When we arrived at the hotel on friday, we didn't realise that half of the north of England's Rotary Club were holding their conference. It was a shame that they had taken over the bar area, we really couldn't get in there. Anyway we came down to breakfast this morning and the place was crawling with Rotarians. Luckily they were gone by the afternoon and the hotel was quiet again!
It was off to the nation railway Museum today, another short walk from the hotel.We thought it was excellent. A great FREE museum that had something for everyone. Funnily enough the first exhibit we saw was a horse drawn taxi from Tenterden Station, just down the road! We attended a great presentation about the Japanese Bullet train. Fascinating fact: Last year the average delay of a Bullet Train arrival was 24....Seconds. Beat that South eastern! Then there was a demonstration of the Turntable in the museum. The Engine being rotated was a South East & Chatham Railway one built in Ashford....Wahay! They also had a steam event this weekend so we were able to climb on board the footplate of the engine in the pic (6201, Princess Elizabeth) whilst the boiler was on and there was a fire going. It gave you an idea what it must have been like to drive a steam train. The warehouse is absolutely chock full of railway memorabilia, from station signs to models of the Hoverspeed Hovercraft and even a scale model of the Channel Tunnel Terminal at Cheriton, which is nothing like what they built there.
We decided to pop back into the city centre so we took the Museum's Road Train, only 2 quid and it was quite fun! Yesterday I had seen a watch in one of the jewellers that I took a fancy to and it was heavily discounted. I know.....I like watches!
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the hotel bar, reading the Sunday papers and surfing the net.
The evening was spent in a very nice Italian restaurant just round the corner from the hotel. very nice it was too!
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