Poole to Corfe

Let me describe the photos here, The first one is Corfe castle, then the Steam train station with the castle in the background, Tony in the compartment of the old train, The last one here is me in front of "old harry" rock, on our way to swanage.

Well, its been a while! The internet at the pub costs me a pint so I don't come here right away in the morning. The neighbor has Wifi but only when she gets up, comes home at lunch, then sometimes in the evening, not always. So its been a challenge to get online.

Yesterday was Thursday. Tony and I got up and caught the ferry to Swanage at 9am. It was pretty cool. No one was on the Quay that early and we thought we had it made for sure. Then just about 9am this huge school group shows up. I mean huge, all speaking french, mostly teen age kids. Yikes!! So about that time the ferry guy hollers at Tony and I and on we get to our own ferry! We had teh entire boat to ourselves. It was great. I guess the group was taking the other ferry to Bournemouth so we went to Swanage by ourselves! Great fun! To them I'm sure it looked like Tony was my high roller and had hired the ferry just for us! It was great!

We had a quick trip to Swanage, its a great little village! Right on the water, very quaint and empty still at that time. On our way into town I went down these big stairs to the water and wandered around looking for shells. They were everywhere! We'll see if they make the trip home or not.

Tony and I had planned to hop on the train to Corfe and see the castle. And every 20 minutes or so they have this really great old steam train that makes teh trip. It was so fun! We got our ticket bought and were just in time to hop on the last car before it took off. Everything about it seemed original the wood, the fabrics the door knobs etc.

It was great fun!!

Corfe was pretty much the coolest place I've seen! So quiet and tidy and it was just really nice! And at one end on this big hill was teh castle. its falling down a bit but still pretty neat looking. Lots of people hiking around and enjoying the grounds and it was just a really nice slow paced place.

Tony and I visited a few pubs that all had gardens overlooking the castle so it was really nice. Lots of amazing gardens there!!

We ran to the train and headed back to Swanage in the afternoon. We had a pint in the Red Lion, its known for having the most cider beers there, which there were alot. Not really excited about cider beer. Its flat and very different tasting compared to what we drink.

So, it was a great day!! We got onto the ferry just in time for the rain. Our school group had caught up to us by then so the ferry was full of people. We went to Bournemouth first and then headed back to Poole and once again had the ferry to ourselves for that last part of the trip. The school group got off the boat at Bournemouth, along with everyone else.

It was pouring rain when we got back to Poole so we ran home, thankfully Tony lives right by the Quay so its a quick trip!

It was alot of fun!!

Wednesday morning Tony and I had coffee with Greg again and Trevor and Pete. Greg has officially invited me to sail to the Canary Islands in a couple of weeks, I am looking forward to that for sure! So much great experience. Tony will be on his ship by then so I'll go solo. Its likely after Sunday of this week I won't see Tony again for awhile. He has officially gotten the job on Tenacious, the tall ship he's been on for a month or so.

So, I'll head up to Rob's family's place Sunday night and Rob will introduce me, get me all set up and then he'll head off for some school trip he volunteered for. Its going to be an interesting few weeks.

I think thats about it. There is a table full of Aussies in the Blue Boar and they are being really loud, usually its really quiet in here.

I'll have internet more regular again this weekend so I'll try to keep up.

Karen