Londonium and Sculptures

Saturday 21/Sunday 22 November 2023

Last weekend I popped up to London to see Caitlin.

The trains behaved on the way up and Caitlin had cooked me a super yummy Ruth-friendly lunch. Post lunch we wandered towards the South Bank but, sadly I'd packed a sky full of rain, which started to empty on us (and the rest of London to be fair).  We sheltered in the Southbank Centre before walking to Covent Garden before the next downpour.  There we visited my favourite shop, Stanfords.  

The streets were very busy, not helped by the fact that the pedestrians were congregating under shop fronts/tube stations to hide from the ran.  Leicester Square tube station was temporarily closed to due to overcrowding so we walked north to Tottenham Court Road which was open.  I was pleased to leave the swarm of people. 

We had a quiet evening doing a 1000 piece Monopoly jigsaw which was a lot of fun but resulted in a very late night as we were determined to complete it! 

On Sunday the rain had passed, so we headed to Regents Park to view the outdoor sculptures, Frieze, which were on show until today (just caught it!).

Lots of interesting art to see, and even better to share it with the lovely Caitlin.

Thank you for entertaining your Mother Caitlin ;-)

East Devon Way - Part Four

Sunday 08 October 2023

This was our last leg of the delightful East Devon Way.  It was a beautifully sunny day and just crying out for a stroll down to Lyme Regis.  And so we did, for a flat and sunny 15 km.

We both drove to Lyme Regis - me trying to ignore the warning lighting in my car, sigh, another one - parked up then drove to Colyton where we picked up the path from last time.  We strolled down Rosemary Lane - the type of Lane I'd love to live on - passing an old 'Moggy' (Morris Minor).  This was my childhood car (well, not this one exactly, but similar).  We'd go on camping holidays as a family of 5 in this with trailer in tow.  

On the way out of Colton we passed Umborne Bridge Studio which looked worth an explore with arty stuff and a coffee shop, but it was too early to stop for a rest.  I loved the idea of an 'intense pencils course'.

We wandered past cows and up over the Seaton tram line.  Despite living near this for most of my adult life, I have never been on this.  I'm sure my time will come.

It was a really pleasant walk. Not overly taxing but beautifully sunny and rural.

We stopped at Musbury for a pub lunch, only to find that their chef was on leave.  But we stayed for a drink then wandered off to find their church.  And a ssh you-know-what.

Then up towards Musbury Castle through forest glades.  We actually detoured off to see the castle but there wasn't even a mound.  But the views were good!

More fields with no cows (always a highlight), then an interesting gate which bolted into the nearby tree.

We eventually espied the now disused Cannington Viaduct, apparently the largest structure built for a light railway in the UK.

Once at Uplyme we joined the Lim path which was really delightful.

At some stage we passed from Devon to Dorset so the path officially finished, but of course we strolled down to Lyme Regis.  I do love a sea view, and turned into a spotter especially when it's of 'my' beaches that my team monitors.  JC meanwhile was on a fruitless chip hunt but I'm sure the sea air made up for it ;-)  Or that's what I told him.

So now I need a new path to do.  I've got the Isle of Wight trail in my mind to do, but for something more convenient/local I think the next one may be the Tamara Coast to Coast Way? 

Almaty Revisited and Farewell Kazakhstan

Friday 29 September 2023

We arrived in Almaty 2 rail terminal at 0645.

I’d managed to negotiate with the hotel, which we’d used twice already, to ask if we could have our Saturday breakfast on Friday as we were leaving middle of the night later today.  They agreed, so we had a lazy breakfast, stoked up on coffee, stashed our luggage then headed off to explore Almaty.  

And we're off.  Oooh, more concrete animals!  The name Almaty comes from the Kazakh for apple, "alma", so it's the main symbol of Almaty. More apples to come.  

We started by exploring the metro.  It’s not very extensive, only 11 stations right now, but JC wanted to take photos.  They weren’t as impressive as the ones in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, but grand all the same and massive (and empty) escaltors.  This is Baikoner.  

I was taken by the name and shame approach of the police for wanted people.

We went via Independence Square towards up to the museum.

We spotted again this strange sign we’d seen before in Almaty - perhaps it’s reminding drivers that wearing sunglasses mean they miss pedestrians on the crossings?  Nope, it turns out (after a Google) that the signs are warning drivers to be aware of blind pedestrians on the crossing.

It wasn't a terribly exciting museum but we had a little peruse. We came across a copy of Catalan Atlas which I’d never heard of.  The original is in Paris (clocked that one to visit) and it’s a mighty fine portolan chart.

We headed for the cable car which JC wasn't at all bothered about, but I had determined an essential Almaty experience.  We passed not only a car full of apples but a Villeroy and Boch shop.  This made JC feel very at home.

The cable car was a lot of fun (for me at any rate).  And you have great views of the city.  

The warnings were a little ominous though.

The cable car goes to Kok Tobe, a mountain 1100 m high, just outside the main city.  

It was quite hazy/cloudy so not as beautiful as it could have been, but we certainly got the measure of the snowy mountain range skirting the southern edge of the city.

Much to my delight, they had a high ropes course so I paid in a wink.   JC was more than happy to hold my bag whilst I indulged - high ropes aren't just for children remember.

There was also an upside down house and various children's must-do activities such as driving an armoured vehicle complete with rocket launcher.

Once down we wandered lazily back through Almaty.  It's quite an easy city to navigate as it's built on the mountain slope - so if you are walking downhill you're going north, away from the mountains, and if uphill you're going south.  I very much liked this mode of navigation.  East and west were obviously easy to suss out.

An astronaut/rocket launch mural in the style of Van Gogh Starry Night.  Very nice.  Riona take note.

And another Almaty apple.  They were everywhere and quite hard to miss at this size.

We did a few more metros on the way back including Zhibek Joly.

Then back to our hotel for supper and a last glance at the Almaty Moutains before sunset.  We managed a few hours' sleep before our flight.

Our taxi was at 0030, joy of joys, as our flight was 0430.  Almaty Airport turned out not to be as disorganised as some reports we'd read, and we got through into departures smoothly.  I settled down with coffee and a pack of cards.

Almaty Airport didn't seem to have departure gates, which may explain why we'd read it was a bit hard to know what was going on.  They called our flight with under 30 minutes to go, but then we went straight through onto the plane (maybe Almaty doesn't do gates?).  

It was a direct flight back, except a stop at Aktau to refuel where more passengers joined.  The flight was pretty empty, especially on the first leg, so we all stretched out to sleep on 3 seats each.  Having a few more hours sleep actually made me feel quite human - I'd been bracing myself for being really ratty most of the way home.  We flew over the Caspian Sea, which isn't a sea in the truest sense in case it bothers you.

We landed on time, then faced the joys of the British transport system and a rail strike.  It wasn't too shabby - if you brace yourself for a long wait, then a wait of only 30 minutes is easy.  We arrived back at my Dad's in Basingstoke mid afternoon whereupon I started a 2.5 week catch up of fresh salad and veg!  It was a brilliant trip and I am really liking the 'stans.  Starting to think of the next trip already ;-)