Category: Cruising

Cassiobury Park was recommended as a good mooring place and it is!  It’s an extensive park on either side of the canal with bandstand, cafe, childrens paddling pools and shaded walks.  It’s a long hike across the park but it takes you into the centre of Watford

 

 

 

   

We visited the Museum – a little old fashioned but what caught my eye was their “100” competition. Paintings and literary offerings on the one hundred theme. It took me almost an hour to read all the entries mentioning suffragettes, WW1, inventions over the last 100 years, birthdays etc  What a topical and clever idea!

Then we needed a bit of air con so we caught a bus to the Vue cinema and watched Mamma Mia Here we go again! Very amusing and featuring all the old cast as well as new. Definitely has the feel good factor.

Returning through the park from shopping on Saturday lunchtime we met a lady litter picking and stopped to say thank you and a chat. She explained that the Friends of Cassiobury Park did litter picking on certain Saturdays. We decided to help. Well, it gives purpose to a walk n’est ce pas?

Met up with Jacaranda again. Claire & Jeremy helped us through several locks a few days earlier. Jeremy did well at fishing and caught this sizeable bream.

An interesting sight. Floating pontoons. A cable is being laid along the length of the canal so the floating pontoons act as a temporary footpath

Caught up with Chums Anna & Perry who moored up next to us. We met them on the K & A last year when they too were going to Caen Hill Marina. We wish them all the best as they are off to Scotland for a couple of years.

Tomorrow we are moving on ……….

Lovely volunteers helped us up the Hanwell Flight. We moored at Norwood Top Lock in Southall. A convenient bus stop to get to the station. England Lost to Croatia, a country of only 4 million people……..

Between here and Bulls Bridge the canal is full of rubbish as is the towpath. And on  to West Drayton where we moored to take advantage of the station not because of its scenic location!. We visited Tony’s Dad in Newport on Friday 13 then the Secret Bunker at Uxbridge on the Saturday. This is well worth a visit. It’s walkable from Uxbridge High Street, but the signs point through an apartment development on the edge of Dowding Park.

Visitor Centre

  

 

Bunker entrance

The Dowding System

 

  

 

 

Sunday 15th I went to Wimbledon with friend Vanessa. I really enjoyed it – so well organised and I had strawberies & cream

Uxbridge house prices!!!

West Drayton towpath had obviously had money spent on it in the past but is now disgraceful, cans bottles and rubbish and right outside some very smart apartments. If I lived there I would complain to the CRT.  We are now keen to leave the London canals.

We moored above Denham Deep Lock and met Phil who stopped to chat.  He came back, with wife Sue, the following evening when we moored up at Blatchworth (Rickmansworth) alongside the extensive Aquadrome.

  

Stopped to visit the Rickmansworth Museum which for several years was the home of William Penn. Glad to find a town with a Waitrose!

  

The Church has been jointly C of E and Methodist for many years, and is the very first church we have seen with a library! Hilary take note!

 

 

 

The Water & Steam Museum Brentford

  

  

Any ten year old would love the rude bits!!!

And any boy no matter what age would like the steam train

The Musical Museum Brentford

This was an amazing find! Made even more enjoyable by guide Ray from Bluebell Hill Nottingham. These are pianolas. No practising for years!

   

And I couldn’t resist….

  

We also visited Richmond 

  

and Kingston The Coronation Stone

  

John Lewis Complete with Waitrose in the basement!

Highly unusual boat

 

The Poppy factory seen from the bus

 

 

 

We were in the Mall to watch We went via

 

 

 

From The Mall we walked to Covent Garden and Tony had a coffee and cake at the Transport Museum

Then a little stroll around Merchant Square Paddington where we had moored last July

M & S have a major office block here and have opened a food hall on the ground floor but look at the opening hours

Ever seen this before? Answer at the end of this post!!

Caught up with the Tennis on the big screen

And then on the return journey we caught up with Timmy & Co!!!

From the TV

  

 

The Answer:

A public spaces protection order is an order that identifies the public place and prohibits specified things being done in the restricted area and/or requires specified things to be done by persons carrying on specified activities in that area.

Now are you any the wiser as to what you should or shouldn’t be doing?

Gunnersbury Park and Museum

This is the place that Tony’s parents did their courting!  The museum has just undergone refurbishment. It was the home of the Rothschild family

  

The servants. Several rooms had a video featuring the Butler who explained the workings of the house

 

Two chefs were employed They were brothers from France

 

A local factory sign

Local people

We think Tony’s Mother went to the local girls school

  

The park

 

Richmond & Kingston

Both have pleasant waterfronts and interesting local museums. Richmond has a Park

  

but Kingston has John Lewis and Waitrose – have had to shop at Morrisons in Brentford. John Lewis itself is almost a shopping mall

Coronation Stone

 

Charming scene on boat roof!

