One of the good things about Britain is the amount of public paths, short cuts and through ways. Invariably they are a function of history, whether the paths mark ancient cattle tracks or disused railway lines. Even when they go over private property, English law gives a right to use the pathway, which makes for some lovely walks over farmland. In towns and cities it has resulted in lots of short cuts, back alleys and a maze of little discoveries. And St. Albans, as a town with at least a couple of thousand years history, has many of these little paths. Generally towns which grew up before the car have more of them than planned towns or towns that have grown after the car. The one above is a little backcut which gets me to Ramsbury Rd much quicker than going around the roads.
The one below, is called the Alban Way. It is a cycle path that runs from the Roman site at Verulamium to Hatfield along the route of an old railway line. More details,
here. I cycled to Hatfield on it yesterday. The photo below is when the path runs through open countryside.
It also runs through St. Albans very close to where we live. In fact Charlie and Ollie use it everyday to get to school,
here.
I also found some lovely pictures of the Alban Way on flickr, courtesy of
phatcontroller:
I also took a couple of pictures of the flora. This is a bluebell, I think!
This time of year is lovely in Britain. Spring doesn't exist in quite the same way in the States, where it seems to go from winter to summer remarkably quickly. The English spring looks lovely as everything becomes green and the flowers bloom. Birdsong fills the air and the days are getting longer.
In an increasingly viral, on-line, digital world, it was great to see our boy's reactions to a trip to the Hendon air museum. We could have left them there for weeks. There is something so imposing and impressive about seeing the real thing. Especially the big planes like the Sutherland, the Lancaster (above) and the Vulcan. But also the fighter planes like the Lightening and the Phantom which resemble a man sitting on top of an almighty rocket with a load of explosives hanging from the wings and fuselage. The pictures below feature the ME 262, the world's first turbojet plane used in WWII.
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