Hello Everyone! This is my first go at a blog post, with a bit of help from Sonning, as I haven't done one before. It's about a day out me and Hanley Bear had while we were on our holidays in Somerset, and it's got steam trains in!
We left Sonning and the other bears back at Aunty Ann and Uncle Derek's house, and Uncle Derek drove us to a place with a funny name - Bishop's Lydeard, it was - where there's a railway station.
Uncle Derek organised a compartment just for us and our human friends, and soon we were off! It even had a bear seat by the window, although that would have been more comfortable if it had a cushion on it.
"Watch it!" said Grizzly - or that's what Hanley thought he said.
Hanley gave him a hard stare.
"Watch what? I haven't done anything wrong!" he grumbled.
"Not watch it, Watchet!" said Uncle Derek. "It's the name of a little town on the coast. That where we'll be getting off the train for lunch."
Hanley cheered up at the idea of lunch!
When we arrived in Watchet, Uncle Derek led us down to the harbour and went to get pasties for us all, after ordering us drinks from a pub by the harbour that didn't do food.
Both the pasties and the beer were really good, and we were hungry and thirsty beers after our journey! We had all the bubbles off Grizzly's beer and some of the actual beer too.
After lunch, we explored the seafront. There were two statues; the grumpy man with the crossbow and big bird is the Ancient Mariner, from a poem written by a Mr Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was supposed to have been inspired to write his poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" on a visit to Watchet.
The man sitting down is Mr John Short or "Yankee Jack", who was from Watchet. He went to sea, joined the Yankee Navy during the American Civil War and was famous for singing sea shanties.
After lunch, Aunty Ann and Uncle Derek took us to a little museum about this history of Watchet, going right back to prehistoric times. There were lots of displays about the boats and the harbour, but we liked the fossils best.
Then we went to see a fantastic mural along the big sea defence wall further along from the harbour. It was all about the history of Watchet too, and started with ancient sea creatures and fossils.
Then there were panels about humans going to sea, including some Vikings (who Hanley said were obviously Stoke City supporters). I liked the Industrial Revolution panel and thought the man in it looked like clever Mr Brunel.
You can see how big the pictures are. We thought it was sad that the land in front of the mural was just a scruffy car park. If Endon had been there, he would have wanted to plant a garden!
We ran all along the harbour wall to get a better view of the coast, which is quite rugged just here, although lots of the Somerset coast is very flat, with mud and sand.
Then it was time to go to the station to catch a train - almost to the end of the line, as there is work going on in Minehead. On the way, we passed a big piece of machinery from a paper mill that used to be here, and a museum which had just opened, all about radios.
We didn't have time to explore it as we had a train to catch, but it looked interesting and very well laid-out inside, and we told the man who ran it that we would visit if we ever came back to Watchet.
The train to Dunster ran in soon after we reached the station. Grizzly said the engine was a GWR "Manor" class locomotive. We sat in an open carriage with tables for the journey along the coast.
We went inland through more nice countryside, then up to the coast again, where we saw lots of little holiday homes along sandy beaches. I have never been to a sandy beach but Hanley told me that there was a great beach near Aunty Ann and Uncle Derek's old house, where he, Sonning and Endon had built a sandcastle.
There was a real castle near Dunster station, where the train journey ended, but we were going to get the bus to Minehead and back, as one of the buses was an old open top one. We rushed to get aboard and got the front seats at the top!
There was a screen all along the top to stop small bears or humans falling off, so we could sit there safely and enjoy the drive along the seafront, with the breeze ruffling our fur. I loved the steam trains and visiting Watchet, but thought this was the most fun we had all day!
I felt a bit sad looking out at the sea on our way home, but Hanley said not to worry, because Polar loves the beach and we're bound to visit one another day, on another holiday.
"And we've had a bear-illiant day, duck!" he said.
"It was bostin!" I agreed.
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