On the Wirral

The Wirral Peninsular lies in the North West of England. It is bordered by the River Dee to the South and the River Mersey to the North. West is the Irish Sea.

This is where Barbara and I were born and raised and where I trained in the shipyard for a career that lasted 49 years.

We both have relatives here and lots of friends from the days before we emmigrated to the US. Our daughter Sally now lives here with her husband Iain and our Grand Kids Kaytland and Nial.

Katyland and Nial

Obviously we were going to be busy socializing!

My sister Jackie volunteered to put us up for the first couple of weeks and arranged our first night out. Her daughters Lyndsey and Cathy met us a a local India restauarant together with Evie, Matt and my other sister Beryl. Luckily the restaurant was within walking distance as the party progressed rapidly and continued when we got home.

Barbara and I with neice Cathy

Sister Beryl and Barbara

Sister Jackie and Barbara

Nial's birthday was lots of fun. When you provide a 3 year old with a "Fart Gun" it has to be good. Barbara's brother Stu and his wife Linda  arrived to help make more chaos.

Niail and the "Fart Gun"

Spoiling our Grand Kids became our main task and trips to the shops and the park with a little babysitting gave us lots of opportunities.

Nail and Kaityland dressing up at the Birkenhead Priory

Ken and Angie the friends that hosted us in Spain (https://banbrv.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/gergal-and-old-friends.html) live in the Wirral too and we accompanied them to an "Italian Night" at the Rugby Club. By sheer coincidence we started talking to Dave who it turned out lived around the corner from where I grew up and who knew my Dad who delivered bread door to door for the local bakery!

Niail driving the tractor at Tam O'Shanter's Cottage

Soon our calendar was filling up with lunches and dinners! 

So busy have we been that I haven't had time to write the blog lately! This will have to be a quick catch up and we'll get back to normal when we arrive back in the USA.

Meanwhile I'll drop in lots of pictures!

Malcolm and Barbara in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside

:Sid's Cafe" from the TV show "Last of the Summer Wine"

Janet, John and Barbara

Ken, John, Ronnie and I

Sally, Barbara and Angie. Where did Sue go??

Cousin Janet's Cafe in Yorkshire.

Back in UK

The ferry from Dieppe took us into Newhaven which is on the south coast of England between London and Portsmouth. Our plan was to drive back to Portsmouth and stay with my Aunt Sheila again while we fixed the bumper of the van which had been “Crunched” in Portugal.

The white cliffs, but not of Dover, these are near Newhaven.

Aunt Sheila welcomed us once again and her Son in Law Robin was kind enough to lend me tools and run me round to the Auto Parts stores to get some fiberglass, paint and filler.

The weather decided NOT to co-operate and I ended up getting soaking wet and taking a day longer than planned to finish the job. As soon as it was finished we drove back to Weston Super Mare where we bought the van and took it back under their “Buy Back” agreement.

I was quite stressed out about this, I was convinced in my own head that they would try and knock the price down. In the end my repairs helped when they glanced over it and gave me the full agreed amount! Which meant that the cost for the 2 1/2 months we had the van was about $4000 including repairs, insurance, tax etc. Which compared with the $1000 A WEEK it would have cost to rent one was a good deal and we didn’t have the hassle of selling it privately.

Next order of business was getting a rental car and loading all the equipment we’d bought for the trip into it. We were going to donate everything either to our daughter Sally if she wanted it, or to a charity store.

After some LONG delays due to a wreck near Weston Super Mare we finally got on the road to see our friends Graham and Elaine who live near Lincoln in the East of England, North of London.

Lincoln Cathedral from Lincoln Castle

Lots of catching up was spread between dinners out, trips to Lincoln castle and cathedral, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and a wonderful Country Fair/Show. Lots of fun was had and lots of memories shared.

Lincoln Castle

The city gate which dates back to the Roman era

The Country Fair had so much to see

Sheep dogs herding geese!

Our good friends Graham and Elaine

Barbara’s Brother Stu and his wife Linda live a little way South of Graham and Elaine so we spent the rest of the first week with them with more dinners out and more catching up together with a trip to the Shuttleworth Trust.

This was to have been a picture of Stuart and Linda until Holly decided she was the star!

Shuttleworth trust and a very rare Kirby Kite glider

WW2 Hurricane fighter

1909 AVRO triplane.

Shuttleworth is a great collection of airplanes, cars and motorcycles that began as the private collection of Richard Shuttleworth in the 1930’s and which was carried on by his family after he was killed in a flying accident during WW2.

Last days in France.

After we finally shook ourselves loose of the mechanical breakdowns in Bastogne we drove almost due West and back into Northern France. 

From the Bastogne battlefield of World War 2 we had arrived in the area of the vast battles of World War 1. Signs for Museums and Military Cemeteries appeared at crossroads along the way.

The Musee De La Grand Guerre

The French call World War 1 "La Grande Guerre", what might have been grand about it I don't know. Of course Grande means "Big" in English and WW1 was. Millions died in the 4 years of trench warfare. The trenches reached from the coast of Belgium all the way to the Swiss border. South of Switzerland the Germans and Italians (who were on the Allied side in WW1) fought in the Alps. Britain landed Australian and New Zealand troops in a disastrous attempt to invade Turkey.

A typical soldiers equipment.

We picked a campground from our book based on mileage as much as anything. We found ourselves in a delightful little town a short distance off the A2 the main road. Looking at the brochures in the reception showed us a local museum "History of the Grande War" which was about 15 minutes away.

When we got there we discovered that it was located in the rear of a lovely Chateau on a lake close to the Somme river.

The place was very different from other museums. I've been to a lot of military museums usually they are dark and fairly well packed with displays. This one was light and airy,  It showed current events in France, Britain and Germany at each stage of the war and the build up to it through newspapers, souvenirs and posters.

Dieppe Harbor

We ended up in Dieppe at a campground about 6 Km from the city. At first it seemed nice and quiet but as the weekend arrived the place filled with teenagers and families. Every evening in the restaurant there was an "Entertainment". One night a disco that started at 9pm and went on until about 1am. The next night Bingo announced on a loudspeaker system and then Karaoke.

Carousel Horse Dieppe

The old city Dieppe

We got a cab into the city and enjoyed a day walking all around the place visiting the Canadian War Memorial, the shops and the restaurants where seafood was featured and it was FRESH.

Dieppe was the scene of a complete fiasco of a raid in WW2 where Canadian troops attempted to land on the beaches in front of the town. The tanks couldn't make it across the pebble beaches and the troops couldn't scale the seawall. Out of 5000 troops landed only about 2000 made it back. All the equipment from tanks to trucks and guns were lost. 

Monument to the French Canadian Troops Dieppe

Canadian War Memorial Dieppe

Then the time came for us to get on the ferry and depart for Newhaven in UK.

Dieppe - Newhaven Ferry