Exploring inside the M25 - 27 September 2008

One tends to think of the M25 dividing London from the rest of the UK and that it is built-up city inside and country outside, but there are many lovely villages, spaces and places to discover inside the M25.

We began the day at Staines, once the home of the linoleum industry as it was invented there. It is a pleasant town on the banks of the Thames with a traditional Saturday market in the pedestrianised High St.

A short drive downstream is the cute village of Laleham with many fine old buildings. After a walk around Laleham we continued on downstream to Sunbury-on-Thames to have a look at the Walled Garden and the Millennium Tapestry exhibited there.

The walled garden is all that remains of a grand estate and is a very pleasant space with a highly recommended tea-room, if you don’t object to huge slices of mouth-watering cakes.

The Millennium Tapestry was a 6-year labour of love by the local ladies who created a montage from their individual efforts depicting buildings, scenes and historical events from the local area.

Retracing our path a little, we crossed the Thames at Walton-on-Thames to catch a 45-minute boat trip around what is a man-made island created when the Desborough diversion channel was created in the 1930s to improve navigation and shorten the trip between Weybridge and Walton.

It was a beautiful day to be out on the Thames and there were many boaties from plastic canoes, skiffs, narrowboats, to the big flash launches out enjoying the day as well.

Back on terra firma we headed west to Claremont Landscape Garden, which we had first visited in 2001.

A few kilometres southwest of Claremont is Whiteley Village, an extended care community for the elderly. Years ahead of its time at inception, it was a 1907 bequest of a wealthy London department store owner, it now consist of more than 300 listed buildings.

Finally, it was time to tangle with the M25 for the crawl home.

Kent - 21 September 2008

We have visited Chiddingstone a number of times as it is a very pretty little village in Kent and on each occasion we have wondered what was behind the gate at the end of the street. The gate allows access to Chiddingstone Castle so today we decided to fill that gap in our knowledge.

It is not a real castle, just a castlefied country house and it holds the collection of Denys Bower which includes an amazing array of Japanese art treasures and military pieces including a number of suits of armour.

From there we went to Titsey House, once the family home of the Greshams. They came to London and made their fortunes in the Tudor period as mercers and two of the brothers became Lord Mayor.

However, the most famous Gresham was their cousin who founded the London Stock Exchange and adorned it with the golden grasshopper from his family crest and a golden grasshopper adorns the LSE to this day.

London Open House Weekend - 20 September 2008

Once again the London Open House Weekend has rolled around and once again it was wonderful weather for it. This year we, again, missed out on tickets to Mansion House so concentrated on the Kensington area.

Linley Sambourne House had timed tickets so we were there fairly early to ensure we got tickets and while we were waiting for our 12-noon tour slot to come round we went to our other choice, Leighton House Museum.

Leighton House was the home of the 19th C painter Fredrick (later Lord) Leighton and is a little slice of Moroccan fantasy plonked into west London. The Arab Hall is quite stunning and although very reminiscent of Moorish architecture and design had failed in one small detail, there are animals and birds in some of the tiles decorating the room, something that is strictly forbidden in Islamic art and design.

As well as many of his own works there are other contemporary art works as well as a gallery area that was hosting show by a modern Moroccan artist. His works were very unusual and quite captivating.

From the exotic we went to the homely as we visited Linely Sambourne House, the Victorian home of a quite different artist, a Punch cartoonist. The house is basically unchanged from the furnishings and décor of the late Victorian era and it has survived through three generations from that time because, as our guide explained, there has never been ‘another wife’ living here. The sons never married and it was passed on down to a grandniece.

As the Kensington Roof Gardens were also open to the public we had another look at them and the two flamingos that live in a stream 6 floors up in West London.

Coupled with a walk around the Kensington area, it was a beautiful late summer day.

Budapest 'Must-do' - 14 September 2008

There are two things that the visitor to Budapest must do: Take the waters and take the cake. There is an abundance of choice for the first option as there are a number of thermal baths in and around the city. We finally settled on Szechenyi as it was reputedly the smartest and cleanest as well as the largest such spa in Europe. There was one other factor, the weather forecast: All week we had been threatened with rain for our last day and the Szechenyi baths were accessible by the M1 Metro line almost door to door, thus minimising our exposure to the rain. As it happened, although the temperature plunged to 15C, the rain never came so we could fully enjoy the outdoor as well as the indoor pools. We counted 15 pools, all of which we tried except the very coldest, an 18C plunge pool. There was a wide range of temperatures available, up to 40C as well as steam and dry-heat sauna rooms that ranged from 40C up to 75C (we lasted 5 minutes!).

The whole complex is very bright and clean and the helpful staff made it easy to understand the in-house processes from the walk through changing rooms to the lockers and the refund you get if you leave within 3 hours of your arrival.

