A day out on Nene Valley Railway

This splendid heritage railway is based in and near Peterborough. It runs from Peterborough Nene Valley station to Yarwell Junction.

It uses part of the original 1845 London and North Western line which ran into Peterborough East station (now demolished)

Peterborough Nene Valley station was built in 1986 as part of the Nene Valley Railway's Peterborough extension. The station is built on its current site because the NVR could not access the original Peterborough East station site

Our Guard for the day was very knowledgeable about the line, the engines, carriages and wagons. 

Wansford station is the headquarters of the Nene Valley Railway. The station was formerly the junction for a branch to Stamford, which separated to the north just east of the river bridge at Wansford

The station opened with the Northampton and Peterborough Railway from Blisworth to Peterborough in 1845. The branch line to Stamford opened in 1867. The route to Rugby became available when the LNWR built a line from Yarwell Junction, west of Wansford tunnel, to their existing 1850 Rugby to Stamford line at Seaton.
 

The Stamford branch closed in 1929, having never properly recovered from the 1926 general strike. The station closed for regular passenger services on 1 July 1957 but passenger services from Peterborough continued to use the line to Northampton until 1964, and to Rugby until 1966

Wansford station and the line immediately either side of it, including the level crossing and the river bridge appeared several times in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy. 

Bond (played by Roger Moore) drove a Mercedes-Benz car along the railway tracks after its tyres were punctured in pursuit of a train on which the villainous Kamal Khan (Louis Jordan) was transporting a bomb. This scene was scripted as being in East Germany

Wansford signal box was built in 1907 by the London and North Western Railway to replace three smaller boxes. It was originally built with 60 levers and is one of the largest preserved signal boxes in its original location.

The turntable is located behind the new station building, and was built by Ransomes & Rapier of Ipswich in 1933. Originally it was 60 feet (18 m) long and was installed at Bourne in Lincolnshire for use on the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway. 

It continued in use there until 1959 when Bourne shed closed and the turntable was moved to Peterborough East; its last duties being to turn Travelling Post Office (TPO) coaches for use on the East Anglian TPO. In 1977 the turntable moved to Wansford where it was extended by 7 feet (2.1 m) to make it 67 feet (20m) in length
 

These are from Sweden

Yarwell Junction is the current western terminus of the Nene Valley Railway. It opened at Easter 2007. It was formerly the junction of the Peterborough to Northampton and Peterborough to Market Harborough lines.

In April 2006 a track realignment made space for a platform, and this was constructed during 2007. There was never previously a station on the site. The new station is served by footpaths to Nassington and the mill village of Yarwell, but there is no vehicular access

From Yarwell we returned to Peterborough so that we could explore the city centre

Peterborough is on the River Nene (hence Nene Valley!). Human settlement in the area began before the Bronze Age. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the establishment of a monastery, Medeshamstede, which later became Peterborough Cathedral. Peterborough was, from medieval times, administered separately as the Soke of Peterborough. 

Railway lines began operating locally during the 1840s, but it was the 1850 opening of the Great Northern Railway's main line from London to York that transformed Peterborough from a market town to an industrial centre. Coupled with vast local clay deposits, the railway enabled large-scale brick-making and distribution to take place. The area was the UK's leading producer of bricks for much of the twentieth century. 

The Town Hall with its Georgian columns 

Peterborough Cathedral was built on the site of a monastery between 1118 and 1238. Catherine of Aragon - the first wife of Henry VIII - was buried here in 1536. Mary Queen of Scots was buried here in 1587 but James I brought the remains to Westminster Abbey in 1612.

Peterborough Guildhall was built between 1669–1671. The 17th century building is also known as Butter Cross, and is a traditional Market Cross often found in the centre of old market towns. The Guildhall is raised on columns and the open area beneath it used to be occupied by butter and poultry markets

St John the Baptist Church is Peterborough's Parish Church and was dedicated by the Abbot Genge in 1407. During the 16th century its bells sounded for the funerals of Catherine of Aragon in 1536 and Mary Queen of Scots in 1587.

Peterborough Museum was originally the home of the Orme family in the 16th century - they were given the land by Henry VIII in 1536. It was used as Peterborough's first hospital from 1857 until 1928

Monument in the Bishop's Garden ...

