Marvellous Marlow

It is easy to avoid blogging when one is visiting family. There is so much to do, so much to catch up on, so much time to spend with grandchildren...
Since our arrival in Marlow, that's how much of our time has been spent. It has also been spent wandering Marlow, without doubt one of the loveliest locations on the River Thames. Situated between Windsor and Henley, this medieval town sets elegant Georgian buildings against the wonderful woodlands of Buckinghamshire's Chiltern Hills...one can literally expect to see Robin Hood and friends hiding behind trees as we travel the area. It is both prosperous and lively, it's streets filled with interesting shops, wine bars and pubs which add so much to Marlow's charm.
The town's main landmark is a beautiful suspension bridge, which spans the Thames, completed in 1832 to designs by William Tierney Clark, who also designed the bridge across the Danube near where our Viking Bragi was docked at the start if this journey.
The two main streets for shops are High Street and West Street. The finest building, just around the corner from our daughter's house is Marlow Place, built in 1721.
Through the 18th and early 19th centuries, Marlow emerged as a fashionable riverside resort attracting a variety of well known types, including Thomas Love Peacock, Jerome K Jerome and T S Eliot. I walk past the house daily, where the poet Shelley and his wife Mary lived. I am told that Mary finished her Gothic masterpiece, Frankenstein while living here in Marlow.
I get to walk these wonderful Streets on a daily basis as I accompany my 7 year old granddaughter to her school. It is just over a mile trek each way, so doing that twice a day is giving me a t least 4 miles a day before I head off to explore.
Riverside walks are a very common past time. In my next posting, I'll describe the wonderful walk from our grand children's favourite park, Higginson Park to Temple Lock. Part of the Thames Path National Trail, the path actually stretches from the Cotswalds to London.