Wynmelvin » Colchester http://blog.wynmelvin.com [ the blog ] Wed, 12 May 2010 10:58:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 October 10th, 2009 http://blog.wynmelvin.com/2009/10/october-10th-2009/ http://blog.wynmelvin.com/2009/10/october-10th-2009/#comments Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:42:37 +0000 Russell http://blog.wynmelvin.com/?p=570 COLCHESTER — Today I explored Colchester on foot. The first stop was the Information Office to get a map of the city.  From there it was across the road and into Castle Park to visit the Castle Museum. The museum is housed in a Norman stone keep built on the foundations of a Roman temple.

it was one of the best regional museums I’ve visited. It told the story of Colchester from prehistory through to the Stuart period. All artifacts had been unearthed or come from around the local area and were put into context with interesting and informative labels. Well worth the entrance fee.

After the museum I walked through Castle Park and found the remains of the Roman wall that was erected after Boadicea had sacked the city and killed it’s inhabitants, and elsewhere the remains of the original gate through the wall.
By now it was mid-afternoon so I slowly made my way back towards the Bed and Breakfast via the shops.   

]]> http://blog.wynmelvin.com/2009/10/october-10th-2009/feed/ 0 October 9th, 2009 http://blog.wynmelvin.com/2009/10/october-9th-2009/ http://blog.wynmelvin.com/2009/10/october-9th-2009/#comments Sun, 11 Oct 2009 06:01:26 +0000 Russell http://blog.wynmelvin.com/?p=567 COLCHESTER — It wasn’t that I had a long way to go but that the tangle of roads in the atlas looked very complicated, so I decided to try and get to Colchester as directly and quickly as possible. Except for the bit where I took a brief detour to the Isle of Sheppey. I passed through Queenborough and on to Sheerness. A rather featureless and desolate-looking piece of England. The most interesting part of the detour was the giant hump of a bridge that you had to cross to and from the Isle. You were warned about hazardous cross-winds when crossing.

I decided that the most direct route used the motorway system and it worked out rather well. No traffic jams; the only slow bit was approaching the toll gates for the Deptford Crossing. I got to Basildon at about 1:00 pm. so, being a little ahead of time, I did some shopping.

Reached Colchester shortly after 3:00 pm. and decided it would be a good idea to find my lodgings for the night. Traffic was very heavy and slow around the city centre but after a few circuits trying to find the streets depicted in my google map I stumbled across one I recognized and went round again because I was in the wrong lane. 

The bed and breakfast is on a busy thoroughfare but I managed to find a park nearby and walked over to check-in. There was a note attached to the door asking me to ring a number. As luck would have it I had forgotten to recharge my phone after it had alerted me to it low battery the night before. I  phoned the number but reached an aswerphone. Not wanting to leave my phone on waiting for a call I decided to walk in to town and buy an in-car charger for the phone—which I did.

Returning to the car I gave the phone a quick charge for twenty minutes or so before making the call again. Furtunately my hosts had just been out on an errand and had not known when I would be arriving.

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