Sunday, 15th June                   Woolwich - Leighton Buzzard

Robyn writes:  A nice peaceful day after the hustle and bustle of a week in London! We were up at 8am to finish packing up, check the TV news - England lost in the World Cup game - sad :(  and headed out for our final breakfast at The Great Harry. We were all packed up and headed off at 9.30 on our way to Carol and Dave and Glen's place at Leighton Buzzard.

We just managed to get seats on the DLR for the half hour trip into Bank - it was really busy this morning. From Bank we took a train to Euston Station where we got tickets (14 pounds each) for the overland train to Leighton Buzzard. We comfortably caught the 11.24 out of Euston and made it into Leighton Buzzard at quarter past 12. Glen and Carol were there to meet us on the platform (thankfully - there were two big sets of steps to negotiate) and we were soon home for a delicious lunch (hot chook sandwiches - yum!)

After lunch, I did some washing and we hung it out to try and get it dry (Carol's dryer is broken ) but the weather today was not so co-operative - after a warm to hot week it's turned cool and cloudy and semi-drizzly again. We finally ended up bringing it in and it's now shut in a room with a de-humidifier going to try and dry it off before we leave on our canal trip tomorrow morning. We've also tried to get organized with our food supplies and have watched the compulsory safety and boat rules video which has left Carol and I quite panic-stricken at the idea of operating the locks! There seems to be an awful lot to learn.

In an effort to research further, for tea we went to a lovely local pub called "The Three Locks" - coincidentally, it's located right on a canal next to three locks in a row! (Wouldn't have seen that coming...) We had a lovely meal there and were able to watch several canal boats come through, and chatted to some of the captains aboard - they all assured us it's fine to get the hang of really quickly. We felt slightly reassured but I still think it may be very interesting at first....at least the route we are on only has two locks but it does have 5 swing bridges. Will keep you posted on our nautical adventures!