Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Vilnius – Energy and Technology Museum

    I wasn’t sure what to expect from this museum, as the write-up in the city guide they gave me in the tourist information office just said that it told the story of industrial Vilnius. What I certainly didn’t expect was to walk in and it’s a power station that was in use until twenty years ago.

    This is what visitors see when they walk in. An entirely intact power plant, it’s very impressive. The building was at risk of demolition when the power plant closed, but funding from the European Union enabled it to be refurbished to become a museum.

    The ladders to the higher levels are blocked off, but visitors can still access the upper areas later on during the visit.

    The museum has a clever set-up where they’ve placed their audio tour on their web-site, so visitors can just play the appropriate audio as they walk around. Although I use my data, the staff member explained that there was free wi-fi to allow visitors to access their web-site. On the subject of the staff member, she was full of enthusiasm and it’s great to get an introduction to a museum so help get a understanding of what there is to see.

    I did listen carefully to the audio tour, but since it involves engineering, I forgot nearly all of it immediately. The above chamber was something to do with heating something, and it was apparently a nightmare to clean as the staff member had to crawl in and then be subject to a hot floor and toxic chemicals. Nice….

    This is in a room which was originally walled up and it did something hot and exciting. They’ve knocked a hole in the wall now so that visitors can go inside.

    The control panel of the power station.

    I think this is a condenser.

    Something power related.

    On the upper level, which is reached by going up some rather steep steps. As I’ve discovered from other museums this week, Lithuania seems to have opted-out from the EU rules on not having steep steps in museums.

    Another photo looking down on the power plant equipment. It was originally built in 1903 and at the time it was the first power plant in the city, with the museum opening in 2003 to mark the 100th anniversary. The reason for it coming into use was that the city didn’t want to use gas from Berlin to light the streets, they wanted their own provision. This, as events later showed, was probably a rather sensible idea.

    A piece of art on the ground floor by Danas Aleksa which is called ‘Dialogue’. I’m guessing that it is a representation of how the younger generation use technology, but I have no idea.

    On the first floor there is a display of industrial equipment, which includes a printing press. And lots of printing blocks and letters of all different sizes.

    A display of various electrical equipment which would have been powered by the power plant during the twentieth century.

    There is a room for kids which has inter-active exhibits. This one scared me as I wasn’t expecting it, it’s called ‘music circles’ and if you stand underneath one of the lights it breaks the beam and it makes a noise. You’re meant to work out how to play a tune, but I moved away from the area….

    An early post box.

    A late nineteenth century water pump.

    The above two photos are of an old computer.

    It’s a nicely laid out museum and the central element of the power plant equipment certainly ensures that it fits its aim of being an energy and technology museum. I can imagine it’d be popular with kids who can explore the multiple levels of power plant.

    Entrance to the museum usually costs €3, although I used my Vilnius City Card.

  • Vilnius – Chopped

    I found out about this restaurant on Google Maps, as the exterior doesn’t exactly scream out that there’s a decent dining option here.

    There’s an outdoor seating area to the front of the restaurant, where I tried to take a photo of the birds flying about, but they, well, flew off.

    The interior of the restaurant, with a selection of different beers to choose from. I opted for the IPA.

    And here it is. At the appropriate temperature and tasted fine.

    And this is the centre-piece of the restaurant, they specialise in chicken and chips. Actually, that’s pretty much all they serve, although there’s a selection of twenty different dips to add some variety. Opting for a little spice, this is the piri piri sauce.

    The food was excellent, the chips had some firmness to them, although the inside were still fluffy. The chicken was tender and the coating was crispy and pleasant tasting. This style of restaurant is on-trend and is a personal favourite of mine. The set-up reminded me of Woolf & Bird in Norwich, which I only visited once, but intended to become a regular until they decided to close the restaurant down.

    Overall, for a quick snack in something other than a chain restaurant, it was all rather enjoyable. The service was polite and there wasn’t much of a wait for the food to be served.

  • Lewes – Barbican

    The barbican gate in Lewes dates to the fourteenth century and was designed to protect the main Norman castle.

    Taken from the castle side of the barbican’s inner wall.

    The barbican itself, there are two rooms above the gateway.

    Inside the barbican.

  • Lewes – Bowling Green

    That’s some history, this bowling green has been in use since 1640 and was previously used as a tilting, or jousting, ground. The bowling green was once larger, but they’ve lost some of their land to building over the centuries.

    The Bowling Green Society was founded here in May 1753 and it seems that the Lewes bowling club has some rather different rules to other clubs. They have a different jack because their green is uneven, although I do wonder why they haven’t levelled it out a bit, given they’ve had over 250 years. Apparently there is a fee of £1 for every session, but there’s a surcharge of 50p each for those on the losing team. That seems to make things a bit competitive for my liking, but it seems to have worked well in Lewes.

  • Lewes – Anne of Cleves House

    This property is named Anne of Cleves House and it might, at first hearing, be assumed that this is the house that Anne of Cleves lived in. Or perhaps visited. She did neither, although it did form part the divorce settlement with King Henry VIII, so there is a link. It’s not though some sort of fake name to tempt visitors in, as the property has historically been known as Anne of Cleves House.

    From Herald Magazine in 1926.

