Oxford

We very nearly didn't make it - train problems had us driving instead to Shrewsbury but we managed to get to Oxford as planned, at the time we had meant to arrive.

So then we restarted the walk exactly where we had left off four years ago, welcomed by an outdoor jazz band: a 'Jazz on the Towpath' event run by the local Osney Island community. Once we had passed that, and despite being in the middle of Oxford, the path was quickly quiet.

It was a warm midsummer's day, and after walking past Oxford colleges' boathouses (don't like new University College one), we stopped at the Isis Farmhouse, a riverside pub, for some refreshment.

We left the river at Sandford-on-Thames as we had arranged to stay at the Holiday Inn Express. The walk to the hotel gets abruptly less scenic, and felt longer than we had expected.

The football-stadium-oasis which includes the Holiday Inn Express doesn't allow much choice of eateries. And Frankie and Benny's wasn't designed with the Thames Path walking clientele in mind (it was full of noisy young people), but it provided a reviving meal all the same. The Holiday Inn Express was like all others of the same name.