... dedicated to Peterborough's first Mayor from 1874-1876

And back to the main line station for my trip home, courtesy of East Coast. A super day out.

Our Greek Odyssey - around Nea Makri

As mentioned in my post of our visit to Athens, we stayed in Nea Makri

This was the view of the pool and bar from our hotel room

Nea Makri is a small town in the Bay of Marathon, some 7 kilometres from the port of Rafina

It is a holiday and/or weekend haven for Greeks who live and work in Athens but also caters for tourists from futher afield - like us!.

The main road to Athens lies about some 500 metres from the coast - so, as we were staying on the coast, we weren't within earshot of the traffic noise

This cafe-bar became our "local" for the week ...

... and this was the best fish restaurant in town

After three days of "commuting" by bus to Athens (75 minutes each way) we decided to have a day exploring Nea Makri and its environs. We registered (online) for these bikes - Cyclopolis: the Greek equivalent of London's "Boris Bikes"

We cycled along the coastal trail around Marathon Bay ...

... to the Schinias Rowing Centre, which hosted the rowing events of the Athens Olympic Games in 2004 

This site used to be Marathon Airport before it was converted for the Olympics

This is at the start of the rowing course - Sir Steve Redgrave will have started his Gold Medal winning race here

In March 2011, the Marathon Rowing Kayaking Academy began operating. This Academy, as well as offering rowing and kayaking for to children and adults also organises events such as cycling, triathlon and swimming

The Academy is part of the National Park of Schinias and during the migration season there is a large number of migratory birds arriving in what is one of the largest wetlands in Southern Greece

The grandstand at the finishing line

and this is where the medals were presented

A short ride from Schinias Rowing Centre we found this memorial of the victory of Battle of Marathon in 490 BC

The Battle took place during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Greece. The Greek army decisively defeated the more numerous Persians, marking a turning point in the Greco-Persian Wars

The battle is perhaps now more famous as the inspiration for the marathon race. The legend is that Greek messenger, Pheidippides, ran to Athens with news of the victory and this became the inspiration for this athletic event, introduced at the 1896 Athens Olympics, and originally run between Marathon and Athens

However the distance between Marathon and Athens is less than the 26 miles 385 yards that nowadays constitutes a marathon race. The reason why has less to do with ancient Greece and more to do with the British Royal Family. When London held the games in 1908 there was still no official marathon length. The British Royal family requested that it start at Windsor Castle and end at the Olympic Stadium's Royal Box - a distance of 26 miles 385 yards - so now you know! 

Our Greek Odyssey - around Athens

We've just returned from a short break in Greece. This was our first time ever in Greece. We stayed in Nea Makri on the Attica coast some 20 miles from Athens. We went to Athens on three days and visited a lot of the key tourist spots. Here is a summary of where we went and what we saw

Needless to say, we visited the Parthenon on the Acropolis. Many will already know that "Acro" means "high" and "polis" means "city" - so Acropolis is literally the "high city". Many other places in Greece have "an" acropolis, such as Corinth in the Peloponnese, but "The Acropolis" usually refers to the site of the Parthenon in Athens.

The Parthenon is a temple on the Acropolis and its coordinates are 37°58 17.45 N / 23°43 34.29 E. The name Parthenon refers to the worship of Athena, the goddess and patroness of the city of Athens. It is considered to be the finest example of Doric-style construction

In 480 BC the Persians destroyed these temples and in 447 BC the Athenian leader Pericles initiated construction of the presently standing temple of Athena. Work on the building continued until 438 BC; some of the decorations were completed later. It was built over the site of an earlier temple which is sometimes called the Pre-Parthenon

The Theatre of Dionysus

The Theatre was built in the 4th Century BC. It was set up to celebrate the annual City Dionysia festival. It also staged plays and other festivities. When first constructed, the Theatre had an audience capacity of 25,000 such that each person present could clearly see whatever performance that was being presented on the stage. 

Later, seating arrangements were made and after that time, the Theatre could accommodate 17,000 seated.

