A much busier day today. We wandered off to have breakfast at the local Weatherspoons and do a little more sight seeing around the center of Reading as Sarah had not been to Reading in quite a while.
Our wanderings included going up to the Abbey ruins which date back to 1100. In it’s time is was a substantial area. What took Di’s fance was an area called the Necessarium – in other words the ablution block.
Sarah, our lock slave, has got off very lightly on her stay with us. She had the one lock to open on the canal before we made it to the Thames. After this lock, everything else will be push button and probably done by a lock keeper.
Just coming out of the lock we had this plethora of swans to negotiate.
They did not seem very fussed on getting out of our way. At the junction to the Thames, we actually turned back upstream as we needed to go Tesco shopping for the next five days. So that took us a couple of hours before we turned downstream again and headed to Sonning.
It took us only just on an hour to get to the village of Sonning which is very picturesque. After a quick bit to eat we went off for a lengthy walk around the village.
We have been here before and remember how picturesque it is.
We also remember it is the land of the well heeled.
Not your average punting boat.
Nor your water skiing boat.
And these gates mark the entrance to Geore Clooney’s place – well one of his places. He was probably not there and away at his shack at Lake Como, Italy.
Another one of those Bansky post boxes – someone certainly has a sense of humour.
It was then off to the pub/restaurant for a superb meal with great company. Now that it is getting near the end of August, the days are getting shorter and the nights longer. This means that when we decide to go out for an evening meal, we need to take a flashlight with us. As when walking a towpath at night time in the dark it is a recipe for someone ending up in the drink – luckily tonight that did not happen.
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