Cruising the Thames: Day 7 - Maidenhead to Cookham to Marlow to Henley

We all had a good night's sleep and after breakfast, we left Maidenhead. The first town we came to was Cookham. Cookham is famous for painter Stanley Spencer who lived there. Spencer thought Cookham was “heaven on earth” and he was nicknamed Cookham due to his great love for the place. We found a place to moor there and set off for the Spencer Art Gallery. On the way we passed an old church surrounded by an old cemetery. We stopped to read the very old headstones. We went in the church where some old locals had been interred and there were some lovely stained glass windows. Then on to the Spencer Gallery where a nice man told us all about Spencer. It seems he'd been married to Hilda but cheated on her. He left her for Patricia, who spent all his money and turned out to be a lesbian. She left him and he wanted to go back to Hilda but she wouldn't have him. He pined over her for the rest of his life. His paintings were very interesting.

Going through a lock

Old church cemetery

Play area inside the church

Spencer Gallery

Then we walked down the street and found some cute shops. One of them sold fascinators, which Barbara and I tried on. Then we headed back to the boat and went to Marlow where it started to pour just as we arrived. We were soaked and had to change before going to lunch at a very fancy restaurant right on the water. By the time we finished the rain had just about stopped and we continued on our way.

We continued on our way until we reached Henley. Henley is famous for their regattas and there were tons of kids practicing rowing. There are grandstands set up and the whole town is clearly gearing up for this event. We met a British family on a boat while in a lock and found out where to moor in Henley. We found a good spot and some neighbors helped us tie up. In Henley, we walked around and looked in various stores in this cute town. Then we met up with the British family we'd met in the lock and went to a pub with them. We hung out with them for a while talking about everything! Then we went back to our boat and changed and then went out to dinner at a terrific Italian restaurant called Villa Marina. We then walked back to our boat in the rain. Near our boat, they are putting on an outdoor production of Twelfth Night, so we stopped to watch the last few minutes, till the downpour started again!