We arrived on Friday morning and walked into the town for lunch and then had a wander round before meeting at the Museum for a tour -
The Cottage Museum |
- a bungalow with its own historic story. A very interesting place that told us the early story of the town.
But what I did not know was its wartime story and I was thrilled when we came to this place
and I discovered that 617 Squadron were stationed here during the war and it was from close by that they flew on their famous Dambusters Raid.
Group Capt Guy Gibson (leader of the Dambusters) was killed later in another raid over Germany |
617 Sqdn's Dambusters are commemorated top left and the same squadron also helped sink the Tirpitz (second down right). We then walked to the Petwood Hotel which was the Officers' Mess for 617 Sqdn
and we saw this prototype of one of the bouncing bombs in the gardens. It was big!
We headed for the Kinema in the Woods (correct spelling with a hard K), where we booked for Sunday afternoon
passing the derelict Spa on the way
sad end to an interesting building |
So after this back to the lodge and a dip in the hot tub, followed by everyone meeting up for a fish and chip supper!
Next day we set off on our bike ride to Horncastle along the Viking Way where we stopped at a café for refreshment
and I noticed this old building built in 1846, behind the café
and so back on our bikes we headed back, stopping for lunch on the way.
It had been going so well up to this point, but one person got a puncture, the group had sped on and as tail-end Charlie I had to phone the group for help. Once this was sorted we proceeded and just before the end I deviated and took this photo
The Wellington Monument |
It was built out in the countryside and looked an odd place for it.
We saw the weather forecast for Sunday and I was thankful I had brought my waterproofs because heavy rain was forecast!! Typical. However we were pleasantly surprised to wake to cloud and later sunshine. As we were approaching the Country Park at the end of the walk, in the distance we saw a plane take off from RAF Coningsby and became so excited when we realised it was a Lancaster Bomber, flying at tree top height, straight towards us. It was so low we could almost see the pilot, and I cursed myself for not getting out my camera. It was doing a flypast over the Petwood Hotel behind us, as a celebration of 75 years since the Dambusters Raid.
Following Sunday lunch we all trooped off to the Kinema to see 'The Leisure Seeker' starring Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren which included Alzheimer's and death, that necessitated another dip in the hot tub when we got back and copious amounts of alcohol to cheer ourselves up!!!
However I had had a brilliant weekend with friends and am now looking forward to my next trip away with the club in September - walking Hadrian's Wall.
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