A few days in London

So here are the touristy things we did while we were in London.

Thu 13th April   Little Venice (Rembrandt Gardens)

We went by tube to London Bridge for our visit to the Shard. On arrival at the tube station, we were expecting a sign to say which exit to use, but there wasn’t one, so we walked a lot further than we needed.  There were fairly rigorous security checks, similar to those in airports, as it would a fairly obvious target for a terrorist.

There were two lifts that took us to the viewing areas, and the views were amazing.  We could see some of the tall ships arriving in Greenwich.  They were serving teas and coffees and other drinks, but there was nowhere to sit down, so we passed on those.

The Shard

The view

We had lunch in one of the eateries in Hays Wharf, and then went to the pier and took a fast catamaran to the O2.  After HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge, the boat put on speed and went shooting ahead.

 Fast boat

 Tower Bridge

Tall ship

Disembarking at the O2, we found our way to the Emirates Airlines experience, where we had tea and cake in the cafe, before taking the gondola across the Thames.

Gondola

Gondola terminal

We then took the Docklands Light Railway and tube back to Paddington. We visited Daedalus and found Pat. She said Simon had gone to see us on our boat!!

We waited until he was back, with their two grandsons before saying farewell and returning to our boat.

Chloe Pat Simon Edward on Daedalus

No boating today

Fri 14th April   Little Venice (Rembrandt Gardens)

We took a bus to Notting Hill Gate (aren’t bus passes useful?) and walked down past all the embassies to Kensington Palace, where we were planning to see the newly opened “White Garden” in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales.  We had also wanted to visit the Palace and see the collection of Diana’s dresses which are on display there, but we were unable to get tickets online.

We saw that there was a queue, and discovered that this was for people without reservations, so we tacked on at the end. It took about 45 minutes to get to the ticket desk, and then we had a look around the palace. There was a very interesting talk in the Kings chambers about lift in the Georgian era, with powdered wigs and huge wide dresses.

Kensington Palace

Kensington Palace Queue

Wide dress

 Ornate ceiling

We then had another queue for the exhibition of Diana’s dresses, which Hazel enjoyed a lot.  Some of them were stunning. Afterwards we went to look at the White Garden which was lovely.

Diana’s dresses

The White Garden

We walked through Kensington Gardens to pay a visit to the Museum of musical instruments, just south of the Albert Hall

 Mandarin duck

Albert Memorial and Albert Hall

We found the Royal College of Music, where the museum is located, but the man at reception said it was closed until 2019!!!

We tried to get over things by having a Mexican meal, and then we took a bus to Trafalgar Square, where we caught the final stages of the Wintershall passion play.

Trafalgar Square passion play

We went to a ticket booth in Leicester Square and bought tickets for Stomp. We then found a restaurant nearby (Bill’s) where we had a pudding and a drink before the show.

Stomp was a lot of fun with percussion, using household objects such as brooms, plumbing pipes and dustbin lids. There was absolutely no story line or words, but a lot of humour and mime. No photos allowed, so no pics here.

Bus back to the boat

No boating today

Sat 15th April   Little Venice (Rembrandt Gardens)

We went to Oxford Street by bus and found a guitar shop. James needs some finger and thumb picks as his nails keep breaking.  They only had plastic ones which were too small and the wrong shape. Otherwise they were fine.

From there we walked to the Wallace Collection, where we spent far more time than we had imagined, looking at lots of paintings and furniture.

Wallace Collection

Canalettos

In need of a late lunch, we found an Indian Restaurant which was advertising 25% of all foods between 3pm and 5pm. As it was by then 3.30pm we went in and had a very nice meal. When it came to the bill, there was no discount shown. We queried this, and were told “Oh that is a separate menu”. We pointed out that it said ALL foods, and after some further grumbling the man reduced the price, and we subsequently paid.  We wondered how many overseas visitors without the same grasp of English would have been stung in this way.

