After a busy weekend away, I am back on the blog today. I don’t have time to read and comment on all the posts that came in while we were away, so apologies for that.

We travelled to Teddington, a suburb of West London 155 miles south-west of Beetley. Julie has friends and relatives living in the area, but rarely gets a chance to meet them. We stayed in a nice hotel for two nights, and managed to meet all of them as arranged over the course of the three days we were there.

Making that trip from Beetley involves a lot of motorway driving, including a long stretch of the notorious urban motorway around London, the M25. And as Monday was a public holiday here, everyone else was on the move. As a result, the outward journey that should have taken just over three hours took four and a half, a lot of that time stuck in gridlocked traffic on the M25.

Being away from home also involved eating lots of rich food in restaurants, and drinking more alcohol than we would normally, and we felt the effects of that. The weather wasn’t that great either, with the sunniest day being Saturday, most of which was spent in the car getting there. But we managed to avoid the frequent showers, even during a long walk through Bushy Park heading for Hampton Court Palace.

When we arrived at the palace, there was a special festival of some sort being held there, and the place was packed. So as we have both seen it before, we decided not to bother struggling with the crowds.

The meetings with the friends and relatives involved an excellent meal in a Spanish restaurant, a visit to a pub owned by one of them, and a late breakfast/early lunch in a trendy cafe before driving home. Fortunately, the return journey was not plagued by the same traffic issues, and we made it back in three hours.

I took a camera, but as the light was awful during our time there, I didn’t bother to take any photos. The only place we went that was remotely scenic was Hampton Court, and it really wasn’t worth taking photos of that as there would have been thousands of people in them.

Other than catching up with the friends and family, I have to say it was quite unpleasant to be back in London after so many years since I was last there, and I am in no rush to go back.

There will be another post about that soon.