The cooling towers

When riding the train up to Nottingham today for tomorrow's control, I photographed the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station as my train stopped:

I don't recall ever being this close to the power station before; then again, I hadn't ever ridden a train on the Nottinghamshire-Leicestershire line until today, either. It was quite impressive experiencing a close view of the cooling towers!

The power plant has appeared in previous posts of mine: here, here and here.

The accident

Unfortunately, our diversion in Leicestershire yesterday morning was caused by a fatal motor accident. Dad heard on the radio and read this article that a motorcyclist had lost control of his bike and crashed into a tree. The rider, Anantkumar Morjaria, was declared dead on the scene.

As much as I enjoyed our exploration of rural Leicestershire, I feel bad that it occurred from someone losing their life rather than through our own choice. I wish the best to Morjaria's family during this difficult time for them.

Nottingham in May (2)

There is not much to write about today's happenings, as it was mostly spent indoors and can't be repeated here out of respect for my family's privacy. That being said, there is one event I can write about.

When we travel from Northamptonshire to Nottingham, we usually avoid the motorways and prefer to use the back routes because they are faster. On this occasion, we had completed a third of the journey to Nottingham when our route was blocked by the police due to an accident; rather than turn around and head back out to the main motorway, we instead opted to take a diversion, which took us down the deep country roads of Leicestershire.

This added an additional twenty-five minutes to our trip, but we enjoyed seeing more of rural Leicestershire. Additionally, despite how twisty many of the roads were, I was not car sick because I had been awake for more than a couple of hours and my breakfast had already settled; it is because of the risk of motion sickness that I did not take any pictures during the extended journey (if I focus on a screen or on letters while in a moving car it's almost guaranteed to cause me to be sick).

As for the accident, other than hearing about a piece of news regarding a traffic accident in Leicestershire I don't know anything about it; when we travelled on our usual route on the way back it was as though no accident had ever occurred. I hope the incident did not cause any serious harm.

Foxton Locks images

The Foxton Locks, located on Leicester's line of the Grand Union Canal, are ten locks divided into two sets of staircase locks. Also at the Foxton Locks is the Foxton Inclined Plane.

Here are some of the images I took during our visit there; all were captured with my main camera:

This is the Foxton Inn, a pub. Apparently, the food there is of good quality, but very expensive. We did not order anything from the pub or even go inside the building, but eating there is something to consider next time we go to the locks (or even going there for dinner one evening).

A shot looking up the upper staircase of the Foxton Locks. There is a museum off to the left and slightly behind me, but we did not visit it.

Looking down the upper staircase; the museum I mentioned previously is the building in the background on the right.

Some lilypads in another area of the grounds. We did not see any frogs in the vicinity of the pads, but there were plenty of fish!

A view from an observation deck on the grounds. From here both the Foxton Inclined Plane and some of the rolling hills of Leicestershire can be seen.

A brick/cobbled bridge crossing over one of the canals. There is a quaintness about this type of bridge that I really seem to like...they are both good to look at and fun to walk on.

This mother duck appeared to be teaching her ducklings that humans can provide ducks with food, as she was allowing them to swim up to people and even swimming to people herself. Her lesson was a failure, however, as no one had any bread to give her and her offspring. Maybe next time!

One of the many boat rides located along the bottom of the locks. I would have shot a movie of this boat instead had my camera card not been full.

A shot looking over the canal and back towards the Foxton Inn.

The entire grounds are walkable, and in addition to the pub and musuem there were a couple of smaller stores and another place where one can get something to eat. I think we will go to the Foxton Locks again at some stage and perhaps check out those other parts.

Finally, something partially related to our visit to the Foxton Locks, today we went to Rutland Water, loacted in the county of Rutland. I will be posting pictures of that place soon!

Foxton Locks

We visited the Foxton Locks in Leicestershire this afternoon. I do not have time to post any pictures of the place in today's post, and likely will not for tomorrow's either, but I should have them up by the end of the week. I took 209 pictures plus four movies while we were there!