Another weekend and another day trip. It seems to be that days where I drive a couple of hundred miles in a single day are the norm now. Next weekend, when I am due to drive to visit my cousin in Frankfurt in Germany, will be the first time since March that I drive somewhere and stay overnight away from home!
On Sunday I left home after breakfast and set off to Weybridge in Surrey, to visit the Brooklands Museum. Having only reopened last week, Brooklands is now open Thursday to Sunday each week for visitors who prebook their tickets online in advance of the visit.
Brooklands has a large site so social distancing was easy enough even on a hot Sunny Sunday afternoon in the middle of the school holidays. There’s quite a bit to see and do – You need a good few hours at least to get round everything. I think I spent around 4 and a half hours there in total.
The motor village with all the sheds, containing racing cars, bicycles and the Grand Prix exhibition was a particular highlight – as well as the London Bus Museum which shares the site with Brooklands (entry to the bus museum is included in the Brooklands ticket price but its £2 if you want to do the 30 minute bus tour of the local area).
I spent my time in the motor village deciding which car I’d like to drive. I like the look of the Napier-Railton – it is so big up close to the real thing! Outside you can walk around part of the original race track too. Brooklands as a race track closed in 1939 but parts of the original track survive.
I also enjoyed the Mach 2 Concorde tour. A scaled-down version of what they normally do – but very informative (and the second time this year I’ve seen a Concorde on display!!) As we stood under the delta wing a guide told us about the engines, and gave some interesting information about the exterior of the plane. Ever wondered why a supersonic jet required a propellor? Apparently most commercial airliners have them built in to deploy if all power is lost. I never knew! Or a wheel built in to the tail? (That I did wonder – now I know!)
Overall a very good day – I should really have booked an earlier entry time which would have meant I could have seen some of the vehicle demonstrations properly (they were happening while I was on the Concorde but a separate demo had taken place before I arrived) and I might have had lunch a bit earlier.
Windsor
After leaving Brooklands I drove to Windsor to pick up my sister who had spent the weekend there with a friend. After I picked her up – as the temperature was around 30 degrees and I was in need of refreshment before the drive home – I suggested we get an ice cream somewhere. So we drove in to the centre of Windsor, eventually found somewhere to park – walked along the river for a bit and had an ice cream. I went for a Millionaire’s Shortbread flavour ice cream which was good. We walked around Baths Island too, which had a nice view of the castle with the river in the foreground.
Conclusion after walking around Windsor: I want a boat.
Mum, Can I have a boat!?
FH.
