Thursday 9th July to Friday 10th July 2015
Thursday was classified as a
rest day and now I can say that it only seems to have been a rest day for the
engine - on a day when quite clearly it was marked next to it "Not
required" the engine sat idle.
On the other hand, by the
end of it we had logged up 17000 steps.
It all started first thing -
well after 9 am anyway - all four of us were off into Egham - Diane and I
wanted to show a ship's decanter to Sue, which subsequently she declined but we
purchased it - at a further reduced price; there was coffee to drink and shops
to be shopped in - no milk required today.
Oh, and by the way, the sun
was gloriously streaming down increasing the heat we were generating just
walking there and back.
After a break for lunch, it
was time for some more walking - this time we wanted to see the memorials to
Magna Carta and also to John F Kennedy; and then further on there was the Royal
Air Force memorial to the airmen and women who did not return from WWII.
The sun had not reduced in
intensity; we did our best to avoid a herd of cows, satisfying the
bovine-ophobic amongst us.
The Magna Carta memorial was
organised and paid for by the American Bar Association as a mark of respect to
the influence of this document on their own constitution.
The field alongside was
implanted with a sculpture of 12 chairs representing the jury system - an
important part of Magna Carta - the legal right to having the opportunity to
defend accusations made against you.
A little further along we
visited part of the United States - a 1 acre section of land granted to the US
and formally part of the US, where a memorial to JFK has been created - JFK
being a proponent of the virtues held in Magna Carta.
It was at this point that we
left Sue behind, the next part of the journey being well and truly uphill.
The walk itself is not too
bad, but coupled with all of our earlier travels, the top of the hill was very
pleasing to see and just a little bit around the corner we came across the RAF
memorial.
We have seen a number of
these memorials to people from both world wars - in Britain ,
in France
There is an upper viewing
level from where we could see from Windsor and beyond in one direction, all the
way across the Thames Valley to London; including Heathrow and Wembley - icons
of Engand today.
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| London in the distance and Heathrow in the middle |
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| Windsor Castle |
Fortunately, the return trip
was all down hill and in much less time than it took to go up, we were down
again and Andy was reunited with Sue, we all rested for a bit before heading
back to the boats.
Whether it had anything to
do with the amount of walking from that day or talk about what might lay in the
grass through which the public footpaths traversed, but Diane woke up with
tales of the appearance of snakes in great numbers - all in her dreams.
It did take her most of the
day to eventually get over it, but not a case of Snakes on a Plane, but clearly
Snakes on a Boat.
After a "rest" day
it was more cruising - this time as far as Windsor and hopefully a mooring - we
would like to visit the castle and be able to cross that one off the must-do
list.
Just a few miles and a
couple of locks - we found a spot to moor up; Andy and Sue were able to get in
close enough; with our fat-bottomed boat we were not so lucky and decided to
breast up next to nb Festina Lente.
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| The Boathouse - built on Queen Victoria's request |
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| No it's not Doug and James, but these boys are having fun anyway |
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| approaching Windsor |
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| The swans are gathering for the swan-upping to take place soon - and probably for food from anyone near |
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| The view from the back of the boat |
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| Behind the girls and disappearing into the distance is The Long Walk |
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| This Morris Cowley was outside the pub and as we showed some interest in it, the owner came over to show us a bit more about ... |
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| ...including the small engine with its 7 gallon fuel tank (small black box just under the engine cowling) |
6 Miles, 2 Locks
YTD: 540 Miles, 318 Locks, 12 Tunnels, 2 Lift Bridges , 13 Swing Bridges
Totals: 3434 Miles, 2439 Locks, 110 Tunnels, 36 Lift Bridges ,
164 Swing Bridges
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