Going back to the UK and the bike show…again!

Back to the U.K. for the bike show again!

As usual, the silly human and I traveled to the U.K. again this last November and December for the annual Carole Nash Motorcycle LIVE show at the N.E.C. in Birmingham. We had a great time and saw a lot of old friends there, and looked around at all the pretty new motorcycles! I even helped out by handing out brochures and talking to lots of silly humans. 

LOTS of silly humans that like motorcycles!

But I had to…because the silly human kept falling asleep in the afternoon…the lazy bum!

After the show was over we left Birmingham and went to stay with some friends in Nottingham! It was great to see Richard and Karen again. They're both really fun humans and love seeing me and my silly human. They were even nice enough to take the silly human and I up to Leeds, to see the Royal Armory museum. 

It's a very nice museum and has one of the world's largest collections of Arms, Armour and other weapons in the world. The silly human loved it, there was so much to see it took us the whole day!

Here I am inside the museum, they're exhibits were really nicely done and we learned a lot!

They even have armor for all sorts of animals, including this one…armor for an elephant! I'm sure if you saw this charging at you you'd drop whatever you were doing and run away…REALLY FAST, I know I would!

They also had some neat places to take pictures…so here I am as the KING! KNEEL BEFORE YOUR NEW MASTER…THE BEARS HAVE TAKEN OVER!!!!

We also met a ghost of America's past…an unlikely place to find Annie Oakley from Buffalo Bill's Wild West show from the old west!

When we were going down to another level of the museum this strange little guy tried to poke out my eyeball…or so it seemed, but then we realized he was just some paint on the mirror…lucky for us!

We kept looking around and the silly human noticed something I missed, one of the sword handles had a bear on it…see…you just can't avoid us…we are everywhere!

Here's Richard and Karen…they're nutters too…maybe not as nutty as my silly human but crazy enough to be a LOT of fun…thanks for everything!

So after we went to the museum we went back to they're place for a wonderful dinner of butternut squash risotto and a few drinks before bed. 


The next day Richard had to work all day so Karen decided to be our tour guide and take us to see some of Nottingham's attractions. The first on the list was Wollaton Park and manor. A beautiful old English manor house and grounds…with it's own herd of deer in the park. It's also been the film location of several movies including the series of Jane Austin's Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice!

They Had this neat model of the manor…I decided to take a good look at it…

Then I got a great idea…I wanted to play…GODZILLA…HAAAARRRRRGGGGG…

Squish…crunch…smash…stomp the puny humans…MUAWHAHAHAHAHA…die puny humans!

They had some really nice paintings on the walls and ceilings in there too.

The grounds were beautiful…even though it was winter…now it's a city park…with it's own herd of deer!

Nottingham Harley–Davidson!

Afterward we went to the local Nottingham Harley-Davidson dealership…Karen wanted to show us the Route 66 flag from when we took their H.O.G. chapter on a ride down Historic Route 66, all 44 of them!

The dealership had some beautiful Harley-Davidson motorcycles there…the silly human was looking at all of them ad drooling all over them…and then for some reason he started crying…apparently he looked at one of the price tags and converted £ to $ and realized how much one would cost him…sorry Gary!

I sat on a couple of bikes…and was sure to get my picture taken with the 66 flag they had in the shop!

We chatted with the guys in the shop for a bit while the silly human was still trying to stop crying…and when he finally did I got him to take a picture of them with me…thanks guys, you were great!

After the Harley dealer we went back to the house…and after Richard got home the humans decided to go out for a really good curry and some drinks…and they left me all alone at the house…soon I got a little bored of watching T.V. and smelled something very tasty in the living room…I knew the silly human said for me to keep out of trouble…but this was too good to pass up…

…but while they went out on the town I jimmied open the liquor cabinet and had a little party of my own…this is where they found me when they got home…arrrggghh my head really hurt the next morning! 

The next day all the humans slept in late, partly because it was Saturday…but also because I think they drank a lot the night before…they didn't even get mad at me for having my own private little party at home. Later that day when we had all recovered enough, we all took a short drive up to Newark-On-Trent to see the town and one of the old castles there.

