Comfy bed, great place to stay close to what we want to do. Who could ask for anything more? Well, we woke up to rain (again) so I put in a word for sun.... Lo and behold the sun shone all day in spite of the nasty clouds on the horizon!
Had to go to Bournemouth Airport to trade in the car (turned out to be a good deal). Not a trip we had planned but turned in to a bit of an adventure. Sleep roads from Swanage to the ferry then 5 mins. across the channel to Poole. Very cosmopolitan area with up scale homes / apartments and beautiful beaches. Bournemouth was pretty nice too, what we saw of it
The ferry brought us back to Studland,the summer home of the Banke's family (more of those distant relations). It is now a hotel set in a wonderful location.
We wandered down the trail to "Old Harry's Rocks". Steep chalk cliffs, pounding waves and blue sky.... we've arrived! Beautiful walking in this area. Of course we were helped along the way by the meal (and drinks) we'd had at the Banke's Arms Country Inn. Stopped off for a good feed and a (cool) beer only to find the proprietor very eager to share the history of his pub. Seems in the old days much money was made by smuggling. The police rarely came out and boats could not easily navigate the sandy shores. So, the locals made money bringing goods over from France. The jolly proprietor gave us each a drink (a big drink) of over proof rum to prove his point.  "It's illegal to sell here in England, so have a drink on me!" It 's a damn good thing I didn't fall off that cliff later in the day!
After recovering from the rain and the walk and a tour of the Studland area (looking for relatives in the graveyard) we headed to Corfe Castle & the surrounding village. Shane's family has links, though distant, to Lady Bankes who defended the castle for years with all her whiles only to be tricked into defeat.... left with only the many keys to the castle doors as a souvenir. The keys are on display at Kingston Lacy.

Next day .... we woke up early and headed to town. Found a walk from Swanage west along the coast and just enjoyed the morning.
After lunch we headed by steam train back to Corfe where we took in a juggler show (pretty funny for the kids and myself) ... wandered around the castle... had a cold cider and boarded the steam train back to Swanage.
It's not how much you see but how you see it. Today we saw little and experienced a lot..... and the cider was pretty good too!

Tomorrow we head east towards Exeter. Who knows where we will end up.