Another gorgeous day and the river was full of sailing boats making the most of the stiff breeze as we turned the boat round and threaded our way between them as we headed down stream towards Windsor. We cruised through Cookham and Maidenhead en route, the homes of the rich and famous line the riverside at Maidenhead before the river passes under the huge arches of one of Brunel’s railway bridges, these arches have the widest span of any brick built bridge in the world, amazing as they were built in 1839.
The approach to Windsor is marked by the horse race course, before the huge ferris wheel and Windsor Castle came into view. We moored up and set off to explore the twin towns of Windsor and Eton, one famous for its castle and the other for its boys college.
Amazingly Eton has another college, The Porny School!! Beggars believe doesn’t it, but apparently it was founded in 1812 by Mark Antony Porny, a former French master at Eton, a disappointing explanation.
The old Windsor railway station now has only one train service running to and from Slough, but the whole concourse has been creatively converted into a shopping centre, with the ticket hall now a coffee shop and an old steam locomotive occupying one of the platforms.
Like silly kids at the fair, we finished the day with a trip on the ferris wheel, but the views were fabulous of the castle and river and well worth the reasonable ticket price.
No comments:
Post a Comment