Post 5 to the Lakes District and Ryebeck Hotel

I posted yesterday before my evening meal. I ate in the hotel and did not want much because of our lunch at the Wellcome Museum, so chose the beetroot, pumpkin and spinach gnocchi, It was delicious and beautifully presented. So much so I had to photograph it!

They have renovated the kitchen since I was here last year, to make room for more tables. The breakfast bar is now inside the actual kitchen.  It can be closed off after breakfast. I liked the breakfasts - a good choice and very good granola. Also excellent mushrooms and tomato.

The Wesley remains an interesting hotel. It's clientele is mostly young city workers. They talk of deals and alliances and network skilfully often switching between languages. There are groups off in small rooms having meetings and presenting figures. One of the staff told me there would be a roof bar next time I come.

I have slept reasonably well the two nights I have been in England, falling asleep around 8.30pm. waking up 3-4 times but getting back to sleep fairly quickly. This morning I checked out around 9.15am and made my way to the Virgin lounge at Euston to wait for my train, which left on the dot of 11.30 - perhaps even a minute early.

 I usually book one of the single seats but had, by accident or good management booked an aisle seat on a table for four, with two more acing each other on the other side of the aisle. The photo is a composite, taken when two of our company were out of their seats.
All five of my fellow travellers were going to Glasgow, three of them to attend the European Indoor Athletics - as spectators. The other two, Mavis and Don, were going to for a meeting of a Guild of Coopers - or at least Don, the Cooper, was Coopering while Mavis, discovering that the European Indoor Athletics was on, was planning to slip away to that. I learned a lot about their lives. Mavis claims to be a golf widow, while Don claims to be a choir widower. They have a niece in Sydney and have visited Adelaide more than once. They were excellent company and we laughed a lot. All were followers of the Olympic Games. Three had been to the Sydney Olympics and two to Atlanta as well.

I was met at Oxenholme by my Ace Taxi Driver, this time Hungarian-born and just back from Thailand, and whisked away to the Ryebeck Hotel in less than 20 minutes.

I had requested, I think, my room from last year, upstairs, with a view of the Lake. The downside of the room is the shower over the bath. I had given as back-up, a downstairs room with a walk-in shower. With recent back and sciatica problems , I was a bit worried about the shower and debating whether to ask for a change of room. I had been assigned a downstairs walk-in shower room anyway - so I'm happy.

The room is spacious,with a walk-in closet, a small, comfortable lounge chair and desk.

It opens on to a small outdoor courtyard that I suspect I will not be using for sitting, given the turn in the weather. It is misty and overcast. My outlook is nevertheless quiet, secluded and green.

Behind is a bank of trees partially hiding a grand house.

I am pleased to report the hotel's wifi is vastly improved and works in my room - a major breakthrough for a blogger!

I booked into dinner at 6.30 - the time most other guests had booked for. There were seven of us sharing a table as well as Genevieve and her husband nearby. We had a lovely catch-up, slotting back easily into our shared world and interests. So comfortable, and stimulating.

I was very tired when I arrived this afternoon and rested rather than exploring the garden. I gather there are daffodils out - tomorrow will tell. 

I'm not sure I should have had coffee tonight! 

Post 4 Lunch with Christine

Those who receive email versions of this blog will have been confused by yesterday's post (and possibly today's as well). The email is sent out automatically each day in a 2 hour window, early in the morning Adelaide time. Yesterday, because of the Dreamliner post, I had two posts in a 24 hour period. I was trying to hold the second over for the next day but inadvertently published it momentarily - just catching the window. I then retrieved and amended it - so the amended version may well be attached below this Post 4. I promise, from tomorrow, I will have fixed the problem and there will be one post per day only! They will also be labelled by number.

My main plan today was to have lunch with my friend Christine. She and I met on the first Crewel Work Company trip I did in 2015 - the Embroidery Tour of the Scottish Highlands, and each time I am in London we have met for lunch and a catch-up natter. As she lives at Watford, on the Euston line, we meet somewhere around here - usually at my hotel. This year, however, in view of the excavations, scaffolding,  disruption to streets and detours we met at Caffe Nero on the edge of Euston Station.


