Oldies On Tour

Saturday 29^th October 2016

Yesterday we decided we would visit Stratford Upon Avon but before we left we had to go the Canal Trust Shop as we had paid for Wi Fi but it failed, and as we didn’t have TV, we needed Wi Fi to be able to get Strictly come Dancing on our computer as well as Qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix.  Eventually we were all sorted, Wi Fi working and we were off.

Google Maps gave us the route to the station but it was quite a tortious route so asked someone who directed us down a leafy lane, across a park, through a pedestrian tunnel under the railway and we arrived around 1100hrs.  Obviously Google Maps didn’t have the paths we used in its database!!!!  We bought our tickets and had to wait ‘till 1135hrs for the train.  We were sitting in the waiting room doing “our thing” when a train pulled in to the station which didn’t register with us until we suddenly realised it was our train; we ran like stink to catch it, especially as this train service only runs every 2 hours.

Thirty minutes later we pulled into Stratford Station, alighted and wandered down into the town.  It’s been many years since we both had been to Stratford so it was like a journey of discovery and where better to start this journey from, why “Patisserie Valerie” (the coffee shop) of course.  Fortified, we headed up and down most streets, admiring many of the Elizabethan Buildings including Shakespeare’s home and down to the Avon, past the canal basin (of course) along to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and then returned back into hubbub of the main streets.

We didn’t attempt to visit Ann Hathaway’s cottage as it was out of town and time was a little on the short side.

We decided we fancied fish and chips for lunch so looked at a fish and chip shop but it didn’t really appeal, besides it didn’t serve alcohol, so we continued, looking for a pub.  The first pub we went into had no tables, the second pub was small, dingy and full as well then we came across the Garrick Inn, the oldest pub in Stratford Upon Avon (allegedly), went in, greeted an shown to a table, the only one they had, the pub was heaving.  This table was in a corridor, very small, minimal space and hemmed in but fortunately, just as we sat down the people behind us left so we moved onto their table.  This table was better but still tucked away a bit but luck came our way again and another table became vacant, this one was much better and we settled down.

We chose a sharing starter and then fish and chips and waited whilst enjoying a drink.  The starter arrived and we ate it but I certainly wouldn’t recommend this sharing platter to anyone, I suspect everything on the platter came frozen from Iceland, certainly not what we expected, still we had the fish and chips to look forward to.  When they arrived, the first thing Christine said was “look at all that batter” I stuck my fork into mine and couldn’t find any fish and when I did find the fish it was as dry as a bone, Christine’s was much the same.  We complained to the waitress and she just laughed. We asked for the bill and when I went to the till to pay I complained again and this person just shrugged her shoulders; by this time I was fuming and there was no management to be found so the sensible thing to do was leave and take it up later.  We have never had such bad fish and chips, sorry batter and chips.

We decided to mosey up towards the station as our train was 1641 and if we missed it we would have to wait 2 hours but with plenty didn’t rush and ambled around a fund raising, or as Christine put it, a flea market.  Just leaving the towns square there was a very old looking, thatched roof, timbered, Elizabeth pub, “The Old Thatched Tavern” so had a pint then onto the station.

The ticket office told us the train would go from Platform 2, so over the bridge we went to wait.  After about 10 minutes it dawned on us that the trains arriving on the platform 2 were travelling in the wrong direction so rather than ask the ticket office again we tried the automatic enquiry system.  We pressed the bell, a voice come on and asked us what we needed to know and then told us the train went from Platforem1.  Back over the bridge again and an empty train arrived which turned out to be our train, apparently this train just runs between Stratford and Leamington, Warwick being in the middle, still it was our train but it didn’t leave for about 20 minutes!!!  It’s a good job we didn’t stay on the other platform, thank you ticket office man for your dis-information.

We were back at Warwick station ¾ of an hour later with enough time to get to the boat before it was dark and more importantly for Christine, in time for Strictly Come Dancing.

Tomorrow we are off early after filling up the fresh water tank and emptying the black water tank, then we will be ready for the next stage in our Canal Journey.

Friday 28th October 2016

Another leisurely day started as usual with a cup of tea in bed followed by showers and as we were moored right by a tap water wasn’t a problem Next we were then off to find the bus stop.  Not having been on a bus for many years we were surprised how comfortable they were; this one had leather seats, leg room and a very pleasant interior, though we did wonder if the Driver was a frustrated Grand Prix driver; fast or what?

We arrived in Leamington’s main shopping street right outside Greg’s, (the bakers) and being mid morning, decided to have our mid-morning coffee with a couple of Belgium buns: this made a change from Costa!!

