After walking through Cropredy village with a full cassette (and no, I didn’t put a plastic bag around it), we leave Cropredy at nine o’clock. Dubbel Dutch left even earlier. It’s warm, but also very windy. It’s difficult to get off the bank into locks. And because it is so busy I have to moor … Read More →
The first stop on our journey back home is Thrupp. At the Jolly Boatman we meet a couple and show them WRT. Only later we find out that he is Dutch. His comment? “Now I know why your boat looks so tidy!” To leave Thrupp we have to go through the (electric) lift bridge. Lawrance … Read More →
Oxford. Well, what should I say… Lots of wine, lots of good food, lots of miles to walk, lots of hours in museums, and the shortest cruising day ever (with two locks). To start with this shortest cruising day: we go from one 48-hour mooring to another 48-hour mooring. Three quarter of a mile closer … Read More →
Six cruising days, 37 locks, 19 bridges (of which nine were open) and 32 miles later we arrive at our first mooring in Oxford. I could stop writing now; this kind of sums it up. But of course there is more to tell. We have our first traffic jam for a lock. Not because it … Read More →
Just before we leave Saltisford we find out that the couple on the Black Prince hire boat that is moored behind us… are Dutch. Elly and Ronald, on holiday on a Black Prince boat for the eight time. They’re heading in the same direction so we decide to cruise together for a while. After I … Read More →
And don’t miss. Lawrance, maybe? Him being in Scotland at the moment, playing golf? Well, it certainly enables me to spend a day exploring Warwick. I find a yarn shop, and manage to get half the yarn I need. I also manage to get a hair cut, and once again I look totally different. And … Read More →
After a quiet night (with rain) at Kingswood Junction we turn onto Grand Union Canal, which must be the motorway of the canals. Bloody hell it’s wide! It’s amazing. What a difference compared to, for example, the Trent & Mersey around Acton Bridge. And no traffic… It’s too much for us. After two-and-a-half hours we … Read More →
Audlem, 16-04-2016 “A boat just moored behind us”, he says. “Did you see them?”, she asks. “Yes.” “Did you speak to them?” “No, I think they’re crème brûlée*.” Market Drayton, 18-04-2016 “Shall we moor just in front of that green boat?”, he asks. “Oh”, she says, “That’s them crème brûlée from Audlem.” He says: “But … Read More →
You think I’m green? No, not that green, you idiot! I’m a grown up girl, thank you. I mean green as in appearance. Like coming from Mars (would I be pink, if I came from Venus?). OK, I’m green with a bit of black, to be precise. Today she offers to do the locks, coming … Read More →
It should have been The Merchant of Venice (because that’s what I read for English Literature in Grammar School), but you can’t win them all. So A Midsummer Night’s Dream it is. An expensive dream (£65 per person), set unfortunately not in Tudor time but in the thirties. Performed at the famous Royal Shakespeare Theatre … Read More →