Sweet Thames...again
The weather seems to have taken a serious turn for the not so nice today as it is grey and rather cold but we had a glorious day out yesterday.
It started well when we had one of these each for breakfast. I'm not usually a fan of odd flavours for Hot Cross Buns but these sounded so wacky I just had to buy them and they were a taste sensation. Now I know why my brother's Very Large Birthday with a Zero On the End present from my sister-in-law was a meal at the The Fat Duck at Bray! The point of the day though was not to stuff ourselves with food but to get some exercise so we went for another walk along the Thames. The original plan was to start at Kew Bridge, where we left off last week, and walk to Teddington. Unfortunately we'd neglected to check on the engineering works going on this weekend so we got to Clapham Junction to discover we'd just missed the train to Kew Bridge and there wasn't another one for half an hour. As we didn't really want to hang about on a platform at Clapham Junction Station we got the next train to Richmond and started our walk from there. We weren't really cheating as we had done a walk from Kew to Richmond a few years ago and no-one says you have to walk the Thames Path in order.
The weather was about 10 degrees colder than it had been when we were walking last week, but it was still glorious.
We could have done things the easy way and hopped on a boat to Hampton Court. This one was called the "Yarmouth Belle" and as we were watching her leave I wondered how she would get passed Teddington Weir. Let's just say I found out.
One of the fun things about these walks is that you never quite know what you're going to come across. In Richmond it was a Duck Pond Fair. I didn't see any ducks but there were goats. I think they were just small animals for kids to pet and not for sale as I don't think there's been a cattle fair in Richmond for many years!
The Thames Path at Richmond
A rather more rural looking stretch not much further on
Marble Hill House was built in the 18th century for one of George II's mistresses. I'm not sure she'd be entirely happy with it now as in common with the rest of this area it's directly under one of the approach routes to Heathrow. On the Putney to Kew stretch of this walk we heard birdsong, this time we heard aeroplanes.
The stately home on our side of the Thames was Ham House. I'm ashamed to say that it's a National Trust property in London that I have never been to but we decided that yesterday was not the best day as the queue to get in was rather long.
I've always crossed the Thames by bridge but it still has a lot of ferry points and this is the Twickenham one.
The views from the bit of the Thames Path are glorious. This is looking back towards Richmond with the Star and Garter Home for Serviceman high up on Richmond Hill.
And looking forwards towards Eel Pie Island, once a haunt of 60s pop groups.
There were some rather beautiful houses on Eel Pie Island all equipped with boat houses that made me think of "Swallows and Amazons". I thought this one looked interesting.
We made it to Teddington which is famous for being the place where the Thames ceases to be tidal. It has a weir and a lock system and we were lucky enough to see the lock in action. This is the lock filling with water to allow a boat coming downstream to pass through it.
And here's the boat coming in which turned out to be my old friend the "Yarmouth Belle"
Waiting for the other gates to open
Letting the water out
so that the "Yarmouth Belle" can come through
This is Teddington Weir the reason why the lock needs to be there.
We had originally planned to stop at Teddington but seeing as we hadn't walked that far we decided to go on to Kingston. This was just a shot of a boat, complete with its roof garden, travelling down river but I liked how colourful it was.
And finally we reached Kingston-upon-Thames. If I win the lottery I think I'd like to live in a house on the Thames like this one!
I'm sure better walkers than we are would have walked back, but we decided that maybe the train was a better idea!
Happy Easter everybody :)
It started well when we had one of these each for breakfast. I'm not usually a fan of odd flavours for Hot Cross Buns but these sounded so wacky I just had to buy them and they were a taste sensation. Now I know why my brother's Very Large Birthday with a Zero On the End present from my sister-in-law was a meal at the The Fat Duck at Bray! The point of the day though was not to stuff ourselves with food but to get some exercise so we went for another walk along the Thames. The original plan was to start at Kew Bridge, where we left off last week, and walk to Teddington. Unfortunately we'd neglected to check on the engineering works going on this weekend so we got to Clapham Junction to discover we'd just missed the train to Kew Bridge and there wasn't another one for half an hour. As we didn't really want to hang about on a platform at Clapham Junction Station we got the next train to Richmond and started our walk from there. We weren't really cheating as we had done a walk from Kew to Richmond a few years ago and no-one says you have to walk the Thames Path in order.
The weather was about 10 degrees colder than it had been when we were walking last week, but it was still glorious.
We could have done things the easy way and hopped on a boat to Hampton Court. This one was called the "Yarmouth Belle" and as we were watching her leave I wondered how she would get passed Teddington Weir. Let's just say I found out.
One of the fun things about these walks is that you never quite know what you're going to come across. In Richmond it was a Duck Pond Fair. I didn't see any ducks but there were goats. I think they were just small animals for kids to pet and not for sale as I don't think there's been a cattle fair in Richmond for many years!
The Thames Path at Richmond
A rather more rural looking stretch not much further on
Marble Hill House was built in the 18th century for one of George II's mistresses. I'm not sure she'd be entirely happy with it now as in common with the rest of this area it's directly under one of the approach routes to Heathrow. On the Putney to Kew stretch of this walk we heard birdsong, this time we heard aeroplanes.
The stately home on our side of the Thames was Ham House. I'm ashamed to say that it's a National Trust property in London that I have never been to but we decided that yesterday was not the best day as the queue to get in was rather long.
I've always crossed the Thames by bridge but it still has a lot of ferry points and this is the Twickenham one.
The views from the bit of the Thames Path are glorious. This is looking back towards Richmond with the Star and Garter Home for Serviceman high up on Richmond Hill.
And looking forwards towards Eel Pie Island, once a haunt of 60s pop groups.
There were some rather beautiful houses on Eel Pie Island all equipped with boat houses that made me think of "Swallows and Amazons". I thought this one looked interesting.
We made it to Teddington which is famous for being the place where the Thames ceases to be tidal. It has a weir and a lock system and we were lucky enough to see the lock in action. This is the lock filling with water to allow a boat coming downstream to pass through it.
And here's the boat coming in which turned out to be my old friend the "Yarmouth Belle"
Waiting for the other gates to open
Letting the water out
so that the "Yarmouth Belle" can come through
This is Teddington Weir the reason why the lock needs to be there.
We had originally planned to stop at Teddington but seeing as we hadn't walked that far we decided to go on to Kingston. This was just a shot of a boat, complete with its roof garden, travelling down river but I liked how colourful it was.
And finally we reached Kingston-upon-Thames. If I win the lottery I think I'd like to live in a house on the Thames like this one!
I'm sure better walkers than we are would have walked back, but we decided that maybe the train was a better idea!
Happy Easter everybody :)