Four days visiting the Jurassic coast

Monday

We travelled around the M25, down the M3, the A303, and some lesser known roads. We ended up in Weymouth, in the early evening, only slightly later than estimated.  One room for the three of us, with 4 beds, a microwave, fridge/freezer, and a larger than normal sink.  The accommodation, 'The Florian' is OK, especially considering it was booked fairly late.

Our eldest grandson is with us, this is his holiday more than ours, so we give him as much choice as possible.  He chooses fish and chips and eating on the beach.  The first fish and chip place has already run out.  This is after all the warmest, driest day for some time, but we soon find somewhere else.  We eat on the beach, then walk the length of the beach looking for fossils, but not knowing the best places or techniques we find nothing.  We return, eating ice cream on the way, in time for the fireworks. It is an 8-minute spectacular display from a barge in the bay.  We all wonder how all the 'dead' fireworks affect the marine life.

------------

Tuesday

Evidence of Ammonites

The day starts with breakfast, prepared in the room.  The provided selection is not great, but we have some of our own food too, so we make do, and everyone is ready to travel in plenty of time.  This is the high light of the trip and the excitement is building.  We drive for about 45 minutes to Charmouth, where the parking machine makes things difficult, but I managed to get a ticket at the third attempt.  Later, as we prepare for the guided tour from the Heritage Centre, there is a long queue of frustrated people at the machine.

The centre staff are wonderful and take us to a good site.  They also provide instruction and guidance, and will evaluate any rock, or piece of Victorian rubbish they are shown.  We spend a lot of time searching, fingers in the sand, moving rocks, occasionally breaking rocks.  We have a great time.  When the 'tour' time is up, there is a little get-together to see what's been found, then we are allowed to do our own thing.  We keep searching for another 45 minutes before the tide forces us to return to the centre.

We have lunch at the café, then we walk up the hill to the east of Charmouth, on the coast path in the direction of Stanton St. Gabriel.  It's a long climb for us oldies, and Jo stops part way.  I continue to try to keep up for a bit, but am defeated easily by the youngster.  After a rest, I make it to the top, and the views are worth the pain.  On the way up, he has a conversation with his family.

------------

Wednesday

The chosen activity for Wednesday was fishing, but I couldn't find any boats with spaces, other than ones that had 40+ spaces available.  So, we settled for some visits to museums in Dorchester - The Terracotta warriors (disappointing) and The Tutankhamen exhibition (quite good).  When it was time for lunch, he chose a little tearoom.  I thought it looked good for the 60+ age range, not the 10ish age range. It turned out to be an inspired choice.  Not only did they prepare the sandwich he asked for, which was not on the menu, but they were to appear on TV that evening.

Returning from Dorchester, we visited Nothe fort.  The organisation was brilliant - this is how to do heritage sites.  A guide explained all there was and suggested a route around it.  We were soon running up steps and down slopes, and into and out of the innumerable little rooms with different displays about how the fort worked at different times.  There is even a 'ghost passage' - a must for a 10-year-old. 

Back at 'The Florian', I asked, "What do you want for tea?" I had said we'd like to find a country pub that was a bit more upmarket for our last evening.  The answer "Chicken nuggets".  The question and answer exposed a hole in the internet.  Looking a pub menu and looking specifically for the children's menu is a nightmare. I must have visited 30+ sites before I found one that also had a table available.  So, off we went for an 18:45 booking, to a little village near Dorchester.  The food was good, but the service was slow, and there was the constant pressure of viewing a TV program to see what the tearoom was like on the TV.  

Back again at 'The Florian', the TV has only a few channels, and none of the +1's.  So we got the laptop out and played around for a while until we found out how to stream the program. It was worth doing.

------------

Thursday

 

Up early, and all packed and ready to go slightly before the scheduled departure time, we had a short chat with our host, and set out for phase 1 of our journey home.  We arrived at Stonehenge just as it was starting to get busy.  This is an expensive attraction.  When I first visited, dad stopped the car at the side of the road, and we walked across a field.  We could touch and climb on the stones, we were the only ones there.  I think that's why it has such meaning for me - a very special place.  Now it's protected, the car park is a mile or more from the site and buses are provided to get you there.  It's still a special place, especially for our 10-year-old, who loves to draw it.  He took loads of pictures, with the aim of improving his sketches.