Exploring the South of England

Left Shepton-Mallet at 8.45am. Visited Stonehenge £6.60 each. A good audio guide. Made our way to Beaulieu, much to Muz's surprise it was £15.75 each, he was not impressed. Once we had been there for a few hours and he say what it was he though it was ok. It is an estate that has been in Beaulieu ownership for over 400 years and been open to the public since 1952. It includes the National Motor Museum, has many displays including the cars used for speed records, lots of vintag cars, bus, vans, bikes, motorcycles, bond cars used in movies, plus there were about to open a Top Gear section. Visited the palace house and gardens, which included a huge vegetable garden. They employ 6 full time gardeners. Walked around what was left of the Abbey. Certainly well worth the visit and you could spend all day looking around. They hold a variety of events during the year at the estate. Lord Beaulieu still lives in the Palace on the top floor. Drove through the New Forest dodging all the wild horses, quite a unique place. Made our way to Carrington House Hotel in Bournmouth, which is our accommodation for the next 3 nights. Started to rain hard at 5pm. Brought dinner at Tescos and took it back to the hotel, nice not to have dinner in a restaurant for a change. Muz found some Triffle as well and couldn't resist. Say no more!!

Thursday

Headed south to Lyme Regis which is about 50miles south of Bournemouth. A nice traditional english seaside village in Dorset. The promenade has little painted sheds that you can buy or rent, very quaint. Weather wasn't sunbathing material for us, jackets were needed, sky fill of rain clouds but we managed to avoid them! Visited Poole beaches on the way back to Bournemouth, where there were lots of people wind surfing and kite surfing, tidal like the eastuary in Christchurch.A nice relaxing day.  This internet cafe is on Cristchurch road in Bournemouth!!! Christchurch is the next town from Bournemouth.

Friday

Spent most of the day at the Royal Navy National Museum at Portsmouth. Well worth the visit. Took a harbour cruise for 40 minutes with a very good commentary. If your brought the combined ticket like we did you were able to visit all attractions. Looked at the historic ships which have all been meticiously restored, in fact one had 8million dollars spent on it. Also saw the Mary Rose which is currently being preserved with a wax solution. It was housed in a building and being sprayed by the wax. This is going to stop in September when they are gradually going to dry the boat out. The display will then be closed to the public until 2011.

Also visited the D-Day Museum on the waterfront. Well worth a look. Travelled back in thick traffic to Bournemouth as it was 5.40pm and a Friday evening.