MSA Euroclassic ......the journey continues.

Our first overnight stop in France was at a hotel in a village called Gosnay near the town of Bethune. After a lovely evening meal and a restful nights sleep we started out bright and early for the first stage to Waterloo in Belgium site of the famous battle against Napoleon.

 

This is the famous hill with the lion statue atop it, the significance of this escapes me at the moment!

 

 

 

View from the top.

 

After a comfort break and a very brief stop for a drink we headed off for our next checkpoint at the Chateau Jemeppe.

 

 

Here we were treated to a lovely buffet lunch and although we were one of the last cars to arrive there was still lots of lovely local food to sample.

 

 

After a day in the car it was nice to be able to stretch our legs a bit and walk around the garden for a while. The end of the days driving was in Liege which was extremely busy despite it being a Sunday and it wasn't ideal after a long day.

 

 

Overnight the weather turned cooler and wet but by the time we left Liege and were heading to our first checkpoint the sun was trying to shine. Our destination was Stavelot a small town in the Belgian Ardennes where we were due to have coffee and visit a small car museum which is in the undercroft of the former Abbey.

 

 

 

Soon it was time to move on and before long we were crossing the border into Germany and heading to the town of Bernkastel-Kues.

 

 

 

 

 This is a lovely town on the banks of the Mosel river and is in the heart of wine country and as a result it is very popular with tourists and is a stopping off point for the many river cruise boats that go up and down the Mosel.

 

 

This house dated back to the 1400's and is only 2m wide downstairs.

 

 

After a short welcome by the Mayor and a small glass of the local tipple we had to leave and head for the Rhine ferry crossing at Lorch so that we could arrive at our next overnight stop in Wiesbaden.

 

 

 

Next time I'll talk about Wiesbaden to Stuttgart calling at Heidelberg, Porsche and Steiff.

 

* Thanks to my son Nicholas for using some of his photos today.



MSA Euroclassic 2013

As mentioned in a previous post, and despite the trauma of poor Hubert, the three of us headed off towards the start of the MSA Euroclassic which was due to start at Dover Castle on the 7th September. This was also our son Nicholas' 28th birthday and as he is a history graduate what better place to celebrate than a castle! I have whizzed by the castle on our previous forays abroad but have never had the time to visit as we had to catch a ferry. This time a visit was part of the event and we had a lovely sunny but blustery day to take a look.

 

This was the steed of choice, a 1962 Jaguar Mk II which proved to be very reliable throughout the trip and was very capable of carrying three adults, luggage and spares.

 

Dover Castle sits high above the town of Dover on a hill that has been occupied probably since the Iron Age, but definitely since the Roman invasion of AD 43. When you look over the castle walls you can see why!

 

However the best part for me was inside the Great Tower which was built by Henry II in the 1180's. The rooms inside the Great Tower have recently been decorated to give the impression of what they may have looked like when the castle was new in the 12th century. There was a television programme a few years ago showing how they went about this which I found very interesting and it was nice to have the chance to see it in the flesh.

 

 

This is a view of part of the kitchens on the ground floor with the boiling hearth at the back.

 

 

Another view of the kitchen. The amazing thing was the fact that you could hear people talking and hear them chopping food, all the noises of a working kitchen while you walked around.

 

 

There were lots of spiral staircases to climb! On the next floor was a large chamber which looked stunning.

 

 

These murals were all around the upper edge of the walls. On the same floor was another room set out as if for a banquet.

 

On the next floor was the king's hall and chamber. Sadly we could only poke our heads around the door of the king's chamber as it was shrouded in plastic sheeting in preparation for some conservation work due to start on the ceiling. However we could enjoy the magnificent hall and as all the furniture is reproduction/replica you could sit on it too!

 

Here are just a couple more photos from around the site.

 

 

 

Unfortunately our time ran out and we had to leave Dover Castle and catch the ferry to Calais. I really enjoyed my visit and would definitely try to go back another time and see the things we missed like the wartime tunnels. You really do need a whole day to see everything there.

 

To be continued...........

Hubert

 

HUBERT

 

March 2007 - 5th September 2013

 

 



Bank Holiday weekend.....steam and a sick sheep.

The last Bank Holiday until Christmas has been and gone already. On the BH Sunday we all went to Onslow Park steam rally as Nicholas had persuaded his friend John to take along his roller. The weather was a bit overcast but no rain to spoil the day and we had a lovely day looking around the different vehicles etc. on display.

 

The thing I like the most about this particular show is the working field where people get the chance to use their vintage tractors working the soil.

 

 

 

This year they had a team of heavy horses cutting the corn and I think they were the ones used in the BBC series Victorian Farm.

 

 

We arrived to see them being unhitched and ready for a break. My plans to return the following day with Nicholas and hopefully get a ride on the roller were thwarted by Hubert who decided to fall sick. I had to call the vet out in the end and after a further visit from said vet, 5 injections, and 2 urine samples taken, it was concluded that he had a major bladder infection. His bladder was so swollen it was the size of a small football and had closed the neck of the bladder up! We seem to have cleared that problem up but the anti-biotics played havoc with his stomach and he is now having some stuff which the vet calls Yakult for sheep! I have to syringe it into his mouth once a day and he hates it! Of course this is all happening just days before I go away for a family holiday!