We took a bus to Vauxhall where we had booked seats for a concert by a young folky singer-songwriter called Emily Mae Winters.  This was at a venue called the Tea House Theatre, which was a cafe which they changed into a theatre with a few scaffold poles and some curtains.  The place was packed, but only takes about 50.  Before the concert we had a massive slice of cake.

Tea House Theatre

Piece of cake

Bus back to the boat

No boating today

Sun 16th April   Little Venice (Rembrandt Gardens)

Today we went by bus to Notting Hill Gate, where we visited Kensington Temple for their Easter Sunday Service at 11am.  They have four services on a Sunday, each of them full.  It was a very international congregation. There were some songs we didn’t know and may learn.

Kensington Temple

Worship team

We had lunch in a restaurant nearby, and took a bus back to the boat, where we fell asleep. All this sightseeing has taken its toll.

No boating today

Next: Through the London canals to the Lee

Rickmansworth to Little Venice

Sun 9th April   Rickmansworth to Black Jack’s Lock

Morning in Rickmansworth

We walked through the Aquadrome on a path between two lakes, and crossed the River Colne on a footbridge, in order to visit the first church of our cruise, Mill End Baptist.  The worship team led us in a song we have sung several times recently in Aylesbury – “What a beautiful name”. The talk was about Palm Sunday, with a focus on the laying down of cloaks before Jesus.

Mill End Baptist Church

We thought we would grab a quick bite to eat in the cafe in the park on the way back to the boat. However, there was a very slow moving long queue to get to the counter, and we were told that, once we got there, there would be a 40 minute wait for the food.  We decided to abandon the idea, and eat on the boat.

Five minutes later, back on the boat, we were preparing salad.  “Where’s my fork?” said Hazel. “I haven’t seen it”, said James. “I am sure I put it here on the table”, she said. After a few more searching minutes: “Oh, here it is!”  (Buried under the salad on her plate!).

We moved on through Stockers Lock, past the lovely old farm buildings which have been used for filming in the past, including the Black Beauty TV series of years ago.

Stockers Lock

Farm buildings

We continued on through Copper Mill, where we shared with another boat – the first time this year. This followed by a short river section, where the water is beautifully clear.  Then we moved down to just above Black Jack’s Lock, where we moored up for the night.

Warm evening at Black Jacks Lock

We walked up a lane opposite to a restaurant called The Old Orchard, which is on the crest of a hill overlooking the Colne Valley, and there are amazing views. We enjoyed a very pleasant meal, but it was very crowded. That’s what lovely sunshine on a Sunday does.

The view from the Old Orchard

Sunset

3 locks, 2 miles

Mon 10th April   Black Jack’s Lock to Willowtree Marina

We started early as we had a fair way to go today. Black Jacks and Widewater Locks we had to ourselves. We noticed that the very loud peacocks were no longer in the garden by Black Jacks. There was some lovely blossom just coming out on a tree nearby.

Pink blossom

Just south of Harefield Marina we spotted the sign where HS2 is planned to cross. This will be on a high viaduct spanning the valley, which will be seen and heard for a long way around. Who wants this expensive and destructive project?

 HS2 crossing point

We also saw our first baby birds – ducks in this case. They seemed to be several days old. We still haven’t seen any swallows yet this year.

 Baby ducks

As we passed the moorings above Denham Deep lock, some people on a boat called Rosella II asked if we could wait to share the lock with them. Good idea!  The lock needed to be filled, and as the name suggests, it is deep and takes a while. By the time it was ready, so were Colin and Deborah.  We shared the following lock as well, Uxbridge Lock.

Sharing Uxbridge Lock with Rosella II

When we arrived at Cowley Lock, there was another boat there already, skippered by a single guy who hardly spoke, so we shared with him, and said farewell to Rosella II. We will probably see them again, as they are going up the Lee, and then onto the Thames.

