Today a friend came to visit for the day and he enjoys walking so we needed to find a new route he has not been on before. We decided to get the boat from Teddington to Richmond and then walked nearly 7-miles along the towpath from Richmond to Kew, then across Kew Bridge through Brentford alongside the Grand Union Canal, into Syon Park and then into Isleworth picking up the bus home from there.
It was a long walk and we were very lucky with both the weather and our choice of pub - the Greyhound on Kew Green - which did excellent food. This is a photograph from early on in our walk, looking across the Thames towards Isleworth and the famous local pub - The Apprentice.
The Apprentice dates back to fifteenth century and is said to have been patronised by Henry VIII (he got everywhere!), Charles I, Charles II (with Nell Gwynne), Lady Jane Grey and Oliver Cromwell. The Inn was also a popular haunt of highwaymen including Dick Turpin. Apparently below the floorboards there is a tunnel which links All Saint's Church (on the right) with the pub. This is believed to have been used by Thames smugglers to pass their contraband from the vaults of the church to the cellars of the Inn.