Photos taken during bike rides
As I've said, we like to ride our bikes in the area northeast of Harpenden. Here are photos taken during some of these rides.
This is Shaw's Corner, George Bernard Shaw's country home, Shaw's Corner, now owned by the National Trust and open to the public, though it was closed for the day by the time I rode by.
An old church near Shaw's Corner in Ayot St. Lawrence:
The village well and a church in Great Offley.
The area is crisscrossed by footpaths and bridleways (bikes are allowed on the latter but not the former). The UK gives people the "right to roam", but I'm not sure if the footpaths are because of the right to roam or in addition to it. Here's a map showing the footpaths in the area. A day hiker has plenty of paths to choose from. Here's one of them:
The rural lines are mostly one-car wide. This truck stopped traffic while it unloaded sheep.
England vs Spain in Euro 2024 Final
After the Harpenden Highland Gathering on July 14, we went to the Wheatsheaf in Harpenden for dinner and to watch the Euro 2024 final, England vs Spain. As you can imagine, the pub went bonkers when England scored to even the match at 1-1. Here's video of the reaction.
Classics on the Common
The Harpenden Rotary Club's annual Classics on the Common event was today. I'm not enough of a car guy to pay for a ticket, but here is a photo and videos I took while passing by. There are a lot more, and better, photos on the website. It attracted quite a crowd - even on a Wednesday!
Contents of a surprise bag from PizzaExpress for £4.95. The food is good, but not the quantity I was hoping for.
Morrisons is the champ. All this for £3.30! To boot, the food usually has a few days left before its "best by" date, and it's almost as if Morrisons goes out of its way to give you a variety!
Best in class 🏆
The contents of a Surprise grocery bag we got from the M&S convenience store for £4. Not as much food, but it makes a good lunch for two. The food in the surprise bags from this store are usually on their "best by" date, so you have to eat it right away.
Someries Castle
Recently I biked to Someries Castle. It's made of brick, which is a bit unusual (at least in my book), and all that's left are the ruins of the gatehouse and the adjoining chapel. It's thought that the rest of the brick was used to build the farm buildings in the area. Indeed, the ones I saw nearby are made of brick. It's also thought that it wasn't really a castle, but a fortified manor house. Here's the sign:
Video of Someries Castle
As you can see, it's surrounded by a farm.
Reducing Food Waste
According to the USDA, “In the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30-40 percent of the food supply.” Here's something you can do about it: Join TooGoodToGo. It's an app that you can use to buy food – at low cost – that would otherwise be thrown away, food from bakeries and restaurants -- food that you want to eat. We used TooGoodToGo a little in the Atlanta area, but it was not widely known there, so using it required a lot of driving. Here in the UK it is better known, and there are 5 participating restaurants and shops within walking distance of our house. The food usually needs to be eaten right away, but it's almost ridiculously inexpensive. Tell your favorite restaurant, bakery, coffee shop, that they need to join!
Here's what we got in a "hot food bag" from Wenzel's for £4.75.
Belfast Taxi Tour 2
One of our stops was at one of the walls separating Protestant from Catholic. As you can see, it is well decorated. Joe gave us Sharpies to add messages to the wall. What came to me to write was a quote from a hymn: "Love one another, word of revelation." Joe offered to take photos of us, so we posed. To be honest, in front of a huge wall that keeps once-warring parties apart, I didn't feel like smiling. This was the best I could do.
Here's another photo that shows just how tall the wall is. They had to make it tall because people were throwing things over it. Joe took us to the other side of the wall, and a row of houses was right up against it. The backs of the houses were draped with chain-link fencing to protect them from objects thrown over the wall.
Crumlin Road Gaol 3
The gaol has four three-story wings coming off of a central space. This is a panorama photo of this central space. Only C wing is open to visitors, and it had a lot of interesting exhibits. The cells were only 7 by 13 feet. In the 1970s, the gaol was overcrowded and cells sometimes held three prisoners each.
The rear of the gaol. Certainly doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy.
Nomadic: the last White Star Line ship
The Nomadic is called the last White Star Line ship in existence. It was a tender for the Titanic and her sister ship Olympic. A tender ferries "passengers, their baggage, mail and ship's supplies to and from large ocean liners moored offshore." (that's from Wikipedia)
The Nomadic has a long, interesting history. During its heyday it played host to nobility, celebrities, and the rich and famous. It was pressed into service during both world wars. Eventually it became a floating restaurant permanently moored in the Seine River in Paris. It was almost scrapped several times. In 2006, the Northern Ireland government Department for Social Development bought it at auction (I think it was the only bidder), and it was brought back to Belfast for restoration, and is now open to the public.
(By the way, the building to left of the Nomadic in this photo is the Titanic museum.)
Maritime Mile
The next day, while Ellen was working, I retraced our steps to the Lagan River. There are a bunch of attractions along the river, on what Belfast calls the "Maritime Mile." The famous ocean liner Titanic was built in Belfast by Harland and Wolff, who, at one time, were one of the biggest shipmakers in the world. At their peak, they employed about 20,000 people in Belfast (if I remember rightly). Their 2 big gantry cranes, Samson and Goliath, are Belfast landmarks.
One of the attractions along the Maritime Mile is the Titanic Museum. You can see it in the background in the photo above. It's the strangely shaped building between the yellow cranes on the left and the apartment building on the right.