Biking Around Kingston

My biking reached its height in adventure the next day. I again consulted the "tfl" website for directions and this time they took me down over the river to Waterloo Station where I folded up my bike and rode the train to Surbiton. Jeff and Damien met me at the station for a bike ride around Kingston.

It was another beautiful day, and we put the bikes in a boat and crossed the Thames to enter the Hampton Court Palace grounds.

Hampton Court was originally Henry VIII's palace, just like in the television show "The Tudors"(of which, Season 2 is hands down the best). We biked right up the front of the castle, dismounted, and walked around a bit more before continuing on our bike ride. It is a beautiful structure, and again a place that would be great to see sometime. Tony loves palaces, and I know he'll love to see this one. It looks very different from the ones we'd visited in France and Germany.

We biked on for quite a while and eventually stopped for lunch/dinner at an outdoor beer garden in Teddington. Jeff explained that the town gets its name as an abbreviation for Tidal Ending Town, as this is as far as the tide gets up the Thames from the North Sea. They were roasting a whole pig on a stick, and how could a foodie like me pass that up.


We walked our bikes across a small suspension bridge and checked out the boat locks, just in time to see them work for some boats heading up river.







From there we made our way to the town of Kingston, where we saw the coronation stone. For 80 years, kings were crowned while sitting on this stone. Now its in a park.

About this time, it was getting to be late afternoon, and it was time for me to fold my bike, climb back on the train and make my way back to London. By the time I made it back to the apartment, I was pooped but it had been a terrific day: sunshine, bikes, palaces, beer, pig on a stick. Only in Europe.