Waiting for Godot….I mean Gayle

As I fell asleep last night I felt as if the room was gently rocking.  This morning when I woke up I experienced the same phenomenon.  I think it will be several days before I no longer feel like I am on a boat.  After I got a cup of Nespresso in me I spent an hour washing clothes in the sink.  I had planned to find a laundromat in the area and get all my stinky boat clothes washed at one time.  But there is no laundromat close to the Royal Horseguards Hotel.  We are located close to Parliament, 10 Downing Street and the National Liberal Club.  No one around here is doing their own laundry.  

Once I had a hotel room full of wet clothes that needed to dry,  I headed out to find a bus that would get me close to Fortitude Bakehouse.  My mission was two-fold.  I wanted to see if it was easy to utilize busses to get around London.  If so, it would provide Gayle and I a step free way to get around.  I also wanted to get something delicious to eat that would allow Gayle and I to eat breakfast in our room.  I had already bought bananas and yogurt. But now that my son Brett is a baker I always look up bakeries when I travel.  When I did my research on bakeries in London Fortitude Bakehouse was highly praised.  It specializes in sourdough pastries.

Getting the bus was not difficult.  I sat on the front row of the top level of the double decker bus.  It was pouring rain and even so, it was still fun.

To get to Fortitude Bakehouse you have to wind your way down two narrow cobble stone streets.  You would never stumble upon this place.  Even in the rain there was a queue waiting.  It is a very tiny place and you have to wind your way around large sacks of flour and stacks of eggs.  

They have savory and sweet pastries.  The coffee was excellent also.

With a sack of goodies in my hand I headed back in the rain and onto the bus.  Traveling by bus in London was a great way to get around.  I spent several hours back in the hotel room resting and catching up on things. I was waiting for my sister Gayle to arrive.  She landed at Heathrow before noon and made it to the hotel a couple hours later.  Gayle unpacked and we did some catching up.  We headed out around 5 p.m. and took an Uber boat across the Thames to the London Eye Pier.

We had hoped to get sushi for dinner but the two Japanese restaurants we checked in with were fully booked.  So we ended up eating at a Chinese restaurant, Peacock London, which promised a view of Big Ben.  Our table faced the wall.  We ordered two dishes — morning glory and eggplant.  They were okay.  We wouldn’t make an effort to go back.

Our next stop was the London Eye.  

A couple months ago we had purchased Fast Track tickets for 8:15 p.m.  When we bought the tickets we imagined a sunny, warm day.  We thought we might see the sun set over the horizon and the city lights come on.  It was a cold and cloudy day and it was still a fun experience. Riding the London Eye is a great way to get an understanding of the layout of London.  The large building in this photo houses the hotel in which we are staying.

The Palace of Westminster, which is the meeting place of the Parliament of the UK, is prominent from the London Eye.

Minutes into our journey it began to rain which greatly impacted our view, as you can see.

It was a lovely journey, despite the rain.  By the time we got back to the bottom the rain had stopped and the crowds were all gone.  The lights of the city were just turning on.  

We caught the Uber Boat back to Embankment Pier and returned to our hotel.  We stopped at reception.  I was curious about the building which houses our hotel.  When I asked about the building they all turned and looked at one particular employee who lit up like a child at Christmas.  He came around the desk to tell us all about it.  This building used to be fully owned by the National Liberal Club and what is now the hotel were formerly the apartments for the club.  The British Intelligence (MI6) was founded on the 8th floor of what is now the hotel.  There are stories that at one time there were secret tunnels between the National Liberal Club building and Downing Street. This massive building is now divided into three sections:  The National Liberal Club, Royal Horseguards Hotel and the Farmers’ Club. My curiosity sated we headed back to our room.  

A Day of Farewells

Our plan was to leave our mooring site by 8 a.m. in order to make the short journey to Chirk Marina and drop off our boat.  Shelly, Sara and Linda made sure we arrived safely.  I stayed inside and did the cleaning jobs so we could drop off the boat quickly upon arrival. We are a good team.  We pulled into the marina and had our luggage off and the trash disposed of by 9 a.m.  

We spent some time catching up with Johnny while we waited for Marcel, the taxi driver who was late to get us to the marina a week before.  Shelly texted Marcel but got no response.  So she called him and ended up waking him up.  Today is a bank holiday in Wales and, as Johnny said, “A lot of people got pissed last night.”  Marcel arrived, admitted to us that we woke him up and then got us to the train station.  Sara and Shelly are going to Alsager to see friends from back home that are also visiting in Wales.  Before they headed to their platform we said our goodbyes.  Linda and I are headed to London.  When we arrive in London she will go to her hotel near Heathrow and I will take the tube to my hotel.  

