Regeant's Canal Walk

Little Venice - Maida Vale

You find that after a while you get a little over museums and art galleries and need to get back to nature, at least I need to.  On a whim we bought a Walking UK magazine, and one of the walks suggested was along the Regeant's Canal, it's 14kms long and runs through the north of the city, from Maida Vale in the west almost to Canary Wharf in the east.  Whilst it's probably not as picturesque as most walks in the UK it's nice to know that you can get out of the hustle and bustle even in the middle of London.  Having done the full 14kms I would suggest for anyone keen to just do the first couple of kilometres, the stretch from the start to Camden Town is definitely the prettiest, though if it's a nice day you have to fit in a detour to the top of Primrose Hill.  Once the walk is over you can have lunch at Camden markets.  A pretty good walk, though somewhat lacking in wildness.

There were a couple of spooky looking tunnels, walkers were forced on longish detours above ground

I will say it certainly gives you a different side to London.  I think London can sometimes have the

Pretty colours near Regeants Park

impression of being all dirty streets and cars and concrete, whereas with this walk you would only be on roads for about 500m all up.  It is certainly a lot more peaceful than the streets.

The walk starts in Maida Vale, which is a suburb in the west of the city.  Apparently this area is known as Little Venice, but it seems to me every big city has to have some sort of "Venice" residing there.  Having been to Venice I really can't see the resemblance, I mean there's some water there, but then there's water in the Thames too.

There were a few longish tunnels in this first part of the walk, which necessitated detours through the streets.  It must be a bit spooky to traverse them on your barge.  The first part of the walk was also the prettiest, London is the opposite of Sydney, in that the nice suburbs seem to be in the west half, and then it gets a bit more dodgy the further east you go.  This is only in the north of the city though, the south doesn't seem to feature much.

Some big mansions near Regeants Park

This mansion was typical of those in the western part of the town.  I'm not surprised though, backing on to the canal like these houses do, you would think it would be fairly sought after.  I think there were either security guards or residents in this place, which is why I've taken a sneaky corner shot of the house.

Free view of the hyenas at London Zoo

London zoo is located in Regeants Park, and I didn't know this but the grounds span either side of the canal.  Which means that you can see some of the animals as you walk along.  So a bit of a free zoo trip, so long as you only wanted to see hyenas.

At this point we had nearly reached Camden Town, but a detour up to the top of Primrose Hill is highly recommended.  You could stop for a meringue at one of the bakeries there, just to keep your energy levels up, there's still a long walk ahead of you after all.

The city skyline from Primrose Hill

Sinking boats

You know you have nearly reached Camden Town when you see the Pirate Castle!  I'm not sure why it's a pirate castle, but this is where to come if you have grown tired of walking and want to kayak the rest of the way.  Another thing it tells you is that it's nearly lunchtime!

Pirate Castle! near Camden Town

Camden Town is famous for it's markets, and for Amy Winehouse.  It's absolutely seething on a Saturday night, and I would recommend not catching a taxi right through the middle.  But on a sunny Saturday afternoon it's very civilised and the perfect spot for a roast pork sandwich.

Yummy markets at Camden

One thing Dave and I have realised is that pork is the lamb of the UK, in that it is uniformly delicious, but sooo much cheaper than lamb here.  I think everytime we see a recipe for lamb we'll just replace it with pork.

On my infrequent runs into work I actually run over this lock, though I stick to the road across it.  So it was nice to see it from a different angle for once.

The action of the Camden Lock

There was a lot of bird action along the canal, even in the middle of winter.  And quite a few white swans, which I still get a kick out of seeing. If you are in London and have some spare time then I would definitely recommend this walk, it's a completely different feel to the rest of London and it's really quite peaceful.

A lot of birdlife out and about

Definitely a different side of London

Over the canal

The locks in action - this group was waiting for it to fill so they could carry on

I think these are gas rings, but I don't know how they work - I'm pretty sure the gas doesn't just coalesce there.

Our destination - Canary Wharf in the distance

What's all this white stuff?

