Found a living history type museum that was very good called the Tramway Museum. Not the most inspiring name I grant you but stay with it! It's one of these places that has moved local buildings of historic interest brick by brick and re built them bringing them back to their former glory, there's a few places that are similar across the country, but this one had the addition of trams!
There is of course trams to ride on and lots of others to see all restored to working condition. Had a pint & a scotch egg (obligatory) in the Red Lion & as you can see here Ida did her impression of Fred Scuttle (google Benny Hill if you know him!)
Weather again was brilliant and we had a really nice day. Wednesday I think it was Tara was abit washed out by now and elected to stay in so Ida & I went off to Derwent Water to seek all things Dambusters as this is where the 617 Squadron practised their attack on the German dams of the Ruhr Valley.
There's a small memorial to the squadron & once a small museum that's been closed for a few years and that's it really. Not sure what I was expecting , but abit more than this anyway. You can't get onto any of the dam itself which is a shame, hope my photos here show the two towers that the bomb aimers had to line up with to drop their bouncing bombs at the right place which records state was 60ft above the water, though the last surviving Dambuster, Johnny Johnson, who was a bomb aimer, said it was more like 30feet!
Incredibly brave men everyone one of them. On the 19 Lancasters who set off only with only 8 returning.53 aircrew were killed.
Another glorious walk on Thursday brought our week to a close. This time a 3 miler which probably ended up 4 miles. We drove to Birchover and walked to the Nine Ladies Stones, an ancient site along with the king stone. Legend says they were dancing on the sabbath & got turned to stone. On route was the Cork Stone. Just one massive stone on its own, quite impressive
though. You'll notice I have no photos of the Nine Ladies themselves. It was summer solstice about a week ago and some pagan types had camped near the stones and as at least one of the girls was wandering around topless I thought it probably best not to take any piccys! Carried on our walk down through woodland and passed some old workings of some kind. There were some stones that appeared to have been cut into millstones. Unfortunately somewhere on this path we managed to take a wrong turn and were about a mile & a half away from where we wanted to be so a trudge along a very quiet but very hot road that kept on going up & up again until we got back to Birchover to find the first pub shut & the second, although open for drinks wasn't serving food, but the cool tap room and cooler beer made it a worthwhile stop anyway.
There is of course trams to ride on and lots of others to see all restored to working condition. Had a pint & a scotch egg (obligatory) in the Red Lion & as you can see here Ida did her impression of Fred Scuttle (google Benny Hill if you know him!)
There's a small memorial to the squadron & once a small museum that's been closed for a few years and that's it really. Not sure what I was expecting , but abit more than this anyway. You can't get onto any of the dam itself which is a shame, hope my photos here show the two towers that the bomb aimers had to line up with to drop their bouncing bombs at the right place which records state was 60ft above the water, though the last surviving Dambuster, Johnny Johnson, who was a bomb aimer, said it was more like 30feet!
Incredibly brave men everyone one of them. On the 19 Lancasters who set off only with only 8 returning.53 aircrew were killed.
It was a delightful little cottage we stayed in, it was tastefully furnished, nothing like the usual house clearance crap that holiday lets of years gone by were like. Really couldn't fault it & with the added good weather we all had a really really great week.
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