Hot sun makes shadows

We paused at the Packet Boat Marina to fill up the water tank, empty cassettes and rubbish. Our next stop was at Tesco at Yiewsley, just after the Slough Arm junction. We only needed a few things, so James stayed with the boat while Hazel spent the money.

We continued to Bulls Bridge, where we turned into the Paddington Arm. We saw Dave on Chavori moored up. We have met him in Oxford and Reading in previous years.

Bulls Bridge

 Chavori

We carried on for two miles and turned into Willow Tree Marina, where we had booked for two nights. Initially we moored in front of the restaurant, but later they found us a place on a pontoon, with electric power. We were next to Charis, a BCF boat, but no-one was on board.

Enterprise car hire came to pick us up at 4pm, and we drove to their depot in Southall.  We were allocated a small Hyundai which suited us fine.  We returned to the marina via Southall High Street, where we spotted some restaurants. We returned to one later for a curry – very good food.

5 locks, 12 miles

Tue 11th April   Willowtree Marina

We drove to Old Woking for the funeral of Di Wallace, someone James was at school with from the age of five. She was very much a part of the “Cobham Crowd”, married to Pete for 45 years.  There were over 300 people from many different circles of friends – skiing, squash, sailing, as well as work colleagues and relatives.  The weather was very kind, and we all moved on to the Olive Tree in Sutton Green, where we parked in a field.  We were treated to a very good buffet. It was good to catch up with many friends, and it was a positive day, despite the sad occasion.

We gave a lift to Woking station to friends Andy and Vicki, who had arrived by train earlier.

We returned the car to Enterprise in Southall, and they drove us back to the Marina.  We sat in the bows and had an aperitif before eating in the restaurant.  We saw that the Wilderness boats had arrived.  This was the end of their cruise, which had started in Stoke Bruerne.

Wine, Wilderness and Willow Tree

No boating today

Wed 12th April   Willowtree Marina to Little Venice

This morning we spoke to BCF member Clive Snashall, who had arrived to de-winterise Charis, as they are planning a cruise next week.

Moored next to Charis

We disconnected the electric, and disposed of the rubbish, before we set off from the marina.

 Leaving Willow Tree Marina

  

One step up from living on the street

Nearing Horsenden Hill, we came up behind Dave on Chavori, who was rafted up with another boat, Samantha Jane, and they were travelling very slowly.  He beckoned us past as we were passing moored boats, one of whom was Mike on Shiraz, whom we know. He came to the bows and we said we would see him at Cavalcade. He usually does the commentary for the parades.  We carried on to Kensal Green, where we visited Sainsbury’s for lunch and groceries.  When we returned to the boat, Chavori was just pulling in to moorings in front of us.

Kensal Green gasometers

Chavori

There are boats of all sorts around London. We saw lifeboats, sailing boats, Dutch barges and more.

A boat with character

Swan taking off

We filled up with water just before Little Venice, and then found our way to Rembrandt Gardens, where we had booked a mooring for six nights.

Into Little Venice

  

Moored in Little Venice

Then someone hailed us from across the water. It was Simon, from Daedalus.  He and Pat are moored further up, in Paddington Basin. We will catch up with them later.

0 locks, 11 miles

Next: a few days in London, doing touristy things.

Cowroast to Rickmansworth

Wed 5th April   Cowroast to Berkhamsted

Cowroast Marina mooring

Jobs before we left our mooring:

Disconnect the electric cable.  We left £5 on the meter for the next boat.

Take down the hood

Prevent Hugo from running off to explore

Return the magic fob to the marina office.

Then a short manoeuvre to leave the marina, turning left with a hope to use the facilities at the top lock.  There we found four Wilderness boats moored up, using one hose which they passed from one boat to another. Meanwhile other crew members were emptying rubbish and loos, and even going to the nearby garage to fill an empty petrol can.

A lockful of Wilderness boats

We waited midstream, as there was nowhere to tie up, until they had all finished. As all four moved into the lock, we took their place, and filled our water tank. The pressure was very good.  We also emptied two cassettes, and disposed of our rubbish.

