Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Author: admin

  • London (Central) – Shoreditch Underground Trains on Offices

    These four former Jubilee underground carriages have become a little bit of a local tourist site in Shoreditch, now being used as offices on top of a building.

    The trains are located on a railway viaduct which is part of the old line which went into Broad Street railway station. That’s the railway station to the left of Liverpool Street Station on the above map, and it was demolished in 1986 as it had become surplus to requirements.

    So, on the above map, the railway line on the right is the current Liverpool Street to Norwich line, and the railway line on the left has been terminated where it ended at Broad Street and joined up with the section of railway line which is showing as a dead end above. The four tube carriages are located on the piece of line which has thus fallen out of use.

    The railway carriages can’t be visited by the public other than on special open days, but they are available for private hire as they do offer something of a talking point.

  • London (Central) – Duck and Waffle

    Our breakfast location on the Hike Norfolk day trip to London was a little shrouded in mystery as Steve was keeping it a surprise. We discovered, and I think the view was that we were impressed, to find out that we were going to the fortieth floor of Heron Tower (now formally known as 110 Bishopgate).

    The view looking up in the lift.

    The lights in the bar area of the restaurant. We were running a little early so we had a wait in this area for the table to become available, with another customer looking a little the worse for wear. Although this is a 24 hour operation, and indeed the highest 24 hour restaurant and bar in London, so perhaps that is a little inevitable.

    The views from the restaurant.

    A morning latte, which was excellent with its rich flavour and it was served at a drinkable temperature.

    I went, after much deliberation, for the spiced dahl which had two poached hen’s eggs, fresh coriander, flat bread and sumac sprinkled over the top. This was way above average, with the eggs being runny and brightly coloured, the sumac added flavour, the flat bread was lightly toasted and moist and the chickpeas were perfectly cooked. The sauce had a deep flavour and the dish was well seasoned, with everything being at the appropriate hot temperature. The portion size was also larger than I had expected, so this was a perfectly adequate breakfast meal.

    The pricing wasn’t the cheapest, but there was inevitably an element of paying for the location, with the drink being £4, the breakfast £10 and there was a compulsory service charge of around £2. The service was efficient and professional, but not particularly engaging. However, the efficiency was useful as we had an hour slot for the table and this proved to be entirely sufficient for our needs.

    We had booked across two tables so that we didn’t have to order from a set menu, which is required from larger groups. However, the staff seated us at neighbouring tables, so we could still hear what Dave was talking about.

    Overall, I thought this location offered better value than I had anticipated when we entered, although there is perhaps a need for a refresh of the interior as some of the seating was looking a bit worn.

  • Zagreb – Mimara Museum

    I’m a little unsure what to think of the Mimara Museum in Zagreb, which I spent a couple of hours meandering around. It’s a well designed conversion of a former gymnasium building and there’s an extensive area for the exhibits. Unfortunately, there are persistent allegations against the museum that a chunk of their exhibits are fakes and forgeries.

    The museum doesn’t seem to be doing much to defend itself against these persistent allegations, so goodness knows what the truth actually is. There’s an interesting article about the museum at https://www.lootedart.com/MFEU4T15383.

     

  • Zagreb – Vagabund Pizza

    This is going to fall into the category of pretty much pointless blog posts, although to be fair, I have a lot like that. Unfortunately, I visited this restaurant in Zagreb two years ago and I appear to have forgotten just about everything about it. Which isn’t ideal when trying to write a little something about it.

    The kitchen area.

    This is the house pizza, which would explain why I ordered it, which has toppings of salami, bacon and mushrooms on it. If I could remember anything about the visit then I’d mention if it was a decent pizza. But I can’t, so I won’t.

    This is why I should write about stuff at some point fairly close to the event taking place….

  • Zagreb – Harat’s Pub

    Harat’s is the largest chain of Irish bars in the world, although they’re nearly all in Russia and eastern Europe. There is now though a solitary presence in the United States, as a Harat’s opened in Miami a couple of months ago.