 

Tomorrow afternoon Nicholas, Graham and I are off on a classic car trip, the MSA Euroclassic, for about ten days in our MkII  Jaguar. We depart from Dover on Saturday and head across France, Belgium and into Germany as far as Stuttgart. Then we head back to France and finish in Luxemburg. This isn't the furthest we have been on the Euroclassic as one year Graham and I drove our E-type Jaguar across Europe to Budapest in Hungary. What a trip that was! This year we will be accompanied by some good friends of ours in their XK150 Jaguar. They haven't done a trip like this before, so despite the fact that we will be visiting places that we have been to on previous trips, it will be all new to them and should still be fun for us. There should be lots to blog about too!

 

So there has been lots of cleaning and getting gardening done on the run up to the trip, and needless to say no spinning or weaving done at all. I am getting withdrawal symptoms! I will not have internet access whilst away so things will be quiet here until my return. Bye for now.

Guild Summer School Trade Fair

Last Saturday I headed in a south- westerly direction and across the hills of Mid-Wales to the Guild Summer School at Carmarthen where I joined up with Helen of My Fine Weaving Yarn. This meant a really early start in order to be with Helen before the Trade Fair opened up for business at 9 am sharp. The roads were clear of holiday traffic thank goodness and I had a trouble free trip over the cloud covered hills and came down the other side into sunshine. Business had been good the day before as the students on the various courses had the opportunity to buy from the Trade Fair before members of the public had the chance to buy on Saturday, so we were hoping for another busy day. It was lovely to meet some of our customers from Woolfest who had bought yarn from us specifically for the courses they were doing here. We had a great time chatting with them about their time at Summer School and Helen managed to visit a few of the classes later that day to see some of their work. I did a little bit of shopping too!

 

I bought one of the new Zoom Looms that Schacht make from The Threshing Barn along with some more Gaywool dyes and some wool roving with dyed nepps. As you can see once I got home I had to have a play with the Zoom Loom and I must say it has great potential!

 

 

I also couldn't resist buying a couple more spindles from my favourite spindle maker IST Crafts. The one on the left of the picture is a Tibetan spindle made from Ebony on Sycamore with an African Blackwood shaft with a matching bowl. The spindle on the right is a bottom whorl made from Birds Eye Maple with an Ash shaft. I'm having such fun using my other spindles that I can't believe I haven't spindled before!

Our next outing with My Fine Weaving yarn will be at the end of September when we go to Skipton in Yorkshire and the new show called Yarndale. Before then I will be off to another steam rally and then we are off across the Chanel to Germany in our Mk II Jaguar on the MSA Euroclassic - more about that later!

Not More Steam?

Yes I'm afraid 'tis so! This time we all drove off in the pouring rain to South Cerney near Cirencester to yet another steam rally trusting that the weather forecasters had got it right and that our destination would be dry. They sort of got it right but it was not a rain free day by any means. However, we still managed to enjoy the day despite the frequent showers.

 

There was the usual display of steam rollers and their living vans.

 

 

Plus the usual assortment of showman's engines, road engines and steam lorries. Next to a lovely fairground organ was a showman's living van with this inscription on the door....

 

I didn't know my sister had a living van? She's kept this rather quiet. I looked inside to see if she was at home...

 

 

 

 

It was decorated with lots of lovely vintage things to give the flavour of the late 1940's when the living van was busy going around with the fairground. I must say Catherine has done a good job!

Our next steam event will be at the end of August when the plan is for us to join John Sankey with the road roller.

 

 

One of my favourite fibre related books in my vast collection has to be " The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook" by Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius. I love looking at it during a tea break as well as referring to it when I have an interesting fleece to spin. I have even started my own rare breed project as a result of reading this book and also watching her DVD published by Interweave Press. Any spinners reading this who have not got this book and/or the DVD shame on you !! You don't know what you are missing. Anyway, reading a recent post by Hillevis Tradar  she mentioned that Deb Robson has a new project in mind and that there was a fund raising campaign to help Deb achieve this. Deb wants to travel over here to the U.K. to research Shetland sheep but needs funds so a few of her friends have put together Dreaming of Shetland which is an ebook collection of knitting patterns inspired by Shetland and the purchase price will help to fund Deb's research. I have bought the first section which is available at the moment and it looks very good, looking forward to seeing the other sections when they are published. I'm also hoping that I may get to meet Deb when she visits Fibre East next year to teach classes. If you are interested in rare sheep breeds, Shetland sheep or the islands of Shetland can I urge you to buy the ebook and help Deb out. You won't be disappointed.

 

 



A steamy weekend

Last Saturday we all went along to a steam rally at Welland near Malvern which is just over an hour away from home. We have never been to this rally before as our trip planned last year had to be altered as the show was cancelled due to the rotten weather. It was a surprisingly large site with the usual mixture of steam engines and classic cars. The weather was a bit warm with hazy sunshine so the light in the photos is a bit flat. Anyway here is some of what we saw.

 

 

 

 

 

We had a pleasant time strolling around all the different sections and met up with the lady who owns the living van which so inspired us last year when we saw it for the first time that we have bought one for ourselves to renovate. At the end of the day we shopped in the food tent and came home with local sausages and duck burgers for the barbeque and local breads. The best thing though was some local ice cream - mmmm! Lemon Ripple made by Kelsmor Dairy. I've never tasted such lovely ice cream before. It's made with the tartest lemon curd they can get hold of apparently and the result is a sharp but at the same time sweet and refreshing ice cream.

 

 

On Sunday Nicholas was invited to a steam up with his friend John Sankey who was taking his newly restored steam roller to a local beauty spot for the day. I went along with Mum later on that morning to have a look at the roller and as Nicholas said "She's beautiful"!

 

 

 

 

Nicholas got the chance to drive the roller a couple of times during the day and hopefully later this summer I'm going to have a ride too!

 

The lilies mentioned in a previous post have continued to flower and surprisingly in a different colour!