Curious Bystander

English Trip – Leamington Spa – Interesting and Posh

After a recent trip to Warwick in England, I decided to go to the nearby town of Leamington Spa, another town in this region that appears to be not too short of dosh, as we say.

I was only there for over a day, but decided to go for a quick walk mainly in the middle of the town, near the Spa (though I am not sure if they actually have any water in it) and through their delightful riverside gardens.

I was impressed!

It always seems to me, that the English have a certain flair for this type of thing – a garden, water, benches, et al.

Whilst there, decided to take a tea & cake in one of these types of old Victorian / Edwardian tea rooms, that in this case has been restored.

Whilst there, I’d a conversation with the barista, and found out that I may have know his mother, as she also had gone to yooni in Glasgow – Wow!

We left back to our car, via a bridge over the river, with a late 70s(?) café that had both a good view, but may have still have been closed due to the lockdown

The Week Ahead / Final part of my England trip – Oakham, and the resting place of Ruddles beer

The week ahead, I’ll show some fotos of a recent St Andrews trip, along with more from Glasgow and some of the culture & highlights here in Scotland; but first . . .

Years ago living in England, as a connoisseur of Real Ale, my personal favourites ranged from Youngers No. 3 (Scottish), to a fine English bitter,

ESB (Fullers Brewery, London) and finally, Ruddles County.

Interesting that nowadays, only ESB is still being brewed, but wait, a surprise!

On my recent Warwick trip, as I usually do, I decided to go “off grid” (away from the Motorways), and headed on a rural short cut, that went from the Midlands, around Kettering, though Corby, through Uppingham and then, to the delightful village / town of Oakham.

Why? Because about an hour before hand, I had wondered what ever happened to Ruddles (kid you not!) and discovered, that the last head brewer there, was now practicing his trade at a new brewery in Oakham, The Grainstore Brewery. And that one of the beers was a startling resemblance to Ruddles County!

Que sorpresa! I had to go there and buy a couple of gallons of the “10 50“; presumably a reference to the specific gravity of the beer.

Beg, borrow and steal, to find this stuff; it’s lovely!

Café Swiss – another café in Glasgow, and one to be avoided . . .

Sorry, but does there or will there, ever be an end to the café madness that has swept around the UK and Scotland the last few years?

If it does end, may Café Swiss be the first casualty.

Excuse me, but to charge £16 for a tea, one piece of Spelt toast with Avocado (or Avo or smashed Avo – I forget?) and a miniature size mini-cheesecake is simply out of order. I did leave a quid tip, as the service was excellent – fast, friendly, and no rush; though at times, I was the only poor soul here.

Which is not surprising with these prices.

Not recommended, though I did sit outside a few weeks ago in the Sun; though at the time, I didn’t really fathom why it was just so easy to find a spare seat, now I know.

The Week Ahead – Various and Bagel Mania on Byres Road, West End, Glasgow

Another week, and the weather here in Scotland has started to be less rainy and colder; only 3 degrees (high 30s Fahrenheit) last night.

And a question was put to me this week at work, where are the decent places to get a sandwich? A good one! If you wish to go to Marks, or Tesco – fine, but what about the old school sandwich shops, where they made them up whilst you waited.

I suggested Bagel Mania, on Byres road, that while is not technically a sandwich shop, does do custom made bagels, with a variety of differing flavours. The queue is always there, out on the pavement, and my own Breakfast Bagel (eggs and brown sauce) was made incredibly quick, and tasted as it should.

Bagel Mania, Byres Road, West End, Glasgow

Recommended.

In addition, will do more from my recent trip the Warwick and Leamington Spa, and start to show some more street art / murals, from around Glasgow.

Warwick, England – Warwick Racetrack

Yes, this was an interesting one. If you live in the UK, we’ve Channel 4 with their racing programs. I for only really have 1 bet (flutter, etc) on the horses every year, during the Grand National, but when watching the races on TV (which is rare), do not really pay attention to the exact track, as in “the 13:10 from Doncaster”.

But yes, there exists a track here, with a fairly non-mundane yearly program. And what was even more interesting was that not only is the track within 5 minutes of the town centre, but that it also contains a golf course inside (or at least partly inside) of it!

Here’s some photos:

Completely accessible, not snobby and with the many dog walkers that I witnessed, multi-purposed as well.

