October holiday, 13 October

Chamery, France. 

So yesterday we had a Circuit training event in Bellingham, near Lewisham, which is very close to the A20 and cut a good hour off our journey time. The event has been scheduled to finish at 3:00, so I assumed that we would not be leaving until about 3:30 and booked us in for a last check in time of 6:05 pm. As it was, the event finished early and we arrived at Folkestone only to be told that there was high demand for the single decker section and they were sorry but we couldn't go before our booked crossing. So that was 2 hours we had to sit in the car park! Still, we could have a cup of tea and flake out with a book, and when we were finally crossing we ate our cold supper and then we had an hour to drive in the pouring rain to Watten, near Eperleques. The aire was surprisingly full and we just got the last space.

It appeared we were just on the edge of the band of rain, and when I woke up in the night there was clear skies and a full moon, but it was cloudy again when I woke a second time.

So near the edge of the time zone, it was never going to get light much before 8, but the Swan Whisperer wanted a run so we set the alarm for 07:15 and he went off once he had had his tea. 

After breakfast I had a look round the aire, which was on the banks of the canal, very nice 

and was childishly amused by the thought of dejected dogs needing to be picked up 

(yes of course I know it means to pick up dog poo).

We set off at about 10, I think, and asked the satnav to take us non-toll. First stop was a Netto, which didn't have bread but did have those globe-shaped courgettes ee like. I meant to buy some frozen beans, too, but they sort of transformed into nougat ice cream. Oops! 

Quite a long, but not unpleasant, drive, made longer by the fact that we had never visited Laon and decided it was not too far out of our way to do that. The SW walked up to the Cathedral, but I looked at the gradient and thought not! So we had a cup of tea and then it was only an hour's run to here, where we have been several times before. Chamery is just outside Reims, in the heart of champagne country and very quiet. The weather has been lovely all day! 

Geekery gone wrong

So yesterday, after grandmother duty, I decided to be a total geek and go home by bus, as the 48 was being withdrawn from service. They have already removed the numbers from the bus stops.

With hindsight, I should have decided honour had been satisfied when we got to Hackney, and got on the Overground to Highbury and Islington and then the Victoria Line home. 

However, I didn't. And I don't know what went wrong but the bus suddenly decided to terminate at Shoreditch. And, of course, I don't know where the bus stops are there

Again, I could have got the Overground but I couldn't see the station. I eventually found the bus stop, but the 35 didn't come and didn't come and didn't come. Eventually a 26 came, who said he was going to Waterloo, but was not stopping at Liverpool Street but was going straight to Bank. 

 So I thought better than nothing and got on. Soon enough I saw Aldgate East Station and decided to get the District Line to Victoria and then the Victoria Line home. This was a big mistake as the heavens opened just as I got off the bus and although it was only about 25 yards to the entrance, I was soaked!

And what have they done at Victoria? Instead of a short flight of stairs, a very short corridor and an escalator to change lines, you now have to walk about a mile along corridors you have no idea where they are going. Okay, they now have lifts, but what's the point if you have to walk miles to find them? I was not impressed. 

I didn't quite like to ask the driver of the 35 that met me at Brixton where he had started from - I bet it wasn't Shoreditch, though.

 

And now we are off again, to Italy this time. Only as far as Watten tonight, so I'll start that blog properly tomorrow. 

... And yet another aviation museum

Two years ago, we spent the weekend in Scotland for me to attend the AGMT of the NCC.  Last year it was a one-day affair in London, but this year it was again a weekend event.  This time, in Croydon.  I could have gone as a "day girl" (and frankly, given the hotel, I rather wished I had), but it's nice to have a weekend away with good friends.  The Friday evening is devoted to socialising, and the Sunday to business and a book sale, but the Saturday is always a "day out".

This year, we started off at the cemetery in Redhill for a short service to mark the 50th anniversary of  EBD's death, and a wreath was laid.

Fortunately, the weather was wonderful, as you can see from the shadows in the picture.  We then returned to the coaches and were driven to East Grinstead, just in time to take the Bluebell Railway down to Sheffield Park. That, of course, was as lovely and relaxing as a ride on a steam railway always is, and then when we arrived at Sheffield Park station there was a choice of activities.  First port of call was lunch in the pub on the station, which was extremely good.  I had a potato and broccoli bake, which was delicious, with peas.  And later an ice-cream from the kiosk.  But between the two courses, I wandered round the station, looking at their engine shed, which was open to the public,

and then crossing the footbridge to go the small museum on the other platform.

Those of the party who had elected to visit Sheffield Park and Garden came back rather cross and footsore as apparently it had been a lot further away than they had anticipated.  "They said it was only a few minutes' walk.  They lied!" said someone.

Back into the coaches, and most of us dozed our way to our final stop of the day, the Gatwick Aviation Museum.   Frankly, after RAFs Hendon and Cosford, I was rather underwhelmed.  I'd hoped that there would be more of the history of civil aviation, and perhaps some examples of civilian aircraft,  But it appeared to be a display of fighter aircraft again, and endless engines - frankly, one aircraft engine seems to look very much like another!  Most of us were flagging quite badly by then, so we sat and ate ice cream until it was time to return to the buses, and back to our hotel for the evening's entertainment.

Going bats

Windmill Gardens is only ten minutes' walk from where I live, but it really isn't somewhere I go very often, these days.  Last time I went was to the Bread and Beer festival in May 2018.  But tonight there was a bat walk!

It's been on my bucket list for years, doing a bat walk, but somehow I never seem to be in the right place at the right time.  I've missed a couple in Windmill Gardens simply because we were away when they happened.  There was a last-minute panic when I was asked to do grandmother duty today instead of tomorrow (which I couldn't have done anyway, but the Swan Whisperer would have done it), but luckily the Boy had football training at 17:30, which meant I was able to be home by 18:15 in time to have a snack and go straight out again.