So, after a substantial breakfast at The Wesley, I navigated my way to Caffe Nero, through the hoardings that are part of the HS2 upgrade - laying tracks for the High Speed line to the midlands.

site of St James' Churchyard excavation under white plastic

A significant part of this work is the excavation of St James' Graveyard, where the grave of Matthew Flinders was recently found.   I had wondered if I'd be able to get near to the excavation site, but alas, there is nothing to be seen but the huge white plastic cover over the site - at the end of the road in the photo to the right.

There are useful maps and explanations in the London Inheritance blog (for Australians who are interested).

So Christine and I met at Nero's, then, inevitably, worked our way to the Wellcome Collection up on Euston Rd (past more scaffolding) where she generously treated me to lunch.

We began well with the Broth, constructed at the table by our waitress pouring hot stock over fresh vegetables. It was delicious - and healthy.

I did not take photos of the ice-cream we had for desert because we were feeling so virtuous.


Eventually we repaired to the Ground Floor Exhibition space and its current Living with Buildings: Health and Architecture Exhibition. As with all exhibitions I have seen at the Wellcome Museum, this one presented information in useful and thought-provoking ways.  There were posters contrasting the health hazards of slum living with that of the post-war housing development along with maps, art work and photographs of the garden cities and utopian villages like Bourneville. There was a copy of Dickens' introduction to the first complete edition of Oliver Twist pointing out the essential nature of 'decent and wholesome' housing for the poor. There was also a section on Modernist hospital architecture, capturing fresh air and sunshine to help combat tuberculosis - a disease from which two of my maternal grandmother's siblings died. The exhibition includes a huge model of a hospital, built to promote King Edward's Hospital Fund in 1932, which raised money for London's voluntary hospitals (many of these were later converted into NHS hospitals). Queen Mary donated lace handkerchiefs for the bedspreads in the model. (For a brief moment Christine and I thought she donated the handkerchiefs to make  bedspreads for the actual hospitals. We were relieved to be proved wrong!).

Photography was not permitted in the exhibition, so I can't illustrate. I was fortunate to see it, as it finishes this weekend.

I am sorry, however, to be missing the exhibition opening in April, The Psychology of Magic. Christine spent yesterday helping one of her neighbours, a retired magician, make a superannuation claim. I'm sure this did not involve smoke and mirrors!










Christine, however, later told me of a news item last week, involving the Wesley Hotel. 

Apparently a young man was fatally stabbed in the vicinity of the hotel and managed to stagger into the hotel lobby for help, but, in spite of fast action by staff, could not be saved. Christine had, wisely, not sent me news of this when it happened a week ago. On my return to the hotel I recognised the spot where the attack occurred, a few metres from the hotel entrance.

The weather today has been fine and warm - that is not, however, forecast to last. I had a lovely, heart-warming day.

Tonight I repack my bag ready for my train journey tomorrow.  I had trouble with the zips on my carry-on bag at the end of my plane journey - two (out of three) of them gave way. I have managed to get them working again, but don't want to put them under pressure. I have plenty of room in my suitcase so can reorganise. I might need to replace the bag if the problem persists.

I'm looking forward to more familiar faces and new embroidery projects at the Ryebeck Hotel in Bowness-on-Windermere.

Post 3: Around Euston

An earlier draft of this slipped by with the Dreamliner post. Apologies.

I spent a couple of hours this morning writing up my Dreamliner blog, then I went for a walk around Euston. The area is a mess with building work wherever you look. I stay at the Wesley Hotel because it is less than a block from Euston Station from which I catch the train to Oxenholme, in the Lakes District, but the road is blocked off and a detour in place. It's still walkable, but messy.

The building work is mostly, I think, in relation to the new tube line - the one for which St James Graveyard is being excavated and in which Matthew Flinders' grave was discovered. The area under hoardings and building works is enormous, and not conducive to exploration.

Even Euston Square is shrinking, as a couple of multi-storey buildings are finished.


