Engineers, Colchester and some RnR

Today the three of us went our own ways.

Janet’s school friend, Sue, has been in the UK for about 15 years and today was a good opportunity for them to catch up in Colchester where Sue is based. Janet had a great day there. Sue picked her up from the station and they drove to Flatford Mill which is the home of the painter John Constable. Included in the visit was a tour of the sights where his paintings were based. Fascinating to see the real places nearly 200 years after the paintings were done. After that they picked up Susie, the lady Sue provides support to and after coffee Janet was back on the train to London.

RB has been in London for a week now and we have been running him hard. Today was a designated rest day and he took things easy going for a couple of walks around the area and generally chilling out. The later part of the day was made

interesting as the grand national coverage for the week has started on the telly.

I took the opportunity to do a bit more exploring. Brunel is the most famous name in British engineering. There were three of them, father, grandfather and son. All of them made great contributions to the infrastructure of the UK. Our guided walk started by jumping on a boat and learning about the three bridges they physically built (the old Charring Cross bridge, Blackfriars rail bridge and Tower bridge. All totally different and significant engineering challenges in their day.

We then got off the boat at the site where he built the worlds largest boat of the day the Great Eastern. There are still remnants of the boat yard and some great yarns. The only part of the ship remaining is a part of the main mast which is now the flagpole at Liverpools ground, Anfield.

The real interest in the tour however was the tunnel under the Thames. Brunel constructed the first rail tunnel under a major waterway in the world. We traveled by train through the tunnel which is still used by the network today. He devised a tunneling process which is exactly the same as the tunneling technology used today but

used men instead of blades to dig. They advanced the frame every 4 inches and the bricklayers would then brick the arch.

We finished at the Brunel museum which is in the original shaft they dug to get into the tunnel. A fantastic engineering achievement which allowed the underground network to flourish and overall another really good learning day.

Dinner tonight was hosted by Ben and Lisa so the three of us met up at the Tube near Ben’s and had a top notch dinner at their flat (including the spuds!). This was the first time RB had experienced the rush on the Tube which can be added to the “done that” list.