We wandered around, in and out of several shops and eventually made our way to the Royal Pump rooms and Baths, a rather impressive building where folk from all over the country came to take the waters.  Though there has been some sort of settlement here, probably since Roman times, it was first recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 though the re-discovery of the Spa waters in 1784 and the commercialization that followed, put the town on the map, so to speak.

There was also a magnificent park and as we wandered around we saw some fantastic old trees that must have seen all sorts of things over the last couple of hundred years or so; if only they could talk!  There was the customary large, round, duck pond, a kiddie’s area and, a set aside area where everything is left to nature.

The town, much of it Regency and Victorian, was bestowed with its Royal Prefix after Queen Victoria visited, first as Princess in 1830 and again as queen in 1858.

I was also interested to re-visit the Regent Hotel, built 1818/19 where, in its heyday; this Hotel was where the visiting aristocracy, landed Gentry, and the wealthy stayed whilst “taking the waters”. It was here where Princess Victoria stayed in 1830 and it was described as one of the largest in Europe at that time, having 100 bedrooms.

My main interest in seeing the Regent again was to see what they had done to it after renovations. Back in the 80’s and 90’s we (Tesco) used it for annual national negotiations with the Trade Unions as the hotel had the space, and was comparatively cheap, due to it being very run down: a far cry from its heyday.  As I said, it was being re-furbished and what a surprise, it is now a Travel Lodge, In disgust we didn’t go in!!!!

Lunch time beckoned and we found a branch of Zizi’s so in we went: Italian 2 days running though Zizi’s wasn’t in the same class as yesterday, still very nice and we enjoyed it.  We didn’t stop and linger though; there was a family with a baby, sleeping peacefully in the pram, but a little boy sitting at the table who looked old enough to know better, was screaming incessantly, annoying everybody in the restaurant and parents who didn’t appear to stop him.  We skipped Desert and Coffee, paid the bill and left

After lunch we made our way back to the bus stop and joined the queue.  Again we had a very comfortable seat, though the bus was full this time.   We did have another Lewis Hamilton type driver trying to set records, but we got back without any mishap.  We were back on the boat after a very enjoyable day and put our feet up and read: no TV again!!!!

We also decided to stop over a third night and visit Stratford Upon Avon tomorrow as we are so close and instead of using the bus, we thought we would catch the train, by way of a change.

Thursday 27^th October 2016

After yesterday’s 22 locks we deserved a leisurely morning, well Christine did anyway as she did all the locks, not that I didn’t want to do them but Christine struggled in the deep, double locks with her shoulders trying to control the boat, hence she did all the locks.

Last night we wanted to get to the canal basin but as it was getting late we called it a day and pulled up.  This morning the map said we were about 5 minutes from the basin so I walked to find it leaving Christine to have a shower.

The (so called) basin is actually the start of the original Warwick & Birmingham canal opened in 1799, but in the 20^th century a railway line came along and dissected the canal.  The short canal that was left soon became derelict but 25 years ago the Saltisford Canal Trust was created and together with numerous enthusiastic volunteers stepped in and restored this short arm that it is today.  The revenue needed to keep this arm of the original canal going comes from day boat hire, short and long time moorings, visitor moorings and a chandlery/gift shop.

When I enquired if we could come in and moor, I was told I was very fortunate as he had a 60 ft., boat just leaving and I could have his space.  It was a good thing we didn’t try to get in last night, as they were full!!!!!!!  I was told the first night was free but the subsequent nightly rate was £5.50 per night: I booked 2 nights.

Back to the boat with this news and after we had eaten we cast off and trundled off to the entrance, my it was narrow, boats moored both sides with minimal clearance, still we got to near the end where we had to turn round as we had to reverse down the final part, past a number of boats and into our slot.  Reversing a canal boat is probably the hardest things I have ever had to do with a boat, steering seems non existent, the boat kicks quickly one way so we kept having to straighten up and we were warned the opposite side of the canal was very shallow so keep close to the moored boats.  Anyway without mishap we slotted in between two other boats, moored up and I had my shower.

Town beckoned so off we set and after a 20 minute walk was in Warwick, the town centre.  It had been many years since I had been here and Christine hadn’t been here so that was good.  I clearly remember the historical significance of the area from School and it was nice to note all the shops seemed “local” we didn’t see the big chains in the High Street, we were told if we wanted those we had to go into Royal Leamington Spa, a bus ride away; we were happy not to go there!!!!!

We wandered around admiring the various buildings etc., when Christine spotted a nail bar, and she needed remedial action after yesterdays “herculean effort” with all the locks, she went into the nail bar and I waited in the local Costa.  Whilst there I looked on line for a good, well recommended restaurant that we could go to for lunch and I found one only two doors up from the nail bar, how odd was that? Must have been fate!