I was not up for walking too far, so headed up to the Wellcome Collection.

It was buzzing with students and people meeting people. It is still an elegant place, even when visiting the coffee shop, which is all I did. The main exhibition is on the Built Environment and is attracting large groups of visitors.
















All sorts of  business is transacted in the foyer cafe.

Outside the buses line up endlessly, spilling over the intersection and the pedestrian crossing.




I'm not sure how long the windows stay clean.



Around the corner, Tolmer Square remains intact and undisturbed







and nobody's rushing at Speedy's.















The window boxes outside my hotel are a modest reminder that there is warmth ahead










but around the corner
Spring is announced.




I spent the rest of the day catching up on email. I ate in the hotel this evening and have kept myself going to try for a night's sleep.

I'm certainly tired enough!

London on the Dreamliner

I am writing this from my clean, modest room at the Wesley Hotel in Euston, generously made available to me at 6.30 am - quite an early check in. I am quite awake

I don't usually go on and on about planes (or trains or automobiles for that matter). I travel comfortably these days, or not at all. I have too many joint, back and feet problems to do it any other way, especially on my own, but I don't usually post about it.   I am making an exception today because several friends have asked me to share my experience of the Dreamliner - so they can decide whether to give it a go.

My flight from Perth to London took 17 hours and 17 minutes. I slept for about 8 hours of that and dozed for a couple more. I managed to read the whole of book 6 in Bruce Beckham's DI Skelgill series and do a bit of embroidery.



My seat was 8A, a single unit on the left hand side of the aircraft. The row has two seats in the middle and one on either side.

The units have good compact storage - much better than the equivalent A380. There is plenty of leg room.

The bed operates a little differently to older versions. Rather than the leg rest rising to accommodate stretched legs, the top half of the bed descends lower and the leg extension is closer to the floor. This works well to give a very flat surface.

The seatbelt has two components - a lap belt and a chest cross-over which is used only for take-off and landing.


The table swings out from under the side bench.

We were offered a three-course meal after take-off. I refused all but an icecream sandwich, since I had a full meal on the way to Perth. I had hoped to stay awake for a few hours but was tired and went to sleep within an hour.

There were snacks available all through the night, including noodle dishes. I had a coffee about 10 hours in, and another about 13 hours in but nothing else till breakfast 2 hours before landing.

I had muesli, fruit and scrambled eggs with Chorizo sausage and tomato.

There was a reasonable choice of movies, television programs and Stan. I didn't watch any. Most people slept.

One advantage of such a long flight is that it evens out the demand on the toilets for changing. While there was a bit of a run in the last hour, most people, myself included, were able to find a good time to fit changing with their sleeping pattern. A down side was that the fairly large individual entertainment screens were not automatically dimmed. You could dim them in the settings. but most screens were very visible for several seats away if in the line of sight. It was not an issue for me but could have been for some.

progress

In terms of the length of the flight, it worked for me. I got up and stretched three or four time, but didn't walk around much. Most people stayed in their seats. I read and slept, stitched and, for the last couple of hours, watched the flight path. I think in future I would book a single seat on the right-hand side of the plane rather than the left, because the seat adjustments etc are on the window side of the seat and it is easier for a right handed person to reach them on the right hand side.

One advantage is that, according to a crew member, it is the first morning flight into Heathrow. We were about 12 minutes late and I suspect were the second flight in. It does, however, make for a smooth passage through Immigration. 

This was my first glimpse of London. I don't think I've seen it like this before. It had the eerie feeling of the days of smog - but it was just (very) early morning cloud cover.

There were also interesting effects from photographing lighted buildings from a moving car.





So here I am, back at the Wesley, generously accommodated very early. The room is small but the bathroom is brilliant - the best I am likely to see in my time in the UK.

My door-to-door time for the trip was 26 hours. I think my previous trips have been 33+ hours.  I'd do it again.

There is building work around Euston Station, so I will have to suss out my route before I need to navigate it with bags on Thursday. I presume this is the work that uncovered Matthew Finders grave. Might be my exploration later today.