The weather has been terrible this weekend here in Berkshire: very wet and windy. However, the forecast promised sunshine this afternoon, so being optimistic, I decided to go for a walk up to Marlow. I really had fun, despite getting a little cold and muddy. First I went through Maidenhead Thicket, which is a nice wooded area by the A404.
Here’s a mushroom which I found. Lots of mushrooms around at the moment but mustn’t eat them as they might be poisonous.
An hour or so later on I’m walking through Bisham wood. It’s a bit eerie as all the leaves are gone and it’s starting to get dark.
I’d originally planned to go and visit Bisham abbey but it was getting a little too dark and cold so I decided to go straight to Marlow. I’ll leave the abbey for another outing.
I really like Marlow. You might remember I’ve been here before on my way to Henley. I defy anyone to visit and not think it’s one of the loveliest English towns.
Marlow has, by any standard, a rather fantastic bridge. This is the only bridge in the town and separates the Berkshire side from Buckinghamshire.
A few more photos from my walk here.
Afterwards I got the train back home to Maidenhead. Oh, the happy Marlow train! It trundles back and forwards all day; always on time and with a smile on its face. Even when the rest of the FGW network is in meltdown the Marlow train is always punctual.
While it’s been raining and winding outside I’ve been thinking about going on holiday next year. Since I really enjoyed by trip to Prague earlier this year, and especially my ride on the vlak, I’m thinking about getting an InterRail ticket and riding around on some European trains for a week. But where to go? When I first thought of this I decided on a route which seemed good in theory. However, the discovery that physical distances don’t correspond well to train travel times (especially in Poland for some reason); and the discovery that the cost of two single plane tickets isn’t much different to a return ticket caused me to reconsider my plans.
So I’m now thinking of visiting: Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest in that order. Have any of you readers been to central Europe? Where is good to visit? Where should be avoided?
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i have! but mostly when i was small. i liked switzerland. there were mountains and a glacier you could walk inside, it all glowed a bit blue from the sun coming through the ice and smelled kind of like a watermelon. and there were ducks by the lake and we went everywhere on the interlaken trains.
i liked cesky krumlov too, has a most excellent castle, although you have already been to czech republic. did you eat the nice bread with salt on when you went to prague?
you should ask stefan yupyup
November 22, 2009 @ 8:52 pm
> i liked cesky krumlov too, has a most excellent castle, although you have already been to czech republic
Ooooh, this looks good. Not opposed to going to the Czech Republic again – I thought it was rather good. Although my original route was a big circle around it…
> did you eat the nice bread with salt on when you went to prague?
I did eat nice bread and nearly everything had salt on it so it’s possible but I don’t remember this thing precisely. Did like Czech food very much: especially beef gulas food with dumplings.
November 22, 2009 @ 9:14 pm
dumplings good
November 23, 2009 @ 9:40 am
i second switzerland. belgium is good for tintin. http://www.comicscenter.net/ is a museum of all famous belgium comics.
so all it’s tintin and chocolate.
November 23, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
[…] could visit Marlow without wanting to ride on the happy little Marlow train previously eulogised on this blog. I didn’t take a picture of the Marlow train today unfortunately, but here’s one I made […]
March 7, 2010 @ 6:36 pm