There's not much left of the original castle, but it dates back to the early 13th century, so there's quite a lot left if you consider how old it is!

Because we had to spend most of the day recovering from last night's festivities we got there late, but we were lucky because the sunset that evening over Newark-On-Trent was stunning!

Afterward the silly humans decided it was time for a snack and a pint…do they ever stop?

So we went across the street to the pub…or The Barge…that is a pub…these silly humans do all kinds of crazy things!

It was nice though, the humans were nice enough to buy me my favorite English pub snack…pork scratchings! They're the equivalent to the American Pork rinds, but much tastier! They're not exactly goof for you, but who cares…they go great with a pint of lovely English ale! 
Then it was time to go back to Nottingham for the night. 

The next day it was time to say goodbye and a big thank you to Richard and Karen, get on the train to go see our friends in Edinburgh…the Mad Scot Chris…and of course Caroline! So we went to the train station, bought a few snacks for us…sausage rolls and pastys for the trip, and sit back and relax for the journey.

Mmmmmm…DELICIOUS!!!


After a few hours we arrived in the silly human's favorite city in Scotland…Edinburgh!

 Click on the panoramic (or any photo) for a larger view!

The Mad Scot was there to meet us when we arrived…it was great to see him again. 

He had even forgiven me for getting a bit cheeky with his new wife…

 …while they were on their honeymoon-motorcycle tour! 

That's what you get for feeding the bears…alcohol!

(not recommended!)


Since we arrived late we just headed home, chatted a bit and went to bed. 

While we were in Edinburgh the silly human and I spent a lot of time running all over the place. 
 We saw a lot of Scotland thanks to Chris!

(He's Quite, Quite mad!)

For several days we drove all around Scotland in his new car…Casper! 

We went all over the place because the silly human was thinking of a motorcycle tour there.  

It's really a beautiful place…and reminded me a bit of home! 

 A bear could get used to a place like this!

We also looked around Edinburgh more…we went for a walk around town one cold December evening.

We went to Edinburgh Castle…

The Royal Mile…

Royal Bank of Scotland…

Walked around the Christmas festival for a while…

 Click on Panoramic photo for full view…

 then over the Bridge…and then home.

The Next day the silly human and I checked out Edinburgh Castle…

we spent the day wandering around…

 the tower with the Scottish royal jewels…

…the Scottish royal family living quarters…

…the Great Hall…

…and the cannons…

more cannons…

and big cannons!

Since it's on top of the hill you get a great view of the town…

Click on the photos…!

It's a beautiful view, and there's much more to see…the silly human dragged me through the museum there too…

 

We had a great time wandering around Scotland…but all too soon it was time to get back on the train…but we had some problems getting to the South of England.

It seems that they are NOT prepared for snow in the U.K. and it caused us a bit of a problem…

After our travel ordeal we finally made it to Maidstone…to see our good friend Simon. He's a lucky guy, he runs a PUB! A really nice one as well…and he lives above it! 

It is the Pippin Pub: http://www.gkpubs.co.uk/pubs-in-maidstone/pippin-pub/ 

 

 It's a great modern pub…good beer…good food and some great girls!

 

Like Kaylie , she was home on leave from the Royal Naval academy…and used to work there, and we all sat around having a few pints and chatting all day! She's just recently graduated from the Naval academy, congratulations Kaylie!!!

The next day we all took the train into London to go see the notorious Tower of London…

The silly human was being a tourist for once!

It's a neat place to visit…

I tried to talk to this curious looking fellow, but he didn't respond! He just stood there…guarding the tower!

So we went inside and they had some neat stuff in there…like this crossbow…do ye feel lucky? well do ye knave? The silly human has one like this, but his WORKS!

I tried on one of their old helmets…UGGHHHH…feels like a ton…not very practical for a bear my size!

I found it to be a much better seat…

We found another of those curious looking people…errrr…things? I tried convincing this one to shoot a pigeon, but it didn't do anything. I guess they're not really people after all, or they really like pigeons.

We then went to go see the tower itself…on the way the silly human stuffed me into yet another cannon…I'm sure glad he doesn't have any gunpowder! Who knows what would happen to me if he did?

