Day 741
Life in Miniature
Well it’s a whole week since my first cataract operation and I’m in full recovery mode. Fellow RTW cycle-tourist Carla, who Tom and I met last August in Canada, and is currently in London, has been keeping me company whilst I aim to sit and do nothing, as pretty much anything I want to do is banned whilst my eye heals. Fortunately eating cake and light shopping is allowed, and Carla and I have been busy sampling all the cafes in Amersham, whilst Tom has kept busy painting and decorating. Today the latest decorating job is complete, and on the advice of two very astute ladies, Hels and Rose, we decided to take a whistle-stop tour of the UK c1930, otherwise know as Bekonscot Model Village. The village is the brainchild of Richard Callingham, who back in 1929 decided to create a snapshot of life in the UK in his back garden. His model village was the first of its kind in the world. It’s now a Registered Charity and has attracted 16 million visitors over the years, including the late Queen Elizabeth 2. Today it attracted us 3 cyclists and we had a blast. As soon as we entered, paying the full ticket cost as the lovely ticket collector decided we didn’t qualify for any of the discounts on offer. We didn’t mind, it was worth every penny! First up was a ride on a miniature train, where we pretended to be related the family in front of us. Though they quickly disowned us as we whooped and waved at everyone.
The whole place was just wonderful, from the house on fire, a lone fireman up on the thatched roof bravely putting out the flames, the zoo, the castle, the racecourse, endless village scenes with so many tiny details to enchant us. We all loved the aptly named shops, the favourites being the green grocers, ‘Chris. P. Lettis’ and coal merchant ‘W. E. Humpit & U. Burnet’. Finally we tore ourselves away, there was more cake to eat and alcohol-free prosecco to drink!
