New Forest Day 3 - Beaulieu Motor Museum

Day 3 started off a little better than Day 2 as our tent stayed up all night without anymore pole breaks. Once the usual routine of wash, dressed and breakfast was done we headed off to Beaulieu Motor Museum for a bit of a petrol head day. I have to say that Beaulieu was probably my best day of the holiday and the selection of photos shown here is just a snip it. I could have taken thousands of pictures of all the cars.

 

Problems with the tent are resolved (less the awning now).

One of the best decisions I made this holiday was to take the boys bikes. They absolutely loved riding around the camp site morning and night. They were given that bit more freedom as I previously mentioned and more often than not Joshua would just say to us that he would meet us over at reception and head off on his bike.

 



Joshua out and about on his bike.

In the morning we were greeted with some wild cows just taking a morning stroll through the camp site.

Little B on his bike showing us the donkeys.

A heard of cows decided to take a break and chillax right near out tent.

This cow had a beautiful light brown and white coat.

Anyway enough of cows. Today was all about cars and Baeulieu boasts the largest collection of Bond vehicles in the world plus a lot of the Top Gear creations from various episodes over the years.



Me and the boys on top of this superbly restored old bus which gives you a tour from the entrance of Beaulieu all the way to the Palace at the back.

In the movie tent I had great pleasure in showing the boys the Back To The Future Delorean. Roll on the day when I can sit down with them and enjoy the BTTF films.

Of course I had to take a picture of the flux capacitor - after all its what makes time travel possible!

The Top Gear area is huge and has many many of their weird and wacky creations. We even got to see the statue of the stig, the lap board and the all important car "reasonably priced car" used for the lap times.

Joshua and Brandon exploring the Top Gear army jeep / camper van.

Brandon posing with the Top Gear shuttle car launcher.

And then Joshua ready for blast off.

Cheeky Brandon sitting on the mono rail which takes you through the actual museum and around the Beaulieu site. The boys insisted we stayed on this and went around twice.

The STIG!

Joshua showing is the Top Gear super stretched limo.

Brandon in awe of the length of the limo. What was even better was the limo they made which had the bowling alley in the back.

Recently I managed to get a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang book to read the boys at night time. We haven't had the book that long but have read it numerous times and the boys love it. So you can imagine their surprise when I told them they would be able to see the real Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car at Beaulieu. I even started to teach them the song from the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang film which they have both been singing all week. I guess I will have to download it for on their Innotab.

Joshua looking all cool in front of the real Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Me and my boys with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Both boys love F1 and can recognise most of the cars on the grid. Obviously their favourites are the Redbull and Ferrari. Brandon's souvenir from Beaulieu was a toy Redbull racing car from the 2011 season.

Brandon with the 2012 Mclaren racing car driven be Jenson and Lewis.

A stunning collection of old race cars. My favourite of all time has to be the black and gold JPS.

Within Beaulieu there is a really cool play area for the children and as you would expect it is automotive based. How the boys would love to have a play car like this in the back garden.

Joshua filling his car with diesel.

Also within the play area were some little electric cars for the boys to race around. Joshua was fine on this and was racking up the laps. Brandon unfortunately did not have enough power in his legs to press the gas pedal and the poor worker ended up pushing him around the track for his laps.

On your marks, get set, go.............race on!

 

As much as I loved seeing all the cars at Beaulieu there is also some absolutely stunning scenery to take in with the remains of the Abbey and the Palace on the site. Both are open to the public so we had a good walk around in the beautiful sunshine to explore the grounds.

Some of the Abbey remains looking back at the chapel.

A stunning picture of the palace which over looks a lake.

And another picture of the palace.

Me, Joshua and Brandon at the old Abbey entrance.

The lake which the palace overlooks. It was lovely to get down hear and dip your feet in the cool water.

Looking back at the Palace from the lake.

Brandon getting his feet wet in the lake.

Joshua running around and exploring the grounds of the palace.

Forget the broken tent, the boys found a little mini caravan the perfect size for them. It even had a teddy bear inside.

Joshua on a ride through the history of the automobile. Getting tired after a long day and thumb in mouth. This needs to stop before he starts big boys school this week.

Brandon rode with me.

We had to take a picture of the Mini Outspan as it was built the same year as me (so 40 years old). The boys even bought me a post card souvenir of this car.

And as if a car shaped like an orange is not weird enough, how about this beer bottle shaped car.

One of Brandon's favourite cars was this old land speed record car. He liked it primarily because it was almost a yellow colour. I preferred the Thrust and Bluebird land speed cars on display.

Finally into the Bond display.

On the week when Brandon learnt to swim unaided, how apt was it for him to get his picture taken with probably the most famous Bond car of all - the amphibious Lotus.

Me and Joshua doing our best Bond pose in front of the classic Aston Martin.

The boys both recognised this car from the World Is Not Enough as I have this in my collection of 1/18th scale cars.

Kind of weird to explain to the boys what the Bond alligator is doing in a motor museum.

What a car. The famous black and gold of the good old John Player Special F1 car.

In the outdoor arena they had a larger go-kart track set-up for adults to drive. However the cars were adapted with twin seats so that children could ride shotgun. These were a little expensive at £6 for 3 mins and of course once I took Joshua on then I couldn't really say no to Brandon. So £12 gone and I had the burden of having two goes on the go karts - such a shame.

Me and Joshua blasting around the track.

Brandon all strapped in his 4 point harness and ready to race. He can just about see through the steering wheel.

A rare family picture of us all in an toy car in the kids playground. Worth the photo just to see Tina try and climb in and out!

The wild donkeys struck again on the way home as they were blocking our road and had no intentions of moving.

And as if that wasn't bad enough we got back to our tent and found the cows had really settled in close to our pitch.

The mother and baby were very content sitting next to our tent watching us have dinner.

So that is a small snapshot of a phenomenal day out in Buaulieu Motor Museum. Day 4 sees us venture to Longdown farm and then the all important den building in the New Forest.