13/6/26 Citadelle Park

 

    After wandering the old city for a few days , it was time for a change , so we headed over to Citadelle Parklands . On the way across we spotted a beautiful pink rose with an enormous amount of flowers - some past there best , but an incredible display . Roses seem to do well here in Lille .

     We crossed over the canal again and wandered into the parkland , tracks zigzag through the massive trees . The trees are all the usual varieties of Oak , Maple , Ash , Fir , Plane trees , Elms and more . The trees have an ideal position in between all the canals and walls , plentiful supply of water and most are over 30m tall . It is such a beautiful place to walk around . The locals utilise it for exercise , with runners , joggers , walkers , cyclists and tourists all around the place .

There are brick walls on the side of this canal , it would've been very hard to penetrate the barracks and buildings in the centre .

It would be a stunning place to be in Autumn with all the changing colours !!

There were even some of the locals out & about - probably enjoying the warmth of the sun 

     The Citadelle has a gate ( of course ) , this one is not in use at the moment as the army / defence force is in situ , so access to the buildings in the centre is out of bounds for everyone else .

We had some lunch and enjoyed the serenity of the forest .

One of the canals

One of the avenue's of plane trees .

After wandering some more , we headed out across the canal at a different bridge and continued beside the canal down to our starting point . Thought we may have been in luck with watching a hockey game , but alas they weren't playing a home game today - there was some juniors training this morning when we came by . There was a section of yellow daisies growing semi wild beside the track .

     Canal boats were still coming and going as we walked along beside the canal , the parkland is in the background .

Caught another boat coming through the lock , this one obviously empty .

    That was it for today , here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=150b3IMWHCCYzqtpP0NAZbHXpe4YPK4g&usp=sharing

12/6/26 Lille old city

 

    

     Today we ventured into town again , to find the Porte de Paris - a monumental triumphal arch , symbolising the historic relationship between Old Flemish & New French rule . It's where people travelling to Lille from Paris arrived into the city .

This is the view down to a green space park from the drawbridge of the gatehouse .

   Whilst wandering around , we kept seeing various spires & towers , seemed we were walking around them in circles . They kept appearing in different places . This one was one of them , and we walked past it - the Eglise Catholique Saint Maurice .

    There's some spectacular street scapes here , giant plane trees lining either side of the street , made for a pleasant walk . Apartments and businesses intertwined along the street , some very old , some newer buildings.

Another avenue of trees leading to somewhere else to explore later .

   Came across a very tall private fence around a massive building , turns out this was the museum of European fine art .

This is the front of the museum

Directly opposite the last shot is this one , the amphitheatre and Lille Prefecture - County Government Offices .

                            This leadlight awning over someone's door caught my eye  .

                             

   We continued back to the bus stop and headed home after dodging rain showers and the cold summer weather - 10- 19 most days so far , with a bit of rain thrown in for good measure . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1MglCIJ90h6YqwMaL75Sm5ccrg9omXOo&usp=sharing

11/6 Lille old city

 

 Onto the bus and back into Flandres train & bus station , so we could look around in the old city ( part of it anyway ) . Chose a street to wander down , going past some of the older homes & apartments , till we came to this mansion , must have been someone important !!

The doors & doorways are fascinating , if only they could talk , some stories would be amazing .

Here's an older entrance , even has stones set in to prevent vehicles from hitting the columns either side .

     There's no shortage of narrow cobblestone lanes and roads to walk down , something new - or should I say old at every turn .

Another impressive entry 

Love the way they have these steel bollards to stop vehicles from parking and pedestrian safety of course.

    We found our way to Notre Dame Cathedral and had a look inside . It didn't look too over the top to start with .

   Then looking at the front wall of the cathedral from the inside - this whole section is glass , but doesn't look it from the outside .

     Out towards the rear of the cathedral were several alcoves , huge stone columns supporting the roof , and good lighting highlighting the ceilings .

    Continuing onwards , we arrived in Grand Place - a large square , surrounded by tall buildings . This is the Stock Exchange - 24 identical houses placed together in a square formation .

     This is inside the square , inside the Stock Exchange. They have markets here most days - lot's of books trade hands usually , but it was a bit wet today so covers remained on !!

