Date visited: Saturday 22nd May 2010
Location: Marwell Wildlife, Thompsons Lane, Colden Common, Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 1JH
Marwell is in the heart of the beautiful Hampshire countryside, just eight miles from Winchester, five from Eastleigh and twelve from Southampton. The park is within easy reach of two main motorways and rail stations. Open everyday except Christmas day and Boxing day.
My review: We went to Marwell Wildlife for a family day out with some friends, I’d never been before and I was impressed with Marwell. It’s beautifully set out and has plenty of ‘animal exhibits’ that seem well cared for and happy. Only a few things were ‘not available’ due to maintenance. On the whole, the park is beautiful, there wasn’t a lot of drinks areas and some of the vending machines were out of order, we took a picnic with us, so that wasn’t such a problem.
If you’re a keen photographer then I do recommend you take your longer lens, I didn’t and I regretted it, luckily out video camera has 12x optical zoom, so we got some good pictures with that. Some of the animals that need ‘area’ were usually further away so you need more zoom to get a half decent picture.
We were lucky to have a beautiful day, only slightly too hot, even the animals looked dazed by the sunny hot weather in England, they must be acclimatized to the British weather already!! With plenty of trees and a few exhibit buildings there’s not many areas were you can’t find a bit of shade.
All in all it was a very enjoyable day out that the whole family enjoyed, I would highly recommend a visit and would definately visit Marwell again myself.
The website for Marwell wildlife can be found here.
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Monday, 19 April 2010
Thunder over Michigan
Location: Yankee Air Museum, Willow Run Airport, Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA
I've attended Thunder over Michigan twice and the last time was in 2008. If you like planes, tanks, battle reenactments and the like then you should try to go. I've made two videos, below, one is of the World War II battle reenactment, which seems to get better by the year, and the other is the planes on the ground and in the air, you can get up close and personal with them.
I'd never attended such a fantastic airshow before, until I went to Thunder over Michigan and it is well worth making a point of getting there for the reenactment, put on by volunteers and they do have fun doing it. If you go for the reenactment, make sure you can bear the noise or take earplugs or something to help reduce the noise. The airshow is very informative and the fly pasts are brilliant.
There is food and toilets available, along with a first aid area. But you can take a picnic to eat while watching the airshow. Also souvenirs are available and you're also helping to keep the Yankee Air Museum running too. It's a lovely area, don't forget your deckchair if you can manage one too. Well worth a visit and highly enjoyable.
Battle Reenactment
Stars of the airshow
I've attended Thunder over Michigan twice and the last time was in 2008. If you like planes, tanks, battle reenactments and the like then you should try to go. I've made two videos, below, one is of the World War II battle reenactment, which seems to get better by the year, and the other is the planes on the ground and in the air, you can get up close and personal with them.
I'd never attended such a fantastic airshow before, until I went to Thunder over Michigan and it is well worth making a point of getting there for the reenactment, put on by volunteers and they do have fun doing it. If you go for the reenactment, make sure you can bear the noise or take earplugs or something to help reduce the noise. The airshow is very informative and the fly pasts are brilliant.
There is food and toilets available, along with a first aid area. But you can take a picnic to eat while watching the airshow. Also souvenirs are available and you're also helping to keep the Yankee Air Museum running too. It's a lovely area, don't forget your deckchair if you can manage one too. Well worth a visit and highly enjoyable.
Battle Reenactment
Stars of the airshow
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
Woodward Dream Cruise, Michigan, USA
Date attended: 16th August 2008 Location: Woodward Avenue, Metro Detroit, Michigan, USA
If you love cars then this is definately a place to make a point of going during the Cruise. People with Classic cars, Hot rods and the like 'cruise' down 16 miles of Woodward Avenue and also some events are held and people park up their vehicles for you to enjoy looking at them.
The cars are peoples 'pride and joy' and are usually happy to talk about them if they're there. It's a great day out for the 'Petrol head' within. When we went we were slightly amused by the fact that some people not only bring their own seating, as in folding chairs, etc, but on the odd occaison, those who wanted to be more 'comfortable' decided to bring their sofa's with them. Everyone there is there for the same reason, to enjoy the cars, if you don't like cars, then avoid Woodward Avenue when the cruise is on. Shops do close, other than those selling merchandise and food and drink. You can take your own food, just be prepared to 'lug it around' with you, although there is plenty of food available too.
The Dream Cruise is held on the third Saturday of the month, every year, so check out the website link below for the full details from those who know. It's a good day out for the car lover and well worth a visit if you're in the area on the day of the Cruise.
Woodward Dream Cruise Website!
Below is a video of some of our pictures we took at the cruise, hope it gives you an idea of what you might see.
If you love cars then this is definately a place to make a point of going during the Cruise. People with Classic cars, Hot rods and the like 'cruise' down 16 miles of Woodward Avenue and also some events are held and people park up their vehicles for you to enjoy looking at them.
The cars are peoples 'pride and joy' and are usually happy to talk about them if they're there. It's a great day out for the 'Petrol head' within. When we went we were slightly amused by the fact that some people not only bring their own seating, as in folding chairs, etc, but on the odd occaison, those who wanted to be more 'comfortable' decided to bring their sofa's with them. Everyone there is there for the same reason, to enjoy the cars, if you don't like cars, then avoid Woodward Avenue when the cruise is on. Shops do close, other than those selling merchandise and food and drink. You can take your own food, just be prepared to 'lug it around' with you, although there is plenty of food available too.
