Oldies On Tour

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.

Sunday 23^rd October

After another good nights sleep, we woke up to a dull and cloudy day which caused us cause for concern as today Mark, Paula, Tyla, and Ashleigh were coming on board for the day, and though they didn’t know it, to help us through the flight of locks; all 17 of them!!!!!

We skipped breakfast as we had arranged bacon baps for everybody when they arrived, in the mean time we prepared the boat for the “voyage”; all 4 ½ miles of it to Gayton, where we would part company after a Sunday Lunch at the Walnut Tree.

The family arrived around 1000hrs, delivered by Derek, Paula’s Dad, ready for their ordeal!!  We all enjoyed our bacon baps before we got underway.  The day was still dull and cloudy but at least it wasn’t raining. As we headed of towards the first lock, fortunately this wasn’t for a mile or so; everybody had a short “cruise” before the locks took over.  Travelling along the canal gave everybody the opportunity to see local familiar places from an unfamiliar angle and of course see the dilapidated remains of some of Northampton’s industrial past.

Soon after travelling under the M1 motorway we arrived at our first lock:  Christine, the lock Captain, took control of the team of “volunteers” and showed them how the locks worked and what had to be done and in which order things had to be done in.  This first lock was not part of the flight so we had the time without any distractions, to perfect “team co-ordination”.

Moving further along the canal and round the next bend and we came to the bottom lock in the flight.  We had to wait, as there was a boat already in the lock going up to the next level.  Eventually they were out of their lock chamber and heading towards the next lock in the flight.  We emptied out their water, drove in, filled the lock, and out again at the next level only to see the boat in front still waiting to go into their chamber; what had they been up to we asked ourselves, they should have been coming out, just as we were.  Our team performed like professionals and again, after the next lock we were waiting behind the boat, so approached them to see if they would let us pass, explaining we had to be somewhere!  This boat was manned by 3 elderly men, one who owned the boat but was giving it to his brother so wasn’t too interested in what was happening, the brother (new owner) and his crew “mate” didn’t know the front of a lock from the back of it, hence the slow speed.  Anyway, they allowed us through and off we went.  We got through the next 2 locks before they even got through 1.  Had we stayed behind them we would have missed our table booking at the Walnut Tree.

Everybody mucked in, Ashleigh amazed us with her strength; she managed to close one of the lock gates that Christine couldn’t manage!!! She also took the helm for a bit though at

Tyla & Ashleigh hard at it!!!

one moment she turned about to look at something and we headed towards the reeds growing at the side of the Canal.  Tyla marched between the locks in the flight armed with the lock handle; not too sure she enjoyed using it along, as several of the paddle ratchets were very greasy and I don’t think Tyla wanted to dirty her hands!!!  Mark worked his socks off and Paula supplied all the moral support needed.  On this occasion when we did the flight of locks, she drove and I walked and did the locks; burnt off lots of calories I hope.

As we travelled up the flight we met several boats coming down but everything went perfectly and we made short work travelling the flight arriving in Gayton with sufficient time for a couple of Gin and Tonics before we walked to the Walnut Tree.

Gin seems to be a trendy fad drink these days with supermarkets selling numerous brands

“THE GIN “

from various “boutique” distilleries; naturally I had to join in.  Additionally, tonics have also taken off, “Schhhhhh” doesn’t do it these days, and so I bought some “Fever Tonic Water” tonics to go

THE TONIC

with my Portobello gin.  I am not too sure the experience did anything extra for me, perhaps if I just had a pink gin or even gin on its own, things would have been different.

They even have a “gin” mat!!

Time had come for us top take up our table reservation where we enjoyed a Sunday Lunch, albeit mid afternoon, with all the trimmings.  Mark and I declined desert: cheeseboard was our choice washed down with several glasses of Port,

Derek arrived to collect Mark, Paula, Tyla and Ashleigh after a very enjoyable and hopefully not too tiring a day. We said our goodbyes they drove off and we walked back to the boat. We stopped where we had moored earlier in the day at the junction of the Grand Union and the Northampton Arm of the Grand Union.  The other bonus was, it didn’t rain at all during the day!!!!!