Saltaire

We had travelled up from home on Saturday evening after attending a wedding in Egloshayle church and a reception in the Rugby Club opposite. We were away by 4 pm and expected to arrive at our overnight stop in Basingstoke just befor nine. In fact we made excellent time and drew into the Premier Inn car park around ten minutes after eight.

The reason for this plan was so that we could pick up Alice and Jess from their home in Windsor - their Mum was waiting for a taxi to take her to Heathrow to fly off to a conference. We were ready to leave soon after and up the motorways - mostly the M1 - to where we had left the boat in Shipley. The journey was without incident - even the one accident and lane closure announced on the overhead signs was just being cleared away in time for us to pass without any hold up.

Mid afternoon we arrived at the boat just as a heavy rain storm joined us - the sunshine we saw in Windsor gradually left us during the journey and the last part was off-and-on drizzle, although still very warm.

Sticker time!

We unloaded the car and whilst the unpacking was being done, Jess started on a sticker book we picked up from Trowell Services, helped by Alice.

Ashley Lane Visitor Moorings

Finally we set off but only went less than half a mile - we planned to stay on the Saltaire Visitor Mooring but discovered that there is a maximum 6 hour stay during the day time (£5 an hour otherwise!) but just past the next bridge we found a mooring place next to the Ice Cream Boat.

Salt Mill

The reason for not going further was so that we could visit Saltaire in the morning and perhaps see some of the David Hockney exhibition - sadly only some of the gallery is open on a Monday.

Salt Mill and River Aire

We also stopped here because Alice had seen a play area just the other side of the River Aire. She, Jess and Grandad walked over the footbridge and found an excellent play area - renovated just last year.

Basket Swing

Jess went on everything that Alice tried - even those that were supposed to be a bit big for her age!

Zippedy doo dah!

Alice's Blog

I went in the car to Granny and Grandad's canal boat. We moved the boat a bit till we came to a park. We went in the park and we went on two swings a zip wire and a trampoline. We went to the shop's and got some ice cream and went back to the boat. I had dinner it was pasta bolognnaise.

Jumping fun!

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