Midweek break, photo heavy

We visited the railway museum in Swindon, spent a good couple of hours wandering around, so much to look at, for hubby loads of memories, I grew up in a small village in Somerset not close to any railtracks, I did not travel on a train until I was 14, we travelled to Bristol to choose our bridesmaid dresses for my elder brothers wedding. I do love these huge engines, there were lots of information, making it an really interesting visit.

I love these old engines, I love the workings, the rivets, the size of things.

The signs are beautiful as well.

The other main visit was to the standing stones at Avebury, I have many time visited Stonehenge, as a child we walked around the site touching the stones, sadly these days you can only walk around the outside, not close to the stones. I have never visited Avebury before and was stunned at how many stones there are around the village, they feel the same at Stonehenge, just smaller and loads of them. Again a few hours just walking around, these stones you can get up close and touch them, over 3 different sites all close together.

We also found this wonderful group of 4 trees, their roots now sit on the surface making a stunning pattern, people have hung items in the trees, in the heat of the day it was a lovely cool quiet place to be. 

Next to the museum was a huge outlet shopping centre, we did walk around, the shops were mainly high-end names, so we did not go inside many, the prices charged at even outlet prices are much too high for us. I did love how they mixed the old and new together, looking up we could see all the old structure. We visited a very disappointing huge garden centre, we had an equally disappointing lunch there, we arrived to early to go straight to the hotel. We also visited a walled garden, but due to the long period of dry weather, most of the summer plants were being removed, we did enjoy the walk around the grounds. We kept busy in the daytime, resting and reading in the evenings.

We had an afternoon in Royal Wotton Basset, I have only been to the town once, I was with hubby on the back of his motorbike doing a ride of respect, along with hundreds of bikes following the route of fallen soldiers on their return home, I did a post here. It was lovely to walk around the town, lots a independent shops, flower decorations and even a couple knitted tops for post boxes. 

We drove to the hotel using M27, M3, A34 and M4 all very busy routes, but when we drove home we stayed off the motorways, a much nicer trip, took a bit longer, but we did stop for a late lunch along the way. Friday afternoon was lazy, with an early night. Daughter came over with Will, George and Molly for an afternoon BBQ on Saturday, we sat outside for ages catching up, another lazy evening. Sunday was a day at home, Reading and enjoying the peace which is our home.