There were already a dozen or so people gathered in the Gardens when I arrived - it is only a very small park - but more arrived as time went on, and I think there were probably 40 people or so when the evening commenced.  Three of them were children, about the age of our grandsons, but these ones were all girls. The Swan Whisperer was there for the talk, but he had a meeting so couldn't stay.  It began with a talk by Dr Iain Boulton, who is Lambeth's Environmental Compliance Officer, which basically means he is responsible for knowing what wildlife exists in Lambeth, and making sure it is encouraged to stay there (I did want to ask him whether he could help with the foxes creating unwanted havoc in the garden here, but didn't get a chance).  He explained about bats.  Bats, of course, are the only truly flying mammal, with their hands adapted to make wings.  But they are really mammals - warm-blooded, and give birth to live young, which they suckle.  There are many species of bats in this country, but the ones they'd expected to see most often in Windmill Gardens are pipistrelles.  All British bats are insectivores, and they hibernate in winter.  September is a brilliant time to see them, since they are active at sunset and sunrise, rather than in the depths of the night.  Each bat eats about 1,000 insects a night, so a healthy bat population means a healthy insect population.

Dr Boulton then handed out bat detectors, and explained how to use them.  You pointed them at trees rather than into the sky or towards the ground.   All this time, the sun was setting, and although at first we pointed our detectors in vain, after about 5 minutes they burst into a cacophony of clicks and, when you knew where to look, you could follow the bats swooping round the park, between the trees.  As the evening wore on, they came more and more out into the open - I could swear one passed within inches of my face.  I've seen bats before, of course - they come over the lake in Sussex, and I've seen them around Villard-de-Lans - but in inner London?  I really hadn't expected we'd see so many, and of course it's not possible to tell whether these were the same  bats doing the rounds or several different ones, but there must have been a minimum of four or five. 

We are now wondering whether we can borrow a detector to see if there are any in the church gardens - bet there are! 

I didn't take any photos - the light was too poor, and anyway, the bats moved too fast - so here's a photo of the Oaks Bottom in Sussex, where we had tea yesterday.  Bet they have lots of bats there.....

Early Autumn Holiday, 16 September 2019

Brixton,

I hadn't really intended to post today, but we had a New Experience on our way home.  We were not able to get on an earlier shuttle, despite checking in early, so the customs people decided to inspect us.  I think it was a new machine, as we had heard it beeping all the previous evening.  You have to drive it into a sort of cattle-crush type thing, and then you get out and wait the other side, while the car or van or whatever is pulled forward and, presumably, x-rayed or CAT scanned or something, beeping loudly all the time.  Not a pleasant noise, especially as I can't put my fingers in my ears while wearing hearing aids! 

Apart from that, the M20 is basically 50 MPH the whole way northbound, largely due to 20 miles with 2 lanes cordoned off for Operation Brock, when they expect lorries to be delayed for days after Brexit.  Not sure whether they close the whole southbound section and send the traffic on the contraflow, or whether it's the lorries who go in the cordoned-off section.  Time will tell.

We got home about 13:15 UK time, very hungry, and then it was unpacking and so on until the next time!

(Photos of the Rhine, first at Cologne, second at Konigswinter).

Early autumn holiday, 15 September 2019

Cité de l'Europe

We didn't set off until noon, as the Swan Whisperer wanted a good walk (despite having had a run before breakfast) before the long drive. I didn't join him, as I'm too slow and it wouldn't have been a long walk, plus my knitting needed more attention than I could really give it in a moving vehicle.

The first hour, until we got to the motorway, was great fun - we passed a fire station having its Open Day, and loads of motorbikes passed us going in the opposite direction, then loads of sports cars, many from Belgium or the Netherlands. We passed a pub whose garden was so full of motorbikes that there was barely room for their riders.

And then we got to the motorway and after that it was pretty dreary. We stopped twice, once for lunch and once for a leg-stretch; we listened to podcasts and I dozed a bit and knitted a bit. And we finally got here about six, hot, tired and thirsty! Water first, then beer...

I finished the wrap

I've been working on all holiday and we ate fish, mashed potatoes and peas followed by yoghurt and compôte. And so to bed. Home tomorrow. 

Early autumn holiday, 14 September 2019

Nideggen, NRW

Of course, just as we set our faces homeward, the weather improves! Today had mostly been hot, hot, hot, such a contrast to two days ago. 

We were still in Wuppertal this morning, so we were able to use the services and left with the grey and the loo empty and the water tank not quite full (no point in taking more than you are going to use), always a good feeling even when homeward bound. 

We stopped off at a Rewe/Lidl/DM complex for the SW to have coffee and, more importantly, for me to do A Last Shop in Germany.

We decided, because we had the whole day, to go slightly out of our way to Königswinter and cross the Rhine by the ferry there, which we duly did,

stopping at a motorway services en route to have much in the shade of a couple of lorries. We had rather an argument with the Satnav, which didn't believe we could cross there, and then wanted us to go practically back to Köln before heading south!

We could, of course, have stopped at Düren in, wave in fact we went past the end of the road where the aire is, but the SW saw this place and thought it might be nice. There were an awful lot of hairpin bend to get there, though.

The sight is called "Schöner Aussicht (beautiful view), and we thought at first it was an offence against the Trades Description Act, as all you can see is trees, but the actual viewpoint is not far away and is, indeed, lovely.

The poor SW thought he was going to be parking by the lake, not 200 feet above it, but he went down to the dam and back up again. I contented myself with a much shorter walk!

More pictures on Facebook.