Riverside view

It was a slow morning as I decided to repack all my things for the upcoming break at an Airbnb on the Thames. By 13:40 p.m., we were on a train to Twickenham, going the wrong way around the loop, which reminded me of my year working in Staines. We even changed trains at Twickenham and passed through Staines on our way to Sunnymead.

From there, it was a bit of a walk. Our first attempt was down a main road that lacked pavements and had large puddles of standing water, which was ideal for drivers to plough through and soak us. We returned to the map and found something that used more backstreets and pavements. The walk to Friary Island was longer than I expected. The directions to the house were poor, but we did get to walk past some very impressive riverside properties. It surprises me that the neighbours want Airbnbs around here.

As we were walking down a street, I heard my name being called as the others had seen us walk right past the place we were looking for. Our directions suggested looking on the right after a bridge. I'd seen the bridge, but PY hadn't. I'm not sure how he missed it, but we thought it was further on than it was. I was pleased to put the bags down and select the room (we opted for the easy ground floor one while the others got bigger en-suites on the upper floors).

The house we selected has wonderful Thames-side views. If the weather holds, it will be very nice to sit watching the boats pass. Unfortunately, the hot tub we had hoped for is out of action. It's sunk into the decking, but the metallic cover protecting it seems very flimsy. We won't be walking across that.