Thursday 11th July 2019 in Leicester.
Friars Mill, alongside which we moored for two nights, is attractively restored as offices and a conference centre.
We set off fairly early, heading north through the less salubrious part of Leicester. Much of this is, has, or is being, flattened; according to a C&RT volunteer, it has all been earmarked for residential apartments.
Good job that R had his wits about him on this sharp right hand bend. Almost invisible straight ahead is an unprotected weir, looking for all the world like a continuation of the navigation. M said that she hadn't even noticed the weir and would have driven straight over!
We have seen a great deal of graffiti as we have navigated through Leicester but this was a very attractive trompe d'oeil just past the weir.
The next lock surroundings, however, were covered with the usual mindless mess.
This afternoon, we were intending to visit National Space Centre but there are not many suitable moorings on this bit of the canal. A C&RT volunteer had told us that there are pontoon moorings on a small arm, but that there are, as yet, no facilities there. The pontoons are indeed very new and smart and quite secluded.
One reason that they were secluded was that there was no "regular" way on and off them except by walking the plank.
You could then get out and into the car park of the Leicester Basketball Arena, but only because someone had been good enough to remove one of the bars on the tall gate that blocked the way into the car park! With a little effort, it could be a very attractive visitors' mooring.
The walk to the National Space Centre took us over a new footbridge and into Abbey Park. The path was lined with wild flowers.
The NSC resembles a chrysalis (by design). The covering is flexible and the shape is maintained by the internal pressure. The covering can be "unzipped" and folded back to get large exhibits in and out.
M, who loves a corned beef sandwich was amused to see this notice in the Centre's café.
She was not so amused to find that they no longer served a corned beef sandwich in the café because, the man said, no-one bought them!
R enjoyed a coffee under the Soyuz spacecraft.
The centre is very mch geared to youngsters and "hands-on" exhibits - a lot to see but everything presented at a very superficial level (dare we say, catering to short attention spans?).
M enjoyed seeing Tim Peake's space suit.
We took a short cut back to the canal through a new development dominated by the old "Wolsey" factory chimney. Nice to see that the development is being well maintained but we wondered at the lack of garages - just on street parking.
In the evening, we returned to the centre for a special concert in the planetarium celebrating 50 years since the Apollo moon landings. The music was Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon, the live band was "Darkside", a really fantastic tribute band - M said that she couldn't tell the difference between them and the original recording. And surrounding us there was historic footage of the Apollo program and the most amazing stellar images. We had an absolutely brilliant evening - and all for the princely sum of £15 each! Marvellous!
Three Days: 1 mile, 1 lock and 5.7 hours.
Trip: 155 miles, 77 locks and 93.2 hours.
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