The Poppy Factory

 

 

 

Chiswick House

The facade now

and earlier

Eltham Palace – the 1930s home of the Coutaulds

Exterior

Rescue

Interior the oh so smart sitting room

Note the concealed door

Virginias bedroom and en suite bathroom

Stephens bedroom wood panelling and hand bloked wallpaper of Kew Gardens

 

 

 

 

 

The Library

The pet lemur that had the run of the house

The Dining Room

The gardens

And after spending all this time and money on a house they rented the Courtaulds left just after the war and moved to Scotland.

 

Kenwood House 

We are really making good use of our English heritage Membership

It’s full of paintings

King Charles 2

Old London Bridge

Lady Elizabeth Murray and Dido Belle

We had a very informative talk on this early Turner painting Chairs provided!  In fact this house had chairs in almost every room and they were much used by visitors. NT take note

An outstanding collection of paintings.

Highgate Cemetery

A few well known people are here

For those from Nottingham the author of Saturday night and Sunday Morning

Terribly overgrown but a certain charm?

 

Apsley House

Not able to take photos inside. The present Duke still lives here

  

Syon Park Excellent guides so knowledgeable This was my favourite Stately Home so it has a separate post.

 

Definitely top of my list! The exterior is quite plain but the interior is amazing.

The Civil War 1642

And who is this?  i had never heard of him. Time to look him up……

Wiltshires own Phil Harding with the Duke of Northumberland

The present Percy family of Alnwick Castle

 

 

 

 

The rooms

    

Princess Victoria’s room. She lived here with her Mother for several years

I quite liked these window shutters

Do you remember Arthur Negus hosting the Antiques Roadshow? This is the canary that opened the show!

This carpet in the childrens wing, we were told, came from the Queen Mary!

They had modern appliances too!

The Courtyard  A green and white theme is perfect for the weddings held here. Absolutely charming

The Orangery

Grapevine on the bridge. What a good idea!

And some wildlife….

  

and

and

Tony may be entering the Countryfile photographic competition this year!

 

 

 

 

Newly reopened the previous day by the Earl of Wessex, Tony was very keen to visit. I was keen to try and find out which plane my Grandfather would have flown in in 1918

Here is a selection of things we saw

  

WW 1 planes

  

There were many upright figures of past and present RAF personnel

  

 

Lancaster bomber

Sea King helicopter

Tornado

On a lighter note entertainment by an excellent band and

  

Well worth making the trip. And no. I still dont’t know which plane my Grandfather  might have flown in: indeed although he transferred from the Navy to the Royal Naval Air Service I remain uncertain as to whether the stories he told me as a child were just tall tales…….

Watch out for the commemoration fly past post – coming soon!

 

 

 

 

Arrived in Brentford Sunday mid afternoon to find there were no mooring spaces but Blue Iris, who we had previously met in Maidenhead, kindly invited us to moor alongside. We had an excellent evening with Margaret & Robert and Janet & John from Flat 12 .

Monday morning we helped Blue Iris up the flight of locks and after Lunch at The Fox spent the afternoon at the launderette!!!

Tuesday we visited Osterley Park a Robert Adam House. Exquisite!

On the way the GSK building and the old Gillette Factory

The facade at Osterley

 

Interior

 

And after all that exhausting activity….

Wednesday we negotiated our way by bus, tube and Docklands Light Railway to Greenwich to see the Observatory and National Maritime Museum, Returned on a clipper to Westminster walked to Charing Cross and had a bite to eat at Pizza Express before catching a bus to Hammersmith and then a 267 to Brentford Holiday Inn. Oyster cards are so easy to use!

En route Limehouse basin from DLR

  

View from the Observatory

  

Standing over the Prime Meridian

Cutty Sark, Ship in a bottle and Royal Barge

 

And return journey by Clipper

Taking Jeans advice we went to the Walkie Talkie building to visit The Sky Garden. Unfortunately it was fully booked but we were advised to return at 6pm which we did. Amazing views from floors 35 – 38. Bar and restaurants too and its free!

 

So to fill the day we visited the Museum of London as neither of us had been there before.

Fatberg

Original London wall

 

 

 

 

We listened to an excellent talk on the Oldest Map and the Fire of London. Chairs provided too! So much of interest  that we only managed one floor!

  

The following day we returned to the Museum to finish off and listened to another excellent talk on the BBC during WW2.

Lyons Corner House

We then went to Somerset House which proved disappointingbut found this

We then progressed to Twinings.

A very engaging member of staff told us about the Tea Experience and they had one space only left so I had it! So from 5-7pm with five other people I drank tea and ate delicious morsels whilst learning about the company and its products. To begin we had a welcoming cocktail of Twinings Jasmine pearls tea and prosecco (try it)  and we finished with chocolate beignets with Earl Grey!

Tony amused himself by visiting the Transport Museum and Pizza Express

Brentford Visitor Moorings

 

As if any boater is going to walk 2.6 miles to a recycling centre!

We found this one at the Brent Lea bus stop about 200 yards away

Adding oxygen to the water as a spillage had occurred upstream that had killed fish.

This is the weed gathering machine

House price

And this from Morrisons