A Palace and a Surprise at Braunston

Still heading south at our leisurely pace we have taken in a sightseeing tour of a palace and a detour to spend a few days at in Braunston.

After leaving Leamington Spa we continued on along the Grand Union Canal for the short cruise to Long Itchington at the base of the Stockton Locks. A pleasant little cruise through the country with a some fields of poppies along the way.

Four locks at Bascote, two individual locks and two in a staircase. We paired up with a nice couple in NB Hecla to go through these four double width locks.

A short cruise to the water point to top up again since it was washing day and that always depletes our water stocks. It was a nice fast tap, we sat down to have lunch while we waited for the usual slow fill and fifteen minutes later it was overflowing...a short lunch break. No problem though, another fifteen minutes and we moored at the bottom of the locks at Long Itchington a small village but with no less than five pubs. Two of these pubs sat right on the canal on opposite sides. It was quite busy here, lots of boats moored up, although not so unusual at the bottom or top of a longish lock flight.

We received a call that evening, Kevin and Carol were home and had a free day, do we want to go to Blenheim Palace? We had been talking about doing just that so that sounded great to us. They drove over and picked us up for the forty-five minute trip to the palace. Turns out it was well worth a look, especially with our English Heritage Cards.

Nice Front Gate!

In the picture below the main courtyard was fenced off while they were setting up for a concert the next evening. One of the artists to play was Van Morrison.

The Front Door and Main Courtyard

The Formal Gardens

More Gardens and part of the large lake

We finished off the day with a stroll around the very old local village next to the palace then back to The Cuttle Inn, next to the canal at Long Itchington for a pint and dinner.

The next day we were off early to tackle the Stockton Lock Flight. Our three hundred metre trek to the first lock we managed to pick up a partner to work the locks with. Turns out they were an American couple from San Diego on a similar sojourn to us. As we worked our way through the locks other boats were ahead and behind us, coming and going. By the time we had reached the last lock we were sharing it with a Swedish team of six in a hire boat. It was an interesting day!

Three more locks and a few more hours and we were mooring up at Braunston just before the junction. We were a little out of our way but I needed a few things at a chandlery. Moorings were severely restricted because, surprise! surprise! a Historic Boat Show weekend being run out of Braunston Marina, it was only by chance that we had managed to arrive on this weekend.