Hey!!

My friend Traveler's back!!!  He's a horsey friend of mine but he retired from blogging for a couple of years.  But he's back now and blogging here  http://shilohhorserescue.blogspot.com/ and they're on holiday in South America at the moment!!

Go see and say hello!!

A Day Out In London!!

Yesterday, Andrea took me out again!!

We set off rather early and got the bus into town.....

And got off at the train station!!!  Where are we going today then?

I tied one of my weathergrams to the seat in front when we got on the train!!

And here we are going past Battersea Power Station just before crossing the River Thames!!

Andrea had the camera on the wrong setting which is why it looks a bit blurred!!! Silly moo!

We arrived at Victoria Train Station, and there were LOADS of Union Jack flags flying from the roof!

Andrea said there was going to be a big party here over the weekend!!!!!

Then we went round the corner to the bus stop....

And got the number 11 bus!  We sat upstairs, and I tied another weathergram to the seat in front!

On the way, we went past a street market selling lots of different food!

 And we also saw a funny boat bus!!!  It's called a "Duck Tour" apparently - we've never heard of that!

Then we went past Horseguards Parade and saw lots of Guards on horses!!!  All in fancy dress too - Andrea said it was a practise thing for the big party and there was going to be a big parade as well!

There's another guard on duty.  The horses aren't very friendly though, they sometimes bite and kick if you get too close. They're not pets!!!

Then Andrea noticed it was our stop to get off!!

We'd arrived at the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square!!

We spotted a flat up saying "ER, 60 years".  Andrea said that ER stood for Elizabeth Regina who's the Queen and she's been Queen for 600 years and that's why they're having a big parade and a party!  Andrea said it's called a "Jubilillee".  Or something.

There's the bottom of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square and you can see Big Ben in the distance!

We're going in here!!  It's an art expedition called "Turner Inspired"!!!

Andrea needed to use the loo first, so I tied another weathergram to the door.

I have art hanging at the National Gallery!!

I'm famous!!!

That was quite an interesting exhibition really.  It was about Turner getting inspired by a French Artist called Claude who lived in the 1600s.  His paintings were a lot more exact and precise than Turners, who was a lot looser.  Both of them were very good at painting skies though, and expressing sunlight!!

Then we got really hungry so we went in here for lunch!!

We had an enormous pizza and a cola!  It was YUMMY!

Then we spotted there was an art shop a few doors away, so we went and spent some more money!

How fun!!

We had enough time for a look round before going home, so we thought we'd have a look through here.

Andrea says she thinks that posh building with the flags on is called Admiralty Arch, but she's not sure.

On the other side of the building though, is a road called Pall Mall and at the other end is Buckingham Palace where Queen Elizabeth lives!!!  You can just see it, with the gold statue of Queen Victoria in front of it!!!  (On the left hand side of this picture is St James' Park)

Andrea says the Parade will probably come down here too.

Then we decided to make our way back to the bus stop.  We left a card in a telephone kiosk!

Oh here we go - the number 11 stops here!

We sat at the top again and tied another weathergram to the seat in front!

There's the Houses of Parliament..... there's usually a big tent city in front of it demonstrating against various wars, like Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, etc, but they're not there now.  I think they all got moved because of the parade.  It would be too embarassing to the Queen if they stayed.

This time, we decided to get the coach back to Brighton!!!

While we were waiting to board, Andrea showed me what she bought at the art shop.  We got some sketching crayons by Conte, in black, white, sepia and sanguine.

And we got a lovely little travel pack of Sennelier watercolour paper (postcard size), with 6 different Sennelier watercolours and a little travel paintbrush!!!

When we got on the bus, Andrea got out a box of Jaffa Cakes!

I love those!!!

And we're off....

We saw some funny shadow Muriels painted on a fence!

And here we are approaching the South Downs..... nearly home!!

they're so pretty...

Then we walked up the road to the bus stop....

And got the bus home!!

Because we were both hungry, Andrea got a curry on the way!!  We got King Prawn Masala, which is coconut based and seriously Yumtastic, and a garlic Naan bread and a free popadom which she said I could eat all on my own!!

This is the book of the Art expedition we saw..... it was £5 off the usual price too!

Excellent!!

And there's the Sennelier paint stuff we got!!

What a brilliant day out!!

We saw horses!!!

Beanie's Trip to Holland, Day Three

On Wednesday, me and Andrea got up really early and it was still dark!!

