon) and had lunch at The Boathouse as well as watching more people skating on the ice rink.

Miss Robb gave into temptation and bought a lovely four print set of Central Park through the seasons, which we had to take onto the plane as hand luggage. It was definitely winter when we arrived in New York but there were tiny signs of the arrival of spring as we were leaving.

We flew back to England overnight.

Barnaby

New York: Day One Hundred and Forty-Six - Afternoon (13 March)

When we rejoined the bus on Staten Island we were too late to take the Brooklyn tour, which was a bit disappointing. Instead we got off at the Rockefeller Center where there's another public ice rink and an electric fountain.

We walked back to the hotel from there and had a big hot chocolate to warm us up. It was our last night in New York and the last of our big trip so we spent it packing :-( .

Barnaby

New York: Day One Hundred and Forty-Six - Morning (13 March)

Our hop on/hop off bus tickets were valid for today as well and we planned to make good use of them on our last full day in New York. But first we had breakfast in Perishing Square. It was perishing so we had pancakes (another American tradition).

We joined the downtown bus tour at the Empire State Building and rode all the way to Battery Park where we joined the free ferry to Staten Island. This is one of the best ways to see the Statue of Liberty.



Barnaby

New York: Day One Hundred and Forty-Five - Evening (12 March)

This was the evening we were going to the New Amsterdam Theatre so we had an early dinner at Simply Pasta. (Did you know New York used to be called New Amsterdam?)

The theatre itself is stunning. It was restored in 1995 to its original 1903 style. Unfortunately we didn't have a camera with us because we knew we couldn't take photos of the show itself, which was Mary Poppins.

What a fantastic show and we couldn't have had better seats, only five rows from the stage. The acrobatics were especially impressive.

As I haven't got a photo of the theatre, I'm attaching a picture of one of the statues in Central Park. Do you recognise who the figures are? That's right - they're characters from Alice in Wonderland.

Barnaby

New York: Day One Hundred and Forty-Five (12 March)

Today we bought a hop on/hop off bus ticket and explored the North part of the city, including Harlem. We joined the tour on Eighth Avenue and the guide was so witty we opted to stay on as far as Central Park Zoo.

From there we walked to Lexington Avenue to visit New York's other famous department store, Bloomingdales. It was very expensive so we didn't buy anything but we did have a smoothie and a piece of cheesecake in Forty Carrots Restaurant on its 7th Floor. New York is famous for its cheesecake too. It's unusual because it's baked.

Barnaby

New York: Day One Hundred and Forty-Four - Afternoon (11 March)

We looked round the Met for three hours but the displays were so diverse we could easily have spent days.

I'm glad we didn't though because then we'd have missed the skating show put on by the Ice School on Central Park's specially constructed (and temporary) ice rink. It was wonderful but really chilly standing watching.

We warmed up afterwards over dinner in the Red Lobster.

Barnaby

New York: Day One Hundred and Forty-Four - Morning (11 March)

We had to do errands this morning - including sending emails for free from the Tourist Information office in Times Square. Afterwards we walked through Central Park to the Boathouse Restaurant for a very reasonable and tasty lunch.

From there we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, known as The Met. We'd been told there was a fantastic bear statue outside so I had my photo taken there before we went inside.

Barnaby

New York: Day One Hundred and Forty-Three - Afternoon (10 March)

We had lunch in the Heartland Brewery at the base of the Empire State Building and then walked down Fifth Avenue to Madison Square Park. It has a special play area for dogs but not for teddy bears :-(.

We also visited Madison Square Gardens, which aren't actually gardens like Time Square isn't a square. Pete Sampras and Roger Federer were playing an exhibition tennis match there that evening. Needless to say it was sold out.

Our next stop was Macy's which claims to be the biggest shop in the world. We had a good look round but didn't buy anything.


After dinner at Simply Pasta we checked the location of the New Amsterdam Theatre, because we're going to a show there later in the week.

Barnaby

New York: Day One Hundred and Forty-Three - Morning (10 March)

Today we went up the famous Empire State Building. It was the tallest building in the world for over 40 years and is still one of New York's must see sights so we were pleased not to have to queue for too long.

Our first stop was the 80th floor where we picked up our souvenir map then we took the lift to the Observatory Deck on the 86th floor. We'd picked a fabulous day for it as the weather was bright and sunny and it was possible to see up to 15 miles away. We took our time and admired the views from all four sides.


