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Since the sun was shining we decided to go to southwest part of London
to see Kew Gardens and then the Oxford-Cambridge boat race. Our
hotel provided daily newspapers so we knew about this famous rivalry and
could not pass it up.
After visiting Kew Gardens we planned to take the train close to the
start of the Oxford-Cambridge boat
race. But after asking direction
in the small town of Kew, we walked about a half mile to the
Thames River, then about a mile or two along the banks to the finish
line. We had front row seats for the race. The race is 4.5
miles and takes about 16 minutes to complete. The reserves from both
schools started about 30 minutes before the real race. Oxford won
both races. It was an exciting race with less than a boat length
difference. There was a lot of hollering
at the end of each race.
Since we walked quite a way from Kew Gardens, we did not want to go back
that way. Besides we wanted to see Chiswick House that seemed to be
close-by in Chiswick Park and maybe still have time to go to Windsor
Castle. Those plans changed when we got lost. We must have walked a few
miles before asking the local constable for directions. He advised
us to ride the bus since we had a few more miles to go - at least we were
headed in the right direction. After leaving
the Chiswick House we took the local bus to the train station at
Hammersmith and checked out
the area (including a shopping mall) around the station before returning to London and our
hotel. We were thoroughly exhausted after a full day.
That evening we heard on the news that the Queen Mother had died at 3:15
p.m. at Windsor Castle. If we had made it to Windsor, we would have
been in the middle of all the fuss surrounding her death. Oh
well!
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