We had a wonderful night at our B&B, lovely hosts, and a nice breakfast of the best muesli I've ever had. We set off in company with a nice Australian woman who had just finished the first half of the Ridgeway, like us but on her own, but was going to continue along the Thames Path to go visit a cousin. She left us when we wanted to go in and see a church, and she wanted to get going. We did dawdle quite a bit; we looked at two churches and then walked a few blocks to find a Tesco Express, where we bought lunchy things and, hallelujah, a Dr. Pepper for me. Then we got going.
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Blue plaque says that Lewis Carroll
preached here as a student |
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| Crossing the Thames -- cute cafes abound |
Our path went north along the east side of the Thames, often within sight of the water. We walked through extremely posh neighborhoods, where the path intersected backyards that ran right down to the water (and usually a nice little boat to enjoy the water with). This went on for quite a while and we saw a lot of very fancy and/or historic houses. We met only one fellow hiker (on his way to Glastonbury) and a lady walking her horse; otherwise there were a few exercisers and that's all. Once past the village of South Stoke, it got more countryish, with wheat fields, fishing, and fewer boats. The railway ran right next to us for much of the way, and eventually crossed over the river while we crossed under it. After more fields, we got into posh neighborhood again and passed through a bit that seems to belong to the Prince of Wales for fishing purposes. He owns a historic pillbox filled with bricks too.
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| The path is often narrow, along back gardens |
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| Glimpses of the river through the trees |
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| The pub in South Stoke |
It's a surprisingly long way from South Stoke to North Stoke, but once we got to the North part, the path went straight through a churchyard and we took a look at St. Mary the Virgin Church. It was quite something, because the walls still have 14th-century wall paintings visible on them! They were not easy to figure out, but the clearest bits showed the Last Supper, the Betrayal, Trial, and Flagellation, and above that, the Resurrection. There were also three people being raised from the dead on the other wall. Some of the window glass looked to be Elizabethan. And, fun to see, the 15th-century church porch has a pair of oak timbers that naturally curve to form an arch. We ate our lunch on a delightfully shady bench in the churchyard, and noticed a sundial that is now mostly in the shade; the trees must have gotten much larger since the dial was installed a century ago. It's a memorial to the Great War dead.
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| The Prince of Wales' fishing spot |
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| The Prince of Wales' pillbox |
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| 15th century wall paintings |
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| A very shady sundial memorial |
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| A tiny door |
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| The porch entry used a natural tree arch |
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| Near an old mill |
Another mile or so on, the Ridgeway takes a sharp right but we needed to keep going straight to get to Wallingford. More lovely shady trail, and then we saw another churchyard, dedicated to a different St. Mary. And it was the teeniest English church I've ever seen. A mini-church! We went in and it is no longer used as a church, but is kept up for historical interest. It was so tiny that there was no real tower; there are two bells and the ropes are next to the font instead of all being in a tower. A brass memorial on the wall also had a couple of dings in it, which turned out to be because the church was occupied by Parlimentarian forces, and some trigger-happy musketeer shot the plaque a few times.
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| Teeny church! |
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| Can you spot the dings? |
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| Mini bell tower |
We arrived in Wallingford through a field that turned into the park next to the Wallingford bridge, a medieval bridge with something like 19 arches. Kim took off her shoes and socks and waded, but I was too lazy to take off two pairs of socks and assorted pieces of moleskin and stayed shod. We went over to the shady side and admired ducks and a swan instead.
Then we crossed the bridge and walked into town. The town center is very pleasant and full of useful shops like a Boots, bookstore, and pizza place, so after we got settled in our pub rooms (mom and Teresa up one stair, and Kim and I up another one in the attic, which was quite warm despite the fan), we went back out in search of a laundrette that turned out to be completely legendary. There was a laundry service, though, so we gave up our clothes and went exploring.
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| What is it? I don't know |
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| View from my bedroom window |
The bookstore first, a lovely little place with a very friendly clerk, then the Boots for extra conditioner. We checked the giant church but it was closed. We'd had a particular pizza place recommended so we went there and it was yummy, reasonable, and had more Dr. Pepper! I got an extra for the next day. On the way back we passed a restaurant called Five Little Pigs, because Agatha Christie lived just down the road for about 30 years and is buried a couple of miles away. We discussed going to look for her house, which was described as "just down the road, very close" but was actually a mile away, which would make two more miles to walk.* Then it was back up to our hot room, and since there was an England game in the Euro championships, there was quite a lot of carousing outside our window for a couple of hours. Even after that calmed down, it was so hot that it was very difficult to sleep.
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| I just liked this name, which is for an alley maybe 4' wide |
*Never trust British people when they say something is "just down the road, not far at all" and you are on foot. Your idea of 'not far' and theirs is very different, just as your idea of what constitutes a long road trip is very different from theirs.
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