    I didn’t go in as I was irritated that the site decides to off-load tickets cheaply on Groupon. I don’t like that sort of set-up where people, who may not have much money, can turn up on the door and have to pay a lot more money than those who happened to have seen it on Groupon. And, Groupon charge a lot of money, so, and in just my opinion, it all seems a rather botched set-up to me. So, I changed my mind and didn’t go in.

  • Lewes – 22 Station Street

    Continuing the theme of 23 Station Street and 25 Station Street, this is 22 Station Street and it was the Jolly Anglers pub between 1825 and 1955. It was originally known as the Coach and Horses, but it changed its name in 1874.

    The article in the Sussex Agricultural Express in November 1955 confirming the closure of the pub. It’s in a rather good location, a short walk from the railway station, and also between the station and the town centre.

  • Lewes – 25 Station Street

    Next to 23 Station Street is, well, 25 Station Street. The signage on the street explains that there was an outbreak of smallpox here in 1794, but the family refused to go to the pest house located at the former Saint Nicholas Hospital. So, helpfully, the local authorities put some fences up around their house, and also at the end of the road, in an attempt to warn others. Unfortunately though the smallpox spread and it was ultimately necessary to inoculate everyone in Lewes.

  • Lewes – 23 Station Street

    There’s a fascinating information board on Station Street in Lewes, detailing the history of the street which was once known as St. Mary’s Lane before the arrival of the railways. It gives details about the history of the street, but also some background about some of the individual houses. This is a great idea, turning what was otherwise just another street in an historic town into something much deeper.

    This house is the birthplace of Gideon Mantell and he lived here with his four brothers and two sisters. Mantell started his career as a doctor in Lewes, but it is his work as a palaeontologist that has gained him recognition. Amidst much mockery at the time, Mantell was able to prove the existence of what he named the Iguanodon.

    A report of Mantell’s work published in the local newspaper in October 1826. Mantell went on to live in a grander house in Lewes, before later on moving to London.

  • Lewes – St. Anne’s Church

    St. Anne’s Church is the oldest church in Lewes and although it looks interesting from the exterior, it has a much more fascinating interior than I had anticipated.

    The chancel of the church, with the aisle to the right being a later addition in the twelfth century. This visit was lifted by a lovely Canadian lady who showed me round and that included areas that I might not have otherwise have seen. She also explained the church is located on what was once a pilgrimage route, which explains its grandeur.

    I’ve visited hundreds of churches over the years, but none better than this as an experience. The welcome was everything that a church should be, with an extensive guidebook available on the church’s history. There are also panels with the history of the building and the passion of the church volunteers is clear, it’s a delightful place. And the church is rightfully proud of its history.

    The font dates to the twelfth century has a basket-weave pattern to the stone. It’s still in use today, that’s a lot of generations who have been baptised here.

    Looking back towards the slightly more modern tower. I had a little look in here and noticed the scary looking ladders fixed to the wall which went up to the belfry.

    The wooden pulpit is magnificent with its carvings, dating to 1620.

    This is the oldest memorial brass remaining in the church and is dedicated to Dr. Thomas Twyne. He was a doctor in Lewes for thirty years and he died in 1613, with a rather interesting epitaph (English translation provided).

    I’ve never seen one of these before, this is the area where an anchoress would have lived. This is someone who is devout and who effectively walls themselves up in an area by the side of the church. There’s no record of how long this cell was used for, perhaps just once or maybe for generations, although a burial has been found here. They have a reasonable amount of space, well for someone who has been walled up anyway, and it was for those who wanted to dedicate themselves to prayer.

    There’s another opening, now in a wardrobe and so not accessible to the public, where the anchoress would have sat to dispense wisdom to those who wanted it. The kind lady at the church showed me in the wardrobe, it’s a fascinating piece of history which has been retained. Above is the what is now the other side of the wall.

    The first three of these cast iron leaping board grave markers are dedicated to children from the Medhurst family who died at an early age. I think there are more markers than this noting the deaths of more children from the family (there were a total of eleven children who died, an incredibly loss for any parents), and the markers themselves are now listed as Grade II listed monuments.

    The churchyard at the rear of the church.

    If there is such a thing as a perfect English church, it’s this one.

  • Newhaven – Tide Mills

    I’ve walked the Seven Sisters in East Sussex many times, although usually ending at Exceat or Eastbourne. I’d never gone into Seaford and Newhaven which are a little further along the coast, but between them is this lost village that I hadn’t previously been aware of.

    Without the information boards I wouldn’t have been any the wiser as to what the remains of the buildings were. There was a settlement which built up around the mill which was located here, and there was a relatively sizeable population by the mid-nineteenth century.

    The mill stopped operating in 1900 and this made most of the housing lived in by workers redundant. In 1936 the settlement was designated as being unfit for human habitation and in 1939 the remaining residents were told that they had to leave.

    This is part of the nurses’ home.

    The remains of the marine hospital.

    More information about the marine hospital.

    More of the marine hospital building. The buildings location by the sea isn’t helping its preservation, which is part of the reason that the settlement fell into such disrepair even when people were still living here.

    The old railway line which ran to the mill site, and there is a former railway station here which is currently being investigated as part of the archaeological dig.

    As mentioned above, there’s currently an archaeological dig taking place to try and understand more about the site, and I only had time to visit a small portion of it. However, it’s quite a large site and the remains are relatively extensive. I shall visit again and spend more time here.