More Walks

I thought as long as I was blogging about walks I'd finish up a couple of walks we did in England.

As we drove out our first Sunday there we passed a lovely hotel, The Swan, with walks along the Thames next to it.  We promised ourselves we'd walk and lunch there one day and we finally did.  But the first time we tried we couldn't find a parking spot so we drove on to Kelmscott the site of William Morris's home.  From there we walked along the Thames and through the fields.
A day or two later we went back to the Swan Hotel, found parking and set off across the fields next to the Thames.  Evidentually was came to Grafton Lock  where we talked to a man and his wife taking their narrow boat through the lock.  He said that in January he and his wife would be sailing on the QE II to America, via the Panama Canal and up to California.  From there take the train up the coast to Oregon where his sister lived.  After that they'd take the train all the way across the United States (northern route) to Niagara Falls before returning to England we wished him well on their journey.

Grafton Lock Keeper's Cottage

Finishing our walk we returned to the Swan, had a lovely lunch and I did a small painting and Mac did a drawing.
On our next to last day we did one of our favorite walks up to the Uffington White Horse and to Wayland Smithy.  The Uffington White Horse is a stylized prehistoric chalk figurelocated in Wiltshire in the Vale of the White Horse.  It has been dated from somewhere in the 1400-600 B.C. range.  It is 374 feet long and can be seen for miles, and when you're standing above it you can see forever.
From the Horse we walked to Wayland's Smithy a Neolithic long barrow dating from about 3400 B.C.  It is 185 feet long and 43 feet wide, a very special place.  Three great walks.

Horse, but hard to see because we were up above it