The Dorchester Keep & Flying Home to Canada

February 27^th-29^th, 2024

On my second last full day in Weymouth, my cousin Sid came to Weymouth for a dentist’s appointment and then worked online at Auntie Shirley’s in the afternoon so that the three of us could go out for a late afternoon drink at another one of Sutton Poyntz’s pubs, The Springhead.  They had a nice fire burning in a modern fireplace that had glass doors on two sides, so it is a real focal point in that part of the establishment.  After dinner, we played a three-person game of Trivial Pursuit and even with a new rule I introduced which should have helped the losing teams, Sid still, unsurprisingly, won.

I went for a hike the day before.  This is the view towards Weymouth:

The next day Auntie Shirley and I did one last trip to Dorchester to visit the Keep.  I was amazed to find out that Shirley had never visited it before since she’s been living in Sutton Poyntz for over 15 years!  The Keep was built around 1880 and it was part of a collection of buildings that were the barracks for the 39^th Dorsetshire Regiment of the Foot and the 75^th  Stirlingshire Regiment of the Foot…infantry soldiers.  Most of the other buildings have been demolished and new structures built in their place.

The Keep:

The Keep is now a regimental museum, honoring numerous military entities from the area.  Both Auntie Shirley and I were pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t too bad of a museum.  One story near the start of the exhibition was incredible…get this:

On 10^th May, 1915, flying a Martinsyde Scout, Louis Strange attacked a German aircraft at 8500 feet over Menin.  During the dogfight the Lewis gun on his top wing jammed and he stood up in the cockpit to change the magazine.  His aircraft flipped suddenly over on its back and Strange was hurled from the cockpit.  Hanging by his fingertips from the jammed magazine, he felt the aircraft begin a flat spin downwards.  Strange struggled to swing his feet up in the cockpit above him.  At 500 feet, he at last managed to get his knees astride the joystick.  The aircraft suddenly righted itself and gravity thrust its pilot back into his seat!    He survived and went on to live to 75 years-old!

Those holes by the heart and on the arm are actual bullet holes...and the guy survived!

I was surprised how heavy the gun was.

What a difference from the red uniforms above!

The ornately painted regimental drums:

We worked our way up the four floors and finished our visit by enjoying the view from the top of the keep.

The following morning, I caught an early train to London Waterloo and then took the tube to Heathrow airport.  While sitting at a high table at a pub I overheard a British couple, who had just sat down at the table, mention a location on Vancouver Island and they were debating a question about it.  I couldn’t help but give them the answer.  We struck up a conversation and they were heading to Comox, on the island, to visit their son.  Amazingly we figured out that the lady had grown up in Redruth, Cornwall, a town of about 15,000 and is where my grandparents used to live and my dad and oldest sister were born!

 

The flight from London to Calgary took off around 3 pm and was landing at 5 pm, local time in Calgary.  We were going to be chasing the sun for the whole flight so I made sure to get a window seat on the right side of the plane (so I wouldn’t be looking into the sun).  Although most of the British Isles were covered in clouds, there were some nice views of northern Scotland.

Can you see the bridge in the middle of the pic? 

An hour or so later, we flew over Iceland which was cool to see.  I wondered whether the other side of the plane could see Grindavik, where there is currently a few fissures in the Earth that are causing lava to threaten the town.  We were probably a bit too far away.

Approaching the coast of Iceland:

The middle of Iceland was smooth, just white snow below us, but here we are approaching the other side of the island where it was rugged again.

Ice in the sea.  The brighter white bits are probably huge ice chunks that have been pitched up onto the ice surface.

As we made our way to Baffin Island, all of the windows were electronically dimmed.  What?!?  It was 6:30 pm London time, where we just came from, and 10:30 am in Calgary…why on earth would we want to go to sleep right now?  That will definitely give you jet lag.  I couldn’t undim my window and I was not impressed as the views of the frozen north had been fantastic.  I found a flight attendant and asked her if she could help and sure enough, she was able to brighten my pane.  I was surprised that over the next couple of hours, only a couple other people undimmed their windows to enjoy the amazing vistas 36,000 feet below us.

Mountains on the east side of Baffin Island.

