Royal Windsor

 Our view downstream this morning.....

..... and upstream

The light this morning was beautiful and the views up and down the river stunning. We were soaking up the views when there was a loud tapping on the side of the boat. A lady had come to collect the £4 mooring fee. I said that we had looked but had not seen anything to suggest that we would have to pay a fee, and so she pointed out the sign which clearly stated this - should have gone to Specsavers!

 My, what big wings you have

There were masses of wildfowl milling about this morning, and several swans curled up asleep, just drifting along in the middle of the river.Once Angela appeared with bread, they came rushing over and a feeding frenzy ensued.

 Cruising through Cookham

We set off in the direction of Windsor, and the condidtions were perfect. A few cruisers passed by but it was quiet and the river was like a millpond again. We met up with some nice people in the locks, and we also came across a boat that was annoying everyone. It was a beautiful boat with every gadget imaginable for manouvering. In the locks, everyone else tied their boats to mooring posts, but this guy was wandering about with a remote control operating his bow and stern thrusters all the time, inching his boat to and fro.

 A grebe with a cute baby on its back

 A beautiful house amongst the trees

 Maindenhead is awash with fabulous houses

 And another

 Even the boat houses are incredible

 Karenna and Zivanai on Banjo

We reached Windsor and moored up to visit the town. As we walked along the riverside path, a voice called out "Angela and Graham" - it was Karenna, Angela's brother's daughter in law. An amazing but loveley coincedence. Karenna was with her son Zivanai who we hadn't met before, and her friend Christina with her two boys Guy nd Noah. We all went back to the boat and enjoyed some time together before heading back up the river and into town.

 We visit the queen for tea

Windsor was awash with tourists, particularly around the castle and we felt very special as we pushed through the crowd and went in to have tea with her majesty. (I may have eggagerated a bit here. We did eat, but in a cafe!)

A cute shopper!

We explored a bit more and picked up a few more loaves of duck bread from Waitrose - nothing but the best for Angela's friends. We spotted this lady leaving a shop - people like to dress well to shop in WIndsor. We decided to stay in Windsor for the night, but are wondering if this was a wise decision, since we appear to be under the flightpath for heathrow and next to a busy railway bridge......