Excursion to Christchurch

I managed to coerce my cousin into driving the kids to a theme park. Since I'm older of the two, I *ahem* suggested that SP, my cousin should accompany the kids on the rides. Ageism rocks! Barely 5 minutes passed when I saw a guy stumbled down from the Ghostly Galleon, staggered past the gates and slumped over the bench looking rather green around the gills. To my surprise, it was SP looking like he was going to retch. Meanwhile, our kids were still screaming one more! one more ride! Pleeeeeaaase! Well, hell will freeze over before I get on one of these torture contraptions so I hurried the kids along. Distractions still work. Sometimes.







Three hours later, two adults with eyes glazed with boredom and two still highly excitable kids in tow, managed to do a quick getaway from torture park theme park and visit a nearby town. I've always been curious about the "original" Christchurch, the namesake of my hometown, Christchurch of New Zealand. Upon arrival, I noticed a signage by the road stating that the town is twinned with Christchurch of New Zealand. What a nice surprise!

Christchurch is a small town in the county of Dorset with a population of 45 000. It is situated by the peninsula on the coastal lines along the South East of England. It's an old.....old....I mean very old town where archeologists have found Iron Age barrows and even a Saxon Cemetery underneath the carpark of a supermarket.






No visit to Christchurch is complete without checking out their colossal Priory with a length of 311 feet, reportedly to be the longest in England. It was built on a site of an original Saxon minster dated 650 A.D. There was also the ruin of a castle within the town center which we missed as the kids were getting increasingly tired. It was originally a wooden fortress but rebuilt as in stone sometime in the 12th century.

All places of interest are in close proximity to the main street in town. Thanks to the shallow sandbars which meant that heavy vessels including customs law enforcements were unable to enter into the harbor. At one point in time, Christchurch was famous for its smuggling activities. In fact, it was their most lucrative industry between 18th to 19th century.

I'm embarrassed to say that I've barely scratched the surface of England despite being here for 4 years. So watch this space as I'll be doing a bit more traveling within the country over the summer break.