Sara and Shelly were on a train and gone within a few minutes.  Linda and I had an hour wait.  There were half a dozen volunteers tending to all the lovely flowers that grace this train station.  I approached one of them and thanked her for making this train station so beautiful.  She was delighted.  She pointed out all the murals on the walls and said that a group comes every Monday to tend to the landscaping.  She was proud to tell me that for the last seven years in a row they have won the award for most lovely train station in Wales.  They currently hold the title of most beautiful train station in the UK as well.
Our first train was standing room only.  Our stop in Shrewsbury was about 15 minutes shorter than we thought so I didn’t get to go to the bathroom.  We had six minutes to transfer in Birmingham International so no bathroom stop.  When we got on there the train was absolutely packed and there was no room for luggage.  This is the only way we could manage the luggage.  

The man sitting across from me said that the last train to London had been cancelled so all those people were now on this train.  Actually every train we were on today was crowded.  I guess it is wise not to travel on a bank holiday.  But we made it to London and the first thing I did was find a bathroom.  We grabbed a quick lunch because it was after 2 pm.  Then Linda headed to the taxi stand and I went along to say good-bye and take her photo.  She tried to steal the cab and drive away.  Here is the real truth: The taxi cab driver suggested this very photo.  What a nice guy.

I wandered around the area for a while finally understanding that Euston Square Station and Euston Station are completely different places.  But I got it together and a Londoner even stopped me and asked me how to catch the correct train and I told her!  It was a short walk from the tube to my hotel and took me past the London Eye.  If all goes as planned my sister will arrive by early afternoon and we will ride the London Eye just before sunset.

We are staying at the Royal Horseguards Hotel near Trafalgar Square.  It is a lovely hotel.  I am so excited to take a shower and put my head on pillow that doesn’t feel like cardboard.  I unpacked and then headed out in search of a Tesco and some dinner.  I walked past Trafalgar Square, which has barricades around it and banners that mention the London Championship.  It turns out that the Union of European Football Associations is having their final match in London this coming Saturday.  The trophy will be displayed at Trafalgar Square before it is taken to the stadium to be given to either Borussia Dortmund or Real Madrid CF. 

I found an Asian fast food restaurant and had some miso soup and chicken teriyaki bao before heading back to the hotel and bed.  Chapter 3 of this adventure is beginning.

Last Full Day on the Canal

This is our last full day on the canal for the Wales 4. We will go through two locks, one aqueduct and one longer tunnel. We have gone under so many bridges, each feels unique.  This kind of bridge was specifically created for a horse towing a barge so that the horse could cross from one side of the canal to the other without dislodging the towing rope.

We arrived at the first lock with six boats ahead of us. This time Linda didn’t go ahead and operate the locks for everyone in front of us.  Shelly got bored and decided to test herself by walking down the outside of the boat without hands.

For the first several days of this trip we had walkie talkies to communicate between the front of the boat and the back of the boat or between the skipper and the person running ahead on the towpath.  We had even come up with our handle names to use while on the walkie talkies.  Linda was Mountain Woman, Shelly was Skipper, Sara was Salty Dog, Kara was Cap’n Crunch, Tom was Admiral and I was Prime Minister.  It was fun to come up with the names but we didn’t really use them. Several days into our journey, one of the walkie talkies fell into the canal.  A set of hand signals were created after that loss.  Today, Shelly came up with a new way of communicating from the back to the front.  She just walks across the roof.

After an hour of entertaining ourselves we were finally next in line.  Linda trained me on operating the locks.  

You have to accomplish several steps in just the right order.  

Successfully through the first lock we headed for the second lock to do it all over again.  This time we only had three boats ahead of us.  While we were waiting a woman, who lives alongside the lock, came over and asked if we wanted ice cream.  Some of us opted for ice cream and while she went back to her house to collect our orders we gathered the requisite 6 pounds.  Then we headed through lock two without incident.

When we were headed the other direction on the canal Shelly noticed a pub she suggested we stop at on the return trip.  It had outdoor seating right on the canal.  We found it.  It is called the Poacher.  We moored the boat and headed offer for an early dinner.  

The restaurant was understaffed today and so they were not providing food on their patio.  No problem.  We ate inside.  It is Sunday and so, of course, Sunday roasts were the featured items on the menu.  We decided to follow the adage….while you are in Rome…. It was delicious. We have had such good food on this trip.  We expected it to be seven days of fried pub food.  We are grateful to have been wrong.