The Dream Cruise is held on the third Saturday of the month, every year, so check out the website link below for the full details from those who know. It's a good day out for the car lover and well worth a visit if you're in the area on the day of the Cruise.
Woodward Dream Cruise Website!
Below is a video of some of our pictures we took at the cruise, hope it gives you an idea of what you might see.
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Winchelsea, East Sussex, UK
On August 24th until August 28th 2009 me and my family went on a little caravan holiday to Winchelsea sands in East Sussex, near to Hastings. We had a brilliant time and the weather was kind to us. We had quite a 'historical' holiday, which the boys loved as much as we did. We checked in on the Monday, but didn't do much other than finding the beach, Winchelsea beach, nice beach, stoney, but still nice, the boys loved throwing the stones in the waves.
Tuesday we got up and went for a day in Hastings, we went up the little uphill railway and went to 'The smugglers caves' which was good, but the younger two didn't appreciate it too much and got a bit scared, so I went through a little quicker than my husband and our eldest did. From there we walked across to Hastings castle's ruins and had a look around, along with watching a 'video' on the castle and history. We went back down the railway to the seafront to find somewhere for lunch, we found a lovely OLDE pub and had lunch, took a while but it WAS BUSY!! Then we went across to the 'Blue Reef aquarium' and saw lots of 'sea life'. We walked back towards the car and came across the Hastings RNLI station, so took the boys in to see the boat and make a donation. We saw the boat was going out on 'practice' around 5pm so decided to hang around a while to see the launch. We walked along the front, where plenty of 'rides and attractions' were and had some lovely hot doughnuts (after we'd just purchased ours, they decided to put the price up!!! Never seen that before, was quite funny to see). The boys wanted to go on the Go-Karts, so we went over and they had a 'deal' where if a child sat on an adults lap the child could go 'free'. SO ALL THE BOYS WENT ON!! They had great fun, other than having my arms full of coats and attempting to take pics I had fun watching them too.
On Wednesday we went to Battle Abbey and the 1066 Battle grounds, we’d had a recommendation to go there from some friends of ours. It was well worth it and a beautiful area, lovely building and the walk around the battlegrounds was lovely. Well worth a visit if you like 'ruins' and historical stuff. The do have an ‘audio tour’ you can pick up and the kids can do a ‘treasure hunt’ of sorts, which they can come away with a certificate at the end.
Then Thursday we went to Tenterden Station for the Kent and East Sussex Railway. Lovely old steam train goes on about 10 miles of track between Tenterden and Bodium Castle. Lovely train ride and the Castle is GORGEOUS. Although more ‘ruins’ than a usable castle these days, the outside is breathtaking and very fairytale-ish. You can go right up one tower and see from the top over the fields and inner sanctum of the castle courtyard. Then it was back on the train again.
Love the places we went, would recommend them, and the kids loved them too.
I made a little video of some of our photos of the historical places we visited, hope you'll watch it.
Good websites for the area we visited:
Visit 1066 Country
Smugglers Adventures
Bodium castle
Battle Abbey
Kent and East Sussex Railway
Tuesday we got up and went for a day in Hastings, we went up the little uphill railway and went to 'The smugglers caves' which was good, but the younger two didn't appreciate it too much and got a bit scared, so I went through a little quicker than my husband and our eldest did. From there we walked across to Hastings castle's ruins and had a look around, along with watching a 'video' on the castle and history. We went back down the railway to the seafront to find somewhere for lunch, we found a lovely OLDE pub and had lunch, took a while but it WAS BUSY!! Then we went across to the 'Blue Reef aquarium' and saw lots of 'sea life'. We walked back towards the car and came across the Hastings RNLI station, so took the boys in to see the boat and make a donation. We saw the boat was going out on 'practice' around 5pm so decided to hang around a while to see the launch. We walked along the front, where plenty of 'rides and attractions' were and had some lovely hot doughnuts (after we'd just purchased ours, they decided to put the price up!!! Never seen that before, was quite funny to see). The boys wanted to go on the Go-Karts, so we went over and they had a 'deal' where if a child sat on an adults lap the child could go 'free'. SO ALL THE BOYS WENT ON!! They had great fun, other than having my arms full of coats and attempting to take pics I had fun watching them too.
On Wednesday we went to Battle Abbey and the 1066 Battle grounds, we’d had a recommendation to go there from some friends of ours. It was well worth it and a beautiful area, lovely building and the walk around the battlegrounds was lovely. Well worth a visit if you like 'ruins' and historical stuff. The do have an ‘audio tour’ you can pick up and the kids can do a ‘treasure hunt’ of sorts, which they can come away with a certificate at the end.
Then Thursday we went to Tenterden Station for the Kent and East Sussex Railway. Lovely old steam train goes on about 10 miles of track between Tenterden and Bodium Castle. Lovely train ride and the Castle is GORGEOUS. Although more ‘ruins’ than a usable castle these days, the outside is breathtaking and very fairytale-ish. You can go right up one tower and see from the top over the fields and inner sanctum of the castle courtyard. Then it was back on the train again.
Love the places we went, would recommend them, and the kids loved them too.
I made a little video of some of our photos of the historical places we visited, hope you'll watch it.
Good websites for the area we visited:
Visit 1066 Country
Smugglers Adventures
Bodium castle
Battle Abbey
Kent and East Sussex Railway
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