Hurley and Henley-on-Thames

This week’s camping has taken us into the Berkshire countryside, where we stayed at a lovely campground a pleasantly long walk from the village of Hurley. This idyllic village is precisely the sort of place foreigners like me imagine an English village to be. There are beautiful old buildings, some of which date back to the 12th century! There are two pubs in the centre of the village – The Rising Sun and The Olde Bell Inn, and another pub on the other side of the area – The Dew Drop Inn, which is in a building that dates back to the 17th-century.

But first, this is our view from our camp spot. I love it.

I absolutely love being around animals and I hope we can move to the countryside because this is the sort of place where we’re happiest.

And, yes, we brought Blackie along. She’s just settling in for her third night of camping! It is rather crazy, I’ll be the first to admit, to take a cat out camping, but Blackie is very domesticated and, well, she’s like a dog. She is super happy, eating and sleeping well, but also running about and playing.

The Olde Bell has some parts of the building dating back to 1135! We enjoyed our dinner here – I had the fish and chips and Gavin had the burger. In our opinion, The Rising Sun had tastier food – but we nevertheless enjoyed our meal.

The Dew Drop was something else. It is accessible via a single country lane which is surrounded by lush vegetation. Sometimes there were gaps in this greenery which overlooked the valleys beyond, these dotted with cows and sheep – pastoral scenes which I find most beautiful.

The back, where the parking lot is located:

Gavin’s always a good sport and he happily takes me from one 17th-century site to another – because it not only makes me happy, but there is usually real ale available. He’s a real ale connoisseur, and he commented that this pub not only has a nice ambience but the ales are very well kept.

Cheers! Gavin in The Dew Drop Inn.

Henley-on-Thames

We briefly stopped, in Henley-on-Thames, where we had breakfast at a Wetherspoon’s pub, The Catherine Wheel. Visitors to the UK will enjoy the fact that many, if not all, Wetherspoons pubs have local history information framed around their establishments. Situated very close to the River Thames, The Catherine Wheel is a large pub and hotel had some interesting 17th-century history on its walls:

After our breakfast, we went for a short walk to another pub, The Old Bell. Now this pub was closed, but I wanted to see it because of its 17th-century connections. Rupert of the Rhine is believed to have had his headquarters here and had a Parliamentarian hanged on a tree nearby. Unfortunately, the pub wasn’t open, so I couldn’t get any photos inside. Oh well, guess that means we’ll have to come back to Henley!

That’s all from me for now. I hope you enjoyed the photos x