― Rudyard Kipling

Our return visit to Windsor took place a week later than we had originally planned. Our plan was to revisit Windsor Castle, in particular St George’s Hall and St George’s Chapel, which was not fully open on our previous visit. The castle had only reopened a few days before our planned visit date following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II so we thought it might be busy that weekend.

Our journey to Windsor was accompanied by sunshine and mostly ran smoothly apart from a congested portion on the M40 which because of the queues, led to us missing Cherwell Valley services for lunch. We stopped at Oxford Services where neither of us were enamored by the lunch options. Eventually I opted for a sandwich from Waitrose and Mr C chose a KFC burger.  Modern life with on screen food ordering really isn’t for me. I like to get up close to the counter and see what is on offer without having to scroll through screens. The place was heaving and we were glad to get away from it.

Due to it being Saturday we found the road into Windsor was congested. The congestion was particularly bad  when we arrived at the car park which is next to Windsor and Eton Riverside station. This was where our hotel has reserved spaces that are pre-bookable. Cars were parked all over the place making it difficult to manoeuvre in and out of the car park. I got out of the car to do a recce and established there were plenty of spaces in the hotel’s reserved spaces for which we had pre-booked a ticket for the duration of our stay. We  had to be patient and wait in the queue until we got to the appropriate section of the car park.

Safely parked we checked in at the hotel, then walked back to the car to collect our luggage. The car park was still chaotic and I had difficulty manoeuvring my wheeled case between the narrow spaces between both parked and moving cars. I breathed a sigh of relief as I left the car park and stepped into a side road to let a car exiting the car park pass by me. The car driver drove towards me so I decided to move further to one side but the car driver tried to park her car in the space where I was standing causing me to leap into the only space left for me which meant hastily lugging my wheeled case up a curb to get out of her way.

Luggage safely in the room we opted not to go on the Long Walk as originally planned because we didn’t think there was enough time to enjoy it properly. We opted for a walk along the river instead which involved ice cream and a drink before a leisurely stroll ‘there and back’ along the River Thames starting at Eton Bridge.

Once back at the hotel we claimed our free drink which we enjoyed at our leisure, sitting outside on the hotel terrace before freshening up for dinner. We dined in A la Russe where I chose halibut steak followed by lemon sorbet, oranges, amaretto, and amoretti biscuit crumbs.

The place was buzzing and the food was every bit a delicious as it had been on our previous visit there. After each course we were asked if we had enjoyed it to which Mr C quipped as his (empty) plate was taken away, ‘As you can see it was awful’. At the end of the evening after paying the bill we were offered a complimentary glass of Limoncello, it would have been rude not to accept the offer. When it arrived the proprietress told Mr C that ‘it would be awful’ and as we left (with a twinkle in her eye) she wished us ‘an awful weekend’. Much laughter was had by all.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle of 912 records a settlement called Oxenford at a pace where local people would drive their cattle across the river. The popular belief has always been that the city takes its name from the words “ox” and “ford” and that the crossing place was here, at was is now Folly Bridge.

By the 11th century, the low lying lands and river were spanned by a causeway made up of a series of stone bridges, which in medieval times was called Grandpont. The bridges were maintained by charity, with hermits collecting alms at a wayside chapel. In the 19th century a railway station was opened near Folly Bridge and the Grandpont estate laid out on land reclaimed from the marshes. The name Grandpont also lives on in the riverside park whose entrance is on the far right-hand-side of the bridge.

The river here is the Isis, the name given to the Oxford stretch of the River Thames. The “Head of the River” pub takes its name from the finish of the college bumping races held during the Eights week in May. Crews of eight oarsmen race in procession trying to catch and bump the boat the boat in front and thus move up to take the title “head of the river”. The first organised race took place between Brasenose and Jesus Colleges in 1815, but other colleges soon joined in over a set course from Iffley Lock finishing here near Folly Bridge.

Salter Boatyards which operates pleasure cruises was established beside Folly Bridge in 1858. It was from here too that Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) set out on a rowing expedition to Godstow with Alice Liddell and her sisters, the daughters of the Dean of Christ Church. He told them stories from which the “Alice” stories were born. *

*From a sign board at Folly Bridge