By the time we had completed our tasks there was a wide beam boat waiting.

At the first lock James had a good conversation about Boaters Christian Fellowship, as he was wearing the shirt. The couple were from Newport Pagnell Baptist Church.

Cowroast Lock

The wildlife highlight of the day was a mink that ran across the towpath at Northchurch Lock.

Northchurch Lock and 1943 pump house

The flowers were lovely, in particular a dense clump of cowslips.

Cowslips

Gas locks in Berkhamsted

Because the Wilderness boats were going down the locks in front of us, all the locks were against us. Arriving in Berkhamsted, we discovered that the mooring arrangements had changed. The length that used to be designated as 24 hours had been reduced to 4 hours. You were only allowed to overnight there if you arrived after 9pm and left before 7am.  Nobody does that so the moorings remained empty in the evening. These were the only moorings with rings, so the remaining moorings, which are 14 days, required us to hammer in mooring pins, which we did, despite the soft ground. Fortunately there were very few boats going past (just one – the widebeam) so we didn’t have them pulled out.

Mooring regulations in Berkhamsted

Empty mooring space

The trains were very noisy and frequent. Hugo was out and back like a yo-yo as he wanted to explore, but thought the trains were coming for him.

We found a post box, and visited Waitrose for some items, and took away a bargain price hot roast chicken which we had for supper.

7 locks, 3 miles

Thu 6th April   Berkhamsted to Hemel Hempstead

Morning sunshine

We left fairly early this morning as we wanted to reach Hemel in time to visit the paper mill museum.  There was dew on the seats at the stern, but we soon dried them off by putting the boards on the roof in the sun.

The guides say that some of the locks need a watermate key.  This used to be the case, the plan being to stop the idle young things of Berkhamsted from having fun by emptying the canal.  Nowadays the teenagers are more occupied on their mobile devices and thankfully don’t seem to be interested in causing havoc, so the vandal locks are no longer in use.

The railway was never far away but we did spot one or two places to moor that were shielded from it by buildings or trees, noted in the guide for future reference.

We met Pasadena coming the other way. He told us that four small boats in a lock were ahead of us. He also suggested we didn’t moor at Boxmoor as they have had trouble with youngsters there.

We spied our season’s first orange-tip butterflies

Winkwell Swing Bridge was interesting.  After we had put down the barriers across the road, and started to swing the bridge, a car arrived from the north and stopped just before the barrier.  Other cars arrived from both directions, and when we were through and raised the barriers again, a car from the south raced across the bridge, coming face to face with the one that had arrived earlier from the north. The bridge is too narrow for cars to pass. We left them to it and carried on to the next lock.

Winkwell Swing Bridge

We saw David Lee on Interlock at the boatyard at Winkwell. I think we signed him up to BCF a few years ago.

Interlock

We moored just before Lock 65, and had a quick lunch before turning up at the Frogmore Paper Mill.

Paper Mill sign

We had seen this advertised as open "without appointment" from 11am to 4pm. What wasn’t mentioned was that you need to be part of a tour, and we had just missed one. The next one was in just over an hour.  We went to Sainsbury’s for a coffee, and returned at the appointed time, passing an unusual sculpture as we went.

Sculpture in Hemel

It was interesting to see some paper being made by hand, and then to see the same principles being applied by machine. They claim to have the oldest paper making machines in the world.

Paper making machine

They also do some printing, and our guide showed us a wooden case of letters, explaining that the capital letters were held separately from the normal letters, and the capitals would be kept in a case which rested on top of the case for the smaller letters, hence the expression “upper case” and “lower case” letters.

A case of letters

There was also an exhibition of paper artwork, including some almost life size papier mache figures.  Also an old Dennis fire engine dating from 1938.

Papier mache Vincent Van Gogh

Dennis fire engine 1938

Fire engine cab

We decided to stay where we were and not to move on further.