Taking the metro all the way back to the centre of town deposited us very neatly at Gerbeaud's; an institution in Budapest since 1858. Naturally one pays over the odds for their coffee and cake but it is one of those things one has to do. We had some local currency left so attempted to settle our bill with 1/3 cash and 2/3 credit card but they would not oblige and were quite truculent about it; they will not survive another 150 years with poor customer service!

Out and about - 13 September 2008

A lovely 2.5 km stroll from our lodgings along Andrassy street, a boulevard lined with impressive buildings, takes you to City Park; home of the Millenary Monument, various galleries and one of the city's thermal baths. We returnred on the M1 Metro line, the oldest underground line in Europe.

Because we had managed all the towns on the Danube Bend in one day rather than the two we had planned, we effectively had created a spare day. Godollo was easily accessed via the Metro and the HEV suburban line and was, according to the guide book written by someone who had never been there, an attractive Baroque town. A royal palace was situated there so we decided to make the trip.

The palace was a 'private home' that was purchased and used as a Hungarian retreat by Elisabeth, wife of Franz Joseph and Queen of Austria. After being used as barracks during the communist era it is now well into a programme of renovation. The colours of the fabrics used for draperies, wall coverings and upholstery were simply stunning.

While the palace was an interesting trip, the town was a total disappointment so we headed back to town and walked across the river and climbed the hill to the Citadel for a wonderful last view over Buda, Pest and the Blue Danube dividing the two.

Remembering the past - 12 September 2008

The second largest Jewish Synagogue in world is in central Budapest and, built in a Moorish style, is quite a magnificent building. The stainless steel weeping willow tree in the grounds is a holocaust memorial with each leaf inscribed with the name of a victim.

From there it is a short walk to the Grand Market down by Elisabeth bridge where we feasted our eyes only before making our way back to our very centrally located lodgings.

When the communists were finally overthrown, some far-sighted city father decided that the numerous monuments dotted around Budapest glorifying the Stalinist era and the glorious workers' state should not simply be scrapped so a representative collection of them was assembled in Memento Park. This lies southwest of the centre just outside the city limits so is a bit of a hassle to access. There are tourist tours that go once per day for 3950 HUF but if you make your own way there it costs 2440 HUF.

The park includes a Trabant and some authentic footage from films used to train 'agents' to spy and inform on their fellow citizens including how to secrete your Super-8 camera in your handbag and how to best position it to carry out your covert surveillance.

The Danube Bend - 11 September 2008

The 'official' Danube tourist boat trips have optional excursions to look at the sights on the Danube Bend; our cheapie homespun Danube trip had us whistle straight past these spots at 65 kph so we had to make our own arrangements to get back to these towns.

We began the day with a trip in a modern spacious comfortable air-conditioned train from Budapest to Esztergom where there is a Basilica that is far too big and grand for the smallish town where it sits on the hilltop overlooking an S-bend in the Danube. The painting over the altar is supposedly the largest painting on a single canvas and is a copy of Titian's Assumption.

For a small fee, one can climb the 413 steps to the walkway around the cupola for an absolutely stunning view of the Danube and the surrounding area. Having walked around the outside of the cupola, we were about to descend when the attendant at the top beckoned us to follow through a fenced-off area. He took us halfway round the cupola, demonstrating the amazing echoes on the way. At the halfway point, he indicated that we should stay while he returned to the other side. He then treated us to our own private demonstration of the amazing acoustics in the space between the internal dome of the Basilica and the external roof of the cupola. Apart from worrying that this delay might mean that we would miss the hourly bus to our next stop, it was rather a special treat.

We raced back down the hill and realised that we did not have time to make it back to the bus station. We saw a bus with the correct name on its destination board and asked the driver. He indicated that we were to wait on the other side of the street for the bus that would take us to Visegrad, so we duly did.

The bus came and drove straight past the bus stop. Seeing our consternation, a friendly local indicated that the correct bus stop was a further 100m up the road so we raced after the bus. Fortunately the traffic lights were against the bus and in our favour and there was a horde of people waiting so we had no bother catching the old rickety totally overcrowded hot and steamy bus.


Eventually the crowd on the bus thinned and we could get a seat as we followed the Danube round to Visegrad. We left the bus there and slogged up the 350m climb to the fortress on the hill overlooking another S-bend. The views from the top did compensate, although the payment to visit the castle is not really worth it. However, no payment, no view.

After slithering down the more direct path to the road via St Stephen's Tower we waited for the next bus to arrive. Neither the path from the town or the path from St Stephen's Tower qualify for any better status than 'rough tramping tracks requiring sturdy boots'; we had our sandals and although both paths had been streams very recently following overnight rain, we made the round trip without incident.

Our last stop was the totally delightful town of Szentendre. Its pedestrianised centre is very twee and after exploring thoroughly we enjoyed a truly memorable meal at the Elisabeth restaurant in the square. Night had fallen as we made our way to the station at the end of the suburban HEV train line for our ride back to Budapest, leaving us a short stroll along the Danube to enjoy the city by night.