Dave in the snow by the Thames

Britain finally got a touch of winter the other week.  For about two weeks we've had temperatures below 10 degrees, we're back to much warmer temperatures now, but for a short while it actually felt like winter.  We also got our first touch of snow, again it was much milder in the UK than in the rest of Europe.  This cold snap came across from Russia, and managed to kill a lot of people in eastern Europe before making it to London.

Dave and I had been off to the National Theatre to see Juno and the Paycock, we had been promised snow all week and yet every day it was clear blue skies.  On Saturday the same forecast was made, and once again it was clear blue skies when we woke up.  I'd thought that was it for Saturday, I'd have to wait for Sunday and see what the skies looked like.  I had thought too soon though, as come the afternoon the temperature started dropping and the skies were clouding over.  We set off for dinner, which was at this awesome Polish place, Baltic, they specialise in Vodka cocktails.  When we came out the snow had just started falling.  It was super exciting, it wasn't yet really settling yet, but the hopes were raised.

Snow falling around the National Theatre

Everything was covered

At intermission we saw that London had been transformed.  Everything is so much brighter when there's snow around.  It was already maybe 5cm deep and was falling heavily.  I was almost looking forward to the end of the play so we could get out there.

It was at times like these that I find out again how lucky we are to be living where we do.  If there's one thing Britain can't handle it's any extremes of conditions, and snow is pretty extreme around here.  But luckily we are living on the Northern line, which runs through the bowels of the earth.  Meaning that there was no snow on our line, at least up until our stop anyway.  The other lines were really struggling, and had intermittent cancellations for the next two weeks.

Dave playing in the snow outside our flat

Snow in Hyde Park

It's funny that once the snow had fallen it hung around for at least another week, it must really insulate itself.  Though the one snow drift outside my work building lasted for at least an extra week, proving what I had always known, that my building is one of the coldest spots in London.

The next weekend we were out in the city and the snow was still thick in Hyde Park.  Though the snow in the streets had started to take on a distinctly black tinge.

The ducks don't mind the snow

The Dubliners - Part II

Waterford chandelier in the castle

I decided I had to split the Dublin adventures up into at least two posts.  There was an awful lot to see in this town, and we did spend quite a bit of time there.  I'm definitely keen for a return visit to Ireland, probably get out more into the country side next time though, maybe try and get across to the west coast area, that seemed quite a bit wilder.

Something we had to visit whilst we were there was the Dublin castle.  As far as castles go it wasn't super impressive, being squashed in quite a bit in the middle of the city.  It is impressively old though, a fort was first built here in the 13th century, and for seven centuries this was the seat of English rule.  The castle is still in use today, and the only way to view it is on a tour.  

The throne, Queen Elizabeth II did not sit here when she visited recently

Justice at Dublin castle

I think the people of Dublin have had a troublesome relationship with the castle, it being a symbol of English rule over them.  There have been a few atrocities committed here by the English as well, which perhaps doesn't help the situation.  This attitude between the English and Irish is perhaps well demonstrated by the below statue.  It is meant to be Justice, she is standing on the castle gateway, but she is positioned facing the castle, with her back towards the city.  And the locals long viewed that they would get no justice from the English.

Queen Elizabeth II was the first British monarch to visit the castle in 100 years, when she travelled to Ireland in 2011.  The last visit was by George V in 1911, though in the intervening period there had been a rebellion, independence and a civil war, so you can understand the reluctance.  

Mirrors so you could see all

The back of the castle, viewed from the Chester Beatty museum

Whilst we were waiting for our tour to start we decided to check out the Chester Beatty museum.  For anyone who loves books this is a must see, it was also named European Museum of the Year in 2002, and there's an awful lot of museums in Europe!  It was a bequest of the collection of American and mining magnate, Alfred Chester Beatty, who died in 1968.  During his lifetime Beatty had collected almost 300 copies of the Koran, there was also a 6,000 year old Babylonian stone tablets, as well as numerous east Asian scrolls.  Unfortunately no pictures were allowed, but the collection was definitely impressive.