We got back on the canal with Sara, our official duck spotter/Doctor Doolittle, making sure that we would not hit any mallards along the way.  Within minutes we arrived at the Chirk Aqueduct.  Luckily, we missed all the craziness we experienced the first time we crossed.  There was only one other boat heading across in front of us….another all women crew and I think they had already broken out the wine.

Sara and Shelly took turns hopping out of the boat and taken photos/videos.

We followed the all-women crew in front of us into Wales and into the Chirk Tunnel.  

This time there was no light at the end of the tunnel.  It was an incredibly slow journey through a very dark tunnel.  Linda got a bit spooked by it and so we started singing, “It’s a Small World.”  The women in front of us, who we could not see at all, responded with “Day-O”. Together we sang “The Gambler”.  It didn’t make the trip go by quickly but it made us laugh the whole way.  

Finally out onto the other side we moored fairly quickly.  The location for the night feels a bit like a rain forest.  

We did some of the things we need to do before we turn the boat back into tomorrow at 9 a.m.  We straightened up the boat, packed, showered, finished up the food in the fridge, etc.  Then we sat down for some final games together.  

 

Wales 6 becomes Wales 4

Tom made us scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning.  We needed to get to Whitchurch in time for Tom and Kara to catch a train to London. They will fly home tomorrow so Kara can be at work on Monday.  We got to Whitchurch before noon and found a mooring.  We put on our vests with merit badges and got a passerby to snap our photo on the Claire, the name of our narrow boat.

We planned to have one more meal together before they left us.  We headed to town with their luggage in tow.  

We had another delicious meal, this time at the Black Bear.  We have been eyeing the sticky toffee pudding at the pubs along this journey.  To commemorate the time the Wales 6 have enjoyed together we got one with six spoons.  It was incredible.

While we waited for Kara and Tom’s taxi to arrive I poked my head in the church, St. Alkmund’s, across the street from the restaurant.  Of course, I did.  

I liked this depiction of the Last Supper that hung on the church wall.  My mother used to love telling this joke:  “What did Jesus say to the disciples at the Last Supper?  Why don’t you all come to this side of the table if you want to get in the picture.” At least this rendition has one person on the opposite side of the table.  

After Kara and Tom left, the Wales 6 became the Wales 4.  We will miss them and the humor and skills they brought to the group.  I’m hoping I can be helpful when we get to the locks tomorrow!

We hiked back to the canal.  Sculptures appear in random places here in England.

We are constantly stunned by the flowers along our journey.  Gardens are lush and well-maintained.

As we walked along the towpath back to our boat we came upon a narrow boat sweet shop.  The saleswoman was very good at her job and we couldn’t help but use up some of our pounds.  

This is the furthest we are going on the canal.  We are now heading back over familiar territory.  First we needed to turn the boat around in a winding hole.Shelly is a pro.  I can’t say that enough times.  Without Shelly and Sara we may have had to spend the whole week in the Chirk Marina.

The section of the canal we traveled today is such a lush and beautiful part of the canal.  Sara and Shelly did the back of the boat duties. Linda and I sat at the front to relay information back to Sara and Shelly.  I sewed on the last round of merit badges for Sara and Shelly’s vests while enjoying the sunshine, bird songs and the green of England.  I gladly got out to raise and lower the lift bridges along the route.  We stopped to stretch our legs at Mammoth Tower, which was something we had noticed when we were going the other direction.  It turns out it was a peat bog — Fenn’s & Whixall Mosses National Nature Reserve.  Peat moss used to be hand-cut.  In 1968, mechanized peat cutting began.  This particular area was also used by the military as a WWII rifle range.  We learned that the loss of a peat bog is detrimental to the environment.  This particular peat bog holds 3 million tons of carbon, that is equal to the carbon footprint of 250,000 people.  Peatlands cover less than 3% of the land surface of the Earth but store twice as much carbon as all the forests combined as long as the peat is wet.  If peat dries out it releases CO2 into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.  Since 1991, this area is being preserved and aided in its recovery.  We all understand now not to use peat products in our gardening.

The area is called Mammoth Tower because you can climb this structure to look over the peat bog.  When you get to the top of the tower you walk through two fake mammoth tusks.  I didn’t see any other reference to Wooly Mammoths.  I guess calling it Fenn’s & Whixall Mosses National Nature Reserve wasn’t sexy enough.

We were hoping to return to Ellesmere today but we didn’t leave Whitchurch until 2:30 p.m.  We pulled into the outskirts of Ellesmere just after 8 p.m.  We were very hungry by then and we wanted something more substantial then peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  There was a little path next to our boat that led us past Poor Clare’s Convent and out onto the road.  

