A DAY IN LONDON ON THE THAMES

London:

We started our day with breakfast at the hotel from a nice buffet where an full english was readily available. 

We had plans to meet friends from this area for lunch so we made a leisurely stroll through the grounds of Kensington Palace and Gardens to Hyde Park. We took some time to photo the birds and flowers. From there we took the Underground to Tower Hill and walked around the Tower, arriving in time to meet other for lunch at The Minories. This is a pub we discovered many years back on a previous visit, here we enjoy the atmosphere and the reasonably priced food. Yet, most of all, we enjoyed seeing friends and catching up. 

After a nice long lunch, we part, going our separate ways. 

Our pre trip research for this stay in London revealed the Totally Thames Festival would be going on. Part of this is a classic boat collection on display at Saint Katherine Dock. Here there were several classic boats from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. While walking along the docks looking at these boats I noticed one had a brass plaque “DUNKIRK 1940”.  It dawned upon me I was viewing history, as these were some of the Dunkirk Little Ships.   The Dunkirk Little Ships were about 850 private boats that sailed from Ramsgate in England to Dunkirk in France in 1940 as part of Operation Dynamo, helping rescue more than 338,000 British and French Troops who were trapped on the beaches at Dunkirk. There were 14 of these vessels on display for the Classic Boat Festival.  This was a very special surprise of a find. 

We made our way around these boats and had a great chat with a lady who was the  owner of one of the boats. We learned most of the boats had been found in a derelict state and refurbished by their current owners. Her boat was being commanded by her dog Hector. 

The time flew by while we were visiting these classic boats when we realized there was a lighter (barge) race about to start. We made it to Tower Bridge in time to see these barges being rowed up river. These are the barges used to ferry good across the Thames before the days of bridges. 

The owner was not around to talk about this barge. 

We crossed Tower Bridge and walked amongst several food tents, mostly selling various styles of Asian food. We continued our walk along the Queens Way to the London Bridge Underground Station. Then we returned to the hotel. We repacked and went to The Goat for dinner, tonight we shared a a plate of fish and chips. 

Back at the room we got to bed early knowing tomorrow would be a long day of travel.