We decided we couldn’t visit Wales without seeing a ruined castle, so this morning we took a bus to the village of Dolwyddelan, where there is one built by a local king, Llwelyn the Great in 1210 -1240.
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Author: John Potter
Mt Snowdon
The weather looked a bit more promising this morning so we decided to go mountaineering. We hadn’t really planned to climb Snowdon, but since it is just up the road we realised it would be silly to waste the opportunity.
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Llanberis Slate Quarries
There is a £1.00 ‘sherpa’ bus for hikers which travels around the Snowdonia area, so we were ready and waiting at the bus stop at 9AM.
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Llanrhychwyn Church
When our host at the Bryn Llewelyn guest house Mick Figg heard that we were keen hikers, he gave us a photocopied map with a suggested route that would take us on a five lake circuit. There are lots of shorter walks around the village, but we are obviously more hard core than your average tourist.
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Betws Y Coed
Tonight we’re in Snowdonia, Wales for a week of hiking. The village we are staying in is very pretty; the Conway river rushes through town just across the road from our hotel, which like most of the buildings is built from the local slate.
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Brixton
When we visited Erin Pizzey on Thursday, I mentioned the fact that we hadn’t seen much sign of real poverty in London. She suggested we go to Brixton, so we set off this morning, on the assumption that most of the really bad, dangerous people would probably not be out of bed yet.
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Canary Wharf and Isle of Dogs
The summer weather is back to normal in London; grey, cool and slightly drizzly. Undeterred, we set off to a free outdoor jazz concert at Canada Square on Canary Wharf.
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Twickenham and Regent St
Today Felicity and I travelled to Twikenham to visit Erin Pizzey, who is one of our heroines for her groundbreaking work on Domestic Violence. We arrived half an hour early, so went for a stroll around nearby York House.
Stratford to London
I caught the train out to Stratford at 10 o’clock this morning, which is the earliest I am allowed to take my bike. I arrived at a very modern Westfield shopping mall, and set about finding the greenway marked on the map.
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Surrey Docklands and Rotherhith Tunnel
This afternoon we visited the Surrey docklands, on the South side of the Thames. A few decades ago it was an area where no sensible tourist would dare venture; now it is the location of the London Hilton.
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St Albans to London
Felicity had meetings organised for today, so I took my bike on the London Overground train as far north as I could get on my Oyster Card, which was Watford High St. As soon as I came out of the station I saw a National Cycleway sign pointing north to St Albans, a bit over seven miles away.
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Hackney and Tower Hamlets
After spending all morning working diligently at our keyboards, we decided to reward ourselves with lunch at the Brick Lane market.
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Dollis Valley Greenwalk
Today we took a tube and a couple of buses to the Moat Mount nature reserve on the outskirts of London, then walked home following the Dollis Brook.
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Lyme Regis
I was hoping to find a fossilised plesiosaur on the beach today, but it would have to have been a baby one if we wanted to carry it home. We did find a bunch of ammonites and bought back a few smaller samples.
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Weymouth
We spent yesterday in Southampton visiting the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s flagship that sunk in 1545. I had seen a documentary about the discovery and raising of the ship in 1982, so was very interested now that it is on public display. The approximately 600 large oaks that were felled to build her came from the New Forest area where we have been staying.
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Minstead New Forest
Last night we took a bus from Victoria Station to Southampton and on to the village of Lindhurst where we are staying with friends in their cottage for a couple of days.
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Ride London Freecycle
This weekend a large section of central London is closed for a big cycling event. I was too late to register for the 100km race tomorrow, but the free 10km family ride sounded like fun. They are expecting around 50,000 riders, making it one of the biggest ever mass bike rides.
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Felicity’s research project derailed
The main project that Felicity came to London for has just been derailed by a local sociologist.
I’ve made a post about it on MENZ: Felicity Goodyear-Smith vilified in UK.
Kew Gardens
The heatwave was back with a vengeance today, with over 34º recorded in London; the hottest day of the year so far. Both Felicity and I had some work to do, but late morning we headed out to be dutiful tourists.
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Hampstead Heath
I’ve bought myself a mountain bike, and today I went for my first serious ride. I rode it home from Camden on Monday, but that was only 40 minutes, partly along the Regent’s canal towpath, but mostly along the road.
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