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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Sunday 27 November 2016

Sunday First Walk - A river valley and historic St Albans

Book 1 Walk 7 – Garston to St Albans

Length: 14km (8.7 miles) Toughness: 1 out of 10

09:54 Crewe train from Euston changing at Watford Junction (arr 10:09; dep 10:20) arriving Garston at 10:25.

There are four return trains an hour from St Albans City to St Pancras (fast at xx:23 and xx:53, and slower at xx:08 and xx:38). Return trains from St Albans Abbey to Euston are at xx:30, changing at Watford Junction.

Buy a Super Off-Peak Day Return to St Albans City, which is valid for both the outward and the return journey, so long as it is not marked ‘Thameslink Only’.

For the most part this pleasant walk follows the Ver Valley to the remains of the Roman town of Verulamium and the historic city of St Albans and its cathedral. The short journey time and relatively early start to the walk should leave plenty of time for exploring St Albans in the afternoon.

More information, including details of lunch and tea stops and the walk directions can be found on the Walk 7 main page .

1 comment:

David Colver said...

n=6 on this walk. w=Murky_start_after_earlier_rain_brightening_gradually_to_light_cloud_with_some_blue_bits_by_afternoon.

I've heard SWC regulars say rude things about this walk. Ghastly to St Albans, some call it. I've never understood why. It has forests, parkland, some impressive houses, many horses, friendly ducks, several mills, lakes, quite a bit of river, a monastery and a cathedral, all packed into just 8.7 miles. It also takes only 34 minutes to get to and less than that to get back. To cap it all St Albans was having the first day of its Advent fair, with a brass band doing a stirring rendition of the Dambusters March, stalls offering different kinds of food and drink, many people plainly enjoying themselves, and the whole thing very much less cheesy than these things usually are. About the only drawback is road noise, because with that short travel time one is never far from civilisation.

Our group fragmented fairly quickly. I took lunch at Moor Mill, which met expectations of the Beefeater chain exactly. Another consumed sandwiches nearby. It was probably too early for most, who likely pressed on to a later stop, but that wasn't the Falcon in Park Street, as I looked in there and no walkers had been seen all day.

Satisfactory tea in a nearly empty Cathedral Cafe by 1515 and on a 1620 train.

The walk directions and post recommend buying a return ticket to St Albans City but neither the machine nor the human at Euston were willing to sell one from that station. They would offer Garston or St Albans Abbey.