Looking round Leicester.

Castle Gardens are a beautiful garden away from it all and makes a nice 'short cut' to the centre. There is also a bridge across the canal to the other side where there is a very handy Tesco's.

 Castle Gardens, Leicester.

Today was to be culture day and so were were almost the first to arrive at the Newarke House Museum. It seems that all the museums in Leicester are free, just like in Hull! The museum had the history of the city and the Leicester Regiment. It was well presented in a lovely old building.

Our next stop was to the Guildhall that we had seen the outside of the previous day. It was built in 1390 for the Guild of Corpus Cristi, like in Boston. After the Reformation when Henry VIII closed most religious orders it became the Town Hall for  the town and then was also used as a court room.

The inner courtyard of the Guildhall.

The Mayor's Parlour in the Guildhall in Leicester.

Right opposite the Guildhall is the Cathedral of Leicester, St Martins. It became a Cathedral in 1927 only but the earliest part of the church in early 13th century. The church is a very unusual church with altar almost being in the middle of the church. There is a memorial stone to King Richard III as the last Plantagent King was killed at Bosworth in 1485. Since the discovery of his body in a car park it seems to have been the catalyst for big changes in the area as a new exhibition and display is created to commemorate the discovery.

St. Martin's  Cathedral Church, Leicester.

After this we walked round the corner towards the Leicester Markets but as it was lunch time we got detracted by Walkers Pie Shop. We dived in for an award winning pork pie and then noticed that they did pie and mash with a cup of tea for a very reasonable price, so we ordered a couple. Helen had steak pie and I had chicken, ham and leak. The mash and gravy was really nice and all washed down with a cup of tea.  From there we had a poke around the market and bought some veg that was very good value, 2lbs of cherries for £1, 10 peaches for £1 etc etc. I felt I should have bought loads and made jam, or wine, or anything as it seemed such a deal.

We then found New Walk and set off towrads the Art gallery and Museum. New Walk is a pedestrian route that was set out in 1785 along the line of the Roman Road Via Devana that ran from Leicester to Colchester and later in the early 1800's led to the race course. It is a nice green finger in the middle of the city to this day.

(One for Ann). This is a lovely line of five house built on New Walk in 1836 are listed and make a very attractive group and are Grade II Listed.

The Museum/Art Gallery was good with a good mix of pictures and artifacts and also he were able to sit down and have a cup of coffee with a slice of cake to rest the weary legs. We then headed back to the centre to collect a few bits and pieces before the shops shut. On the way back to the boat we walked past the Town Hall.

The bronze painted cast iron fountain was a gift to the corporation from a former mayor Israel Hart. It was accepted in 1878 and also has pink granite in it, and makes a great centre piece for the square in front of the Town Hall.

We just dropped off the stuff at the boat before crossing the canal to get out fix at Tesco. We limited our purchases to what he required that we had vouchers for, and some cat food. That let us with enough money to call at the Black Horse for a couple of pints of Everard's on the way back. We had a chat with another boat owner on the pontoon who comes regularly and reaffirmed that there is no problem with mooring on the tow path opposite the pontoon as they frequently do it if there is no space on the mooring and  have not had any trouble.