To Saleilles, 3 October 2021

I slept badly because it was really stormy all night which can be quite fun, but can also be scary when the van rocks and rocks.  This morning, the wind had dropped, although it has continued to rain on and off all day.  

We started slowly, our body clocks not yet being on French time.  Our first port of call was Auchan where I did a shopping, but the Swan Whisperer was hassled by asylum seekers trying to get in and had to lock himself in.  

Next stop was the Baie de Somme, where we had lunch; after which I was incredibly sleepy and slept on and off for the next two hours while we drove down to Normandy.  We had been going to park up by the Seine, but the aire - a car-park, really - was full and rather noisy, as just beside the road.  We found somewhere to pull in while we had a cup of tea and a rethink, and discovered this lovely farm site.  It's not France Passion, so not free, but not expensive either, and does have electricity and services.  And very quiet, except for cows mooing.  

Or money was taken by a teenage boy, a little older than our grandson, but typically monosyllabic and resentful at being dragged away from his iPad to answer the door to a couple of elderly tourists!  Never mind, although we would love a farm tour if it is possible.  He wasn't going to escort us!

The Swan Whisperer has gone for a walk, and soon I am going to get supper.  Meanwhile I am sitting here with the door open airing out the van!

To Saleilles, 2 October 2021

I have to admit that we have had better starts to our holidays!  We wet down to get the motorhome on Friday and brought it back to London, something we don't normally do these days, but we were going straight on from a Church training event.  Just as well, really, because the Swan Whisperer discovered that the leisure batteries were totally dead and not holding a charge at all. So we went to Halfords and arranged to get it fitted there.  So the fitter put it in - and still nothing happened!  He had the sense to consult a colleague, who took one look and said that he had just removed the car battery, not the leisure battery!  

We eventually found where the leisure batteries lived and exchanged them for new ones, and the fitter found a loose connection, which eventually wants soldered, but he crimped it together as best he could.  This may have been what caused the problem. 

So we went, rather late, to the Circuit training day, which was good, but not as good as sometimes as it was in our ha Church so less sociable than at the convent place in Bellingham that we usually go to. The day finished at 15:00 and we set off to Folkestone. 

With all the alarms and excursions about ham sandwiches being confiscated, we took a minimal amount of perishable food with us and gave all our vegetables to my mother and sister.  In fact, the only thing that was different was that they stamped our passports - and barely glanced at our sworn statements which I goodly handed over with them.  

We got a Shuttle an hour earlier than booked, which turned out to be Just As Well, as half-way across we discovered that the main crate, with all the dried food, etc, had been left behind!  And I had left it in an obvious place, too!  

We had always been going to go straight to Carrefour to buy eggs and butter and so on, but I made the Swan Whisperer come too to pay for the rice, risotto rice, quinoa, couscous, tinned tomatoes, tinned sweetcorn, squash, soya sauce, etc that he had left behind!  As well as the butter, eggs, etc, that I had been going to buy anyway.  Then we drove up to Sangatte and parked up for a very wet and stormy night!  The holiday can only improve from  here on in!

The Northern Line Extension

Well, we had to, didn't we?  After all, it's not every day a new Tube extension is opened.  I decided not to try to get the very first train along the new branch, as that would have meant somehow getting to Battersea Power Station for 5:30 am and I wasn't too sure how I could do that.  But as I was going to Walthamstow anyway for grandmother duty, I thought right, I could explore on the way home.

The Swan Whisperer decided to come with me, and so we went off together to pick Boy 2 up from school and encourage him to practice the piano and get changed into football kit ready for training later.  The Boy, meanwhile, is now at secondary school and stayed late to try out for the football team, which he was - and we were all - delighted he was selected for!  So we are very proud grandparents, as well as nerdish!

And then it was time to go home, and the Daughter dropped us off near the Tube station, and we went normally as far as Warren Street, where we changed for the southbound Northern Line.  When we got there, this was the signage for the next few trains:

But, as you see, a train pulled in just then, and I realised it couldn't be the Kennington one and, sure enough, it was going to Battersea Power Station, so we got on.  

