What no Bolshoi!!

We are now on the final countdown to the trip that has been a year in the planning. We still have long lists but much of what we still have to do cannot be done till much nearer the time.
Audleys, who have organised the trip from Moscow have sent us what they thought was the final paperwork but almost as soon as it had dropped on our doormat Chris, the Audleys rep looking after us, called me to say that there had to be some changes.
The Trans Siberian train we were due to catch has been cancelled and we are now catching a different one.
The rule on Trans Siberian trains is that the lower the number the better the train. We had been booked on train 8 which should have been fine. Chris said we could either take the 276 which left on the same day as we had planned or take train 2 which leaves a day earlier! Not much contest really. We are taking train 2.
We will have an extra night in Siberia at Lake Baikal which is definitely a bonus. I have read a lot about this lake and also re read what Grandpa wrote about it. There will be fabulous scenery and besides it is the largest freshwater lake in the world and the little hotel we are staying in looks wonderful. Altogether a better option.
Grandpa said that there was a lot of snow on the ground and that the lake was frozen. We are taking thermals so hopefully that won't bother us It also means that we can't go to the Bolshoi in Moscow as we will be leaving on the evening we would have gone. Tone is devastated!!

Well I am not really it just makes the packing easier as I will not need my Tutu!

Photographs

I have managed with Charlie's help to enter a gallery of pictures mainly from those that Cathy Pardoe lent me. Just click on Gallery to the right and have a look

Back to Barry

Yesterday I had a call from a reporter on the local Barry Newspaper. She, Sharon, is gong to report on our trip and wanted some background stuff from me.
She had obviously done some research because she told me that Great Granny Pardoe, Winifred, was part of a Barry Women's trail which has just been launched. It is a town trail including the famous women who lived and or worked in Barry over the years and Great Granny Pardoe is remembered for her nursing career. She was Matron of the Barry Hospital from 1914 to 1918 and was awarded an OBE for her services to nursing. We have some pictures of her outside the Methodist Church which was where the hospital was situated.
Sharon is going to publish some stuff prior to our trip and then report on progress as we go.
I have sent her a lot of the pictures and hope she will be able to use them.

These two pictures are of the Methodist Church in Berry being  used as a hospital in the First World War and this is where Great Granny was Matron. I think it is funny that even where there are people in the beds they are not allowed to disturb the blankets so it looks as if they are not there!

Visas and tickets.

This week we got our passports back with the visas in them. Belarus, Russia and China. They look quite imposing in the passports. They are stuck in these days instead of the lovely stamps which there used to be.
We also got our train tickets from Great Western Trains. Tone had asked them if we could travel for the same price as Grandpa had but they said no. Instead they sent us free first class tickets for the journey which is even better and very kind.
We are just waiting for the tickets for the train to Ramsgate from London and for the Ferry tickets now.
Someone asked me if I was excited to which I replied "I am so excited I can barely speak" They and you will not believe this since if you are anywhere near me I will speak about this trip so it was rather an inaccurate response on my part!  I am however very very excited. You blog reader can switch off but we have said to our friends and to everyone we tell about  the trip that we will issue little flags when we get back so when they have heard enough they can wave the flag and we will try to stop!

To film or not to film? and Where did Grandpa stay that first night?

I said earlier that we had made contact with a great guy Mike Ford in Plymouth who offered to lend us a professional video camera to record our trip. We took it when we visited my cousin Cathy and Tony had a go at using it. Mike looked at what we had done and thought it all pretty good. However we wondered if we would spend too much time recording stuff and not enough time just looking. There was also the responsibility of a valuable piece of kit which is not small. After thinking about it for a while we decided that we would not take the camera but just borrow one from Charlie, my son.
We did however bring back a piece of cine film from Cathy's which Mikes clever friend has restored onto a cd which we have not seen yet but is apparently Shanghai Harbour. We will be down in Plymouth after Easter so will be able to get it then.
That decision made we arranged to go and see Auntie Jane again. Jane is Dads sister and has been great in identifying photos etc. and telling us about their time in Shanghai.
Jane's daughter Philippa was the cousin who transcribed Grandpas diary. But she had not been able ti identify where he stayed in London so it was missing from her transcription. I wanted to see the original and this was the main purpose of the visit.
Philippa had found the original and we were able to see that it was probably The Clarence which is in the right area. Grandpa said in his diary that they strolled "in Piccadilly and The Strand before turning in on the night before they left for Ostend.
The Clarence is now a pub but the manager told me that it had been there for 130 years and is on five floors so maybe it had either been an hotel or perhaps let out rooms in the past.
So we can't stay there but will have our supper there on the first night.  Another little link joined up.

Amazing pics

After we got back from Cornwall and I started going through the albums Cathy had lent us I had some great surprises.
First from an album dated from 1904 I found pictures of Grandpa with his mother and with his Granny when he must have been about 12. There were also some from when he was even younger with his brother "Cubby"
Grandpa must have been in some army cadet type organisation and there are pictures of him at a camp. It looks very much as it would today I suspect!
In our searches in Barry last year we had found a cutting from the local paper about Grandpa leaving Barry. It said "Presentation to Barry Man" and reported that Grandpa had "secured a lucrative position in Shanghai and had been sent off with the good wishes of his colleagues in the Barry Borough Council where he worked as an assistant surveyor. A bit of nepotism here perhaps because his dad was the Borough Surveyor! He had been presented with a travelling overcoat, a compass set and a book.
I turned the pages of that very early album and came across a picture entitled "on the way to the station!" There was Grandpa with I think his father and three other people, two girls and a young man and over Grandpas arm is the travelling overcoat! He had not got any other baggage, probably because he had sent it on to the station. I think a similar picture taken when we leave Romilly Road will show us fairly well laden down!
The picture was very faded but a clever man in Totton has restored it for me and it is now clear to see and a great find.
There are pictures of the train crash and again the clever man has lightened them a bit. Considering they were taken at 4.30 in the morning after the crash which happened as Grandpa was going to bed they have come out quite well and it seems that Grandpa and his friends Wall, Gimson, Smythe and Murray are in the picture. You can see the rails and the train on its side. What I find amazing is that according to the diary they go going again fairly early the day after the crash.
There are pictures throughout the time Grandpa and Granny were in Shanghai including some of their trips home to England. A real treasure trove which will take quite a long time to catalogue. Very exciting