Day 2 – Saturday, November 25th

7.20am: Morning all!

Here we are in Colchester, feeling somewhat nostalgic, re-treading old ground from our working days in and around the area.

9.10am: It might be freezing cold outside, but at least it’s dry! And, after yesterday’s ‘going nowhere fast’ adventure, today, we’re doing everything on foot! On the list is a wander up and down Colchester’s famous High Street and a trip to the famous Castle.

Colchester Castle

10.00am: Ann hadn’t been here since a school trip (back in the 70s) – and it was my very first visit. I can’t think why we’d never visited in the intervening years, considering we used to live nearby in Witham! We weren’t sure how it would look INSIDE, but the exterior was pretty stunning!

Once we were inside, our first impressions were ‘Wow!’ -and we hadn’t looked at any of the exhibits yet! They’d made really good use of the interior space across two floors – it was very well lit too!

After paying for our tickets, we were advised to begin upstairs and wander anti-clockwise to ensure we saw Colchester’s growth in chronological order. There was plenty to see!

In truth, it was more of a museum than ‘just’ a Castle with its displays offering a detailed description of the many, MANY finds over the years in the city, Lexden and Stanway. It had been a very worthwhile visit. Next stop was right next door, Hollytrees Museum.

Hollytrees Museum

10.45am: The Museum was originally a private house that dates back to 1718. It reopened in 2001 after major refurbishment, having been a Museum since 1929. The free admission leads to a variety of exhibits based around mediaeval antiquities and later bygones. Certainly, if you like old CLOCKS and WATCHES, you are in for a treat, as these dominate part of the ground floor. What they all had in common was they were all constructed here in the city.

Upstairs, there are examples of everyday life from times gone by…

Definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area!

11.20am: After a quick walk around Castle Park, we headed back to the Apartment for elevenses!

The toasted teacake had done its work, and we set off to explore more of the Colchester on our doorstep.

Colchester High Street

12.05pm: Good job we packed gloves and hats – it was absolutely freezing out there! Weather aside, the main drag was busy, but like so many elsewhere these days, there were a fair number of empty premises…

…with M&S (above) being one of those casualties (they moved out to Stane Retail Park, where we were yesterday). The iconic Debenhams was another famous name who’d closed. In fact, the high street scene, with its numerous vacant units, looked quite tatty and unloved. It certainly was nothing like we recall it when we used to regularly shop there. Even the weekly Saturday Market was now only once a month – All-in-all, it felt like a ‘never meet your heroes’ type moment.

12.15pm: As you might expect, the historical sights in Colchester were still as breathtaking as ever, including the Balkerne Gate, a scheduled monument and Grade 1 listed building. It remains the largest surviving gateway in Roman Britain.

1.10pm: Completing our nostalgic tour, we found the ‘old’ Sainsbury store. Ann had briefly worked there, whilst for me, it was one of the first stores I visited when I was promoted to Area Training Manager in the early 80s. Compared to yesterday’s visit to Stanway Sainsbury’s, this was very much ‘old school’, tiny in size and sporting just two checkouts. We supported the local economy and purchased a few bits before making our way back to Base.

We weren’t sorry to be in from the biting wind – I think it was actually colder at 1pm than it was when we first went out this morning around 10 (in spite of the weather forecast). It’s been somewhat bittersweet to visit Colchester again after all these years. We both felt it had ‘lost some of its magic’ but rose-tinted spectacles were all the rage in the 80s!! .

The rest of the day was spent doing nothing in particular. For me, the high point was the return of Doctor Who at 6.30 (I’ll post about that separately). We’re checking out after breakfast tomorrow, heading for Haverhill to catch up with a friend whom we’ve not seen for many, many years. We’re heading home afterwards!

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Return to Colchester – Day 2 appeared first on Steve's Blog.

We’re off to Colchester for a few days. Gosh! We haven’t visited here for quite a few years!

Day 1 – Friday, November 24th (Arrival)

We’re off!