    The drain pipes from the roof were certainly different back in the day .

   Finding our way back to the bus station was easy and we headed back to the apartment . 

The sun is setting at around 10pm and first light is around 4:30am , making for long daylight hours . 

Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=134AdDkvb9EufFpWS4uL_ciqTMZMMk8A&usp=sharing

9&10/6/26 Zoom , zoom

 

    We arrived at ST Pancras about 1-0 mins earlier than our allotted time , and were ushered in to check in, which was nice as we avoided a lot of people and got through easily and quickly . It also meant we could get a seat in the departure lounge before the hoards that were about to descend upon us . Before long we were again alerted our train was ready for boarding , so away we went . Found our carriage and our seats , battled with luggage storage , but found we were sitting at the other end of the carriage , so i went & got the 2 suitcases and brought then down near us , where there was plenty of storage . Before long we were off , seeing some countryside in between hedge rows . It seemed like a short period of time had passed when we entered the tunnel under the English Channel - all 31.5 miles or 54klms !! As we were zooming along at 300 odd kms per hour , it didn't take long for that 54klms to wizz by , and we were in France . The weather was a bit hit & miss , with showers & cloudy . Interesting when it rains , the drops form horizontal lines on the windows 🤔😆

     After only 1and a half hours , we were at Lille in the north of France near Belgium . Getting off the eurostar , we headed across to the Westfield shopping centre and got lunch , before figuring out our bus route to get to the apartment . Lille will be our home for 5 nights , and speaking of it - our apartment is the 3 windows above the white van . This is our street , only about 3klms from the city centre .

    Terrace housing is the norm here , but funnily enough there are back yards here that are quite large . There's free parking if you are lucky enough to find a spot !!

     We decided to go for a wander around to acclimatise ourselves a bit , finding our way back to the canal we crossed in the bus . There's a lock here that has its own control tower - hmm must be busy , and with that a canal boat arrived into the lock . We watched the lock gates close and walked to the other end .

   By the time we got there the lock had filled and the boat was nearly ready to continue its journey up the canal . This was a fully loaded one judging by the lack of height in the sides of the boat above water line .

   We walked up the canal on the left of the next photo . Lille is set out well for walkers & cyclists with paths & tracks everywhere , including dedicated lanes on the roads as well . 

  The canal started to get a bit busy , with a large boat approaching and a smaller one heading back toward the lock . There was one on the side of the canal , where an excavator was unloading rocks from it to reinforce the side where the concrete walls had collapsed in .

     Shows the different sized boats using the canal .

     We crossed the bridge and walked through the edge of the Citadelle Parkland ( that's for another day ) , then came across this street art near the lock control tower .

    With that done we headed back to the apartment , then found a supermarket about 260m away , so we could get some supplies . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Bl_9HsBZsF-2_StycNyFsOzHdxFuDCQ&usp=sharing

8/6/26 Monopoly time

 

     Proceed to Kings Cross Station , if you pass go collect $200 - feels like we've paid that much for the privilege of getting here 😂 It actually cost around 50 pounds to get from Woking to Kings Cross Station!! Euston Road was just outside , Pentonville Rd merged with it . Mayfair was only 2klms away . The weather wasn't playing nice with intermittent showers & heavy rain , but we got out & about for a wander around later .

   Okay Kings Cross Station is on the right and St Pancras Station is the one that's dominating the photo .

    St Pancras Station is where you get on Eurostar trains as well as regional UK trains . The building is certainly unforgettable and takes centre stage .

    Inside it transforms into a massive shopping arcade and of course the purpose it's there for - trains .

                        There's several Eurostar platforms and trains 

    There's a very spiffy lounge area for you to relax with the tipple of your choice , oh and price 😉

 

     Under the huge clock at the station end is a brass sculpture of a man & women embracing , under them is much smaller sections showing times for the underground over the years .

This one was amazing , most were actually !

   We are here to catch the Eurostar tomorrow morning , so we're staying at the Belgrove Hotel , which is just across the road . If you came here to stay , I hope you're not a light sleeper , it's noisy with plumbing noises and other paying customers that don't really care about anyone else except themselves . 

