Oldies On Tour

Wednesday 2nd November 2016

We didn’t get up very early, but oh boy it’s turning cold. We wrapped

up warm, and decided to go out for cooked breakfast, we wondered around the Basin, and finally decided on a pub The Brasshouse, and what a good choice, good service and excellent food.

Totally satisfied, we then decided to look at computers, I want something, I can keep my photos on, plus doing this website on, trying to get all my photos on one computer, instead of three different ones, and Geoff said he would buy me something for my birthday.

We wandered around Birmingham, passing Museum, St.Martins in the Bull Ring, The Bull Ring, and the amazing New street Train station, the frontage was like mirrors, where the reflections of everything that was going on, was on the screen, not sure how it worked, but we could see ourselves, and the trains etc., etc.,fascinating.

We found PC world, and spent sometime looking at what I should get, then we went for a coffee, to think what I wanted, having made the decision, we went back and bought everything, now we have to go and see Martin for him to sort me out. I want to somehow put all my old photos from years back on, we have boxes and boxes in store, especially of Andrew as a baby, then throw the boxes away, have to be ruthless at some stage.

Later we needed Halfords, which was about forty minutes walk, passed Birmingham University and the bus depot, hen into back streets thank goodness for gps on our phones. We can now polish the boat, and hopefully give it a bit of a shine, I started on the brass, and that looks great, but will do it again, before we leave.

Back to the boat, a quick cuppa, then off again to buy some groceries, ready for the off tomorrow. On way back we stopped at a little pub on the canal where Geoff sampled the beer again, it was lovely and warm in there.

Back on board, I prepared dinner, and we had just started eating, when Sharon and Richard turned up, after some persuading they came in and had a glass of red wine, they are off to a show tonight. They did the Hatton locks again today, they met someone else, just as they entered first lock so went down with them, that’s the best way to do them. Nice couple shame we are going in different directions.

After they left, we tidied up, and I had an early night, I am shattered.

Tuesday 1st November

s The weather has been amazing up to today, the canal is very shallow, and we have been stuck a couple of times, but managed to stop for water on route.
First thing today we had to open a road bridge, which was great fun, stopping the traffic whilst the nachine lifted the bridge for ageoff to go through, bet at 8.55am a few drivers cursed us.
Today was lock free, accept one at the end of Stratford Canal, which is no longer working, an old fashioned guillotine type, we crawled through the narrow gate, and then had to take a sharp right turn onto the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, passed the Bourneville factory.

As we were driving along, we heard this strange noise, I looked behind and saw something disappearing into the water, which was bright orange, we pulled up, and Geoff used the boat hook to see if he could find anything, but No nothing there, so we started again, and I saw it again, so I took the tiller, and Geoff tried to lasso the thing, which he did, very impressed, we pulled up again, and found we had picked up a plastic temporary barrier, it was about four feet long and three foot high, so glad we managed to free it, we left it on the side of the canal, just hoping it doesn’t get thrown in again!

The Worcester and Birmingham canal was very muddy and shallow, and the leaves were causing us problems, we had to stop every now and then, and go in reverse just to free prop from the leaves, through another tunnel as we approached Birmingham things improved, and we arrived at lunch time, cold and hungry.

We popped out to get fresh rolls, soup and milk, and had a lovely warm lunch, back on board.

Looking forward to exploring tomorrow, at present it has turned very cold, and we are now making plans to find a Marina and leave the boat.

Monday 31st October 2016

I was awake quite early, so I got up and made the tea, and enjoyed drinking it in bed. We both got up, and moved the boat 100yards to take on water, whilst we were having breakfast. A lady had beaten us too it, but not for long, so we filled up, before we started the epic trip of the Lapworth flight of locks (22) We are now on the Stratford on Avon Canal, which have the single locks, which means an easier ride.

We turned into the canal, and met up with Sharon and Richard again, thy were preparing to go the opposite way to us, so we faced the first locks, and we were very quickly on our way. We had a new system, I opened the locks, Geoff drove in, we both closed the gates, and opened the sluices, I walked onto the next lock whilst Geoff finished the lock he was in, it certainly speeded up the journey. When we came to lock 17 we met a guy who had blocked the exit under a bridge, on a bend, very difficult, we were coming out of 16, but had nowhere to go, the waterways guys were behind this guy, who had two boats to do, glad we were not following him. The men from the waterways helped us get through, and they then waited for this guy to clear a couple of locks.

It took us three hours to do all the locks, which wasn’t bad, glad we are not on the Grand Union. Richard told us to go this way, and we are so pleased we took his advise, it is very pretty, with the Autumn colours.

We stopped at a pub which specialised in cider and local beers. The pub was a bit grotty, but the food was very good, I had fish pie and Geoff had faggots, very good.

We moved on to find a mooring for the night, opposite some nice houses, no pub tonight.

Sunday 30th October 2016

Up early with the clocks going back, so instead of tea in bed, we quickly filled with water, had breakfast, and then had a pump out before we started the Hatton Flight with 22 locks.

As we left the marina we saw another boat ahead of us, so hoped we could catch them up, but as we approached the first lock a man called us in, when he opened the lock gates, no boat was in there, I went and thanked him, he then told me he had waited for us, and his boat was moored at the next lock, my wish had come true, help on the flight.

We introduced ourselves, then Richard suggested we tied the boat together, Sharon and I opened the locks, and the

boys steered the boat, Richard left Geoff to steer the boat, and walked on to the next lock, so we were on a roll, we all swopped jobs, and it worked so well, we managed to do all 22 locks in under three hours, amazing, and made it look so easy.

When we arrived at the top lock, we stopped at the cafe, and had bacon and egg sandwiches, we deserved them, and they were very tasty. Sharon and Richard were waiting for friends to arrive so we left them at cafe. Hopefully we will meet up again one day.

We travelled onto Kingswood, through a tunnel, but no more locks, we then stopped, we enjoyed hot showers, after doing a couple of little repairs, and a clean up, we walked to the local pub, and had a couple of beers, before cooking dinner and settling down to watch F1, strictly and Poldark. A good day was had by all.

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.