Bank holiday weekend part 2 Canal Fest!

[vampyresheep]

Sunday's weather forecast looked iffy but in the morning the sun was shining and I wasn't in the mood to do the wardrobe clear-out I had planned, so we decided to chance the weather and head out to Hemel direction for the Boxmoor Canal Festival

We parked up at our old favourite pub, the Three Horseshoes in Winkwell, to walk the 20 minutes or so to along the canal to the festival.
Of course it would have been rude not to use the pub facilities for a quick drink first! :-)




The walk along the canal was slightly industrial, boat yards and lots of locks but lovely and peaceful.










approaching the floating market




This was a far more authentic experience than the more commercial Little Venice festival we went to last Bank Holiday, the floating market consisted of the boat owners themselves selling their wares. No kitsch olde worlde painted jugs here though, it was a more hippyish, tribal affair. One boat was selling home-infused gin, so after trying all the samples I got myself a lovely bottle of blackcurrant and aniseed gin.














on the other side of the market was the Fishery Wharf cafe/bar, with live bands playing.  There was an easy way across the water but the hard way looked more fun!


We got ourselves lunch and a pint of local cider and settled down on the grass to listen to the bands playing, including a flamenco guitar duo who did a rather fun rendition of the Game of Thrones theme.





(the dark blur on my leg is not dirt BTW, its my rather scary looking bruise from last weekend!)





after a couple of hours, we strolled back to the Three Horseshoes



by the time we got back to the pub, it was time for a light dinner (tempted by all the lovely food being served all around us!)





We'd been rather lucky to avoid the thunderstorms, having a beautiful albeit rather humid day.  Definately want to return to the Fishery Wharf sometime (maybe when its not quite so busy!) and thinking it would be fab to do a canalside pub walk sometime, so many good beer houses along the route.