Steam Railways In Yorkshire with John & Netty

  Steam Railways In Yorkshire  

In Shipley railway station we caught our steam train - ‘The Waverley’. It was made in 1930 and what a magnificent steam engine it was! The train arrived on time and we all excitedly boarded ready for our journey. We took in many stunning sights along the way. 

Another day we headed to Goathland – we saw some beautiful countryside along the way as we travelled through the stunning Yorkshire Moors. Goathland is where the TV programme, Heartbeat, was filmed. We walked around admiring the lovely village before stopping in one of the tea gardens to enjoy a picnic.

 We headed across the stunning moors to Kilnsey – home to one of the biggest county shows in Yorkshire. The show was huge with so much to see – including sheep dog trials, bird of prey displays, dancing sheep and many farm stalls.

We made our way over to Keighley Railway Station. It was a beautiful station containing much 1950’s memorabilia. We boarded our steam train and headed towards Haworth. Here we boarded a 1950’s open top bus that took us to the top of Haworth village. The village was absolutely beautiful with its cobbled streets and quaint little shops.

In York we visited the National Railway Museum. It was a wonderful museum displaying many different trains including information about each one. We spent the majority of the day walking around the museum taking in the sights and expanding our knowledge on steam trains. 

Austria, Sound of Music Tour with Derek, Midi & Lesley

Austria, Sound of Music Tour

 We took a cable car up onto the mountains.  We were about 2,500 ft up and the views were truly spectacular!  The sky was clear and the sun was shining so we decided to have lunch in a restaurant on top of the mountain.

Our journey to the National Park Hohe Tauern and the Wasser Fall (Water Fall!) was fantastic. When we arrived we felt like we were in Canada looking over the Victoria Falls.  It was amazing - the largest waterfall in Europe. 

We all totally relived our childhood when we sang songs from The Sound of Music on the bus and visited some of the locations where the original filming took place.  We saw Mirabell Gardens where the Von Trapp children sang Do-Re-Me.   Leopoldskron Palace with the famous boating scene and the gardens of Hellbrunn Palace where the gazebo is located. 

We were then totally in awe of the Abbey (Nonnberg) where the "real" Maria was a novice and where the Captain and Maria married in real life. The tour was finished off by visiting the Mondsee, which has a beautiful cathedral – where the wedding scene for the movie was filmed.

At the pretty little village of Zell am See we took a boat trip across the lake, offering more amazing mountainous views, then we walked through the quaint lanes which were full of shops and temptations!  Nearly everyone bought more souvenirs and we then stopped off for pastries and coffee.

Our evenings were spent listening to traditional music and all had a cracking time dancing the night away.

The Wonders of the Isle of Wight with Phil & Isobel

The Wonders of the Isle of Wight

At the Needles, we went to visit the Allum Bay Glass Factory to watch the glass blowers making a beautiful blue vase - ready to go on sale in the gift shop. We then spent time making sand ornaments with all the different coloured sand.

 We had a fantastic time visiting the donkey sanctuary to see all the lovely donkeys and to stroke the Shetland ponies. The donkeys seemed to enjoy all the fuss!

Our evenings were packed full of amazing entertainement. We all loved  showing off our moves on the dance floor to the sound of all the great hits.

We went to Ryde Super Bowl for a few games of ten pin bowling. This was great fun with many super scores and a few strikes too! 

We visited the Isle of Wight Zoo where we managed to see the lions and tigers - who were basking happily in the warm sunshine.  We watched the monkeys being their usual cheeky, playful selves and also visited the petting area to see the guinea pigs, rabbits, tortoises and an African hedgehog.