things change

Starting from a free, public car park on the riverside near Ham House, we walked towards Richmond, over  the bridge, back down the Thames to The White Swan pub at Twickenham.  Lovely location and good pub food. I would recommend turning back for a short distance towards Richmond in order to cross the river via the ferry, returning close to the starting point. Alternatively continue on towards Teddington, which is mainly along the road and not very pleasant, crossing the Thames at the footbridge, and on back towards Richmond. Total distance 6 miles but only about 4 miles if omitting the Teddington loop.

A day trip to Eastbourne turned out to be not as peaceful as we were looking forward to!  Eastbourne was packed for the Eastbourne Air Show and this normally sedate resort was rocking to the deafening noise of planes flying in front of the crowded promenade.  But we had a nice day!

Cups of tea and coffee in The Angel at Bermondsey were a curiosity.  The only coffee on offer was Nescafé, and the tea and instant coffee came served in cups and saucers but without the saucers! Amazingly one of our ex-neighbours walked in whilst we were there – she was born in the area and was revisiting old haunts.   Lunch in the Prospect of Whitby was good pub food and with wonderful views.  It’s recommended to explore all the rooms in this interesting Thames pub.  Finally a walk on to Canary Wharf to see some nice boats docked for the Olympics.