My wife Sue and I have been in Hereford for the past few days attending the wedding of a friend.
The journey there was long ... and tedious. The SatNav predicted that the journey would take just under three hours and thirty minutes ... but the estimate of the journey was over two hours out and it took just over five hours and thirty minutes to drive from London to Hereford. Luckily the drive back took less time (only four hours) but it took a lot out of us.
We were able to spend part of Saturday morning in Hereford and were pleasantly surprised to see what a nice city it was. The centre does not seem to have suffered too much at the hands of city planners during the 1960s and 1970s and still retains the feel of of being a county town.
We parked in a car park in Bath Street, and walked up Gaol Street to St Peter's Square ...
... and then into the centre of the shopping area, which is known as High Town. This is situated around a large open area that is bounded by a variety of Georgian and Victorian buildings.
At one end of this central area in High Town is an old building. This is a timber-framed Jacobean building, built in 1621, and known – appropriately – as the Old House. It currently houses a museum presenting life in Jacobean times.
On one side to the central area of High Town is an indoor market. We had a gentle stroll through the market, but resisted the temptation to buy anything.
During our time in the High Town area a local charity that provides horse riding for disabled children was collection donations. They were being quite successful, mainly due to their clever use of two miniature ponies. They got lots of attention ... and this resulted a steady stream of donations.
Unfortunately we did not have enough time to visit Hereford Cathedral or the Herefordshire Light Infantry Museum. The former houses the famous Mappa Mundi and the latter is only open by appointment from Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 4.00pm.
The journey there was long ... and tedious. The SatNav predicted that the journey would take just under three hours and thirty minutes ... but the estimate of the journey was over two hours out and it took just over five hours and thirty minutes to drive from London to Hereford. Luckily the drive back took less time (only four hours) but it took a lot out of us.
We were able to spend part of Saturday morning in Hereford and were pleasantly surprised to see what a nice city it was. The centre does not seem to have suffered too much at the hands of city planners during the 1960s and 1970s and still retains the feel of of being a county town.
We parked in a car park in Bath Street, and walked up Gaol Street to St Peter's Square ...
... and then into the centre of the shopping area, which is known as High Town. This is situated around a large open area that is bounded by a variety of Georgian and Victorian buildings.
At one end of this central area in High Town is an old building. This is a timber-framed Jacobean building, built in 1621, and known – appropriately – as the Old House. It currently houses a museum presenting life in Jacobean times.
On one side to the central area of High Town is an indoor market. We had a gentle stroll through the market, but resisted the temptation to buy anything.
During our time in the High Town area a local charity that provides horse riding for disabled children was collection donations. They were being quite successful, mainly due to their clever use of two miniature ponies. They got lots of attention ... and this resulted a steady stream of donations.
Unfortunately we did not have enough time to visit Hereford Cathedral or the Herefordshire Light Infantry Museum. The former houses the famous Mappa Mundi and the latter is only open by appointment from Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 4.00pm.
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Who needs a SatNav when you have a Mappa Mundi!
ReplyDeleteJim Duncan,
ReplyDeleteI suspect that you are right!
One thing that I don't understand is why the SatNav gave me a completely different route for the way home from the one it gave to get there.
All the best,
Bob
I think the routing algorithms in the SatNav software use a numerical value for each segment of a journey and total up for a complete route. Some segments may have slightly different values in one direction or another and therefore complete routes may have different total values depending on the direction.
ReplyDeleteI recently added a map app to my smartphone and asked it to give me a route to go home. It took me to the end of my street, turned right and over the local humpback bridge, turned right again and followed a short circular access road through a neighbouring area back to where it entered, turned left back over the humpback bridge and then left again back into my home street. You see I was at home in the first place.
Jim Duncan,
ReplyDeleteI suspect that you are correct.
The GPS SatNav app on my iPhone will not accept that I live where I do. It keeps telling me that my postcode is in the street that is 50m uphill from my house. I managed to set 'Home' in the correct place on the map ... but every time I ask the SatNav to take me 'Home' it takes me via the other street.
Isn't technology wonderful!
All the best,
Bob
Technology at any level is fun if your life doesn't depend upon it.
ReplyDeleteOn a recent trip to Rome I had one chum with a paper map say we are going this way and another with a smartphone saying we should be going in the opposite direction.
No, I said we should be going this way, at right angles to the other suggestions and lo and behold we got to our destination.
How did you know that Jim, they said? I've been here before I replied.
Jim Duncan,
ReplyDeleteTechnology vs. maps vs. personal knowledge ... an interesting contest ... and it sounds like the latter won!
Good on you Jim!
All the best,
Bob