This last week has very much been about planes, trains and automobiles. Today’s post covers the former of that triumvirate. There is something fascinating (to me) about transport and as far a…

The Oxford Bus Museum is what I would call notionally in Oxford given that it is ten miles north of the city. However, it is just 15 minutes by train, which is how I arrived. Google Maps had said t…

I really shouldn’t have been surprised at the level of security to get into the Bank of England Museum, but I was. There are airport-style scanners through which all your stuff has to go, inc…

It is somewhat ironic that both my attempts to visit the London Transport Museum have come with transport problems. I had intended to visit last week but then the line between Reading and Paddingto…

The second of my two Heritage Open Days this year and this one was closer to home. Reading Minster My first stop was the Reading Minster on St Mary’s Butts an interesting chequered building t…

Another one to add to my “I never knew that existed in Reading” list. This morning, we visited Green Park, where there was a free photography exhibition being held run by The Photograph…

It’s that time of year again when places that would normally be off limits to the public throw their doors open and let us in. It’s time for the annual Heritage Open Days. In every othe…

I’ll get the jokes out of the way at the beginning. I was concerned that today’s trip would be a load of rubbish and a waste of time. There, now we can move on. Our u3a Out and About gr…

As the weather is taking a break from being in the 30s, we decided to get in another leg of the Thames Path. Because of our desire to only use public transport wherever possible, we chose to only g…

I forget how I came across Longplayer but I was fascinated by its intersection between two of my interests: music and technology. Conceived by Pogues member Jem Finer for the turn of the millennium…

Reading the latest Martin ‘Money Saving Expert’ Lewis email last week it reminded me that Amazon do behind the scenes tours of their fulfilment centres, something that I’d had on …

Another leg of the Thames Path checked off ✓. This time an 8.5 mile quiet and rural stretch bookended by Abingdon town and the city of Oxford. Here One Minute, Gone the Next For the first time sinc…

When we told friends that we planned to visit St Austell in Cornwall for a break they were very quick to point out that it was known as St Awfull (gleefully highlighted by the Daily Mail, which I r…

I was in the loft clearing out some other stuff when I came across some of my old diaries. There were about 12 in total – a small number of pocket diaries and about ten journals. These spanned the …

I know, you have two questions: What happened to day five? and Why is Cherbourg on a Spanish cruise? Day Five Day five was another day at sea. This time no attempt was made to go behind the scenes …

The last Spanish stop on this cruise was in Vigo, no I’d never heard of it either. The more cruises you do the more this becomes an issue. Once you have done Barcelona, Rome, Athens, Dubrovni…

Toady we docked in La Coruña, a pretty looking Spanish port but this was not to be the destination for the day. Instead we boarded a coach that drove us an hour to the town of Lugo. Guide but not G…

When you think of Spain what do you think of? Brits holidaying on the Costa del Sol, possibly? Barcelona and Real Madrid, perhaps? Basque separatists, maybe? Sunshine, definitely! So, it came as a …

The days at sea on a cruise are always very lazy days with little to do. This year I’d decided that to counter that I’d take part in a couple of activities that were likely to be running based on p…

I suspect that the films of Wes Anderson are a bit of an acquired taste— a bit like Marmite. I find them fascinating as much for their visual appeal as their storylines, but I can imagine that othe…

On the hottest day of the year so far, I made my way up to London to pay a visit behind the scenes at Shakespeare’s Globe on an organised tour. Not One, Not Two but Three This isn’t, in fact,…

I forgot to post this when I posted about the walk itself but I thought it was still worth showing.

It’s been a long time since we have done a leg of the Thames Path. Too long in fact. It was eight months ago that we did the last leg ending in Shillingford and made the bold statement that w…

It’s the time of year once again for the Reading Walks Festival. This year we are booked on to four walks which was the most that interested us and that we could make. There is some repititio…

A while back I had the opportunity to visit the Mini factory in Oxford. Actually it isn’t a “factory” but a “plant” in the same way it’s no longer an “engine” but an “ICE” and a “chassis” is a “pla…

I said in yesterday’s post that I was able to cross off not one but two items from my bucket list. This was because we managed to squeeze in a trip to the British Library on our way back from…

Having so recently talked about my bucket list it’s nice to report that I have ticked another one off the list (actually it was two but that’s a story for another day). This time it was…

I seem to have developed an unnatural fascination with the work of Alfred Waterhouse, famed architect of the Natural History Museum in London and, as it turns out, many fine buildings in Reading to…

A while back I decided to walk all of the Inner Distribution Road (IDR), Reading’s least glamorous route. As a follow-up I decided to tackle the iconic number 17 bus route. Running just under…

Last full day in Rome and our last AI inspired itinerary. Today was a walk along the Tiber to Isola Tiberina, into the Trastevere area before walking up Janiculum Hill for the views. The timing of …

Day two of our AI built itinerary of Rome today took us in the other direction down Via del Corso to the Piazza del Popolo, up into the Villa Borghese and back to the Spanish Steps. We’d learned fr…

We’ve been to Rome a few times before and so didn’t feel the need to do all the big ticket locations once again, well at least not to pay and go inside. We wanted some alternatives and so asked AI …

Today was the first time we had travelled to Europe since their new Entry/Exit System (EES) was introduced. I had read horror stories in the press about long queues and wait times as people got use…

I’m on the V&A mailing list. Normally it’s only of passing interest but when I opened one and found that they were running an exhibition featuring the work of Aardman Animations I w…

The underpass to Katesgrove, specifically the stretch beneath the IDR near County Lock, has had a series of murals installed in it, and I was keen to see it. What apparently used to be a somewhat g…

I guess you could say that I am somewhat late to the party with this post, given that all those annoying Spotify Wrapped posts were flooding social media late last year. I don’t use Spotify, …

The Reading Guide While I wasn’t born in Reading I have lived here all my adult life. In that time I have seen many changes across the town, many for the better. There certainly has been a gr…

I’ve been driving under the A329M flyover on Loddon Bridge Road for years, admiring the street art there and meaning to take a closer look. Today I finally did. The graffiti art under the A32…

It’s time for my annual round-up of the year just gone (you can read the previous year’s reports here). This was my first full year of retirement so it will be interesting to see what, …