Thursday 16 June 2011

Weekend Reflections, Stratford upon Avon

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Canal boats in Stratford upon Avon

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Long time ago these narrow boats were used to transport goods on the rivers and canals in the UK. The British canal system was built over 150 years ago. Many families lived on these boats. It was their home and livelihood. It was a hard life as many canal tunnels had no towpath.Therefore the younger members of the family led the horse over the top, while the rest of the family lay on their backs on the roof of the boat and walked the boat through the tunnels.You can still travel from London to Liverpool, and from Hull to Bristol by canal boat.
Now these boats are very popular as holiday accomodations. You can see that from this advertisement:

"Our canal boats are easy to operate and offer a good standard of comfort and equipment on-board.
If you have a free weekend why not hire a canal boat for a short weekend break or a longer midweek break."


Here's a plan of a narrow boat. It's called a narrow boat, because its measurements are: two metres wide and fifteen or sixteen metres long.
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Weekend Reflections was started on 27 September 2009, by James. You can join this meme at some time during the weekend. Just post your photo and go to James to tell him that you are on, or click on the logo in the sidebar.This meme is created for any type of reflection.

13 comments:

Arija said...

Lovely post Wil, we too had a great time there.

Indrani said...

A nice post, almost welcoming to take that ride.

Dianne said...

What a wonderful way to spend a week-end - we don't have these narrow-boats here in Australia - I guess because we don't have the canals - they would be a great way to see more of pretty rural England

Cloudia said...

you well know such canal life in the Nederlands, eh, dear friend?

Aloha from Waikiki :)

Comfort Spiral

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Arkansas Patti said...

That was rather ingenious how they got the boats through the tunnels.
I could really enjoy living on one of those boats for a while.

Vicki Lane said...

A week on a narrow boat would be lovely!

My name is Riet said...

Hallo Wil.
Wat een geweldige foto's van Stratford upon Avon. Wij gaan daar over goed twee weken ook naar toe. Een rondreis door midden en zuid Engeland. Ik kijk er echt naar uit.
Heb ik hier even een voorproefje. Groeten van Riet

Kay L. Davies said...

Wil, what a wonderful blog post! My best friend and her husband are now packing to move to England to live on a narrow boat on a canal. I am hoping my husband and I can rent one when we visit them.
Thank you for the photos and especially the floor plan. This is so very interesting to me right now.
Luv — K

Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

James said...

Thanks for sharing these wonderful photos! Stratford upon Avon is a place my wife and I would love to visit someday.

Tes said...

Cool, calm waters. Beautiful reflections! :)

Tania said...

Special and lovely boats. Great post and pictures.
Hope you have a happy weekend!

Marja said...

Did your family live on these. Sounds quite exciting to me though to live on a boat. My uncle was a teacher on a school for children who's parents lived on a boat.

Anonymous said...

Such delightful shots. What a lovely lazy way to spend some time.