Butterfly House – 19 February 2012

Wisley RHS Gardens had a special winter feature, butterflies in the glasshouse. Along with half the membership, we decided to enjoy the sunny, but cold, day there.

The gardens still had a winter look, but were still pleasant to walk around. A pub lunch nearby was a pleasant chance to continue enjoying the sunshine.

A Sparkling Walk – 11 February 2012

Despite another few centimetres of snow on Thursday night, the snow was nearly gone on the Chorleywood Common by Saturday, so we caught the train two stops further west into the Chilterns to Chesham. Here the snow was still deep in the countryside around the town.

The local council promote walking in the countryside, by making a free selection of colourful walks available at the local library. We choose a selection of appealing walks, and decided to do a 7 mile walk through the fields in a circle around the town.

This would have been pleasant, but unexciting on a normal day, but today with the fresh snow thickly covering everything, it was just magical. There was not only snow glistening with ice crystals, but long hoar frost needles were developing on fences, post tops, plants etc, and in the bright sunshine, it looked like all the diamonds in Antwerp were scattered everywhere.

Small numbers of children were out in isolated fields, having an exhilarating time whizzing down steep icy slopes. We took our walking poles and sun-glasses, both were essential.

About three-quarters of the way round we passed the Hen & Chicken pub. By this stage we were rather hungry, and glad of a rest too. The pub is a really old and one of the most appealing interiors we have seen recently. A large fireplace (originally the kitchen cookplace I suspect) had a warming fire and either side of the fire were chimney seats, tucked inside the chimney in typical inglenook fashion.

The bar area was tiled, so no need to take our boots off. They may have been wet, but after walking miles through the snow, were the cleanest they have been for a long time! The restaurant area was quaint, with old timbers and another fire. A very welcoming sight on a cold day.

Suitably refreshed we completed the circuit to the centre of Chesham and returned to real-life by filling our backpacks at the supermarket before training home.

Out enjoying the snow – 5 February 2012

The snow started right on cue, at 5pm Saturday, and continued through the night, so that when we got up Sunday morning, the world was transformed with a 10cm blanket of white.

It was amazingly mild, and we actually ended up too warm in our multiple layers of clothing. We enjoyed the vast white clean expanse of the common in the early morning, as we circled around the common to the church. This looked just like the popular Christmas cards we saw in our childhoods.

By the time we had enjoyed a coffee in the township, families were out in force, and the colourful scene reminded us of a Bruegel painting. The snow was so fresh, that it was easy to make a huge snowball – a first for us.

A hot mulled wine at the pub at the top end of town, gave us the energy to explore the snowy walking tracks on the western edge of Chorleywood. It was the ideal day for the snow, everyone was able to enjoy it while fresh and picturesque, leaving the remnants behind on Monday, as we made our way to work

Waiting for the big freeze – 4 February 2012

The TV news has been doing their best to make everyone aware that a big snow fall was due to move down the country on Saturday night. Meantime, Saturday was fine, frosty and rather pleasant. We wanted to sample the food at Chenies' Bedford Arms hotel for lunch, so found a suitable walk on the Web, that would get us there by lunchtime.

Walking from our own front door is the most appealing exercise we know of, and by the time we made it to Chenies, we felt totally justified in enjoying their amazing triple fried doorstep sized chips with our ploughman's lunch.

Beginning and End – 29 January 2012

After spending the western New Year in China, we decided to go Trafalgar Square, to see the Chinese celebration of New Year in the West, especially as we discovered that one of us was born in the 'Year of the Dragon', which comes around once again this year.

The parade was disappointing, although colourful, but this year at least, the police bus was decorated appropriately!

We also planned to visit the Death Festival at the nearby Southbank Centre. Part of this was 'Boxed', an exhibition of coffins from UK and Ghana. These two companies make unusual custom-made coffins, often at the request of people for their own eventual death. Not on the same scale as fabulous tombs and mausoleums we have previously seen in the UK and Europe, but modern, novel final resting places nevertheless.

It was impossible to come to this part of London, without spending some time at the National Gallery. The amazing wealth of art there, is always an inspiration.

Coaching Inn to Chateau – 28 January 2012

Today we stepped back into the time of historical novels, and visited the Kings Head in Aylesbury, one of the oldest coaching inns in southern England, which still has its original coaching yard.

It is owned by the National Trust, and they have a history room in the stables, which dates the history of the inn. It started life in the 15th century, and has housed many notables in its history including Cromwell; Judge Jeffries; Anne Boelyn & Henry who VIII visited on their honeymoon; and in more recent times, Richard Burton.

We visited for lunch, and very much enjoyed the food and the ambience. We could almost hear the horses hooves on the cobbled courtyard, and hear the grooms etc. It really is a wonderful piece of history.

Not far from here is Waddesdon Manor, a very different slice of history. The Kings Head was once a hotel owned by the Rothschilds, but Waddesdon was the country home of Baron Rothschild, built in the style of a French chateau. We went to see their winter garden, but it was more interesting to admire the house in the winter sunshine.

Emperor's New Clothes – 22 January 2012

Of the many museums we had yet to visit, the one that seemed to get the most recommendations was the MoMu fashion museum and since Antwerp is famous for its fashion we decided that this would be worth a visit. Before that, since this was the first day for which there was no rain forecast, we decided to visit the sculpture park. It is a tram ride and then a 10-minute walk to what is probably a very pleasant destination in the summer. Today it was cold, damp, windy and bleak and the sculptures were thus not displayed to their best. After a fairly perfunctory wander around we headed back to the centre of town where the sun was finally putting in an appearance.

Sunshine and blue skies (between clouds): what could we possibly do but scamper around and get as many photos as possible? Having done the Cathedral and the square we caught a tram back to the harbour area to revisit MAS. The tram took us nearly there and we had to walk a short way to the harbour so set off in what seemed to be the correct direction.

The area looked a little sleazy and the first bar had a mural on the windows showing old men leering at young women; our comment “Nothing if not honest”. Turning the corner we were in the centre of the red-light district and although it was early afternoon the wares were already on display in the windows (or more correctly glass doors) all along the street. We thought we had wandered into Amsterdam except that in Amsterdam you do need to wait until after dark for the show.

After a quick, whistle-stop, photo visit to MAS we returned, like the Wise Men via a different route and caught the tram back to town to finally visit the fashion museum. Curiously, it has no permanent exhibits recalling how the Antwerp 6 broke into the international fashion scene, but instead has two special themed exhibitions per year.

The current main exhibition was works by a local designer which were definitely in the Emperor's New Clothes territory. Maybe, just maybe, it was not aimed at our demographic; it was not money well spent. There was a small side exhibition of clothes designed by Russian designer Nudie Cohn who, apparently,single-handedly created the whole “Rhinestone cowboy” country and western spangley costumes so loved by Dolly, Johnny, Elvis, Englebert and so forth – all of whom have worn Nudie designs. Not bad for a chap who started our designing G Strings!

There was time for one last nostalgic wander through what will be our last European town square before we wandered back to the station to catch a local train to connect with the Eurostar in Brussels.