More Research!!

A few days ago, the book I ordered, called "The River Thames" arrived.  I've been reading through the sections of this book that cover the areas we'll travel and adding notes to my trip guide.

I've already written many notes for the trip and now I'm concentrating on where we'll moor each night.  David has given me the towns he hopes will be our stops for each night.  It's always a best bet to stay in a marina, but sometimes they are not so convenient.  For example, I'm looking at the town of Reading where we'll probably stay the second night.  There are three marinas.  One is on an island and another one is in the middle of nowhere!  Having carefully looked over maps and Google earth, I think our mooring place should be along the side of the river in the busy part of town so we can walk or bike to restaurants or for sightseeing.

Research!

I have been very busy these past few weeks researching all the cities, towns and villages we will be passing through on our trip along the Thames.  I am also looking into some places that David and I may be visiting before and/or after our boat trip.

Researching the towns along the way is one of my favorite things to do!  I love digging up every little (and big!) place there is to visit in each town.  We've seen things as little as one of the oldest trees in France.   On this trip, we'll be visiting some really big and famous places too, such as Windsor Castle!

In addition to sightseeing, I will also look into possible places to moor our boat, including the nightly cost and availability of electric to plug into or water to fill our tank.  I'll try to find the best restaurants in each town...... sometimes it's the only restaurant!  I'll know where to find groceries, which we'll need, and where the nearest hospitals are, which hopefully, we won't need!  I put all of this information into a "trip guide" and each member of our party gets one.

I leave it to Captain Dave to tentatively plan where we'll stop each night.  He'll have a good idea of how far we can go in a day so we can reach our destination on time and also see as much as possible without too much rushing.  These plans are always tentative as we find that sometimes our speed is out of our control, such as a lock being unexpectedly closed, or bad weather.  On a few occasions on other trips, we decided to leave the place we expected to stay in because it wasn't very nice or there was little to see there.  If it wasn't too late in the day, we decided to push on to the next town, and that usually was the right decision for us.

To do all this planning, it helps to have a navigational map of the river.  We'll get one from LeBoat when we arrive, but we like to do all our preplanning, so we found a great map on Amazon which arrived today!!

I spent a little time looking through this map.  Naturally it includes the path of the river and the locations of bridges and locks.  It also has the heights of bridges, and all sorts of information about the various marinas where we might spend the night.  I'm looking forward to poring over this during the next few months!

A Different Boat Already!!!

I just wrote all about the boat we booked for our trip, the Classique.  What I hadn't written was that this was our second choice of boat.  We had wanted the Magnifique, but it wasn't available during our week on the Thames.  But this morning, my wonderful husband spoke to the LeBoat folks and next thing I knew, he managed to get us the Magnifique!

Here is a picture of the Magnifique from the LeBoat website:

And here is the layout:

This boat is 47 feet, which is 5 feet longer than the Classique.  There are two double beds in the bow (blue) and two cabins that can be singles or doubles in the stern.  There is a larger galley and bigger couch, and finally, three bathrooms!  And most important, it is a much newer boat.

Where Are We Going??

Benson and Chertsey are not towns that most people outside of England are familiar with.  But I'm sure most people have heard of London, Oxford, Windsor or Eton.  Well, these are some of the places we'll be visiting on our trip.  This simple map shows the route we will be taking.  We will fly into London and then rent a car and drive to Oxford (to the west of Benson, not on this map), spending a day or so there sightseeing.  On the appointed day, we'll drive to the LeBoat base in Benson and load our things onto the boat.  Then we'll head to the nearest supermarket and buy some provisions to get us started.  And once we return the rental car, we'll be off  on our Thames Voyage!

Another Exciting Trip!

My husband, David, and I, are in the very beginning stages of planning our sixth European canal boating trip!  We are so excited because it's been two years since our last trip!  This time, we will be boating in England, along the Thames River, from Benson to Chertsey!  Joining us is our friend Barbara, who was with us for our last trip on the Canal du Midi.  New to canal boating is our friend Charlie.  This will be his first trip!

We are again using LeBoat for our rental boat.  We are getting a large boat, called the Classique. This is the same boat we had on our last trip.  It has four cabins and two bathrooms, so we should have enough room for everyone to be comfortable.  There are both indoor and outdoor steering positions.  David, our primary captain, prefers the comfort and visibility of the outdoor steering, and will use that unless it's raining.

Here is a picture of our boat from the LeBoat website

Here is the layout of the Classique:

Looking from the bow, you see the first cabin (double bed in blue).  Next to that is a second cabin (yellow bunk beds) and a bathroom.  Then in the middle of the boat is the saloon with a couch and table and the indoor steering position.  Then there is the galley (kitchen) and across from that is the second bathroom.  In the stern of the boat are two more cabins shown with twin beds (orange) that can be pushed together to create double beds.