We set off just after 9.45 this morning, heading for the A14/M11.

11.10am: Our first planned stop along the way was Gridserve Charging Station in Great Notley. This was a real glimpse of the motoring future with over 30 chargers, a café, a retail shop, a post office, washroom and somewhere for the sprogs to play! Even Teslas are catered for in their own area. The whole place is partly solar-powered too!

12.15pm: Next, was Braintree Shopping Outlet Village to have a look around and pick up a few of the last Christmas presents.

WhattaMistakaTaMaka! We’re not sure whether it was because it was Black Friday, or the place was just generally so popular, but we gave up, having failed to even find a parking space in the adjacent car-park. Not a great start to our few days away! . And how come there were so many CHILDREN there? Aren’t they supposed to be at school??

12.45pm: OK, maybe we’ll have more luck at our next stop – the retail park in Stanway? We also planned to have a look at the Sainsbury store that Ann used to work at. As we arrived, it looked like THAT store had closed, to be replaced by monster replaecment of a store (150,000sq ft) on the opposite side of the road in a newer space called Stane Retail Park. We’ve seen a few supermarkets in our time, but never one as large as this new(ish) Sainsbury’s.

As supermarkets go, this was very impressive. Pretty much anything and everything, all in one place, plus a few retail concessions too, including Timpsons and Argos! Amazing!

2.00pm: Our next stop was the equally impressive M&S. It was doing a good trade and we decided to take advantage of the on-site cafeteria. What’s this? McDonald’s-style screens to order your nibbles and not a human in sight. The poor customer in front of us was having a heck of a job getting the screen to respond to her increasingly violent taps – and so we stepped in to help! . At last, we ordered our snacks and found a seat. A real human appeared who delivered our drinks and cake in record time, but it surely can’t be long before they are replaced with robots – or we have to make it ourselves!

We picked up a few tree pressies for friends and generally had a successful shop. What happened next, was to ensure we never came back here again! Read on!

2.40pm: All we wanted to do was leave the car-park. We’d previously read online how congested it can sometimes get here, but as things turned out, I think we created a new record. Everything/everywhere was gridlocked – literally! For the first half-an-hour, I think we moved about 2 metres! In the end, we were in ‘exit’ mode for just over the hour! We agreed to rename the Retail Park – “Alcatraz” and probably just as well there wasn’t a hotel on-site as we would have called that “California”!!! .

3.43pm: We’re free! Free to join the next queue for the nearby roundabout. We abandoned plans to revisit the site of the former Sainsbury’s at Stanway (maybe another time?)and instead head back to nearby Lexden and a quick look at Ann’s Gran and Aunt’s house in Wordsworth Road – we haven’t been there for very many years and we were interested in seeing how the area had changed just nosey!

3.40pm: Well, it had changed quite a bit! Gone was the immaculate front garden, replaced by what seemed like a car-park! That was a bit of a shock, but I’m not sure what we expected to find?

Time to head to our temporary home for the next few days in the centre of Colchester, where once again, the journey there was as busy as ever, where I think we averaged just 5mph for about an hour. Eeek!

4.40pm: Called ‘Roman Quarter‘, we booked it, courtesy of Booking.com, and it has everything we need. It’s decorated to a very standard and Martin couldn’t do enough to help us settle in! He even met us at the nearby car-park to help us with our bags.

Just time to unpack before setting up the technology to type this Blog and then put our devices on charge.

On tonight’s menu: Beef Bourguignon, where we’re guaranteed no queues – we ate IN! . The perfect opportunity to reflect on today’s traffic chaos!!!

What a day! I love driving, but today was nothing short of horrendous. Perhaps we’re just out of touch with the traffic in Essex these days, but it seemed everywhere we went, there was congestion! . Tomorrow we’re heading for the centre of the city and Colchester Castle – and we’re walking!!

9.05pm: Totally exhausted! See you tomorrow!

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Return to Colchester – Day 1 appeared first on Steve's Blog.