Weymouth and St Malo

We took a trip down to the South Coast of England, our base for our visit was the town of Weymouth. Its a typical seaside town with some impressive Georgian houses and a clean beach.

We took a drive over to Lulworth cove. This is a beautiful part of the Dorset coastline and we spent a couple of hours walking along the trails and enjoying the spectacular views.

We visited the town of Poole and took a boat trip around Poole harbour and over to Brownsea island.

We decided to do a day trip over to the French Port of St.Malo. We took the early morning ferry over and stopping off at one of the channel islands.

We spent a few hours exploring the old streets of St Malo before enjoying a typical French lunch.

The swell on the sea picked up in the late afternoon and there was some doubt as if the return journey would take place, but it did and it was a very rough crossing back to England.

On our return to England we took a drive over to the Isle of Portland, it was windswept and barren but an interesting place to visit and there are some great views across the bay to Chesil beach.

Our final stop was at Portland castle that dates back to 1540 and was built by Henry VIII.

Stockholm and Helsinki

 Rob returned to Stockholm later in the year and Mandy surprised him with a visit to Helsinki in Finland.

We caught the Ferry and sailed through the beautiful Archipelago that lies off Stockholm's coastline.

We were lucky to have superb weather as we explored the Finnish capital.

On our second evening we walked over to the Vantaa river to watch the Dragon boat racing before enjoying the local cider.

The following day we made our way over to the Temppeliaukio church which has been Excavated out of solid rock. The church hall is covered with a dome, lined with copper and supported on the rock walls.

 Memories of Helsinki

Stockholm, The Cotswolds and Cardiff 2000

Mandy and I met in the Swedish Capital of Stockholm in 2000. The weather was bitterly cold and parts of the harbour were frozen.

We explored the narrow street of the old town (Galma stan) and thankfully there were plenty of coffee shops to stop off and to warm up.

Our next meeting was in The Cotswold are of England. Our base was the Frogmill hotel and from here we explored the numerous small villages in the area.

While we were in the area we visited Cheltenham race course and even managed to pick out a couple of winners.

From the Cotswolds we drove to Rob's hometown of Cardiff in South Wales and enjoyed a lovely meal with Sean, Karen and their son Liam.

During the visit to the Welsh Capital, Rob took Mandy to her first rugby match at the Millenium stadium.