Monday, May 16, 2011

Honestly! The people you meet on the canal.......

First things first, we were in First Class both ways to and from Heathrow on United/Continental.  Man they have some good wines up there. Grand Cru Bordeaux was my choice.
We arrived on the day of the Royal Wedding and got to our hotel in time to see  'the kiss' on the balcony.

A very enjoyable aspect of our trip was meeting Keith and Josie Tudor, Geoff and Helen Bailey, Dave and Cheryl Barnard and Ray and Joan Barnard and having some time with them on the boat.

We had arranged to meet the Tuds in Atherstone at 1220.  The trains run on time and you know to the minute when you will arrive.  However when the train was pulling into the station we grabbed our heavy bags and waited for the doors to open.  They didn't.  Seems like you have to press a button for the door to open and despite my panicked screaming for help, by the time someone said 'press the button' ( which was behind my back) it was too late!

Off we went to the next station 10 miles further down the track.  Luckily a nice young man allowed me to use his mobile phone to call Tud and alert him.  Tud came to Tamworth and rescued us.

 Beverly and Josie...

 Me and my schoolchum Tud...




After we sailed for three days with Keith and Josie we had a great lunch provided by Cousin Geoff and wife Helen and switched out guests.  The Tuds went home and the Baileys came on board.

 With Geoff and Helen we met up with Nephew Dave and Cheryl at Hinckley in a pub with great food called The Lime Kilns.  ???


 We had a good meal and lots of lovely wine.  In fact, we drank all the cabernet that was on hand and had to settle for merlot for our final bottle. I was wishing I had some Cam Hughes wine stashed in my luggage by this time. Cheryl was the designated driver so she behaved herself and had only one glass.



With Geoff and Helen we decided to go all the way to the end of the Ashby Canal to Snarestone where the canal ends after going through a long tunnel.  Here's a couple of videos of a nice break from driving for me when Geoff was in command of the boat....




The tunnel really was a thrill and quite psychedelic for me as I lost my sense of equilibrium and really felt like we were moving sideways or even backward while in the middle of the tunnel. I imagine that's what dropping LSD feels like, but I don't know. It unnerved me for about 20 seconds however once I could see the entire circle of the opening at the end I was OK again.
And I was the one driving the boat at the time.

We sailed all the way back to Atherstone to have lunch with Nephew Ray Barnard and his wife Joan.  Ray was generous and thoughtful enough to bring pastries and meat pies from the famous Devonshire Cafe in Beautiful downtown Runcorn.



After we got sailing Ray and I enjoyed a Spitfire beer....unbelievably good stuff.

We needed some groceries so we hiked a mile into Hinckley Warwickshire and visited the Aldi store....



After the Barnards left Beverly and I had some good quieter times together.  She drives the boat well....


One thing we never tired of was looking at the swan families along the canal....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Come on folks - - how about some comments on this lovely post!!! Eric worked so hard on this one and if he doesn't get encouragement he might just close this blog thing down for good. I know nobody wants that - - RIGHT???

By the way, we had a great time on our canal cruise. It was great! One of our best vacations, ever.

Bev

Emily said...

What a nice way to visit with so many folks! Sounds like a nice balance of visiting and quiet time. And the swans really are something!