Warwick, England – A hike along the Grand Union Canal (to Hatton)

The last week, I had the fortune to be in south England for a week, and was based in the charming town of Warwick. Warwick resembled Ludlow (from a few weeks ago) but was on a smaller hill with no castle, though it did have a multitude of older, cute buildings, which I will blog about later in the week.

What I did do, as I was normally in the flat, working; was to go on a short, charming canal walk, with a subsequent visit to a beautiful pub for lunch.

As the map above shows, we started in the centre of Warwick, traversed the Warwick Race Course (more on that later), and continued along the Grand Union Canal for about an hour, had lunch and returned.

Along the way we enjoyed the much hotter weather in the south of England and noted both there and back, a variety of locks known as the “Stairway to Heaven“, that has 21 Locks (!!) in total.

At the end of the outward journey, was the Hatton Arms pub, which resembled more of a hotel complex, rather than a “pub” – though it was still amiable as I sat outside drinking a lovely pint of real ale, with Thai fish cakes and mash – lovely!

Coming back was slightly quickly, as I was going downhill and the return was done via the town centre of Warwick.

More from Warwick and the surroundings later.

The week ahead; various from the arts, Glasgow, and shots from my recent Warwickshire trip.

I was once again south of the border last week, in the ever delightful Warwickshire, for which I will be showing some snaps this week on the blog.

In addition, will be looking at various things from here in Glasgow, from the ever present wave of new cafes, to certain neighbourhoods and several photos from here, but first, some pictures from one of my favourite shopping arcades here, The Argyll Arcade, in the town centre.

It’s an old fashioned Georgian? arcade, resplendent in a multitude of jewellery shops, one pub and and upstairs area; that in my opinion is criminally underused (there is a jewellery workshop there), and would be an lovely place to have a coffee, tea, or whatever.

You reach it from several ways, preferably from Buchanan Street:

And then can enter it, head straight east, and then south, to exit on Argyll Street.

Germany – Final Musings (miscellaneous Fotos) –

To end my thoughts on my recent trip to Deutschland, where I was predominantly in Hesse, the Pfalz and finally, Franconia in Bavaria – I’ve a variety of very different photos for your perusal.

Whilst there, the early days of campaigning were underway for the German parliament elections – there were signs everywhere, with each being highly different!

The other shots range from the always, underrated cuisine, to city centre BMX / Roller Skate tracks, to cars, to small chapels, to freight canals, to signs for various bike paths, to where I got my PCR test to travel back to the UK, and finally part of the old Berlin Wall.

Ludlow Part 2 – Ludlow Brewery Tour

In my life, I’ve always wanted to do this; go to a brewery and see just how the stuff of Gods is produced; I was not disappointed.

Beautiful ruby red beer from the Ludlow Brewery

There were about 12 of us that took part in, the almost 2 hour long tour, and all seemed to be fascinated by it, both in the smelling of the hops, grains, etc – and in the tasting later!

I thought that it was:

* Interesting; it was very local oriented about their beer and their philosophy in making beer.

* Fascinating and new, when they spoke about malts, particularly the ones that are used to brew the alcohol, and then some that are only used to flavour the beer. I have made beer before, but simply didn’t know that they used this type of technique

* Links –

An interesting site, where many tours can be booked, here.

Another, where Visit England has some that are recommended.

And finally, statistics on Breweries in the UK.

Go out and do some of these, there’s no excuse now!

The Week Ahead- More from both Germany and Ludlow, various shots from Glasgow, etc

As the title says, I still have some memories from the recent travel to Deutschland and will publish them, along with more from my trip a few weeks ago to Ludlow, in the beautiful county of Shropshire.

In addition, there are a good deal many new places here in Glasgow, that I’ve visited and will do several reviews even!

But first, just look at this old map of the travel system in Glasgow:

An old map of Glasgow’s Transport System (year unknown)

And compare to the modern plan; it’s changed. Equally, the blue circle above is the Glasgow Subway, and can be compared to the modern subway, shown below:

To my knowledge, the Glasgow rail network is the largest all-electric one in the UK or outside of London, I can’t really remember the exact fact, and the Glasgow Subway (one line clockwise, the other counter clockwise), is one of the oldest in the world.

When I first arrived here to attend yooni, there was something called a “sub crawl”, where one would get off each station, and have a pint (or whatever)! I do recall trying it, but was completely unsuccessful . . . I wonder why.