We found our way back into town and arrived at Thai Mere Restaurant.  They had room for the four of us and we feasted.  We didn’t finish until after 10:30 p.m.  It was so late that the owner stood at the door as we left, waiting to lock the door after us.  We got out our flashlights and walked back to the canal in the dark and immediately went to bed.

Walking in Ellesmere

I woke up to the bleating of sheep.  Here is the view out of my narrow boat window.

We decided not to hurry past Ellesmere.  We took our time getting around this morning.  Four of us headed out around 10 am with plans to join back up for lunch in town.  Linda and Kara wanted a little bit more time to get ready.

Shelly, Sara, Tom and I headed towards the Mere (the lake for which Ellesmere is named).  On the way there was a church (St. Mary’s the Blessed Virgin) and, of course, some kind of gravitational pull made me walk towards it.  

We made our way around a very dark sanctuary.  

We headed for the toilet. Every time we use the toilets on the boat we use up precious water and add more to the tank we have to pump out.  So every available “public” restroom we find we utilize. We are also running out of toilet paper so Sara and Shelly both came out of the restroom with some extra toilet paper stuffed in their pockets.  The four of us had plans to walk along the Mere on a path called the Sculpture Trail.  The lake is lovely with swans…

…and other birds.

Shelly is a bit of a bird whisperer.

There are several sections of this trail and we began on the part dedicated to the Jebb sisters, Eglantyne and Dorothy.  They founded Save the Children Fund in 1919 to help children who were starving at the end of World War I.  Their efforts were not greeted with accolades.  In fact, Eglantyne was arrested in Trafalgar Square and fined for campaigning to help starving “enemy” children in Germany and Austria-Hungary.  Eglantyne drafted a Declaration of Children’s Rights, which is now enshrined in a United Nations agreement adopted by every UN country except the US. The sculptures in this section of the trail are part of the “Children Displaced by Conflict” display.  This sculpture is called the “Sisters” and represents Eglantyne and Dorothy.

Sara walked the labyrinth around the sculpture entitled “The Refugee”.

Then we moved onto a different section of the sculpture trail.  This one is made out of a portion of a narrow boat.

The bee sculpture was very impressive.

We enjoyed this one as we looked back towards Ellesmere and St. Mary’s Church.

We kept walking until we came to the “Sshhh” sculpture.  

We turned around and headed back in order to meet Linda and Kara at the Red Lion Pub for lunch. I had looked up images of the Sculpture Trail so I knew there was one more sculpture that we hadn’t seen.  We found it on the way back.  I think we were expecting something a tad bit larger.  

We stopped at the owl sighting telescope and put in 20 pence.  Sara claimed she saw owls but you can’t believe everything she tells you.

Lunch was lovely. The burgers were even branded with the pub’s logo.

The woman running the bar was fun.  She brought over the dessert menu on a chalkboard and held Tom’s hand while going over the possibilities.  We asked her if a dessert called spotted dick didn’t seem a bit naughty in England.  She said, “Yes.  It is naughty here also.  Some days when we tired of dealing with the public we just write “dick” on their check when they order it.  That is naughty also.” We decided we had to try it.  It was good.  It deserves a better name.

We returned to the boat by a different path.  It included a hike…

…which took us through Plantation Wood.

We ended up close to the Ellesmere Marina so we stopped in their store for some 1 ply toilet paper.  The pilfering can now stop.

Back on the boat by 3 p.m. we got going quickly.  Our goal tonight is Whixall.  We stopped to top off water which is one of the few jobs (outside of the boat’s galley) that I feel competent to perform.  So I topped us off.  The canal is much wider here so Linda took the opportunity to do some steering.

Tomorrow Kara and Tom will leave us and head home.  We will be down to four people to get us back to Chirk Marina by Monday morning.  We came to a lift bridge and the plan was for Linda and I to get off.  We learned that no one should jump off a moving boat.  Linda went down hard.  The boat will stop for us in the future.  I was so excited to use the windlass to lift the bridge.

Linda lowered it.

It was a quiet afternoon of traveling down the canal.  We didn’t meet much oncoming traffic.  We lost all internet connection and had to just enjoy each other and the beauty around us.  We moored on the side of the canal without another boat in sight.  For dinner we had a spaghetti dinner and wore our vests in honor of it being the last night with Tom and Kara.  We talked about what had surprised us on this trip; what were the most impressive experiences, etc.  Then we played Phase 10.  We ended the night by handing out more merit badges before we headed to bed.