Down by the river......

We spent another pleasant day on Sunday, strolling along beside the river at Marlow; a strange droning noise from the river caused us to turn and see this............

He likes cars, he likes the river....why not combine the two?

Handsome wooden boat ready for the picnic

And it was.... a thumper

You have to love canal boat names

LF blocking the time on this sundial

The Triumph is yet again languishing in a garage - I put her in to a local dyno-tuning place in an effort to get the running better, evidently it needs new jets & a good tune up so I've left her with the garage until it's sorted, hence my reliance on Shank's pony.

Check-up went well

I had my six-monthly check-up at Christies in Manchester last week; the evening before I spent a very pleasant couple of hours in the pub with Nikos after first drooling over his accessory-loaded GS (I want one!); anyway, the examination went well, should have at least another few riding seasons left in me, so that cheered me up considerably.

On Sunday went for a walk in the park with LF, lots of blossoms out, it was almost like spring.

The spring weather has even infused my ride to work; this morning I challenged my co-worker Jim to a race to work, we were sitting at the traffic lights at Chiswick bridge, me on the trusty trumpet and Jim on his 125 Vespa. I took off like a lunatic, Jim getting smaller in my mirrors, weaved in and out of the traffic around Shepherds bush, up and on to the Westway where I could open her up for a minute, then down into Paddington – 8 miles in double quick time. You guessed it, I parked up, took off my helmet, and here’s Jim arriving all cool on his Vespa not one minute after me. I felt like Dick Dastardly.

Oh, and I’ve hired one of those BMW GS’ for a long weekend tour of northern France, off in a couple of weeks…need to get the ferry booked, route to plan.

Mayday walk

Not too much exciting riding going on at the moment here; I'm just using the Triumph to commute into central London every day - actually, that can be quite exciting, what with dodging wayward pedestrians and cyclists and avoiding murderous white-van drivers......anyway, the Mayday weekend dawned bright sunny and warm, perfect riding weather. Unfortunately, I'd somehow promised LF I'd go for a walk along the river Thames tow path with her. Sunday morning we caught the train down to Windsor, which is a quaint little village with the queens' favourite castle towering over it. First thing spotted was this very nice Honda Valkyrie. We strolled along all afternoon watching the boats floating by and admiring the houses, big, small or modern they all looked great in the sun. After a mid-afternoon stop for lunch, and a brief stop off at Runnymede to examine the memorial marking the spot where infamous King John signed the Magna Carta all those centuries ago, we arrived at the town of Staines early evening, 8 miles from where we'd started, jumped on the train and went home. 

Honda

walk the plank to get on the narrowboat

who says you need a big boat to relax on the river?

Runnymede, memorial to the signing of the Magna Carta

Spring blosssoms

Windsor castle

 Monday morning was another blue sky day, so we decided to catch the train back to Windsor, this time we walked upriver, again enjoying the scenery in the sun. We eventually reached Maidenhead, again 8 miles from Windsor, so caught the train home in time for tea. Although I'm a Londoner through and through, I must admit it was really pleasant strolling alongside old Father Thames, through ancient villages that seem not to have changed for centuries. Couldn't wait to get back on the bike Tuesday though!

rural church

houseboat

traditional house

queue at the lock

modern house