We Went to Amsterdam!

Grand Place was very grand indeed, both in daylight and at night. We were impressed. Graham said Brussels seemed like something out of an old war movie! This city definitely deserves more time spent than we had to give it. Our last morning was spent in the Musical Instrument Museum and it was one of the best museums I've been in. We got in half a tour of the city, enough to want more and finally arrived back in England with an excellent exhibit waiting for us!

Back home to the UK again

May 10

Gosh, I was tired and sore this morning. Not used to sitting on the ground anymore! You wouldn't think it would be wearing on your muscles but boy, it sure seems to be. A long hot shower helped a little but I'm still achy. I couldn't face dragging everything on the bus to the train station so we booked a cab which cost a lot more than I think it should have but sod it! The first class train seats are very comfy and there was free tea and coffee and bikkies.

When we got back to Salford and Graham's flat, we stopped in to see his dad for a bit. Later i got my photos uploaded to the computer and am fairly happy with them. We had something to eat and relaxed. I called home for Mother's Day and then set up a meet-up with the Manchester gang for Tuesday. Another Corrie mate is in Manchester for a few days so I emailed her about the curry buffet meal we're going to on Tuesday.

It's a beautiful morning

May 11

Sunshine! Blue Sky! I rarely see that in Manchester/Salford! The breeze is a bit chilly but so what? We got the bus in town and walked to the car rental place on Oldham Road. We have wheels for the rest of the week which will be nice. Today's excursion is to Lyme Hall on the edge of Stockport out in Cheshire. It's an old manor house on the edge of a huge park, all part of an original estate granted to the family in the 1400s. The house dates back that far but mainly the current house dates from the 16th and 17th centuries. The house is open to the public (for a fee of course) and you also pay to park in the parking lot. The gardens are really nice too and that also costs. We just got a ticket for both house and gardens to cover it all. The family were Jacobite supporters and the house has exquisite tapestries, furniture and art. I really enjoyed it. No photos but i did manage to take a stealth shot in the chapel. Most of the rooms had people standing in them that you could talk to for information and we had a nice chat with several of them.

The gardens near the house were very nice. There's a reflecting pool out on the south front with a little island in the middle which is all flowers. Very pretty! This house was used for the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, the series with Colin Firth that made many a heart flutter with his swim through the pond behind the house. Lyme Hall was used for that series but the lake wasn't the little pool by the house, it was a bit further afield and we didn't feel like tramping over fields just to see it. The gardens had a greenhouse/orangerie with lots of flowers and plants and a few fountains and we had a peek in there as well.

We also had lunch in the cafe which is in the cellars, low arched ceilings! They had a small menu with a couple of specials, drinks and desserts. The food was a bit different, venison which was done in a sort of stew with potato topping all baked until crispy. Was quite tasty and very mild. I suppose it was farm-raised venison rather than wild like i've had in the past.

On the way home, we stopped in and stocked up the larder at Sainsbury's and had a night in.

Fowl weather

May 12

Another really sunny day today! Yay! The "Fowl" in the title refers to waterfowl. Graham is a member of a national waterfowl wetlands trust. They have several sanctuaries around the country and there's a wetlands preserve about an hour drive away up in Lancashire at Martin Mere. We thought it might be interesting to go since we have a car anyway and get free entry with the membership. We had Google directions and the signage was pretty good and we didn't get lost once!

The WWT is a park and a wild wetland area. There are many, many kinds of rare birds from all over the world that are raised here. Their wings are clipped so they can't fly away and they are bred specifically to preserve the species. The wetlands/marsh side also attracts many kinds of wild birds at various times of the year. There are "hides" or little huts along the edges of the mere where you can sit and birdwatch. This is the kind of thing the keener enthusiast like to do whereas casual birdie type people like us prefer the park side.

We walked around the park with a bag of grain to feed the birds here and there. They were quite happy to see us with that, as well! They had several types of flamingos, one that was mostly all white and another that was pink. The colour comes from what they eat, like shrimp. There are many kinds of ducks, with all sorts of colours and sizes and geese too. There was a cage with some cranes, an African Crown Crane which had black faces and wiry fluffy feathers that stuck out around their head like a crown and bright blue eyes. One fellow was up by the cage and was popping his head up and sideways very quickly, looking for grain to be fed. We'd throw a bit in, he'd dart down to peck at it and then pop right back up. He was quite funny looking and so fast it was hard to get a good photo of him. I think Graham took some video of him, not sure.

There were some fluffy little black chicks, moorhens they were, and all swimming by their mums. Another area we went by had a bunch of grey speckled geese from Hawaii. They were very bold! They obviously knew visitors have food because they came right up to us looking hungry and hopeful and i even fed them handfuls right out of my hand! When we walked way, they started to follow us, looking for more. Cheeky! Just after we'd got rid of all the grain, we walked by another pen and two geese came running at full speed from the back to the front, wings flapping out and looking frantic. They had their beaks right up against the fence and you just know they were looking for food, too. People always have food, right? How come you don't have any? Oh, we know it's in your pocket somewhere! We felt bad we'd already given the last of it out! Not like they were starving of course!

We had a really nice few hours including a pretty decent hot meal at the cafe in the main building. I thought it would be a nice day but it was really good, we enjoyed it more than we expected to. We got back to Graham's flat about 4, i washed my hair and we got ready to go back out to meet our friends for a curry buffet at Nawaab where we'd also gone last year. We were a bit late but got there eventually and had a really cozy evening catching up with everyone! Food was excellent too!

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