More Summer Travel Adventures: Italian Gardens, French Neighbourhoods, Thai Temples & More!

After a long and very hot summer, autumn and rain have now arrived in the UK. Although I enjoy the hot and sunny weather, I'm glad to see the grass getting greener and the lakes near where we live filling up again.

But in today's post, I'm going to be looking back over the summer months and the little travel adventures they brought. After our trip to France and Monaco at the start of June, we spent the rest of summer fairly locally around the South East and London, but all the same, managed to visit quite a varied range of places. Here are the highlights!

Chiswick House and Gardens

I work in West London once a week, and if I'm feeling energetic, I go and explore somewhere after work. The first one of these little trips was to Chiswick House and Gardens, a place I've been meaning to visit for a long time.

These gardens are a little different to a lot of parks in London, as they were specifically inspired by the Grand Tour that the designers took through Italy, meaning that you can find a little temple, Roman statues and obelisks. I even spotted a tree that was just like the ones we saw around Rome!

As it was a very hot day during one of the heatwaves we had this summer, I really felt like I was on holiday somewhere in the Mediterranean, rather than in London after work!

Wallingford

My parents have mentioned really liking the town of Wallingford in Oxfordshire. So after a family meetup in Didcot, they dropped me and Claudio off there so we could have a look around. Highlights included the statue of Agatha Christie (who lived there for over 40 years), the ruins of the medieval castle, and the River Thames. We were surprised to see so many people swimming in it!

A Weekend at Winnersh Triangle

Winnersh Triangle probably wouldn't be most people's definition of a dream weekend break destination, but we had a surprisingly great time there back in July!

There's a bit of a story behind this; both Claudio and I love swimming, but it's something we rarely do unless we're on holiday, as most public swimming pools in the UK are too busy. To swim in the UK, you generally have a choice between lane swimming (depending on which lane you choose, you're either trying to keep up with Olympians, or you're getting cut off by people who can't finish a length without stopping) or going in the open area and getting splashed by kids whose parents are too busy staring at their phones to notice. 

So while I basically gave up on regular swimming a while ago, there are few things I love more than a dip in a calm, quiet hotel pool or (even better!) the sea or a lake.

We were both missing swimming during the various heatwaves of the summer, and so decided to book a night away at a hotel with a pool. We were considering going to London, but in the end, we decided it would be cheaper, easier and more relaxing to go somewhere more local.

So we booked a night at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Winnersh Triangle, and after finishing work one Friday, quickly packed up our things and took the 20-minute bus ride up the A3290 to the business park where the hotel is located.

Despite the short journey to get there, this area feels very different to the centre of Reading, which is often crowded, noisy and dirty. While Winnersh Triangle is not an area with interesting tourist attractions, it is clean and peaceful, which is something we find ourselves appreciating more and more these days.

We checked into our room, which was very comfy, with a superking size bed, and then spent around an hour enjoying the pool (which we had to ourselves a lot of the time we were there), sauna and steam room.

We'd worked up an appetite, so went for a meal at the hotel's Caprice Restaurant, which is known for its Indian cuisine. We really enjoyed our curries, and experienced a funny moment when we received a Margarita pizza rather than the cocktail I was expecting!

We managed to get ourselves a late checkout, so were able to spend some more hours at the pool the following morning after filling up at the breakfast buffet.

We then did a bit of sightseeing to make it a "proper" weekend away! We went to Dinton Pastures Country Park, a place Claudio hadn't visited before and that I'd visited once last year. My last visit was brief, because I spent so long trying to get to the correct entrance on foot, that I didn't feel like spending a long time walking around once I got there! This time, though it took a bit of time to get there by bus and on foot, we got there directly and explored the park more fully. It was a perfect, sunny day for it, and we really enjoyed walking around the lakes, and sitting with an iced tea on the balcony overlooking the little beach.

We arrived back at our flat late Saturday afternoon, and found it hard to believe that we still had more than a day left of our weekend, as we already felt like we'd really made the most of it! When you only have two days off out of seven, it sometimes feels like the weekends pass in a blink of an eye. We always want to go out and see places, relax, and do necessary life admin, but the two days generally pass without us managing to do half of what we want to. This was the first time in a while that we didn't feel that way.