Strange sand sculptures at Dublin castle

The ringing (or cacophony)

There's one thing Dublin is not in short supply of (apart from pubs) and that's churches.  It seems that most Christian denominations are represented here, with the Christ Church cathedral being the official church, being home to the Church of Ireland (which is basically the Church of England). Christ Church's is a lovely old building, it was first built by a Norse king, before being rebuilt in 1186.

They do a bell ringing tour every hour or so.  At first we thought it was just a way to get up to see the view from the bell tower.  But no it was an actual bell ringing tour, in that we got to ring the church bells.  But first we had to sit through a 30 minute talk by the head bell ringer.  I never knew there was so much to discuss regarding bells.  Apparently the big thing with bell ringers is to be able to ring the changes.  It was here that I finally learnt what this actually means.  When you have a set of tuned bells then you can ring them in a certain order, each order is called a change, once you have rung all possible combinations of the bells, only then can you say you have rung the changes.

Dave pretending to ring a bell

They do it once a year at the Christ Church cathedral and it takes a couple of hours to complete.  Fun times for the local residents.  The tour guide was certainly a passionate bell enthusiast, and it was kind of fun to be able to ring a church bell for once.

Dessicated cat and rat found in the bell tower

Pretty Christ Church cathedral

Campanile - a 30m bell tower

Another place that is a must visit on every tourists itinerary is Trinity College, particularly the Book of Kells.  Again this is a no-photo venue but the illumination of the manuscript is particularly stunning.  It was created in 806 AD by monks who were fled to Kells from Iona to escape Viking raids.  We turned up a little late and were hoping that we could stay as long as we wanted, but no, the book was shut at 5pm, so we had to follow the crowds around.  It also meant we didn't get to spend as long as we liked in the Trinity College library.  Trinity College was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, Catholics were only allowed in any numbers after 1970, when the Catholic Church relaxed it's opposition to their attending.

St Patrick's church

Having visited Christ Church cathedral we thought it only fair that we also paid a visit to St Patrick's cathedral.  These two massive churches are literally 500 m apart, but serviced completely different groups of people.  St Patrick's church was more the people's church, it is Ireland's largest church and was founded beside a well where St Patrick is said to have baptised people in around 450 AD.  There's certainly a lot of stuff collected around the place, but I think I preferred Christ Church inside, the outside of St Patrick's was definitely prettier though.

The stone slab covering what was thought to be the well of St Patrick

Dave and the spire of St Patrick's

Can't get away from this guy here - St Patrick

Jameson whiskey - though this was only water

There is one church that I don't have any photos of, but I would recommend a visit purely for it's freaky factor.  This is St Michan's Church and is on the north side of the Liffey.  It is a rather boring looking church, but it's star attraction is what lies in it's crypts.  There are a number of bodies preserved due to the church's magnesium limestone walls.  Their caskets have cracked open and you can see perfectly preserved bodies, with hair and clothes still intact.  In one vault is said to be Hamilton's body, that vault is still in use by the family today, so definitely a no-go zone.  Their star mummy is the crusader knight, a giant man, they cut off his feet to fit him in the coffin.

Out final visit was also our most touristy - the Jamison whiskey distillery.  We had already been put off visiting the Guinness brewhouse and thought we had to try some of their famous whiskey.  It was OK, a very smooth operation, I just didn't really like their whiskey, and there were an awful lot of people crammed in on the tour.

I'll leave you with some final pictures of pretty Dublin

Grafton St, main shopping drag, in the early morning

Molly Malone, without the usual hordes of tourists, as it's before 10am

A canal in east Dublin

Georgian terraces

Distractions

The Grove, Narberth

I know the posting has been pretty light on here over the last month or so.  Dave and I have been busy organising something super special for later in the year.  The location of our super special event is a hotel in Narberth, which is a tiny little village in the south-eastern corner of Wales.  We paid a visit a little while ago to check it out and it didn't disappoint.

I know there aren't many photos here, but we'd tried their tasting menu the night before, and I had over-indulged on their awesome wines.  The waiter there was a massive wine buff and so when I said I was just drinking by the glass and that I was happy with whatever he recommended, he went a bit crazy, in a good way.  Though my body was not thanking me the next morning.  It also meant I missed out on my wonderful boiled duck's eggs.  At least Dave could polish them off.

