The Centenary of the Start of the Great War.

Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th July, 2014 in Evesham.
M needed to go home today for an overnight stay, so R walked her to the station. The train service is infrequent, but goes direct to Paddington with a stop at Reading, where M was able to take a train direct to Reigate. M said that it was a lovely journey through pretty Cotswold villages.
After waving M off (and doing a jig, said M?), R wandered back to MM in time to see Russ and Vicki leave on "Misty". We hope that we can stay in touch with them as they were so much fun.

Soon after, two small motorboats came up through the lock, which was opposite MM's mooring. On the River Avon, the rule is that you leave the exit gates of locks open (unlike the canals, where you are asked to close them), so R took the opportunity to cruise MM straight into the lock. There is a resident lock-keeper, but he was appeared to be far more interested in fixing his motorbike! He did walk over to see what was going on, but didn't offer to help. R cruised through the main road bridge and found a very pleasant mooring on the other side, opposite Abbey Park which is on the site of the old Abbey.

Last year at Welford, between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, we crossed the River Avon close to its source. Below is the picture that we took of the same River Avon last year. It is little more than a brook at this point; it's hard to believe it is the same river !

Monday evening was the centenary of the start of the Great War and all over the country ceremonies were held to commemorate the event. People were asked to extinguish all the lights in their houses and put one small candle in the window at 10:00pm for one hour until the actual time that war was declared at 11:00pm.
R put out all the lights on MM and left just a single candle burning in the window.

In the park opposite, a crowd was gathering around the bandstand so R walked across to join them. Various dignitaries were reading stories and letters from soldiers in the Great War; it was very emotional.

Many of the crowd had candles, and as 10:00pm approached, the candles were lit. The Last Post was played, followed by two minutes' silence and then the bells in the old Abbey bell tower chimed the hour. On the first chime, the war memorial on the hill above us was lit up in red, white and blue. A spotlight picked out the statue of a soldier on the top of the memorial and, over the next few minutes, the spotlight gradually dimmed until, in the darkness, the figure of the soldier disappeared. Very moving and very effective.

M at home in Reigate, also lit a candle, but was very sad that she had missed the ceremony in Evesham.
It rained hard overnight and the rain continue into the morning, so R had a quiet morning apart from going to Costa (where else?) for second breakfast.
At 4:00pm, he walked up to the station to meet M and together they had afternoon tea at "Herbie's" in the town.
Over the two days: 0 miles and 1 lock and 2.9 hours.
Trip: 106 miles, 95 locks and 103.8 hours.