Canoeing on the Basingstoke Canal near London with ‘Go London’

A few weeks ago Ellie & I went canoeing on the Basingstoke Canal near London with Colin from Go London. The experience takes about 4 hours, including 3 hours on the water. It costs a very reasonable £40. We were joined by two friends of ours and about 10 other outdoor enthusiasts. The train from Waterloo to Ash Vale takes 50 minutes. From there it’s another 30 minutes’ walk to the Canal Café in Mytchett. Canal Etiquette Colin and his partner had already off-loaded the canoes, prepared the swim vests, dry bags, and paddles. Only a couple of people in our group had done some proper canoeing before. Most had never done any paddling. Luckily our instructor made everyone feel at ease right away, cracking a few jokes here and there. We learned a bit about safety, canal etiquette, the equipment, and paddling technique.    Getting the canoes to the […]

Continue Reading

You may also like

Couples Boxing – Better Than Couples Therapy

About 6 years ago I took a few boxing lessons. I realised that up until then (and to this day) it has been the best exercise regime I’ve ever gone through. Boxercise This got Ellie interested in doing some boxercise sessions together with me. Over the years we’ve done half a dozen of these lessons and we’ve always had a great time. You do plenty of different exercises like planking, push-ups, and squats. Then one of you holds the pads and the other one punches the pads according to the instructor’s orders. Different moves, jabs, hooks, and uppercuts I’m so bad at boxing and boxercise that I don’t even remember the various moves. But the instructor assigns a number to each type of move. It was something like 1 is a right hand jab to the left-hand pad. 2 might be a left hand jab to the right-hand pad. 3 […]

Continue Reading

You may also like

e-Scooters are coming to London next month – we did a tour with ScooTours London in Cambridge for you

Last Saturday, Ellie & I did a two-hour e-scooter tour with ScooTours London in Cambridge. From next month you will be able to legally hire and ride an e-scooter in London, so we thought we’d check it out. In case you were wondering: until then it is illegal to ride an e-scooter on public roads here. It’s easier for cyclists Let’s start this blog post with a quick flashback to a bicycle tour Ellie and I had ventured on several years ago. It was the first and last time we’d been riding bikes together. While I had grown up in bicycle-obsessed Germany, Ellie had not ridden a bike in over a decade, so kudos to her for trying. The short of it: out of the 35km distance we walked roughly 35km. Ellie was a tad scared of falling off the bike. To this day it is one of the longest […]

Continue Reading

You may also like

Stand Up Paddle Boarding at Paddington Basin in London

I did a two-hour one-to-one introduction to stand up paddle boarding with Mirko from Active360 last Tuesday here in London at Paddington Basin. My Instructor Mirko is a very relaxed, pleasant, knowledgeable instructor. I had recently fallen into very cold water while white water kayaking and was a bit tense, but Mirko put my worries at ease right away. It helped that I had arrived in my sleeveless wet suit. With T-shirt and shorts on top it looked normal enough’ish for a short ride on the tube and a ten-minute walk from Paddington station, or so I thought. I still got a fair few puzzled stares, but didn’t mind. Cold Shocks and Trailblazing My priority was not to repeat my kayaking experience, when I had suffered a mild cold shock. Active360 usually provide wet suits on request as long as you ask them well ahead of time. Hardly anyone bothers. […]

Continue Reading

You may also like

Buckingham Palace Gardens – London’s biggest private garden will be open for picnics

[Last update 30 Sept 2021.] Since last week and for another two weeks, those, that were lucky enough to grab tickets (sold out now), were able to check out Buckingham Palace Gardens. London’s biggest private garden stretches over 39 acres and keeps 11 full-time gardeners and various contractors busy. From July it will be open to the paying public for picnics and walks (£16.50, discounts available). The only way to access the gardens today was by booking a tour. 90 minutes for a tour around a garden did not sound attractive to me, but I was hoping to be able to take some nice pictures, so did get myself a ticket. An ancient institution You realise quite quickly that you’re dealing with an institution that has been around for hundreds of years and one that isn’t known to be an ‘early adopter’. You have to print out the tickets. Neither […]

Continue Reading

You may also like