Summer visits to the South - part 2

Soon after our visit to Grizzly's grandcubs, we made another visit to southern England, this time to see Polar's dad in Southampton, who was celebrating his 90th birthday.

We went by car this time.  Polar and Grizzly's little old red car (called Pam, because the number plate includes PMA) does not like motorways very much, so we used 'A' roads.  Polar's route took us through Lechlade, which is the furthest point up the Thames that you can go on a narrowboat.  

We bears thought it looked a lovely place to visit and hope Polar and Grizzly will take us there on Uppie one day.

After that, we went over the Berkshire Downs and stopped at a place called Inkpen Beacon so Polar could take some photographs.  We were very high up and could see for miles and miles!

We were very worried during the last stage of our journey, as there were funny noises from Pam's front wheels.  Grizzly drove very carefully as he thought there was something wrong with the brakes, and he was right. 

After we got to our destination and found a garage, the clever mechanics showed us that the callipers had seized up on the front driver's side wheel.  Poor Pam had to stay at the garage all the next day and on Sunday morning to be repaired, but the garage did a great job.  It was not too expensive and at least we were all safe.

Polar and Grizzly were staying with a friend in a place called Bishop's Waltham.  In medieval times, the Bishop of Winchester had a palace there, which is how it got it's name.  Polar decided not to take us there in case Endon climbed on the ruins and set a bad example to human cubs. 

The day after they went to see Polar's dad (they went by taxi and forgot to take us!), we had a walk around the village.  We bears loved the North Pond, which was restored by a team of hard-working local people, including Grizzly and Polar's friends.  We watched the ducks, then we had a walk along a disused railway line which is now a footpath, and came back through the fields.

When Pam was repaired, it was time to go home.  We had a special treat on the way, as Polar had arranged for us to visit some small bear friends who live near Newbury, which is not very far from Sonning, where I was found.  We have been friends on Twitter for ages but we had not met 'in the fur' before. 

The Berkshire Bears live with their human guardian, who we call Gecko.  The biggest is Confused Bear, then there is Cinnamon Bear and the smallest is Little Brown Bear, known as LBB.  Hanley likes to talk to him about football, as LBB (and his friends) all support Liverpool.

The Berkshire Bears live in a really old cottage which has a sunny courtyard garden, full of brightly-coloured flowers, herbs and trees in pots, which they help Gecko to look after.

Endon found an Acer tree to climb, while LBB proudly showed me some small-bear-sized tomatoes he had grown.  They were very tasty! 

Confused and Cinnamon told Hanley Bear that they loved the Gecko Garden, as it was so pretty and was a safe place for small bears to play.  The bears liked the red flowers best, because it was their team's colour.

'I'm going to ask Polar to grow more red and white flowers in our garden, for Stoke City.' replied Hanley.  'As they're Southampton's colours too, she won't mind.'

We were sad when it was time to go but cheered when Gecko told us that they were coming up to stay near us soon and we would all be going to Trentham Gardens together.

Even though Pam had been repaired, Polar decided we would stay off the motorways on the way home too, so we took some 'B' roads over the Berkshire Downs.

We had a little picnic before the rain started, then had naps most of the way home, thinking of our friends the Berkshire Bears and looking forward to seeing them again soon.

Summer visits to the South - part 1

Grizzly's grandcubs both have summer birthdays so, soon after we got back from our boat trip, we were on our way south to see them.

We went by train again.  The train to London from Kidsgrove now goes through Birmingham, adding at least half an hour to the journey to Euston, although if you can run and the train is on time, you can change at Stafford to get there quicker.  

Polar and Grizzly had too much luggage to do that, but we bears did not mind, as we saw new things - including an area in Birmingham cleared to build new railway lines and a station for HS2.  We wonder what they will build here if that doesn't happen after all?

When we got to Euston, Grizzly and Polar took us down to the Underground.  Because there were engineering works on the line we usually take to the station near the grandcubs, instead of going to Victoria, we caught a train to London Bridge station.

We bears were very surprised when we came out of the Underground station and found ourselves in this very modern new station - we thought it would be quite old-fashioned but it looked more like a spaceport!

When we got up on the platform we could see the tallest building in the UK, known as The Shard.  It was really, really tall and almost invisible at times, as it reflected the clouds and sky.  Hanley said it looked more like a rocket than an office block.

We wanted to have our picture taken with it but it was so windy, Polar told us to stay huddled down in the bear bag, so we didn't get blown onto the tracks.

We felt much safer inside the train and got a good view of all the strange-shaped buildings in the City of London as the train left the station.  Soon, we had reached the grandcubs' house and could have a short nap, before our adventures with them began.

After getting hugs from the grandcubs, it was time for our adventure.  They showed us into a small room, with walls they had been drawing on.

'What's this?' asked Endon.  'Is it a little house for bears?'

'It's a space rocket!' said the younger grandcub.  'We're going to send you into space!'  Poor Endon looked very scared when he heard that but Hanley and I reassured him that this was only a game.

The grandcubs decided we ought to have space helmets before they launched us on our mission, so their mummy and Polar made us some out of kitchen foil and some plastic packaging.  I do not think they would have helped us to breathe and stay safe if we had really been going into space, but they would do for a flight around the living room.

'Mission control to bears!' called the elder of the grandcubs.  'All bears report to the rocket immediately!'  We scurried into the rocket and they closed the door behind us.

Then we heard, 'Start main engines!'

We heard a very funny buzzing noise before a blue light suddenly lit up the rocket.  The grandcubs had decided that the ideal thing to power our flight was one of their light-sabres.

Our flight into space did not last very long.  After a few minutes, the light-sabre stopped buzzing and went dark, then the rocket stopped shaking.  It was suddenly very quiet and still.  Endon wondered if we were really in space after all, and climbed up to look out of one of the windows.

We weren't.  We were still in the living room and the human cubs had gone upstairs with their mummy and daddy to have their baths, listen to bedtimes stories and to go to bed.  

Hanley, Endon and I carried on playing in the rocket until it was our bedtime too.  We thought it was even more fun than making Lego things or playing with the Star Wars toys, although we missed having the grandcubs to talk to.

We had another day of fun with the grandcubs, playing in the garden and in the park, but then it was time to go home.  Polar and Grizzly took us by train back to Victoria Station in London, then decided to get to Euston by bus.

We went upstairs and, when the people who had been sitting in the front seats got off, we sat right at the front so we could see some of the sights of London. 

We spotted some of the Queen's cavalry near Marble Arch and there were hundreds of people shopping in Oxford Street.

It was slower than going by Underground but we liked it much more, because we could see where we were going.  We hoped we might see Paddington Bear amongst the crowds but we didn't spot him this time.

On the way home we did change trains at Stafford.  While we were waiting for our train, a freight train carrying vans passed through the station.  There seemed to be hundreds of vans in all sorts of colours and the train seemed to go on for ever and ever!  We got quite dizzy watching it!

We were glad to be heading home.  No sooner had we settled down for naps in our bear bag than Polar was lifting us up to get off back at Kidsgrove and we would be home in time for tea!