West London

Back down to London, as we take a bit of time off and prepare for the next legs of our journey! We left our flat at around 10am, walked up the road to the bus stop and caught a bus into the centre of Manchester (all of our luggage in tow). Got there just in time for the enormous station to be evacuated, then five minutes later to be told it was a false alarm!

We had plenty of time before the train so we had an early lunch - I decided to Eat Fresh while Shandos had some sushi, and we just sat on a bench inside the station. Our train left exactly on time at 12:30, and chuntered fairly quickly down the length of the country. Very familiar sights by now, mostly flat, neat fields, small scattered herds, motorways and settlements everywhere.

Arrived at London Euston at 2:41pm right on schedule, where we caught a Tube to Vauxhall, then an Overground service out to Twickenham where our house-sit is located. It's a long way west of the city, about half-way to Heathrow, or 30 minutes on the train.

Our house-sitter Dominnique picked us up from the station in her BMW; she seems quite wealthy and confident. She's a businesswoman originally from South Africa and she was heading to Croatia for a week for some meetings. She talked a mile a minute, but was gone very quickly as she had a plane to catch.

We introduced Schnitzel and Bailey, the cocker spaniel we're looking after for the week, and they seemed OK together. The house is quite compact (a 2-bed terrace), but definitely enough space for us. We got settled and then headed out with the dogs.

Twickenham is a pretty upmarket area, with a nice high-street and the Thames lazily rolling past on its way up to Oxford. We walked along the river and stopped at a nice pub called the White Swan where we had a couple of ciders each. Nice to know I didn't have to drive!!

The pub is also home to a rowing club and thus a small "beach", where Bailey promptly jumped into the river. Apparently he loves to do this, though he didn't appreciate the wash when we got home!

Settled in for the evening watching Netflix and catching up on internet!Read more