Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Author: admin

  • Baltimore – Photos of Harbour

    From summer 2015, some photos of Baltimore Harbour, or more accurately perhaps, Baltimore Harbor. Baltimore had once been a thriving port, but it was too shallow for many boats to use and it fell out of use during the mid-twentieth century.

    Today the area is mostly now related to entertainment, with museums, bars, restaurants and other tourist attractions. I visited most of the attractions on my first visit to Baltimore, such as the National Aquarium and the Historic Ships, and it was also my first of many visits to the Five Guys restaurant.

  • Baltimore – Wi-Fi Password

    I was given this when I asked in an Irish bar if they had wi-fi. To be honest, I’ve seen slightly more memorable passwords….. I remember that it worked fine as I thought for a while they were just amusing themselves getting customers to type it in multiple times thinking they’d made a mistake.

  • Baltimore – Shot Tower

    This impressive brick built tower in Baltimore was the tallest structure in the United States when it was completed in 1828 and it wasn’t over-taken until 1846 when Trinity Church in New York opened.

    The purpose of the shot tower was to make lead shot, which was done by dropping molten lead from the top to then plunge into cold water at the base of the tower. It remained in operation until the turn of the twentieth century when more efficient production methods were discovered.

    The structure was added to the National Historic Landmark register in 1971 and it is one of only three remaining shot towers in the United States. Unfortunately the tower only opens at weekends, and I wasn’t in Baltimore on a weekend…. But, maybe I’ll get to go back and see inside one day.

  • Bixley – Saint Wandregesilius Church (Leslie Fenn)

    I spent the morning at Norfolk Record Office and was researching the church at Bixley for some time. That task was made much easier by the research work of a gentleman named Leslie Fenn (1910-1989) who was an amateur local historian who had a special interest in the church.

    He has compiled a large A4 ring binder full of information about the church, which can be seen on request at Norfolk Record Office. His researches have been extensive and the files contain copies of letters from the British Library and other locations when he had paid for information to be sent to him.

    Fenn was the headmaster at Redenhall Secondary Modern School towards the end of his career and his fascination with history throughout his life shines through just from this one folder full of documents. He was a Lay Reader at Bixley Church and had a huge interest in the history of the building. I dread to think what he’d have thought of the arsonist who destroyed the church and also at the lack of repairs being made to the building.

    Certainly future generations benefit from the work of people such as Leslie Fenn, their contribution to local history might be small individually, but is beyond measure when looked at collectively with the work of many other men and women like him.

  • Baltimore – What is Happening?

    As some context for this post, my second trip to Baltimore was in the summer of 2015. I liked my first trip to Baltimore, although it was apparent that there were some issues with regards to poverty and exclusion.

    In April 2015 there were some substantial riots which took place in Baltimore, with tens of buildings being looted, 150 vehicles destroyed by fire, multiple buildings damaged by fire and 250 arrests. It wasn’t a great time for the city, and it caused significant damage to the economy of Baltimore.

    Anyway, I was in my hotel one early evening, which was the Holiday Inn Express downtown. There was a loud bang, and I looked out of my window to see the below.

     

    My first thoughts were that there was some form of dispute going on, as the city were keen to stop any form of unrest very quickly to avoid the reputation of Baltimore being damaged any further.

    So, now deciding that I could be an inner-city riot reporter, I bravely went down to see what was going on. Although, I’d add that it was with the safety of tens of police officers in front of me.

    The actual incident was though something a little more mundane (although not to the people involved) as a car had been accidentally driven into a building next to the hotel. It was on the local news that the fire brigade were concerned that there might be a fire or building collapse, which is why there were more fire fighting vehicles than anything else.

    All told though, it was an interesting little piece of drama for the evening….

  • Baltimore – 9/11 Memorial

    Located next to the World Trade Center building in Baltimore is this memorial to all those who died in the 9/11 tragedy in New York in 2001. This memorial was unveiled in 2011 to mark the tenth anniversary and the names of 68 people from Maryland who died on the day are inscribed.

    The steel on top of the memorial comprises of three beams which were once part of the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York. I didn’t realise at the time the significance of this, but around the marble there are times of what happened during that dreadful day, and on 9/11 every year the shadow from the sun corresponds with that time of the day.

  • British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Baltimore)

    This post is more just to upload the photos than anything else, as I can’t remember much else about the flight now. I flew from London Heathrow T5 to Baltimore on an A380 in August 2015. Unfortunately, the photos aren’t very clear, but since they’re the only ones I’ve got of that flight, they’ll have to do.

    I was travelling in Club World and obviously I wasn’t paying since otherwise I’d have been in World Traveller.

    The aircraft at Heathrow T5.

    The Club World cabin during the boarding process.

    This happens too often….

    The starter and salad.

    Corn fed chicken, mashed potato and batons of carrot.

    Some sort of mousse.

    An ice cream from later on during the flight.

  • LDWA – Summer Solstice Walk

    One of the highlights of the LDWA calendar for me during the weekend just gone is the summer solstice walk, marking the end of the long summer days….. Well, the slight shortening of them anyway. And, I also like the cakes and the pub stop.

    Here are a few photos…..

  • Hamburg – Hamburger Kunsthalle (Portrait of a Sergeant by Ernest Meissonier)

    The French artist painted this artwork in 1874, towards the end of his career. This appears to be a painting of the French military from the end of the eighteenth century, with the soldiers wearing the chenille helmet from the period. The artist was also notable for his paintings of Napoleon himself, as well as the military during the Napoleonic Wars.

    The Kunsthalle put it much better than I ever could:

    “Meissonier, whose history painting enjoyed great popularity in France, as the early impressionism still met with widespread rejection, presented here six soldiers from the period after the French Revolution. They still wear the uniform of the Ancien Régime, while their helmet already with the badge the Republic is provided. The casual incident on the barracks yard shows a draftsman with a soldier standing in full gear and proud pose model. While the artist and the dog sitting next to him are staring at the sergeant with his saber, four other uniformed men are spellbound in the creation of the sketch. Noteworthy is Meissonier’s finely painted depiction, which impresses with its level of detail and the convincing reproduction of various textures.”

  • Hamburg – Old Elbe Tunnel

    The Old Elbe Tunnel was opened in September 1911 and there are two tunnel tubes, one of which is used by pedestrians and cyclists, with the other used by cars. It’s quite a complex set-up, with car drivers needing to use elevators to transport their cars down to the tunnel, and then lifts to get the car back up on the other side.

    I decided to walk down (it’s 24 metres), even though I slightly regretted that as there’s quite a drop on either side of the steps and I’m not very good with heights.

    The steps used to be escalators, but these were too expensive to keep maintained and so they’re back to steps. I could have just got the elevator down to the bottom of the tunnel, but that felt like cheating.

    I thought I’d just walk through the tunnel as an experience and I didn’t bother coming back out the other side, instead just walking straight back. It’s about a six minute walk each way (it’s 426 metres) and it seemed very well used given the number of people I saw. Although car drivers have to pay to be transported, it’s free of charge for pedestrians and cyclists.

    There are some ceramic reliefs along the tunnel walls, with a variety of different images.

    The plaque at the entrance to the tunnel.

    As an experience, it’s something rather different and it was an engineering marvel at the time that it was constructed. When they were building the tunnel the effects of Caissons Disease, linked to decompression, weren’t fully understood and three men died with hundreds more suffering from the effects.