Exploring Reading

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It has been 1 and a half months since I lived in Slough, and for the past few weekends I either stayed in Slough or went to London. This weekend, I decided to go to somewhere new. In the end I decided to go to Reading because 2 of my friends happened to be going there. Reading is the largest town in Berkshire and according to my colleagues it is good for shopping.

My 2 friends (Ying Yi & Wen Seen) and I took a train from Slough to Reading. From Reading Station, we walked around the historical part of the town. We stopped at the Town Hall & Museum to pick up some maps and brochures, had a nice stroll in Forbury Gardens, explored the ruins of Reading Abbey (one of the most important abbeys in the 12th century), and walked along the scenic River Kennet.

Later, the sky was filled with dark clouds and it showed signs of raining. So we decided to go to a shopping mall to seek shelter from the rain. We arrived at The Oracle (a large mall) and we were impressed by the architecture of the mall and the variety of shops in the mall. The mall was built on both sides of River Kennet, and the spaces along the river were converted to open plazas and lined with chic restaurants and cafes. It's one of the very few malls I visited that incorporates a river into the mall design.

Once we entered The Oracle, my 2 friends lost control and they decided to have their intensive retail therapy, while I walked around the mall and explored some of the shops. At noon, we decided to have lunch. However, most restaurants were full and had long queues. (It was a Saturday...) In the end, we had our lunch in a less crowded restaurant - Wagamama. During lunch, Ying Yi remembered that some time ago her colleague mentioned about a Chinese groceries shop in Reading, but she forgot the exact location. After lunch, we asked a waitress in Wagamama for the directions. The waitress told us to walk south along Southampton Street and keep walking for 30 minute. Ying Yi decided not to go there, since it was too far.

Later, Ying Yi continued her retail therapy in The Oracle, while Wen Seen and I walked around the town centre. After walking around for some time, we decided to try our luck and follow the directions that the waitress told us. After walking for 30 minutes, we didn't see any Chinese shop. We met a Chinese couple on the street, so we asked them for directions. To our surprise, they told us there was no Chinese shops in the vicinity and the nearest place to buy groceries was a large Morrisons supermarket a few hundred metres down the road. In the end, we went to Morrisons to buy our groceries.

After that, the 2 of us went back to The Oracle to meet Ying Yi, and the 3 of us walked around the town centre and took more photos before going back to Reading Station to catch the train back to Slough.

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Photos

St Laurence's Church
A part of the Reading Abbey that once covered a large area of Reading

The Maiwand lion in Forbury Gardens
The gardens is where the forecourt of Reading Abbey once stood