Pilgrims and the Mayflower, a warship, pubs and much more.

On Sunday we motored over to Stansted to be ready to meet our son when he flew in from Tenerife on Monday. We were booked into the Radisson Blu for the night, very nice except they had given us a room with a view of the atrium with the "Wine Tower". View from room:

Fine, but I have a pathological horror of heights and to get to the room we had to walk along the top walkway, back of picture. Not the best of experiences, near on as bad as Pontcysyllte.
Next day the 'plane was on time, we collected the lad and made our way to Plymouth, despite the best efforts of the M25, the Avon & Somerset Police and the Highways Agency, but those are stories far to long to be told here.

He was soon reunited with his nephew and niece, dear of him.
Yesterday, having deposited the sprogs at school and nursery, we had a wander round the Hoe and the Barbican.

HMS Montrose was anchored in The Sound.

In the Shadow of the Citadel, pointing defiantly out to sea are two cannons from the time of Nelson. The barrels bear the scars, not of maritime warfare but of many years

half buried in the dockyard and used as mooring bollards.
Sutton Harbour was once a thriving commercial and fishing port but now most of the craft here are a bit upmarket from the old trading vessels.

The warehouses still line the quayside but they speak now of a different kind of prosperity,

bars and restaurants on the ground floor with plush apartments above while the once teeming alley ways, "Opes" in the local speak are relegated to repositories for

rows of rubbish bins.

The Dolphin Hotel, a time warp of a pub, featured in Several of Beryl Cook's wonderful paintings. www.berylcook.org will give you a flavour of Plymouth through a brilliant artist's eyes.

The Mayflower Steps, complete with memorial stone telling how the Pilgrim Fathers set sail from here in 1620, except they didn't, when those brave souls set sail this jetty and the steps didn't exist, the best estimation now places the actual point of embarkation under

The Admiral McBride, a fine Victorian pub.

It is fairly certain though that some of them stayed in this house during their time in Plymouth.
At the other end of Southside Street there is another old building, parts of which date back to medieval times when it was a Dominican Monastery, probably now the oldest building in town.

I'm sure those old Black Friars would be pleased to know that it has been producing Plymouth Gin since 1795.
That'll do for tonight.

Watch this space.............