Hard Facts Community

1 Rebecca Andrews was the first recorded victim of what in 1665? Given the date, I would say the Great Plague of London 1665. Though they had it in other parts of the country as well, like Eyam in Derbyshire 3 What payment to authors is capped at £6,600? Public Lending Rights 5 Which cetacean is kno...

Furby asked Why could the boat cruise a bit under bridges but not its full cruise The Douro has several dams along its course, and our boat had to get up and down at least three of them, beginning with a 46 foot lift at Crestuma which was around 90 minutes up the river. Around 2 hours after that we ...

It's the turn of Energy Security and Net Zero Minister Graham Stuart to resign from HMG, to spend more time on constituency affairs. He is defending a majority of 20.4k in his constituency of Beverley and Holderness.

Day 3 - Thursday April 4 On this day we should have been cruising up the river during breakfast and, after lunch, heading by coach up to a fortified village. That never happened, and we didn't do it later in the cruise. Plan B was to sail up the Douro taking in the two locks, have lunch, go to the ...

Day 2 - Wednesday April 3 06:00 - ALL ABOARD We would be at that time of morning as we were promised that the boat would begin our cruise at 06:30. It was still dark, so I got myself all ready at 06:30 to watch the lights on Oporto slowly move as the boat got under way and sat in my little false ba...

Furby asked

Was there a vegetarian option?

There were vegetarian options and even vegan options IIRC; I wasn't really tempted especially by them. If there was something there that I fancied I chose it and didn't bother about whether it was vegan, veggie etc.

This one's real old Appenzeller bierkeller stuff!

I'll see how I feel. I am not an Eclipse Groupie so probably I wouldn't go. Iceland might turn out to be Rip-Off Land so far as prices are concerned in August 2026. Meanwhile, I had some fun ho ho with Carolynne bringing Them home. Midge wouldn't get into his cat basket and was very hissy and claw-s...

Per Furby's request - here is a pic of my bathroom; I say 'my' but I don't know which cabin that actually is amongst the Superior Suites as I have stolen the cabin pics from the Riviera Travel website. When closing the shower door I had to stand as tight as I could in that corner by the shower head ...

was it like... Butlins on sea ? :eek Rather more upmarket than Butlins on sea! The chief missing element was the fact that the boat wasn't cruising............valiant efforts were made to try to cruise and when that wasn't possible the Cruise Director worked his socks off to adapt the schedule to t...

I wonder if OC will holiday there in 2026? quoth Eccs. Probably not. It is on August 12 2026, and from my point of view that is the best time to be in Brisbane. I promised myself a 70th birthday treat in 2021 by going to Brisbane to see the girls, look at the art galleries and museums and generally...

Still no eggs in the Cathedral nest box.

I walked across the top of that metal bridge with the arch, carefully avoiding both the railing and the streetcars. Once I started I did not dawdle, looked at the view every so often but not straight down, and when I arrived at the south bank of the Douro I got the cable car back down to near where ...

Just to amplify on #12; Theodore Roosevelt stood in the 1912 US presidential election on the Bull Moose ticket, so I think these are joke-ish political 'parties' of failed Presidential candidates. Roosevelt was VP of William McKinley, the third President to be assassinated - in 1901. He'd not long w...

Richard Dimbleby said so, therefore it must be true.

I always hate the day before I go away because it means They have gone on their holidays and I shall be by myself tonight. I got them in their cat baskets more quickly than I thought I would; I put Midge in first and he just accepted it and went in quietly when I pushed him part way in head first. H...

Here's Nicolas and some of his Appenzeller chums playing a jolly tune for us.

I think today's the day..............so Happy Birthday to dear Merry!

9 Marketa Vondrousova; Goran Ivanisevic; Boris Becker? Unseeded players who won singles titles at Wimbledon.

11 Hephaestus; Tubal-cain; Vulcan; Wayland? All blacksmiths.

12 Acadia; Grand Teton; Joshua Tree; Olympic; Zion? National parks in the USA.

I saw that pic of the King sitting at his desk, and he looked like someone else who I couldn't quite place - he didn't look like himself at all. I agree with Furby, last time I saw a clip of Princess Anne out on a public engagement she looked as if she had suddenly aged 10 years. If Princess Anne do...