Continuing our “Holiday from Home”, we were going to go to Bushy Park on Friday, but decided it was far to hot to sit on non air-conditioned trains, so went yesterday instead.

We changed trains at Waterloo – it’s always interested navigating an excited dog through crowds of people going every which way:

There is a small park by Hampton Court Station, curiously named Cigarette Island Park, so Rocco had a chance to stretch his legs:

Then across the Thames:

and a quick look at Hampton Court Palace:

Unfortunately, we found out that it’s the wrong time of year to take dogs into Bushy Park due to the deer (one dog walker we spoke to had been cornered several times in the park by deer), so we retraced our steps and found a very dog friendly pub to have a beer (and a small snack) and consider our options:

Looking at the map, we decided to follow the “Barge Walk”, a good path along the Thames, to Kingston:

The first part of this is along the Hampton Court Palace house and grounds:

Rocco enjoyed himself, but was disappointed that the banks were too high to go for a swim in the Thames (luckily):

Soon we were approaching Kingston:

and in need of another beer:

We then walked to Hampton Wick station (closer than Kingston) and got the train back to Waterloo:

And from there, back to Orpington. A lovely day, a bit warm in places but with an occasional sprinkle of rain to keep us cool.