Inside the tower we saw a wonderful exhibit on all the armour the silly humans used to wear when they got mad and got into fights with each other!

There were all sorts of this armor everywhere…

There was the world's largest suit…and the world's smallest too…but even the smallest was still too big for yours truly!

Then there were the horses they would ride while wearing all that silly metal!

The silly human showed me that they used to cut off heads here!

Looked like a nasty practice, luckily they had not done this in a long time!

While we were looking around I noticed something that I had to show the silly human! They used to have a bear here in the tower! It seems that you can't go anywhere without seeing BEARS!

The Tower of London was also where they used to make the money that they use here… the £ Pound £!

Here's the mold they used to pound out the coins…hmmm…maybe that's why they call it the Pound!

They sure were pretty looking, nice and shiny!

After the silly human was done looking at the shiny things and commenting how he'd like to steal them, we decided it would be a good idea to continue on before he got into trouble! So we went down to the bottom level, where they has an exhibit on how the tower had burned down once.

Afterward we went outside and there was this fellow standing there…at first I thought he was a statue because he wasn't moving like the metal fellows earlier, but when I took a closer look this one was breathing!…so he WAS real!

So I sat around the courtyard a while waiting for him to move, but he never did…hmmm…maybe he's asleep or something. It started to get a bit chilly outside…so after a while Simon suggested something I liked!

Time for some nice hot tea and a warm scone with clotted cream and jam…YUMMY! After tea it was almost time for the tower to close for the evening, so we decided to go get some dinner as we were still hungry…and Simon made another great suggestion…lets go get something to eat! 

Always a great suggestion for me!

While they were trying to figure out a place to go eat I went for a look at tower bridge, it sure looked pretty at night with all the lights!

They soon decided on something to eat but we had to get back on the subway there…but they call it the "Tube".

So we went for a little ride, I didn't know where we were going…but I really didn't care as long as we were going to go EAT!

When we got off the "Tube" we were in…

Chinatown! 

So we wandered around for a bit to find a good place to eat. We had a great dinner and then headed back to Maidstone on the train for an after dinner pint in the pub before bed.

The next day it was time to say goodbye to Simon and catch the train into London to our hotel by Heathrow airport for our trip home the next day. 

The airport was still crowded with people trying to go places, some had been there for days trying to get somewhere. It seems that the people who run the airport have no idea how to keep an airport open when it snows. Maybe they need to come to Colorado to see how the silly humans do it there!

We were lucky, because our flight was ready and we didn't have any problems…it was time to go home. So we got on the plane for the 8+ hour flight home…so I got comfortable…

The humans who brought us things to eat and drink were very nice…the silly human called them "Flight attendants". They were all very nice to me, and even brought me something to drink…if I promised to behave myself! I was tired anyway so I agreed!

They had the greatest Bearnard-sized drinks…little whiskeys and tiny sodas…mmmm…great combination.

I got tired of sitting in the seat after a few hours, and then the silly human found me a seat with a view, I think I must be the first bear to be up this high! I was a little scared at first, but then the silly humans said it was safe so I calmed down a bit and enjoyed the view ! Then the nice flight attendants said if I wanted something to eat I had to go back to my seat, that's all I need to hear!

Soon they brought me some sandwiches and some more drinks…

I thought it was yummy…I don't see why the silly humans say it's yucky…I liked it…especially the chocolate candy!

I started chatting with the nice guy beside me, and while I was distracted the silly human on my other side was trying to steal my candy…

Just as I was about to get mad and maul her for trying to steal chocolate from a bear, the silly human reminded me that I had promised to behave. So I growled a bit at her and explained how dangerous it was to try to take food from a hungry bear! She agreed and then we talked for a bit! She turned out to be really nice, but really loved chocolate! Just as were having a nice conversation the plane was getting ready to land.  

Our trip was now done, and after a quiet ride we were back home! I got back to my nice warm place above the fireplace and got comfortable for my long hibernation until spring.

The silly human and I just want to say thank you to everyone for everything they did for us while we were in the UK.