Barnaby

New York: Day One Hundred and Forty-Two - Afternoon (9 March)

After our guide had dropped us off, we walked round a bit more of Central Park then headed down Fifth Avenue. We found St Patrick's Cathedral and, as it was Sunday, we went in for part of a service.

Next stop was Build-A-Bear where I got a fabulous New York Yankees cap and a t-shirt. We had dinner at TGI Fridays on 42nd Street then headed back to the hotel for an earlyish night. Tomorrow we are going up the Empire State Building. Before it was built the Chrysler Building (which you can see lit up in this photo) was the world's tallest building.

Barnaby

New York: Day One Hundred and Forty-One (8 March)

Unfortunately we spent most of today travelling. Our cousin gave us a lift to the airport where we bought sandwiches because food isn't served on internal domestic flights (even though it takes five hours to fly from San Francisco to New York).

We were even more glad we'd got them after we'd boarded the plane and were delayed for an hour and a half. JFK airport was closed due to bad weather but the crew showed us an extra DVD (The Nanny Diairies) to help pass the time.

We eventually took off at 3.20pm and landed at 11.25pm (local time). The Supershuttle bus took us into the city to our hotel (The New York Helmsley), where we found we'd been upgraded to a city view. We got to bed in our room on the 37th floor at 1.45am!

We were very tired.

Barnaby

San Francisco: Day One Hundred and Forty - Afternoon (7 March)

After lunch at Boudin café (where they make their own bread, including one in the shape of a teddy bear), we walked the rest of the way to Pier 39. Miss Robb and her mummy bought coats as our next - and final :-( - stop is New York where it will be much colder.

There was such a long queue to get the cable car back from Pier 39 we walked a few blocks and joined a different line. That turned out to be ideal as it dropped us right at Geary (where we’d caught the bus this morning) and there was a bus already there. It was just as well as we were meeting the rest of the family for dinner and it was getting a bit late.



Barnaby

San Francisco: Day One Hundred and Forty - Morning (7 March)

Our cousin was busy today so we took the bus to Union Square and joined the queue for the cable car. (Going to San Francisco and not riding on a cable car would be a bit like going to Venice and not riding on a gondola). We rode all the way to Fishermen’s Wharf (past the famous curving road that features in all the films – Lombard Street).

We had a great time looking at the old ships moored at the wharf before taking an hour’s cruise on the Lovely Martha, which gave us great views of the bay, bridge and Alcatraz. (You can look round now it’s no longer a prison but that didn’t appeal to us).

Barnaby

San Francisco: Day One Hundred and Thirty-Nine (6 March)

More girly stuff again today – all the ladies had manicures!

Then we headed into the city, to the more central part this time. San Francisco is famous for its Chinatown and also has an Italian area known as North Beach. We walked through both these into the main business district, including looking into the beautiful St Francis Hotel. We also saw where the cable cars between here and the shore turn around.

My heart sank a little when we went into another shopping centre but it was only to take the curvy escalator to the café at the top (Nordstroms Bistro), which has wonderful views of where we’d just walked. The winding escalator was a bit unnerving so we took the lift back down.

Barnaby

San Francisco: Day One Hundred and Thirty-Eight (5 March)

More shopping this morning (Miss Robb needed shoes) :-( but least we drove through Golden Gate Park first and past the beach. We also stopped at a cheesecake shop on the way home :-).

When we got back we had a walk round Golden Gate Park as one of the entrances isn’t far from where our cousin lives. It is huge so we couldn’t explore all of it but it’s lovely,

We had dinner in an Italian restaurant back on Sacramento Street.

Barnaby

San Francisco: Day One Hundred and Thirty-Seven (4 March)

First stop this morning was the famous Pier 39, which was looking lovely in the Spring sunshine. The daffodils and tulips planted everywhere in pots were out already.

We had lunch at the Swiss Louis Restaurant, from which we could see the Golden Gate Bridge and the sea lions. (We would have known the sea lions were there even if we couldn’t see them because they make lots of noise.)

Afterwards we toured more of San Francisco and tried to find a bear museum but we didn’t manage to. We had a quiet evening back at our cousin’s.

Barnaby

San Francisco: Day One Hundred and Thirty-Six (3 March)

Although we were now in the Northern Hemisphere, the weather in San Francisco was lovely and Spring-like, especially in the sun.

This morning we went shopping on Sacramento Street and then had lunch at the marina. We had brilliant views of the bay and the famous former prison, Alcatraz. Our cousin also drove us round some more of the city to show us where other relatives and friends live.

Barnaby