Legoland (Heaven)

Darren and I went to Legoland Windsor, it's an amazing place. I will let the pictures do the talking.


How cool!! A lego dog stealing a sausage, tower bridge and a portrait of her majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second.


I really loved the dragon...

That last one is a ride that goes around on a little track..

The next series are from LEGO city and can easily be mistaken for the real buildings (well, by me anyway!)


The information panel says, "The vehicle assembly building (VAB)is one of the largest buildings in the world, it is almost twice the height of Big Ben. The real VAB is so vast that it has a complex ventilation system to prevent the formation of clouds and even rain inside the building. Legoland's model is built at 1:80 scale."


Sacre Coeur, Paris.
The panel says, "This majestic cathedral, which translates as the 'Sacred Heart'. is located high up on the Montmartre hill. While the actual cathedral in Paris is 80 metres tall at it;s highest point, the LEGO version is just 2 metres tall!"
And, here is Mr Brick waving at his adoring fans.

Canary Wharf and a lego tube station. A LEGO construction site!and Leeds Castle that is actually in Kent.

The panel by the palace asks "can you find the gold topped bottle left by the milkman?" well, yes I can!!


(I will write more soon, about the London trip, the ten pence ran out on the keyboard.)

Drayton Manor Saturday 9th August 2008

Estella went away with Auntie Carol this week.
So we decided to take the babies to Drayton Manor for a day out. Drayton Manor has an area called Thomas World, and as the babies both love Thomas the Tank engine, they were made up!
Thy went on Jeremy's flying school first with Daddy in the rain, they were soggy; but extremely happy.

Cranky the crane was a mini drop tower, and both babies loved it. They looked very little in the big chair.

Daisy had her first try on a driving school, she loved it.
She seems to have mastered road rage at a young age! She was very cross when a little boy bumped into her car.
They went on Bertie's Bus, which is a bus that you get in, then it spins round in circles.

We went on the troublesome trucks rollercoaster, the kids cackled like loons.

They also enjoyed Diesel's locomotion mayhem and the spinning barrels.

The babies were delighted to see the Fat Controller, we're supposed to call him Sir Topham Hatt or something. He was the fat controller when I was a kid, so my kids call him that!



There was also plenty for the adults to do. We went on Maelstrom, which is a spinning gyro swing, it was nice and relaxing.

We went on Apocalypse, which is a huge drop tower with the option of standing up as you drop, unfortunately the floorless section of the tower, where you can drop with no foot rest wasn't open.

We also went on one of my favourite rides, the only stand up roller coaster in Europe, Shockwave. I still get huge adrenaline thrills on this ride.



References. http://www.ukrides.info/

Portmeirion

This summer, I really wanted to revisit Portmeirion. It is the location of the Village in the famous 1960's television programme, the Prisoner.

Portmeirion was built by the welsh architect Clough Williams-Ellis, to show that the development of an area of nautural beauty would not mean defiling it.
Clough was a conservationist and a campaigner for the protection of the environment.

The picture above is of the Tollbooths. The Tollbooths have over 20 years between them,
the tollbooth on the right was built in 1976 and was Clough's last addition to the village.
The Tollbooth on the left was built in 1999.

This is the original entrance board to Portmeirion, and it survived until the introduction of decimal currency in the 1970's.
"That visitors to Portmeirion may be sufficiently discouraged and so kept to acceptable numbers A toll of 5 shillings per head has had to be imposed. To avoid it please turn back here." The disc in the board turned, and the price could be raised. For example, it was set to 10 shillings when King Edward VIII was there as Prince of Wales.

As I wandered along in Portmeirion, my eye was drawn to the Bell Tower.

Clough called this Tower built in 1928 the Campanile. His reason
for building it was, "The need for the Campanile was obvious enough - It was imperative that I should open my performance with a dramatic gesture of some sort."
The Campanile and the buildings around it have an Italian feel to them, Clough had recently been travelling in Italy.






Another thing that caught my attention was this bird, beast, griffin?
I'd love to know what it is, apart from great to look at.





Then there was this plaque, on a stone lion that was given to Clough by his friends on his 90th birthday. I misread it at first and wondered what on earth a goth birthday might be!

It was late in the afternoon by the time I arrived at Portmeirion, having visited Machynlleth and Corris craft centre first, I guess this relaxed couple were as tired as I was.



I hope to revisit Portmeirion very soon and to make a full day of it.
(Thank you Darren.)


References.
http://www.portmeirion-village.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner
http://www.theunmutual.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmeirion
Robert Llywelyn's Portmeirion Guide book.