    That’s an eclectic mix of beers to say the least, but the presence of Belhaven Black and Guinness make it entirely acceptable to me. The prices aren’t cheap, something like £3 per drink, but there must be a transportation cost in getting these beers over to Zagreb.

    Most Irish bars around the world are a little over-stated and gaudy, well, with the exception of the Irish bars in Ireland which have heaps of character and charm. The bar was fine though, staff spoke good English, beer selection was acceptable and the atmosphere felt welcoming. There’s an outside area to the pub which overlooks the market, although that was rather too smoky for my liking.

  • Zagreb – Antun Gustav Matos Statue

    Antun Gustav Matoš was a poet and writer who has become one of the most important literary figures in Croatian history. He lived in Zagreb for some of his childhood but had to be careful on his later return to the city as he ran off in 1894 to avoid conscription into the army.

    All was forgiven with regards to his desertion by 1908 and so he returned to Zagreb. It wasn’t though a long return as he died in 1914 from throat cancer, at the age of just 41.

    The statue in memory of the poet was designed by Ivan Kožarić and although I thought it seemed quite modern and contemporary, it actually dates back to 1978. It’s located on the Strossmayer Promenade, which has views over the city centre.

  • Zagreb – Do Worry

    Either this is some local cultural thing that I’m not aware of, or something has been lost in translation here….

  • Zagreb – A Story of a Rail Crossing

    I needed to cross these railway tracks, but as I approached the barriers came down. This is a perfectly normal occurrence with trains and I thought that I’d stand there until they went back up again, as this is usually how these things work.

    However, two people walking near to me decided to lift the barrier up a little and carry on their walk across the tracks. I assumed that they were locals and knew what they were doing, so I decided to ignore them and stay waiting where I was. Then two more people came along, although there was no sight of a train, and they did the same. Another small group came along and they also offered to hold the barrier for me. Friendly, but I still didn’t want to get run over by a train.

    After another eight people had crossed, I was getting irritated at this situation. Being British and obeying rules, I decided that this was most inconvenient. And then, as can be seen in the above photo, a bloody pushchair is pushed across. By this time the barriers have been down for around five minutes and there’s a total absence of trains.

    At this stage I decided I was just going to have to wait, as stepping onto railway tracks with a barrier that’s down just doesn’t seem sensible. Then I hear a train is coming, which pleases me greatly as I start to think that the barrier might go up. I’ve probably been here now for around eight minutes, although I didn’t time it exactly as I didn’t know I was spending the entire afternoon here.

    Anyway, the train above comes along and then screeches to a halt. And two other people cross in front of the train as it’s stopped. This set-up that a train has to stop to let pedestrians across seems bloody ridiculous to me. This is all made more bizarre as that barrier isn’t easy to lift up, so everyone going through is either doing some kind of limbo move to get under it, or they’re struggling to lift it up.

    At this point I’m now quite grumpy about the situation. I decide that I’m not going to walk in front of the train, so I pretend that I don’t want to cross. There’s a signal box to the right of the crossing and the man there was waving at people, although I wasn’t clear whether he was waving them across or waving at them that they might die.

    After around another two minutes the train goes and the barriers go up. And I then get the above photo, but I was conscious that a bloody train was likely to come flying along just at this point.

    When I got back to the hotel I recounted this story to someone who pretended to look interested. His reply was “we’re Slavs, we don’t do what we’re told” and he added “it’s the Germans and the Poles who do what they’re told, they would wait all day if that barrier didn’t move”. I’m sure there’s some truth to this, although personally I’d add that as a Brit, I’d have probably stayed there all day as well….

  • Zagreb – Views Over the City

    There are some areas across Zagreb which give some excellent views over the city centre. The photos below were taken from the Kaptol area of Zagreb.

  • Zagreb – Étien’s Whale

    Going along with the artwork of the turtle created by the French artist Étien, he created this enormous image of a whale on the side of a disused building. There is a sweet spot of where to stand to look at the whale where it seems entirely in perspective, and this does make it look even more realistic. This grand mural, which was painted in 2015, has won numerous awards over the years.