The view out of our bedroom window

The library and the rolling hills beyond

We did at least make it to the coast that day.  It is about a 20 minute drive away and the weather was fantastic, if only it had been about 20 degrees warmer that water would have looked mighty inviting.  Apparently Pembrokeshire has a heap of beaches that have won blue and green flag awards.  At first I thought perhaps it meant they were really pretty, but upon closer inspection it means that the beaches aren't full of sewerage and chemical waste (obviously it means more than that for those people contemplating a swim :) )

Dave at Saundersfoot, with the sea monster off in the distance

The coast at Saundersfoot, beautiful day, lets hope summer is like this

 I'm loving the Welsh accent too, we stopped in Swansea to pick up a hire car and I was happy wandering around the city just trying to eavesdrop on people's voices.  It seems that they don't get that many visitors from the rest of the UK in Wales either.  A lot of people I've spoken to in London had never been, though it is a three hour train from London to Swansea, which is a massive trip for Europeans.  Even inside Wales it seems that they don't really travel that far, I find that a bit strange as the part we saw, Pembrokeshire, looked really lovely.  When we were picking up our hire car and saying that we were going to Narberth, even the Welsh guy serving us had never been there.

Back in Swansea, with the Swansea castle

Fountain in Swansea

Tate Britain

The quiet streets of Pimlico

I have visited London many times before coming here to live.  I have also visited the Tate Modern many times, never once realising it is actually an offshoot of the Tate Britain.  Having realised the error of my ways a trip out to Pimlico was in order.  It is always fun to take a tube somewhere you haven't been before.  You really find that the different areas of London very much have their own particular feel.  Pimlico was particularly quiet, it's located near the Thames.  It's funny that on the south bank of the Thames there seems to be a bit of life and action, what with the Globe, the National Theatre, the London Eye and a lot of restaurants as well.  On the north bank it seems very quiet in comparison, it's funny that there seem to be so few restaurants or bars overlooking the Thames, I always thought people love water, that it's some sort of deep-seated evolutionary need in us to be close to water.

The impressive Tate Britain

There was going to be no restaurant stops after the museum, so it's time to just focus on the art.  It's a massive gallery, and like all galleries here it's wonderfully free.  It houses the world's biggest collection of British art from the 16th to the 21st century.  And whilst the modern art collection of the Tate has been moved to the Tate Modern, there was still a number of modern art pieces here.  In fact I think the modern art in the Tate Britain could have been better than that of the Tate Modern.

The title says it all really

The real selling point of the Tate Britain is the Turner galleries.  A lot of the works were left by Turner himself in 1851, and they really are the feature of this gallery.  Kind of like the impressionists gallery in the Musee d'Orsay of Paris.  Unfortunately this gallery was under renovation when we visited, and whilst a lot of the works were still on display, some of the ambience seemed to be lacking.

I love the galleries here, with included art

This was my favourite statue, with one of my favourite paintings in the background

A chandelier - why not

Palm trees as installation art

The Coral Reef : a room 

I have to say something about this last work.  It's called The Coral Reef and it's by Mike Nelson.  In fact we may have been very lucky to even see it as I think it may have finished at the end of last year, after 10 years at the Tate Britain.  It's this weird labyrinth of rooms, where the doors all close at different rates, and different creaking frequencies.  It gives you a real sense of foreboding as you walk through, that you might be lost, or that eventually you'll open a door to see a crazed serial killer.  It's the feeling you get from a good horror movie, there's nothing overt, it's just this feeling you have.  It would be awesome to have a massive mansion, just so you could devote 5 rooms of the place to these crazy art installations.

Another room from The Coral Reef, there were too many to count

Flying bunny in the main gallery

Hampstead Heath by Constable

I think Constable may have to be one of the more famous residents of Hampstead, and whilst he was living here he painted many scenes of the Heath.  I have to say I don't recognise the location though.