Christine joined me for Coffee and as it was too early for lunch, continued meandering around the town.  Whilst walking e came across an old building called the Lord Leycester Hospital with a fascinating garden but this building was never a medical establishment, it was just a collection of buildings that are now open to the public, for a fee of course!!!!  Talking about entry fees, we are noting how expensive it is to enter some of these establishments these days, even being “pension esters” doesn’t cut much ice!!!!!!

It was lunch time so off we trotted back into the market place but on the way spotted a mans outfitters selling security pouches for credit cards.  There was a warning on TV that one can buy a app for one’s ‘phone and brush up against somebody’s wallet and with the new contactless facility on credit cards, obtain all the information and then use it illegally.  These pouches are lined so protect the cards.  We have been looking for them for some time and now we have one, so we then continued to our lunch venue.

We arrived to find the restaurant fairly busy, always a good sign; got our table and studied the menu.  I brought Christine to “Micatto”,  www.micatto.com  a highly recommended and well-regarded Italian restaurant as I felt much of her exhausting lock work was due to me, just wanting to push on, and on, and on; I am continually being reminded we are on holiday and not in any rush! Anyway that’s why we were here

We had an excellent meal, the full works, washed down with copious amounts of wine, we wont need to eat again today we decided.

Having recovered from the bill we needed to walk our lunch off so headed for Warwick Castle. This famous castle, set in its fine grounds and maximising its history to the full with visitors from all around the world is a spectacular site, unfortunately we had arrived to late do it justice; not enough hours left in the day to get around so just carried on walking around its perimeter.  Naturally Warwick Castle, like all medieval Castles is built up on a hill, well from the canal boat we walked up to the town across to the castle then down the hill again as we walked around their perimeter fence.  Unfortunately we were on the opposite of the hill so up we went again, across town then back down stopping at Sainsbury’s en route to get some shopping in.

Arriving back at Foggy’s Notion a little exhausted and still full from lunch we settled down for a quiet night, but again no TV so we played Crib and read our books though we were both in bed fairly early.  We also decided tomorrow we would take a bus into Royal Leamington Spa and see what they have to offer.

Wednesday 26th October 2016

We started at Calcutt Locks, just three in the group, and very easy, we passed a big Marina, we think Diane and David are moored in, waiting for their friends before they carry on, wonder what time they got here. We travelled onto Stockton Locks, this is a group of ten locks, we haven’t seen one boat travelling our way, we then went into a double lock, haven’t done one of these before, but we managed it quite easily, especially as someone was coming up, so we didn’t have to close the gates. Two more locks, and we met up with three lads, who we shared these locks with. We then did Fosse locks four in this group. We were in Royal Leamington Spa, and I wanted to stop, as I was getting very tired, but Geoff wanted to carry on, so guess what we did! We travelled on and on, now we are in Warwick two more locks, I was really fed up at this point, so we stopped on the canal, I was in agony, and not a happy bunny. We will not be doing another day of 23 locks on our own!

Tuesday 25th October 2016

Up at a reasonable time, and we took the canopy off as we are going through the one mile tunnel again.

The Braunston Tunnel is 2042 yards, it took us twenty seven minutes to go through, it is quite scary, I had to drive, because with Geoff’s glasses he struggles to focus on the darkness. We were half way through, when we met another boat coming in the opposite direction, we both slowly passed each other, and finally reached daylight again.

We stopped for lunch, before travelling onto Napton where we diverted onto the Birmingham waterways, still the Grand Union Canal, so the locks are still the big ones, but at least they are easy to do. We decided to stop before the Calcott locks, face those in the morning.

Had a nice dinner if lamb chops, bought from the butcher in Wellingborough, they were lovely, glad we bought them.

Monday 24th October 2016

Up early as we want to have a good days travelling, we wanted to get to the start of the tunnel, and face that tomorrow.

We met a lovely couple in Dave and Diane, and we went into the locks with them, makes life so much easier, when there are two boats travelling. Diane was funny saying we had team jerseys on, as we matched in colours, we had a good system going, one would walk ahead, whilst the other would close the locks, think we did today’s locks in record time. We covered eleven miles and eight locks, so not bad, and we managed to get to the pub by 4.30pm.

Later Dave and Diane joined us, and we had such a laugh, he is a Rugby League man and of course Geoff is Rugby Union, it’s a shame they are going in a different direction as we enjoyed their company. We stopped in pub for steak and kidney pudding, whilst they went back to boat. We were invited back when we had finished, so we had a few more drinks with them, Diane had made some Tiffin, which we tried, it was different. A nice evening was had by all.