Windsor and Back

Not a long blog although it was a 'busy' day. We had to put the alarm on this morning to make sure that we could be away by 9 so that we could expect to be in Windsor for 11 as promised. We arrived 11:01, so not too bad timing-wise. The journey was as uninteresting as it was uneventful - the traffic was generally quite modest and no delays, although it is clear that, as far as possible, road works have been tidied away for the holiday break.

After a mug of coffee, a slice of the festive Christmas Cake and a dip into a box of chocolates it was time to load up Alice and Jess, along with their luggage and set off back.

Again, their was nothing of note as we returned along the same route as we came down. Luckily the only significant delays that we saw were on the opposite carriageway. (They had not been there earlier, fortunately)

Back at the boat it was well past the time for lunch which was quickly assembled. We had to make a visit to a shop, mainly to sort out Alice's breakfast menu which Mike had failed to find yesterday.

As we arrived, Jess spotted a small play area just outside the marina so she and Alice set off ahead to give it a test run. Christine decreed that exercise was needed and that we should walk into town - it is just over a mile with the better route alongside the canal rather than the main road.

The nearest supermarket is Waitrose but we quickly established that they did not have any copies of our newspaper left - even though there was an enormous supply of unsold Telegraph's, not sure what that means! So, leaving the other three to pick up what they could find in Waitrose, Mike was dispatched to track down a paper which he found in WHSmiths.

On the return walk we walked back thorough Vines Park, including a brief chat with St Richard.

Still trying to trace some of the more obscure parts of the original line of the Droitwich Junction Canal, Mike took a look at what he thought was Impney Way bridge, over the canal at the end of the motorway tunnel. In fact, a small sign indicated that this was the parapet of the original canal bridge and the new line passes under where the metal railings are, just beyond in the photo, following along Body Brook still at this point - the River Salwarpe joins a few metres later. When the original canal was in operation, the road to the right of the photo was just a narrow track to a nearby farmhouse, now underneath a large new housing estate.

We managed to reach the boat as darkness was really falling - but just enough to see to do the chores of emptying the ash pan and elsan as well as filling the water tank, all of which needed doing.