The trip also changed a bit the way we think about travel. Of course we love travelling to different places around the world, and that's something we want to continue doing, but the truth is, you don't have to spend lots of time planning, or take a long, stressful and uncomfortable journey, in order to get the feeling and effect of going on holiday.

We're definitely going to do a similar trip at some point in the future, either to the same hotel or a different one with a pool, because it really was such a great way to reset!

South Kensington

Another after-office trip that I took this summer was to South Kensington. This is the area with the most French residents in the UK, and as a bit of a Francophile myself, I was intrigued to discover some French culture here in London.

The outing got off to a great start, as I met a lovely cat on the street!

My first bit of sightseeing involved visiting a fun hidden gem of London that I'd been meaning to go and see for a while: the Thin House. As the name suggests, this is a very narrow house! It is cool to see, because it looks like a normal, classic London townhouse from the front, but from the side it looks practically two dimensional!

My next stop of the evening was Bute Street. I had seen an article online saying that this street was a sort of "Little Paris" in London, which made me intrigued to visit it. Surprisingly, there weren't actually any specifically French shops, cafés or restaurants on it, but I did hear French being spoken.

However, elsewhere around the area, I did discover a couple more obviously French places!

Wimbledon

These days we don't go into London as often as we did when we first moved to Reading, as we like a bit of a quieter lifestyle now, but all the same, we like a weekend visit there from time to time, especially to the less central neighbourhoods where we can explore some new sights. One such trip this summer was to Wimbledon.

We started off by walking through the neighbourhood on our way to the park. We really liked the area, as it was very picturesque and had great views of the city below.

We then walked through the park, which was a lively place full of people doing sport and enjoying the sunshine.

Of course, being in Wimbledon, we had to stop by the famous All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Despite the fact that the tennis tournament only lasts a couple of weeks, part of the site is open to the public year round, including the shop and one of the cafés. We had a look around the shop (which naturally was eye-wateringly expensive!) and then went to the café for a sandwich and (what else?!) strawberries and cream.

The food was actually really good compared to other cafés in other touristic places we've visited. The strawberries were absolutely delicious and came in huge portions, only costing a couple of pounds each. I have been to the tournament a couple of times a long time ago, and remember the portions being much smaller and more expensive - I guess they lower the price during the rest of the year!

After that we walked over to an area of Wimbledon, which is like a sort of little Thailand unexpectedly located in southwest London. Here you can find a temple (Buddhapadipa Temple), a café (closed when we visited) and a pretty garden with a lake. Walking through the area, we felt transported back to our honeymoon in Thailand, especially because even the British summer weather felt quite Thai!

Clapham and Fulham

My final travel adventure of the summer involved taking the train to Clapham on a day off of mine. I started the day with a walk through Clapham Common, seeing cute dogs and (surprisingly) a couple of mini horses!

I then walked to the nearby Lockdown Bakehouse (an Australian-style coffee chain in southwest London that I'd been wanting to try for a while). The café was pretty crowded, so I took my flat white and brownie back to the park and enjoyed them there.

After my coffee break, I got on a bus heading to Putney Bridge. I was lucky enough to get the best seat - at the front of the top deck!

Unfortunately, after I got off the bus and crossed over the bridge to Fulham, I wasn't so lucky! As I was walking to Fulham Palace, my next destination of the day, a wasp came up to me and stung me on the ankle. This reminded me why I have a longstanding phobia of wasps, because it was so, so painful.

However, the palace itself (which is free to visit) was a nice distraction from the stinging pain. This is the former residence of the bishops of London and is a really beautiful old building. 

I then walked through the picturesque Bishop's Park, which features a little beach and a fairytale-style bridge.

My last destination of the day was Fulham Pier, a recently opened entertainment space surrounding Craven Cottage football stadium, with great views of the River Thames. It also has various food offerings - I had some really good vegan tacos.

That brings to a close my travel adventures of summer 2026. It was a fun time overall! However, autumn so far this year has been ever more exciting! Check back in here to read more about it very soon...