10 on the 10th part four - places that were shut

We seem to have a knack, Mr M and I. We choose a place to visit and when we get there it is shut! I have spent a marvellous couple of hours going through the albums and the Holiday Journal to make a list of the best places that have been shut when we visited I have pictures of some of them

1. The Chapel on the promenade at Colwyn Bay. We had gone up to North Wales for the baptism of my Grandson, Joseph. While Mummy sorted out his new clothes and got him ready for his big day, Daddy and big brother Matthew took Grandma and Sooty the dog for a walk to see the little Chapel. As you can see from the blurry image young Matthew is not pleased about it being shut. He wanted to show Marmar inside!

2. The view from Snowdon
We caught the earlybird ride on a brilliantly sunny day and travelled up on the little ratchet driven train. the closer we got to the top the further into the cloud we travelled. When we arrived at the cafe - yes there is a cafe on the top of Snowdon, courtesy of the victorians, we were far enough into the cloud that we couldn't see the barriers on the edge of the station platform. The view was shut! We had a dreadful cuppa and caught the next train down. There is very little you can do on top of a mountain when your knees are past their sell-by date.
3. Jodrell Bank, Radio Telescope base.
Mr M had long wanted to go there and as we had chosen to meander around Cheshire, Shropshire and mid Wales for our holiday - this was in about 1990 - We woke up one morning, packed up the tent and followed the map to the gate to discover it didn't open until 10.30am. we looked at the clock in the car it was 9am. I think it was around this time we began to discover that most supermarket cafes did a good breakfast.

4. The view across Morcambe Bay
We spent a happy week in the Lake District in 2010 where the sun shone every day except the last. On that day it poured with rain so we decided to go to Grange-over-Sands because we liked the sound of the name. Nromally you have quite a good view out over Morcambe Bay but on that day we had yet another view that was shut.

5. The Merchants House, Tenby, Pembrokeshire
We love Tenby, it has to be our favourite town even though it has become the hen-party mecca of South Wales. The narrow streets and tall houses the quaint harbour where I lost my spade when I was two years old. The Tudor Merchants house down near the quay. We must have been to Tenby twenty times before we managed to co-ordinate our visit with a day when it was open and we finally saw the inside.
6. Bannockburn, Scotland
Now this is a field with a statue of Robert the Bruce, so you'd think it would be open all the time right? Wrong. The gate was closed and chained and there were two padlocks on it. We have never been back so we don't know what it said on the statue, or why it was so important to barricade the field.

7. The Cornish Piskie shop, Polperro
OK so we went to Polperro in February, but that's when we had a week in Cornwall and the trip to Polperro was Mr M's birthday treat. The pasty shop was open, the chocolate shop was open. Even the sweetie shop that also sold sweets for diabetics was open but we couldn't get a Cornish Piskie. Perhaps they were on their holidays too

8. Land's End
The carpark was open and they were still charging £3 to park. The restaurant was open for tea and coffee and expensive food. The shops were shut as were all the "attractions". They advertise that they are open but they are not. Disappointed.

9. Warkworth Castle
Very firmly shut. OK so it was 9am and they opened at 11am but when we got there they were shut. We went for breakfast in the supermarket.

10. The Vatican Library, online
I have saved this until last because it shows how skilled we are at visiting shut places. There was a piece on the news, not long after we were first connected to this here intarwebby and it said that the Vatican was putting some of its vast and unique library onto the internet. Mr M noted down the URL because we had been connected for oooh, about three months or so by then, and we decided that we would visit that night (still on dial-up so had to be after 6pm for cheap rate) He carefully typed in the URL and we waited - I went and made a cuppa and came back just in time to see the screen fill with a notice that said
"The Vatican Library is closed for refurbishment, please come back again"
We consider this to be our crowning achievement - so far

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