As mentioned in the last episode we had planned to spend a few days in Leicester Marina, a novel experience for us.
Saturday 5th August
Today we took the bus down Melton Road and Belgrave Road to the city centre, these roads are known as the Golden Mile and it is renowned for its authentic Indian restaurants, sari shops, and jewellers, and has been described as “the closest that Britain comes to an Indian bazaar”. [Wikipedia]
In the evening we went to a surprise 70th birthday celebration for our friend Carol, her daughter drove over to collect us and we enjoyed a Chinese meal with them all.
Sunday 6th August
This afternoon our son Jeremy arrived with his children to drop off our granddaughter for a week with us, this time we went out for an Indian meal what else?) at The Owl and the Pussycat.
Quite the unique experience, authentic Indian food in a typical large city pub!
Monday 7th August
We took another trip to the city centre today with Iona, and had wraps and sandwiches for lunch at Pret a Manger, and visited the covered market for fruit and veg.
Tuesday 8th August
We had intended to leave the marina today but the rain persisted all day so we stayed put, Joy & Iona did arty stuff and we watched the ‘Sound of Music’ on DVD in the evening, something I’ve avoided for the last 50 years!
Now we’ve got a ‘Lonely Goatherd’ earworm!
Wednesday 9th August
The rain stopped (!!!) so at midday we cast off and left the marina after filling our water tank, in just a few minutes we arrived at Thurmaston Lock which was negotiated without any problem despite the river being on yellow boards.
We stopped for lunch near The Hope & Anchor and debated whether to continue onwards so we went on the canalised section, past L R Harris’ Old Junction Boatyard where we spotted nb Rainbows End again.
https://youtu.be/9sHXaLifD2s
When we arrived at Junction Lock we found the river below here to be on ‘Red Boards’ so we are moored on the rings opposite the weir to see if the level drops tomorrow.