Wednesday 22 October 2014

From Streatley to Kingston

via Maidenhead.

Thames Hotel




When I left MWNN and The Swan yesterday, I drove to The Thames Hotel, Maidenhead.












View from bedroom




The hotel is in a lovely location, overlooking the River Thames.















I took lots of pictures of the river and boats late yesterday afternoon.










Rude narrowboat helmsman


There was one very unpleasant experience as I took a photo of a narrowboat approaching the moorings. The helmsman swore continuously and told me to stop taking photos of his home. In all my 30+ years of boating, I have never been so abused. Most boaters are pleased to have their boats photographed







River is about 3 inches below the level of the walkway






The river is very high at the moment,









Autumn leaves on the Thames





but still beautiful, as always.












The squiggles are where TheD stopped for a few minutes




This morning, as I checked the Garmin tracking after breakfast, I spotted that TheD was approaching my hotel.









Rolling the trousers



I took my camera outside and saw that TheD was removing her long trousers. The temperature was about 9 degrees C, a bit chilly for shorts in my opinion.
















TheD took off again without noticing me.

















and soon disappeared towards the bridge over the river









I left The Thames Hotel at about 9.30 and had a horrendous journey to my next overnight stop at The Antoinette, Kingston upon Thames. I made the mistake of setting my Garmin Satnav to avoid motorways. Instead of taking the M4, I selected the A4 route and was held up crossing Slough (to be avoided in future). On the other side of Slough, I stopped and re-set the Satnav. A short distance on the M4 was followed by a slightly longer one on the M25, then a long approach on the A308 to the hotel, on the far side of Kingston.


After a very stressful drive, I was looking forward to a cup of tea.

Unfortunately, the hotel staff is international. Tea was served - a pot of hot water + teabags. By the time I realised this, the water had gone well off the boil (if it was ever on the boil). Luckily, I'd made a flask of tea before setting off and drank that with the hotel's milk and biscuits.

I am regularly disappointed with English hotels that do not train their staff how to make tea.






About 4.5 hours later, TheD passed , Hampton Court Palace about a mile from her hotel in Hampton Wick, across the river from Kingston.and just across the river from my hotel.
















Tomorrow is the final day. The 184th mile is at The Thames Barrier.