Doing the tourist bit in Gloucester

15th & 16th July

I promised to report on the food at the Tall Ships pub; it was indeed a very good meal, reasonably priced and high quality seafood. The pub itself is pretty basic in décor, and the big screen in the other bar, well within earshot, was showing live racing all the time we were there. Nonetheless, I'd certainly recommend it if you are looking for some decent fish.

In general, this area seems quite blessed with opportunities for eating out – there's a Thai buffet place, and a brasserie right by the waterside.

Yesterday we had an easy start, as the programme for the day was to explore Gloucester Cathedral, do some shopping, and then Jane wanted to check out the final two floors of the Antiques Centre.

The cathedral is a particularly interesting specimen, with much of its Norman character very apparent in the form of massive pillars and round arches. In several places you can really appreciate the engineering of the thing, observing how the loads from the roof are transmitted to the pillars and so to the foundations.

It's not too in your face with the commercial side, either – they ask for a donation, suggesting £3 per head, and there's a small, quite tasteful shop in one corner with the usual stuff these places sell.

Back at the boat we had a cup of coffee, then Jane and Sheila went across to the Antiques place whilst I had some lunch. When they came back, Sheila had had some interesting advice about a ring she inherited from her mother, and Jane had succumbed to the lure of a meat dish in blue and white china.

She was already lugging about a load of glass and china saved for her by her best friend, but seemed quite blasé about the challenge of flying it all back to the States.

When they'd had lunch too, we set off for a quick trip up the canal, to give Jane a bit of boating, and a chance to steer, and to break our stay in the Dock, as we wanted to be here tonight, i.e. Wednesday, and you are limited to 48 hours at a time.

It was Sheila's turn to steer, and she had some fun manoeuvring out of the pontoons in a powerful crosswind, but did so without disaster, and we duly negotiated with the bridge keeper to leave the dock. It's one of the situations in which the VHF really earns its keep: you can use a mobile to talk to the bridge (or the lock, indeed), but it's not as convenient when he needs to call you back, for example to keep you advised of traffic approaching from the other side.

The other bit of excitement occurred at Hempsted Bridge – the bridge was already open as we got there, with another boat going through ahead of us and a big trip boat approaching in the distance. From the bow, I thought there was time for us to get through before the big guy got there, and so signalled to Sheila to carry on. It soon became apparent that I was wrong, and some hard reversing was needed to avoid a confrontation in the bridge hole. The bridge keeper, meanwhile, leant on the bridge parapet and made no attempt to use either the traffic lights or VHF to advise us, which we thought a bit mean of him.

Jane took over the helm shortly after this, and steered down to Parkend, where we winded before making the keeper open that bridge. I took her back to Rea Bridge, where we moored for the night in peaceful conditions, broken only by the cries of the rowers from Gloucester Club, and their coaches on bikes on the towpath. On the way we had suffered a slight bombardment of small green apples from some kids on the offside as we passed Quedgeley – it didn't make for a problem, unlike the gull today which managed to score a direct hit on Sheila.

Rising rested and refreshed this morning, we repeated the strategy of the other day, setting off at a quarter to nine, passing Hempsted Bridge just after nine and arriving in the dock by 9.30. Jane had arranged with her next host, Ann Low-Beer, to be collected between 10 and 10.30, but Ann was delayed a bit and didn't get to us until midday. She was very apologetic, but we didn't mind; it was another very pleasant morning, mostly sunny with occasional cloud and breeze, and we wiled away the time doing crosswords, reading the papers and drinking coffee.

The converted dock area has a quite continental feel, so this seemed very appropriate.

We were also entertained by the dredger outside the National Waterways Museum, which got up steam during the morning. Since we've tied in the Barge Dock right by the Museum, we had a grandstand seat, especially when it actually started the bucket chain grinding along. I've taken some video of it with my camera, and have just had a go at uploading it to YouTube, but the connection, although faster than elsewhere around here, is still not good enough or stable enough to let me do it. It'll have to join the list of stuff to do when we've got a better position, probably in Birmingham in a few days time.

To Gloucester again

13th & 14th July

Yesterday was Elanor's only chance for several weeks to have a lie in, so we had a very relaxed and easy start to the day to give her a chance to get one. She finally left us at around ten and we set off back up the canal to Rea Bridge, stopping place for the Quedgeley Tesco.

On arrival, we were met by Mike Fisher of Nuggler, a pleasant surprise – we knew he was about, but hadn't realised he had not yet set off for his home waters. He was able to tell us about some excellent vinyl cleaner by AutoGlym, the people who make one of the best boat polishes, which was available from the branch of Motor World next door to said Tesco.

Since it was open when we got there, we bought some ourselves, and very good it proved to be when we tried it later in the afternoon.

Back at the boat we had some lunch and then set to on a serious burst of boat cleaning. I've commented before that one advantage for having folks come to stay is the impetus it gives you to get things tidied up and cleaned. This is particularly the case at times like these. When working at a Festival, the boat becomes a place to retire to at the end of the day to sleep, and both the laundry and the housework get postponed.

It's quite satisfying to get things ship shape again, and the fact that the weather continued very fine and warm for most of the afternoon certainly helped.

Today there was no point in starting too early, as they won't swing Hempsted Bridge until the rush hour is over, and it's only about 15 minutes cruising from Rea Bridge. Strangely, the internet connection at Rea Bridge is as good as we've seen it around here, so I filled in the waiting time by putting up the info and order form for Braidbar Owners clothing that we've been organising.

The weather today has not been anything like as pleasant, sadly, cloudy, with a cool breeze which at times was strong enough to make trouble. I had to hover waiting for Llanthony Bridge to rise, and it gave me an anxious moment or two.

Once in the dock, we stopped on the water point at the end of the Barge Arm. This gave us the chance to see that there was plenty of room on the pontoons at the NE corner of the dock, so when the tank was full, I took us down there. Apparently it had been very full last night, but a lot of folks have now set off up the river.

The wind was now a real nuisance – if there's any wind at all it whistles around the dock, as a result of the high warehouse sides all about. We managed to get in at last, with some stalwart heaving on lines by Sheila, and some moderately skilful boat handling by yours truly, I think. (Modesty is my only virtue).

We reckoned to have plenty of time to do some shopping before Jane was due to arrive at 1220, and just got back to the boat in time for me to set off again to the station. This proves to be a 15 minute fast walk from the Dock, so not impossible. If seriously burdened down with luggage, you'd probably want to take a taxi, though.

We've used the afternoon to revisit the National Waterways Museum with Jane, and started an exploration of the Antiques Centre, but that's going to need a second visit to do the top two floors of the five.

Tonight I'm having a break from cooking by taking us to the Tall Ship for a meal – we've not been before, but it was heavily recommended by Brain Dominic for its seafood menu. I'll let you know what we thought next time.