Castle Gardens Carnival

Yesterday we pulled pins from Aldi and headed down towards home, not certain how far we would get.

Freemans Weir

Spent a half-sleepless night worrying about the "huge" unprotected weir at Freemans Weir just past Aylestone, particularly as the Soar was in spate (or so we were informed by various 'authorities').  Set off in trepidation - Jan had to have a brandy as she too was full of nerves of passing this nightmare icon.

We just checked the board at each lock and found the weir to be no insurmountable problem - all ok as long as we kept to the tow path side; also weir was half barraged off.  Eventually we arrived in Leicester centre at Castle Gardens.  All the moorings on the secure pontoon were occupied but a chap stuck his head out and said all was red boarded below and that we could breast up to their boat. The boat was Amarantine and the couple were Lynda and Ken. Ken took Jan by surprise by talking to "Spot" by name and saying you must be Jan. It turns out Ken reads our blog.

The Carnival of Boats

After settling the boat we went for a walk onto High Street where we sat outside a bar and people-watched for a couple of hours. Just next to the bar was a Chinese Restaurant called the Shanghai Moon which was full of Chinese people - menu was also in Chinese with English sub-titles so we decided to have a take way from there and take it back to the boat. Let me say, If you moor at Castle Gardens walk up to Witherspoons on the High Street and eat in Shanghai Moon on the opposite side of the paved street about 100 yard down from the pub. You will not be disappointed, this was one of the best Chinese meals we have ever had. 

When we returned to TM the group of 3 boats had turned into a flotilla of 7 boats all breasted up with a further 2 later arrivals which moored across the cut. So we all sat and had a chat. It was gone nine by the time we stopped gassing to Ken and Lynda - what a great evening.  It's what boating is all about!!

This morning the EA station at Syston has dropped 25cm overnight but by lunch time it has pi**ed it down and the Soar was up and we were back to square one.  We walked into the centre of Leicester, exploring the 'Lanes' and had a great afternoon. Leicester is a much better city than we expected. The market, particularly for fresh fish and meat is fantastic and the Lanes are a joy to walk around. I'm sure we will be coming back here instead of going to Nottingham.

Note: This post is dedicated to our friend Dave Palmer. I had decided I was to tired to finish the post when my phone beeped with a text from Dave "Where's the Blog?" Cheers Dave!