At the other side of Baffin Island, I was amazed to see that there were four settlements, ranging in population from 35 to 1400, showing on the flight map on my screen on the back of the seat in front of me.  I was amazed to think that there could be humans down there, in such a desolate landscape.

The plane's flight map:

The peninsula on that map.  So the settlements are on the other side of that.

The following pictures (from the Internet) are of the settlements: 

Looks quite nice in the summer...but it only has a high of 11 degrees Celsius!

Niaqornat - 35 inhabitants in 2020...looks like a lot of buildings for 35 people.

Qaarsut - 174 inhabitants in 2020:

Leaving Baffin Island:

The barren north.

There was hardly any snow on the ground in Calgary, but it looked frozen and cold.  Snow started to fly as we taxied to the gate.  Once off the plane, I quickly found out that my flight to Kelowna was delayed for half and hour.  Half and hour turned into three hours, including sitting in the plane for 45 minutes while some component was being replaced in one of our engines.  It’s not common to see the cowling of the jet engine open with a man sticking his head inside with a full boarded flight!

 

I arrived into Lumby at midnight  local time (thanks for picking me up that late Terry!), or 8 am London time…so apart from the twenty minute snoozes I had on each flight, I’d been up for 26 hours…but that paid off as I hardly had any jet lag.

 

What a trip…England, Germany, Austria, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and the Czech Republic…wow!

Karaoke and a Dance Show

February 17^th-18^th, 2024

It was a Friday night in the wild village of Sutton Poyntz (that was sarcasm), so what else to do but hit one of the local pubs, the Spice Ship.  Auntie Shirley, my cousin Sid, Naomi and I strolled down to the establishment which was half full with middle-aged to older clientele…we fit right in.  As we were enjoying our drinks, a lady proceeded to set up some Karaoke equipment.  This got Naomi excited…me, not so much.  I’ve never done Karaoke, and the World can thank me that I don’t plan on ever doing it.  It didn’t seem like the right crowd for Karaoke, and there wasn’t much of a crowd.  However, Naomi and Sid threw their hat into the ring and wrote down on a card that they would perform Tom Petty’s “I’m Learning to Fly”…good on ‘em!  We left shortly after and I doubt there were any other performers, for a while at least.

In the Spice Ship, whose decor tries to make you feel as though you are in an 18th century ship sailing for the British fleet.

Saturday was a big day.  My cousin Gemma’s three girls who range from seven to twelve years-old where going to be in a show!  All of them take dancing lessons of various types, with Annabel doing the most.  Every two years, the dance studio that they attend put on a dance show at a local school that has a proper performing stage.  When I mentioned this to Naomi before the trip, the sweetheart changed her departure by a day so she could attend the show entitled “From Oz and Beyond”. 

 

Charles, Gem’s husband, sent us a text detailing what dance roles each of the girls would be.  We were on the lookout for: a couple of munchkins, a lion cub, snow (x2), a winged monkey and a zombie.  An interesting list.  At the start of the show, the second of the day and it was sold out, the emcee stated that no photography or videoing was allowed and to please not use phones.  That was unfortunate as it would have been nice to take a few pics.  I also had to make sure to be surreptitious while trying to look up the text with the roles that the girls were as we could not remember all of them.

 

The first half of the show was a take on the Wizard of Oz and we were impressed with the production quality.  After about 23 dances (whew), there was an intermission followed by the second half which was a new storyline.  One of the male performers was some kind of time travelling professor, collecting items for his potion…or something to this effect.  I liked him, you could tell that he loves performing, acting probably more than dancing, and it showed.  It was shorter than the first half and we thought it was more entertaining than the first half.  Everyone, including people sitting nearby whispering, agreed that the show was a bit too long (about 3 hours with the intermission!)…but it was really good.  A few of my favourite numbers were the youngest bunch, maybe 4-5 years old.  They were too cute and did some unexpected things (as to be expected), and you couldn’t help but smile and laugh.  Well done girls!

Pippa after the show:

The next day Naomi flew back to Israel.  It was great to see her again and it was fun to reconnect.  It was good for her to have a break from the craziness going on back home with the war with Hamas.  Take care over there Naomi!  xo

Our last outing to Dorchester with Naomi:

It’s Bath Time

February 15^th-16^th, 2024 

Naomi and I grabbed the train to Bath, which is almost directly north of Weymouth and only two hours away.  The small city, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was named after its Roman-built baths thanks to some natural hot springs.  The Romans loved to bathe and having hot water was a real luxury to find on the British Isles.

