St. Albans for #gumtreepeople

Just created my #gumtreepeople entry forSt. Albans (after some time wrestling with Gumtree's strict naughty words filter). Yes it is for a competition, but that doesn't mean that what I wrote isn't true!

St. Albans is a market and cathedral town that sits near the site of the former Roman Britain town called Verulamium. It was one of the bigger Roman settlements in Britain. So large in fact that it even attracted the attention of Queen Boudica who went on to sack and burn the town. It recovered and continued to grow up until the Roman occupation ended about 1500 years ago.

The modern St. Albans takes its name from Saint Alban, the first British Christian martyr. It has been suggested that the name Holywell Hill near the Cathedral site, is because the severed head of Saint Alban rolled down the hill from the execution site, and where it came to rest it uncovered a spring (thus being named Holywell).

Well enough of history, here's my entry about what I find best about the town. If you have any questions about the town, please leave a comment here or on this forum post hosted on Gumtree.

Bluebells at Batch Wood, St. Albans

We went for a walk around Batch Wood near St. Albans in Hertfordshire on bank holiday monday. Weather was pretty crappy at times (rain, hails, wind), but still enjoyed the sights of Bluebells. These were tough to capture, so I am hoping to get better results next weekend at the Ashridge Estate instead.

St. Albans Cathedral Abbey roof tour

St. Albans Residents First Weekend is an event designed to allow locals to visit attractions for free, which then helps us gain knowledge in the town we live in thus being more able to encourage friends to visit. One of the more popular attractions is the St. Albans Cathedral Abbey church roof tour. Due to health and safety issues, the tour is very limited and because of this advance tickets were needed. Due to the popularity the tickets were 'sold out' within minutes of them being made available on each morning.

Monday morning isn't the best time for me to recollect details of our tour, so I will leave it to the superb report of the tour by Robin of St. Albans People. Whilst I am no fan of religion, the architecture detail of the Abbey is well worth the journey to visit. Unfortunately the roof will be closed to access for the next couple of months (perhaps to next year) due to modernisation and refitting. Despite that the Abbey (and St. Albans) is worth your time even if it is purely for architectural and historical curiosity.


View from the ceiling


The bellroom


The 'music' room (I can't remember exactly what these things are called)


View of the Verulamium park (formerly the Roman city of Verulamium)


Eastward




The town centre

Even more UK snow (St Albans)

December 2009 UK snow

We took some time in between moving and unpacking to enjoy the snow. Not quite is memorable as the one in February, but still it is pretty nice to have. That is before the snow is compacted into ice making it a hassle to walk on... I had to dig out my walking boots today because of the amount of ice on the pavements.















The last image is via my E55. I have not tested the panorama function extensively before, but it works really well and accurate like my old Sony Ericsson K750i. It is quite slow, but at least you are not required to stitch it yourself later.

The Catch, Bushey

The Catch is a family friendly fish and chips store/restaurant in Bushey Heath. We visited the place yesterday and found it to be a fantastic restaurant staffed by lovely people.

At £9.50 for standard battered cod, it is slightly pricey, but the quality is amazing and the fish chunky. The batter is crispy, yet isn't oily to put you off (you can also have them grilled), while the cod itself is soft and meaty at the same time. Served with a generous portion of chunky chips (though they are pretty mediocre compared to the one we get at Bardsley's Brighton) and home made tartar sauce to top it off. For starters we had a a huge fish cake and prawn salad, both which were generously portioned and incredibly satisfying.


The staffs and owner were incredibly friendly and polite. It does get very busy at times and can be very difficult to flag one of the waitresses. It also happens to be very pricey (expect to pay around £15-20 per head), but a two course lunch and early dinner deals are available from Monday to Saturday (a snip at £7.95 per head).

Overall we love it and would not hesitate to dine there again.

114-116 High Road
Bushey Heath
WD23 1GE
Tel: 0208 950 4679

Bluebell season in Whippendell Woods

From yesterday's stroll around Whippendell Woods, a location that is perhaps famous among Star Wars enthusiast as a set in The Phantom Menace.