    We went out for dinner , eventually finding a Chinese restaurant nearby - the guy at the front wasn't overly friendly or chatty - barely got anything out of him all night till we paid . He was a little surprised we paid cash , so he was busy checking to see if it was counterfeit - which it wasn't !! 

   We headed back to the hotel for an earlyish night as we have an early start in the morning . You get a check in time to front up to the station , as you have to go through UK and French Immigration before they let you into the waiting area . Then there's the crowd all waiting for various trains to Paris & Amsterdam and others . Continued next issue - 

3/6/26 An interesting day

 

        After a hectic few days it was decided we needed a break , so ended up with a day at the beach , getting sand castles built & destroyed , lot's of splashing and some swimming , a walk up the beach , lunch under our umbrella's ( supplied by the apartment ) .  It doesn't look like there's a lot of people here , but that's not correct - there are thousands , the beach stretches for 4 kilometres !!! Then there's the permanent umbrellas that always seem to fill up on their hired lounges & shade . While there are lot's of people on the beach , there are as many out in the water as. I walked up for about 1& a half kilometres and was constantly amazed by how many thousands of people that were here - not as crowded as Bondi Beach in Summer , but more people on one beach than we'd ever seen before !!

  We did give Tapas another try while we were in the city the other day , and I can report it was much more authentic and tasty . We dined in a smaller restaurant in the old city , so that proved the difference between the mass produced version of the the beach esplanade . We left feeling we had experienced something quite nice . We also dined out another evening on the esplanade - at a different restaurant this time though - and had a very nice Paella . Interesting , we chose to sit inside the restaurant rather than outside - it was cheaper to sit inside !!

    Here's some more photo's from Gulliver's Park from the observation tower .

Some of my photo bombers , looking pretty happy with themselves as well 🤣

Beware the sneaky photo's that appear when you leave the camera unattended 😉

    Justin hired us some bikes , so we rode into the city and up to the markets . There are bike tracks everywhere here , some are beside the traffic , but there's a lot that are completely away from it . This section we rode through is called Turia Park and snakes it way through the city , and is extremely well used - cycling is a really easy way to get around Valencia , and is a way of life for the locals .

The park goes beside the Science centre etc 

We arrived at Gulliver's Park again , so Isla decided another play would be in order . While she did , I went for another ride around to get some more photos .

      If you haven't guessed yet , I am still amazed at the architecture . After a few kilometres I came back to Gulliver's Park for a rest stop before we headed further up & into the city . Now , the main purpose for going into the city was to get some dried fruit & nuts from the central markets - we rode away with several kilo's of dried fruit & nuts !! Dried pineapple rings , dried strawberries and dried mango , some roasted macadamias and some almonds . All purchased at this stall .

There are all types of stalls here , from fresh fruit & vegetables to fresh fish and anything aquatic haha , bags of snails and many others . Fresh fruit is always nice , as were the Empinadas we had for lunch .

    Must say , riding through the crowded city streets was much easier than walking them . Before long we had arrived back to Turia Park for the less crowded section of the ride . There are soccer grounds , rose gardens , lawns , croquet clubs , gardens & more in the park . It was a river/creek at some stage of its life , but has been piped through and converted to parkland and space for the people to use . We found a large concrete area to ride around in , Isla requested that I chased her , so as any willing grand parent would do , I obliged . We cruised round & round enjoying the moment until we struck a section of glass panels that were in the concrete - used for lighting up the underside of the road bridge above . It was nearly synchronised , Isla's front wheel went out from under her , I looked back at her and I was in exactly the same predicament - on my butt on the ground . I quickly went over to check on her , but she was okay with a few scratches . I on the other hand , was bleeding from near my elbow and some skin off my left knee in 3 places , so we had a good laugh about it as Justin had just arrived to see what the commotion was about . It was all superficial , looking worse than it actually was . We picked ourselves up , dusted ourselves off and resumed our ride toward home , stopping for a quick play on Gulliver again . It was a source of entertainment for Isla and I for the rest of the afternoon , wondering what Nan would think when we walked / hobbled through the door into the apartment - the look was priceless !! 

    After 8 interesting days in Valencia , we started to pack ready for our day of travel tomorrow , back to Woking and the decidedly cooler wet weather .  Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1_3PdfX0MF7umKb9Riici3jV_y3_zLB4&usp=sharing