We left the youth hostel straight away without stopping for breakfast. Andrea said not to worry as she'd got some snacks for later. On the way out, we saw a lorry with little drawings on the side!

Then we had a bus ride!!

 And ended up here at Centraal Station again!!!

We got on a double decker train! I wonder where we're going....?

Well, we're off.....

We got off here at a place called Hilversum. Andrea said we had to get another train!

This one went through very pretty countryside! We saw lots of ponies and horses!

Then Andrea got out some coconut cookies for breakfast!
They're a funny colour but they're tasty!

We tied one of my wonderful cards to the little table!

Then we got off at Groningen. Hang on - I know somebody that lives here....!

SULLIVAN's BACK!!! And Hammie too!! All three of us met up at the station!

How exciting!!!

First of all, we went through the big hall. It's so pretty here!

Gosh, that's amazing...!

Then we went outside and saw this horse statue. Hammie said there was a song all about him!

All three of us had our picture taken!

Then we walked into town and did some window shopping.

We then stopped for lunch. Me and Hammie put our napkins on so we wouldn't spill our food down our fronts! (Andrea does that a lot, specially when she eats spagetti!!!)

Andrea took this picture of our prawn sandwich but it came out very dark.

Hammie's camera was much better and took this one!! Sullivan got very upset because C ordered a cannibal sandwich forgetting that Sullivan was with us.
(Ed's note: this photo came from either Hammie's or Sullivan's blog so we haven't got a copy of it)

Hammie gave me a present from his holiday to a Dutch island with a very long name. Hammie has better pictures on his blog!!

It's really a fridge magnet of a red lighthouse!! I really must try and get Andrea to get a decent camera, you know.....!

I said Hammie could choose a present from my backpack just like Sullivan did. He chose the red feather that I found at Centraal Station on Monday!! We forgot to take pictures of that, but Hammie has some nice ones!

Then we went outside and saw the Martini Tower!!

I remember Sullivan telling me all about this tower!

Later on, we found this sculpture street map of Groningen!

We had fun trying to work out where we were!!

Now, where do we go next??

Hammie and Sullivan then took me here! Oh I love it here!!

Oh wow!! Hammie said that's a sundial!!

Then we all went tree climbing!!

Hammie nearly fell out but we helped him!!

Then we found a bush to climb on! This one's easier!

Later on, we found a grafitti of toilet paper!!! hahahaaaa!

We saw a funny elephant too!!

Oh wow!! That's a fancy building!!

Oh look at this!! It's a drain cover with the Martini Tower on it!!

Then we went into an Art Shop that Hammie knew! We met Manny Kin!

Downstairs we found some picture frames!

Sullivan took this picture of me and Andrea!!!

And we took this one of Sullivan and C!!!

Later on, we went to Hammie and Sullivan's favourite shop! We saw this friendly little mouse!

After that, we went out for a stroopwaffel! These are yummy!!!

We found another drain cover thingy with Celtic knotwork on the tops!

Later on, we saw this really nice boat!

Lots of buildings in Holland seem to have pictures on the outsides....!!!!

Well, it was then nearly time for me and Andrea to head back to Amsterdam. At the station, we saw double decker bicycle racks!! That's so funny!!!

We had enough time to stop for a drink and a cookie!

Hammie's Uncle Harry even got me a present too!! Chocolate covered Fudge!!
That was so nice of him!!!!! I like Uncle Harry!!!

Then it was time for me to get the train. We all had a big hug to say goodbye!!

They even waved me off on the train!!!!!

On the way back to Amsterdam, we changed here at Amersfoort. It was snowing heavily when we arrived here and was REALLY COLD!!!!!

When we got to Amsterdam Centraal Station, it had turned to hail!!!

Everybody was rushing to get on trams!! The tram was so busy, we couldn't get our camera out to take pictures!!

We got safely back to Leidseplein and decided to go to the Grand Cafe for dinner.

OK, now for some more bad (dark) pictures!!!!!!

Here I am sitting there with a beer!!!

Andrea managed to work out how to get a thing called "Night Setting" on the camera, but I don't think it made a heap of difference!!! That's supposed to be the remains of our cheeseburger and fries dinner and me sitting next to the plate!!
(we managed to lighten it up on the computer!!!)

It WAS rather good though, and just the right thing for a cold snowy evening!!

Then, we carefully walked back to the Youth Hostel. It was still hailing, and you can just see that it's even settling a little!!!!

Oh what an exciting day!! I'm pooped now...!