The Ancient Agora is on the north west of the Acropolis, between the neighbourhoods of Thission and Monastiraki.  A large area with ancient ruins and much greenery, the Ancient Agora was the marketplace and civic centre. In addition to being a place where people gathered to buy and sell all kinds of commodities, it was also a place where people assembled to discuss all kinds of topics: business, politics, current events, or the nature of the universe and the divine.

The Athens University Museum is sited in the heart of Athens city, in Plaka area on the northern side of Acropolis. The Museum is located in the historical building of "Cleanthis Residence", also known as "The Old University" where the first University of the Greek Independent State operated during the period of 1837 to 1841

The Industrial Gas Museum in Athens opened its doors to the public in January 2013. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the museum was Athens’ Gasworks Plant, the first power plant in Greece. This gasometer is on the site of the museum.

Trolleybus garage - with highly decorated graffiti on the wall

One of the most important necropolises, or ancient cemeteries, in Athens is the Kerameikos. The cemetery is named after Keramos, a hero of potters, who was the mortal son of Ariadne and Dionysios.

Many potters lived in the area and the location became an organised cemetery in about twelve hundred BC. Two main gates to the ancient city, the Sacred Gate and Dipylon were once located here.

Kerameikos was discovered in the early part of the twentieth century by archaeologists from Germany.

The Arch of Hadrian was erected in honour of the Roman emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century A.D. The arch was built over the line of an ancient road that led from the area of the Acropolis and the Athenian Agora to the Olympieion (Temple of Olympian Zeus) and southeast Athens. It was never an actual gate in a wall. An inscription on the western side of the arch (facing the Acropolis) states: “This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus." An inscription on the eastern side of the arch (facing the Olympieion) states: "This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus"

The Temple of Olympian Zeus (Olympeion) was an enormous structure, the largest temple in Greece, exceeding even the Parthenon in size. Work began on this vast edifice in 515 BC during the reign of the tyrant Peisistratos, who initiated the building work to gain public favour

Although there were several attempts over many years to finish the temple, it was not completed until the reign of the Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods it was the largest temple in Greece

The 104 columns, each 17 meters (56 feet) high, of the temple were made of Pentelic marble. Only 15 of the Corinthian columns remain standing to give a sense of the enormous size of the temple which would have been approximately 96 x 40 meters (315 x 130 feet) in size

The National Library of Greece is the country’s main centre for academic study, and is one of a group of three buildings in central Athens designed in the neo-classical style. Founded by Ioannis Kapodistrias, it is the largest and most important library in the country

Syntagma Square is home to the Greek Parliament building which incorporates within its breast the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 

Outside the Parliament building, Greek soldiers - called "Evzons" - in their traditional pleated skirt uniform and shoes with toes tipped by a red or black ball called a 'foonda' guard the tomb

These are the hand picked troops of the presidential guard. Requirements for the Athens Presidential Guard include: being under the age of 25, being taller than 1.80 metres and having an outstanding and unimpeachable character

The Evzone perform their ceremonial duties every hour on the hour. Each soldier is on guard for one hour at a stretch 3 times every 48 hours

They work in pairs in order to perfect the coordination of their movements. 

Originally founded as a royal guard in 1914, this elite corps has about 200 members

The Monastiraki is a flea market area in Athens. It gets its name from the monastery in the city’s Plateia Monastirakiou. 

The roads around the Monastiraki are filled with shops that sell all kinds of merchandise every day of the week. 

The shopper can find treasures among the antiques, leather, books, coins, artwork, rugs, tools, furniture and silver

There is also a fish and meat market in the Varvarkios building. It was completed in 1886 and refurbished just before the Athens Olympics in 2004.

Mount Lycabettus gets its name from the native word “Lykavittos” which means “path of the wolves.” An ancient legend tells of wolves that roamed this mountain as their last sanctuary created by the goddess Athena. The wolves may be long gone, but the mountain still stands proud

It is a Cretaceous limestone hill. At 277 metres (908 feet) above sea level, the hill is the highest point in the city. Pine trees cover its base ... 

... and at the top you can see the 19th century Chapel of St. George

We reached the top by using the funicular railway in Kolonaki

The views across the city were spectacular

All this sight-seeing was pretty tiring work ...

 ... so we decided to relax and refresh ourselves!