Daily Archives: March 30, 2001

March 30 2001

Community

Gute Besserung, Al! Hope your legs get better soon!

Hope you’re feeling better soon, Garret!

Susan, I just love your colourful reflections and blurs photos!

Lange Museumsnacht

Morgen abend findet die 3. Bonner Museumsnacht statt. Ganz so spannend wie in Berlin wird die wohl nicht sein, allein schon, weil es hier weniger Museen gibt, aber ein paar interessante Angebote gibt es schon:

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Web Trip to England

Since I don’t have any photos of my trip at the moment, I looked up the websites of some of the sights we visited last week.

On March 21, we went to Plymouth harbour to welcome the HMS Cumberland, the ship on which Pauline served during the last six months.

The next day, we went to see Buckfast Abbey, “which is the home of a Roman Catholic Community of Benedictine monks in Devon, England. The first monastery was founded in 1018, but was suppressed by Henry VIII in 1539. It was refounded in 1882. The Abbey Church was rebuilt by the monks themselves. Buckfast  now welcomes almost half a million visitors each year.” The church was basically built by six to eight monks in about 32 years!

After that, we visited the Buckfast Butterflies and Dartmoor Otter Sanctuary. Since it was early in spring, they didn’t have any butterflies, but since there were only few visitors, we were able to feed the otters.

On Friday, André and I explored Plymouth on our own. We went to the National Marine Aquarium, which was very interesting. However, we were a couple of days early for the Jewels of Plymouth Sound.

Afterwards, we went for a walk to the Hoe and the inner city.

On Saturday, Pauline, her brother and his girlfriend wanted to watch a rugby game in Penzance. André and I went with them, but went for a walk on the waterfront instead of watching rugby. Penzance is situated at Mount’s Bay, famous for St. Michael’s Mount, which we didn’t visit. (André has been there a couple of years ago.)

Sunday was Mothering Day in the United Kingdom, so we visited Pauline’s parents who live in Princetown, in the middle of Dartmoor National Park, which is closed at the moment because of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. However, you are still allowed to drive your car on the main roads, so Pauline and I went for a one-hour tour around the moor in the afternoon.

On Monday, Pauline, her mum, André and I went to see the Eden Project near St. Austell, Cornwall. Since the weather was very cold, windy and rainy outside, it was a pleasure to escape into the tropical climate of the greenhouses. In the afternoon, we had fish and chips in Looe before heading back home.

Tuesday was my last day in Plymouth. We had planned to visit Buckland Abbey and The Garden House, both of which are not far from Princetown, but Buckland Abbey was closed because of foot-and-mouth. The Garden House was open, and it was wonderful! Of course there were not many flowers yet because it was so early in spring, but the gardens were spectacular nevertheless, and I enjoyed our visit.

On Wednesday, my plane from Plymouth to London-Gatwick (via Newquay) left at 10:35 a.m., and I made my way home to Bonn in seven and a half hours and without any problems or delays whatsoever.