Travelog for: Commodore Quack

Hello! Please take me home and be my Mummy!

You two are toyvoyagers? What is that? ..... Sounds interesting. If this human adopts me, do you think she'll let me go a-travelling? ....
Mummy, Mummy, don't leave me here. Please rescue me and help me see the world.

We said farewell to Charlie B. today.

We had some apple pies.

Have a safe journey little mouse.

Mummy wanted to go out and could only take a few of us along. We drew straws and I lost. Maybe next time I can go out.

It's party time! It is Captain Caramel's birthday.

There's a candle on the cake.

After the cake, we played with these balloons!

On our way home, we went via Magna, an industrial science museum set in an old steelworks near Rotherham/Sheffield.
There were 4 zones. The first zone we went to was Water.

A whirlpool exhibit.
Next, we went to Fire.

Something is spinning.

This is a fire tornado.

The fire tornado burns itself out, and then the exhibit has to cool for a while before it can be refuelled and ignited again.

Lighting isn't that good for photographs with the fire tornado.

Next stop was Air. This is a musical exhibit with tubes and things.

The exhibit can be quite noisy.

We then went for a game of Air hockey.

The air blows through holes in the table and lifts up the puck ever so slightly.

This is a frequency exhibit with little polystyrene balls bouncing.

This is a different frequency.

There was an information exhibit about the Bessemer Process (air is blown through molten iron to remove impurities).

Before going on to the final area, we caught some of the Big Melt show, a reconstruction of how they made steel. This is the arc furnace.

We went to the final area, Earth. The set up is quarrying "rocks" and these get picked up by the children and taken somewhere by wheelbarrow before going on conveyor belts and distributed either back to the "quarry" or to a chute.

Can you see the "rocks" on the conveyor belt?

We've said goodbye to Pippi, regit brown, Captain Caramel and Baconella.
Mummy, is this a new visitor?

Let's open it up.

I hope he can squeeze through this hole.

Yes! he's free. Hello, my name is Commodore Quack , nice to meet you Frankie_Blue

Today is another nice sunny day. My mummy decided to take some of us toys out (we drew straws and I won!) to a World Heritage Site - Caernarfon Castle.

It is quite a long castle.

We climbed up a tower by a spiral staircase. Mummy found it hard to get the lightning right and used her photo editing software to show us better.

In the background are some of the hills and mountains of Snowdonia.

The castle is built on the side of the River Seiont.

We are rather high up!

It is a long way down, so glad I have a break from being photographed high up with a long drop behind me!

we've come to the other side of the castle. That's a dais.

This is where Prince Charles received the crown to become the Prince of Wales

Though my mummy wasn't even born by 1969.


Cannons!

Today, Royal Mail issued some nice stamps and my mummy went out and bought some.

Do you like them?

Today, mummy got two parcels in the post

I wonder who our new visitors will be!

The new visitors are Belka and my brother, Rendolph

Some of the toys are going away on their travels tomorrow, so we thought we'd have a game of Cluedo playing in teams

However, we spent far too much time chatting instead of concentrating on the game and we all drew the 8th clock leaving the crime unsolved.

Mummy took us to the allotment today.

I inspected the redcurrant bushes. There are still flowers and some fruits have started to form.

There are some chives (and other herbs) on the plot. Looks tasty!

After the allotment, we went Geocaching

We found this one in Aberdesach.

Today, we are going on the train.

This is first class.

Here, we are at Dinas station. When the Welsh Highland Railway was being rebuilt, Dinas was the HQ. There are work trains and carriages, and engines in need of repair.

The railway meets the River Gwyrfai several times along its route.

There's quite a bit of water in the river.

There are fields alongside the railway, this one has horses.

We are coming into Betws Garmon. Can you see the bell in the church tower?

It is a long train. Can you see the steam engine at the other end?

This is Cwellyn, a reservoir supplying water to parts of north Wales.

We had to wait for the train coming in the other direction to stop at Rhyd Ddu before we could continue. The train is also steam-hauled.

They've got a first class carriage, but the one we're in was unveiled by the Queen in 2010 after refurbishment.

The carriage is called Glaslyn, after another river this railway meets.

We are off for the second half of the journey. This section was opened last year, and then not all the way to Porthmadog.

There's the River Glaslyn.

Here we are coming into Porthmadog. The river is the Glaslyn here too, the estuary.

The river is the Glaslyn here too

The Glaslyn estuary. And now, we have arrived in Porthmadog. It is time to run for the bus to take us back home before school closes for the day.

We are having a nice game of Settlers of Catan.

Ooo, look at all these Easter Eggs and bunnies.