Home of The Bees... and Happy New Year!

We had a late start today, so only ventured as far as Brentford, home of Premier League club The Bees. We had hopes of attending their home game tomorrow night, so dropped into the stadium on the slim chance there were tickets available. But with a public holiday match and only a 17,000 seat stadium, all tickets were gone.

We briefly visited the London Museum of Water and Steam, then walked along the Thames via a number of caches, with lunch at a Thai restaurant.

Our last stop was the monument commemorating The Battles of Brentford - the first an Anglo-Saxon victory in 1016 against Danish invaders, and more recently, a Royalist victory in 1642 during the English Civil War, where Charles I's forces pushed the Parliamentarians back towards London.

When the weather got too cold to continue our outdoor activities (most of the day was "feels like -1"), we caught the bus back to Twickenham for afternoon coffee from the Turkish cafe next door, in preparation for night ahead.

Pre-wedding event dinner tonight was near Richmond Hill, so at midnight we wandered down to the viewing point and saw in the New Year to a cacophony of fireworks from all directions. The celebrations continued for quite a while, and we were serenaded by the random popping of fireworks as we walked back to our accommodation.Read more