I don't often seem to go down the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line, for some reason, but it was fairly familiar, until we got to Kennington.  There may be trouble ahead but today everything went smoothly.  I don't know how many people were going just to say they had, as we were, but the train was still quite full when it arrived at Nine Elms.  There is an island platform there, but if you are thinking of Clapham North and Clapham Common, don't.  It's about the same size as Canary Wharf, and looks very like it, only no platform edge doors.

We didn't get out, although we were tempted, but carried on until we got to Battersea Power Station; again, huge wide island platforms, then a short-ish escalator leading up to a mezzanine floor where tickets could be bought, I think there may be a public toilet (but wouldn't swear to it), etc.  Then a longer escalator to the surface -  and a fairly amazing view of the new station with the eponymous power station in the background.  

And only a short walk to the terminus of the P5 bus, which took us home nicely in time for the supper that was waiting for us in the slow cooker!

Bank Holiday Excursion

 Last week, we had noticed the 452 bus that went, we discovered, from Vauxhall to Kensal Rise, and we agreed that on our next Expotition we would take it and see where it went.  Well, to Kensal Rise, obvs, but where was Kensal Rise and how did the bus get there?

We started off by getting a P5 into Brixton and then a 2 up to Vauxhall - I had thought we might take the Tube, but a bus was coming.  It is a very grey and dull day, but not raining.

At Vauxhall bus station there wasn't long to wait for a 452. 

At first, it followed the route of the 196 from Vauxhall, down past Nine Elms Sainsbury's and the new Tube Station, Springfield Church, and so on, but where the 196 turns left, it goes straight on, past Wandsworth Road station, and so to Cedars Road, where it turns right, and follows the route of the 137 across Chelsea Bridge, up Sloane Street (I was surprised to see cafés in the middle of Sloane Square) and into Knightsbridge (incredibly slow, as always). 

Then it turns up Kensington Gore, and goes past the Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial,

and so on to Kensington High Street, turning right up Kensington Church Street, passing Notting Hill Gate and then Ladbroke Grove.  Just before the Regents Canal and the Westway it did a quick dive into a big Sainsbury's - how useful of it - and then came back on to the main road, and so up to Kensal Rise Station.

We got off the bus and went to look for a cup of tea.  In fact, most of the cafés, we discovered too late, too late, were on the other side of the road, and had we crossed, we would have had a wide choice.  As it was, we found a Gail's Bakery with benches outside, which was nice (we had jackets today!).  The Swan Whisperer had a cup of coffee and a granola bar, and I had a cup of Earl Grey - I don't know what the brand was, but it was delicious.  I would have liked something to eat, but decided it would spoil my supper if I did, so resisted temptation. 

After we had finished our drinks, we saw there was a southbound 452 coming, so we caught it and stayed on it as far as Sloane Square, where we got off and walked across the square to see how it had changed.  Peter Jones is covered in scaffolding and looked almost derelict, but I think it was open.  At the other end, the Royal Court Theatre is still there.  I took a picture of the cafés.  

And then we caught a 137 all the way home!  I had been farsighted, for once, and made a pork and bean casserole, which I put into the slow cooker section of the Instant Pot.  Unfortunately, I think I should have cooked it on high rather than medium, as the potatoes and carrots are still crunchy, but nothing that 5 minutes or so in the pressure cooker function won't cure. 

Reconnaissance

 Next month, apparently on 19 September, the new branch of the Northern Line opens to Battersea Power Station station.  Now, it so happens that I'm preaching that day in a church not far from the new Nine Elms station (which is next door to the enormous Sainsbury's at Nine Elms).  So obviously, the thing to do will be to get a bus to Battersea Power Station station and get a tube up to Nine Elms (and, if necessary, a bus back one stop to the church), and then after the service we'll go up to Nine Elms again (perhaps having a coffee in Sainsbury's while we are there) and then on the Tube again one stop - a very long stop, apparently, the longest in Zone 1 after the Drain - to Kennington, and then change and come back to Clapham North.  Well, we shall see.