Moored in Hemel

12 locks, 5 miles, 1 swing bridge

Fri 7th April   Hemel Hempstead to The Grove

Sunny morning in Hemel Hempstead

We went down though the first lock, and Hazel went off to Sainsbury’s while James dealt with the water, rubbish and cassettes. He also washed the port side of the boat. He was careful not to fall in this time. Two years ago the water came up to just above the waist.

He had started taking the boat into the next lock by the time Hazel returned with the shopping.

We passed further evidence of paper mills at Apsley, and then the unusual double-arched bridge. When we first passed through this area in 1999, the paper mills were much in evidence, with large canopies overhanging the canal to enable the boats to load and unload in the dry.

Paper Mill

Double arched bridge

Further down, we came across a red boat with no name, and Huffler, a boat we have seen on a few occasions. Tony and Margaret were in charge. They had just started out and were going down the locks in front of us. 

Huffler

When we arrived at Kings Langley Lock, another two boats had pulled out in front of them, one of which was Lady Clare and the other was Warren with the pumpout boat, a pleasant character we have met a few times. The lock is a bit slow, so we now had a lock queue.

Lock queue

Warren

At Hunton Bridge Locks, the pound between the two locks was very low. Apparently the four Wilderness boats had managed to get through, but Warren thought it was too shallow for his deep draughted boat, so he had had to run some water down into the pound.

We were only going a short distance further, and we stopped after Lady Capel’s Lock, right by The Grove Bridge.  This is a very ornate, white painted structure which leads to The Grove, a hotel and spa which was once a stately home owned by the Earl of Essex.

Grove Bridge

Dandelion

Dandelion clock

Moored at the Grove

Hugo was very happy with the choice of mooring.

11 locks, 5 miles.

Sat 8th April   The Grove to Rickmansworth (Stockers Lock)

Misty sunrise

Misty moisty mooring

A misty start, followed by a very hot day. We started early and enjoyed beautiful sunshine.  We came across some mandarin ducks as we approached Cassiobury Park. We soon passed Huffler and the Wilderness boats all moored up.

Wilderness boats

Huffler

We then reached Iron Bridge Lock. Does anyone know why this lock is so called? The present bridge is made of brick.

There were lots of people out and about enjoying a sunny Saturday. Runners, dog walkers, cyclists.

At Common Moor Lock we met three boats full of youngsters learning how to operate locks and boats. These were from Hillingdon Narrowboats Association, and in the last boat we found Loraine, whom we had met at Chesham Folk Club. She will be at Cavalcade, so we will catch up there.

Lot Mead lock looked fairly newly refurbished, but the safety catch on the gate paddles of the upper gate on the towpath side was not catching properly. It could cause injury – report sent to C&RT.

Two unusual boats followed:

Strange boat of the day with built in car

Farnworth – Leeds and Liverpool “Short Boat”

As we approached Rickmansworth we heard and then saw our first parakeets flying overhead, and soon after, there were red crested pochards in the water. We don’t often see those.

Red Crested Pochard

We moored up just before Stockers Lock, so that we could visit Mill End Baptist Church in the morning.

There was some boat activity in the afternoon, with Warren on The Pumpout Boat coming up in the lock with Tafelberg, with Paul and his “kids”. We know Paul from many years ago when he used to live on his boat in Penton Hook Marina, and venture onto the Wey for Byfleet Boat Club events. He also used to play bass for the worship band at a lively local church.  The last time we saw him was at the Rickmansworth Festival two years ago, playing mandolin with the band at the “Lock Jam”. It was good to see him again.

Paul with Tafelberg

Then the Wilderness boats came past.  Apparently they are heading for Willowtree Marina on Tuesday, when we are also booked in for the night.

Four boats in a lock

7 locks, 5 miles.

Tomorrow – Mill End Baptist Church, then continuing south down the Grand Union, and to Little Venice next week. Two nights at Willowtree Marina where we hire a car to go to a funeral in Old Woking (friends from Cobham days).