Wednesday 2nd May
We left this morning and went down to Thames Lock in anticipation of getting on to the Thames, but to no avail. The lock keeper phoned Teddington and unfortunately the river above Teddington Lock was still in flood. We could have stayed on the lock approach moorings at Thames lock except for one thing – they were so high there was absolutely no way we could get our aged pet off the boat!
With this in mind we had to quickly turn round, easier said than done and go back up Brentford Lock and hope the mooring we had been in last night was still free. Thankfully it was and as luck would have it the people who had been moored in front of us had moved up a few feet so B and B were able to get in there as well as us. We have our back end under a metal structure which looks like it could have been some kind of loading bay at one time and where there are some BW barges moored up. Barbara didn’t want to go under there because of bats!
Not having been enamoured with the part of Brentford High Street we investigated yesterday, today we decided to walk through Syon Park to Isleworth. On the way we passed a Pets at Home which we visited on the way back for supplies for our boy. Syon Park is part of the estate of Syon House, home of the Duke of Northumberland and very attractive. We didn’t venture in to the house or grounds as we are not really tourists but the photos we saw were pretty impressive. There is also a garden centre there and a Waldorf Astoria Hotel, neither of which did we visit. We carried on through the parkland to Isleworth which is a really lovely suburb with some beautiful old buildings.
Down by the river we stumbled upon The London Apprentice pub, restaurant and erstwhile haunt of some rather famous people, Henry V111, Catherine Howard, Charles 1 and Charles Dickens included. For a riverside pub in London the food prices were surprisingly reasonable and the view was great. If it had been closer to where we are moored we may have gone there for a meal tonight! If you look carefully at my photos of Isleworth church, one taken before we went in the pub and two taken when we came out, you will see that we don’t actually spend as long in the pub as you may think!
The word is that it will probably be Saturday before we can go on to the Thames, Bank Holiday weekend, so we will have to see.