But although we knew where Nine Elms station is going to be, I had no real idea where the Battersea Power Station station will be.  However, the Swan Whisperer said he'd often gone past the site on his runs, so today we decided to go and explore.

We had been going to get a 137 up to Battersea Park and take it from there, but just missed one, and there wasn't another one signalled, so we thought we would cross the road and get a P5 to the end of its route, which turned out to be just opposite the new station. 

I was rather amused by the legend "Thessaly Road Bridge" on what was patently a railway bridge,

but we agreed it must be the bridge across Thessaly Road!  Anyway, I had half expected to walk straight to the 137 stop, which is a bit further away, but we decided to explore a bit.  The Swan Whisperer says that every time he comes, the roads he can use are slightly different, as the whole place is a vast building site, with huge blocks of flats springing up here, there and everywhere, including in the former power station.  I know the American Embassy is somewhere round there, but not sure where.

Anyway, the place was very obviously turning into a "district" with shops and bars and restaurants all over the place, and a lovely terrace by the river.

  We might have eaten out, but it was a bit early, and neither of us had jackets (we did have macs, but no other coats or jerseys) and we thought we might get cold sitting out - and I, for one, am not prepared to sit indoors in a crowded restaurant yet.  

So we walked under Grosvenor Bridge, and then there was a lift up to street level - we made rather fools of ourselves as we kept pressing the wrong button and staying put rather than going up, but we got there in the end.  And then it said the bus would be in 7 minutes, but actually, it came at once.  We stopped at the nicer vegan café when we got off the bus, and thought of eating there, but the same objections applied as by the river, so came home and have had beer and now the SW is cooking sausages and mash.  More photos on Facebook.

June Holiday, 24 June

The last full day of our holiday.  This morning we walked round the Elsecar centre.  I wouldn't say I was overwhelmed by it, but I wasn't underwhelmed, either.  Can one say one was whelmed?  Anyway, most of the buildings are turned over to the sort of shops you would expect that sort of place to have  - craft shops (one was lovely, I nearly bought some wool there!), bespoke furniture makers, vegan body products etc.  I did buy some shower gel I had been wanting.  

However, apart from the shops there were a great many plaques telling you the history of the site, the FitzWilliam family who owned the site and the ironworks and so on.

That bit was interesting.  The heritage railway would have been lovely had it been working.... 

But this holiday is nearly over, and we had to head south.  I wanted to stop about half way between Elsecar and No 6, but this campsite is slightly more than that.  We stopped at a local Morrison's for diesel and shopping, and at Rutland Water for lunch, very pretty (and a very nice lunch from Morrison's), and then drove here.  They are building a viaduct for HS2 so we are diverted and although the diversion was easy to follow, the machine got absolutely covered in mud from the works - it has been raining slightly, not hard, on and off all day!  The camp site is like all of them; most are very nice except the one in Berwick, and even that wasn't bad. 

But what I do hate in this country is having to go on motorways most of the time.  In France or Germany there is nearly always an alternative route, and you can tell the Satnav that we're not using motorways today, thank you, but here there isn't really an alternative.  And who knows when we will be able to travel to France or Germany again? 

June holiday, 23 June

I haven't done much today except a quick shop in Lidl. We went there first and then drove to Harrogate, which is very pretty, and then on round Leeds until we got here, which is Elsecar (I keep thinking of Elsie Carr from the "Katy" books). Sadly, the heritage railway is still closed and the actual heritage centre seems to be artisanal shops, rather like Merton Abbey Mills. The Swan Whisperer, who had a quick look, says they are ok, but.... Anyway, I'll have a look in the morning.

Meanwhile, here is tonight's view from my bed.