Arriving in the town of about 100,000 people, we were initially led astray by Google Maps but only walked about a block in the wrong direction.  On track, we walked through the pedestrian only shopping streets in the heart of Bath, which is where the hotel that Naomi booked was located.  Par for her course, it was another fancy accommodation called The Gainsborough Hotel.

We crossed the bridge...when we shouldn't have crossed the bridge...

On the right track.

Our hotel (stole the pic from the Internet):

Our room wasn’t ready so we ditched our bags and decided to try our luck at our first destination in Bath, the Thermae Bath Spa, which was just across the one lane street from our hotel.  Naomi had tried to make a reservation for us when we were in Weymouth but it seemed to be all booked up.  However, she did learn that they do allow a certain number of walk-ins each day.  Luckily there was no line-up at all, so we paid the exorbitant entrance fee, were handed a towel and robe, and headed to the uni-sex changeroom which had these little compartments with a door to enter and change, and then an exit door to the lockers.

The fancy spa building:

Donned in our white bathrobes, we climbed the stairs to the rooftop where one of the two large, thermal pools was located.  The water from the hot springs come out at around 45 degrees Celsius but it is cooled down to just around body temperature for the pool.  A few areas of the pool had bubbles coming up but we found that the bubbles actually brought in colder air so we didn’t stay there too long.  Eventually we found one of vents where the warmer water was coming into the pool and ended up hanging out there while enjoying the skyline of Bath.

The rooftop pool (another photo from the Internet).  You aren't actually allowed to use your smartphone in the spa.  You have to put it in a small sack that is locked by a magnet at the front desk and you can't open it until you leave.

Our entrance fee allowed us two hours at the spa so after about 40 minutes, we headed to the bottom floor to check out the pool down there where the water was a similar temperature.  There were three other floors sandwiched between the pools, one had a cafeteria and the other were “wellness rooms”.  I interpreted that as massage rooms that would most likely be an extra cost.  We didn’t even venture onto those floors but now that I’ve looked online after the fact, it looks like we missed a few fancy steam rooms.  Oh well…spas aren’t exactly my cup of tea anyways.

 

After the spa, we eventually found a restaurant for a late lunch (we passed on a pub that we went into and settled on a pizzeria).  We returned to the hotel and checked into our room.  We were both feeling pretty lazy from the bathing and the food, but Naomi suggested that we go to the Roman Baths before it closed at 6 pm.  I have to admit that I was being a “negative Nancy” and really didn’t want to go.  I looked online and sure, the reviews were high for the place but most of the reviews had the same photo of this open air, rectangular pool.  Ancient history doesn’t really turn my crank either.  However, we were only staying one night and had planned to do a walking tour in the morning, so this was really our only chance to visit the museum of the preserved thermae (an ancient facility for bathing).  I finally agreed to Naomi’s suggestion and we took the short two-minute walk to the Roman Baths.

Enjoying a drink at the pizzeria:

At the entrance to the Roman Baths...you can see that I'm already into my audio tour:

The foyer had a beautiful domed roof:

The Roman Baths were constructed between 60 and 70 AD, only a few decades after the Romans arrived on the British Isles, and were used until the 5th century AD, when the Roman’s rule in Britain ended.  The baths were used on and off over the years, but bathing was banned in 1978 when a young girl died from an infection from a pathogen.  The water was tested over the next few years but it was still considered unsafe.  The Thermae Spa that we visited earlier in the afternoon has become its replacement for bathing so now the Roman Baths are a museum.

 

At the entrance, I grabbed a handheld audio guided tour, but Naomi didn’t, as she’s not a fan of them.  You could listen to the standard spiel at various locations in the museum by dialing in a number, but they also had author Bill Bryson and those were interesting to listen to.  We wandered around until almost closing time and in the end I’m glad that we went.  When in Rome…or I guess, “When you are in Rome...where Romans used to be…”.

