Planes and Trains
Posted on Monday 7 September 2009 by Charles Harvey
Five people turned up for Rona’s Albans Amble, two who had come up from London and three plus Rona who lived locally. After a complex route out of St Albans we emerged at the Park Street roundabout. After a stop for a coffee for those who needed it at a garage, we rode down Watling Street before turning off toward Bricket Wood. An attractive lane though the wood led to bridlepaths that took us to Aldenham.
After a short break to see the memorial to a local man who died on HMS Victory at Trafalgar we were on our way again though Patchetts Green to link up with a bridlepath to Elstree Aerodrome, our planned lunch stop. The bridlepath passes near the end of the runway and a plane went over our heads as we rode in. The café there has long been an eatery for local cyclists but we found it had gone up market and only served posh nosh on Sundays. So Rona took us to The Battle Axes, a nearby pub, instead.
After lunch, we rode via Radlett and Shenley to another bridlepath though Mimms Wood to North Mimms. It has a rough surface but is extraordinarily quiet and attractive for a place so close to the A1(M) and M25. From then we went on to Colney Heath. Two of us needed to get home and rode directly back to St Albans but the rest of us went to what was for me the surprise of the day – the biggest train set I’ve ever seen. The North London Society of Model Engineers has a large open air model railway layout. There’s fun for kids of all ages and two of us gleefully went for a ride. See www.nlsme.co.uk to get an idea for what it was like. After that it was back on the Alban Way, itself a former railway line, back to the station.
Thanks Rona for such a varied ride.