The main bath:

Looking over towards the Bath Abbey:

The top of the entrance of one of the buildings with the Gorgon in the middle:

The Gorgon:

Many Roman coins were uncovered in some money sacks many years later:

The hot springs:

It was a nice time of day to visit it...with the approaching evening, the torches around the pool looked fantastic.

Those are film projected Romans of the day going about their business at the baths.

You can drink the water from the spring if you like...it's supposed to have healing properties.

That's my review of the taste of the water!

That evening we ventured out for a late dinner at “The Giggling Squid”, a fancy Thai chain restaurant.  It was super yummy food to finish off a beautiful day in Bath.

The Giggling Squid restaurant:

Yummy!

I'm trying to do my best "sumo" face since that's the name of the beer.

The following morning, Naomi decided to check out the spa that is in the basement of the hotel.  She came back a bit more than an hour later reporting that she thought it was better than the Thermae Spa from yesterday!  I’m glad she tried it out.

Looking down into the spa in the hotel:

The patio outside of our room:

 

We had a fancy breakfast in the hotel which was included with the room before heading out for the 10 am free walking tour that started near the Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths.  It was a sunny, but brisk morning with some northwest wind making me regret not wearing my jacket.  There was a group of at least 40 people listening to a woman in her 60s giving an overview of the tour.  We were then split up into groups of about 10 people and we were assigned a 60 something year-old man named Dave.

Naomi's avocado toast:

My eggs Benny:

Our tour guide Dave:

Dave was fantastic.  He was knowledgeable, easy to understand, and even injected some humour here and there.  You could tell that he enjoyed being a volunteer tour guide.  We were the last group to leave the abbey area, I think because Dave had so much information to tell us.  From there we worked our way through the streets as we learned some of the history of Bath.  Dave talked about Beau Nash, a colourful character in the 1700s who was the “Master of Ceremonies” of the city.  He was a gambler but a bigger socialite who loved to organize events.  There is a “Beau Street” in downtown Bath in his memory.

This is the UNESCO symbol, showing that the whole city of Bath is a historical site.

Bath has some lovely architecture which Dave explained and described to us.  There was a father and son who were key architects of Bath in the 1700s.  John Wood, the Elder, designed the Queen Square, our first stop of three main “architecture” stops.  It was a nice square park with trees and an obelisk in the middle and it was surrounded by Georgian houses along each side.  Dave explained that John would not have liked the trees in the park, as they took away from clearly seeing the lovely buildings.  He also mentioned, and then showed us, that John only cared about the look of the front of the buildings, the backside had no uniformity like the front.

The front of the Queen's Square:

And the backside...

Enjoying the tour:

Stop number 2 about the architecture was the iconic Royal Crescent, which was designed by the son, John Wood, the Younger.  It’s a 500-foot-long crescent that was originally 30 terraced houses, many of which have now been converted into multiple apartments as the houses were quite large.  It is considered to be one of the greatest examples of Georgian architecture.

The Royal Crescent:

It's huge!

And the ugly backside...

Our last stop on the architecture tour was the Circus, which was designed by John the Elder.  It’s a ring of three-storey houses with a greenspace in the middle and was built between 1754 and 1769.  Dave pointed out how each storey has a different type of column (Ionic was one of them…forget the others).  Probably the most notable resident was William Pitt, prime minister of England in the 1760s.

The different columns:

The view from above...what impressive big trees!

We wandered through some shopping streets on our way back towards the abbey.  Our last stop on the tour was the Pulteney Bridge on the River Avon (one of something like seven rivers named Avon in England as Avon means river in Welsh)…so it’s the River River.  The bridge is special in that it has shops on both sides of the entire span of it.

New Bond Street...that's my attempted James Bond pose.

The River Avon.

The Pulteney Bridge with the shops.

This is looking across the bridge...with shops on either side, you'd have no idea that you were crossing a river!

Until you looked through a window of a shop.

It was a good tour with a great guide…thanks Dave.

While Naomi was shopping for gifts for family back home, I had to try on this hat...I think it instantly makes me look 8-10 years older!

Our train back to Weymouth was at 2:30 so we had just enough time for Naomi to do a bit of shopping and for us to grab some lunch at a brewpub called BrewDog.

Naomi and I both agreed, Bath was definitely worth soaking in…  😉