We had spent a very nice morning at Hampton Court Palace, enjoying a picnic in the sun until about 3.00pm when we decided to take a river boat ride back into Central London for our train home.

We boarded our river boat just beside Hampton Court Palace and were heading back to Westminster Pier. I did take a seat under the awning for the trip as it was a blazing hot day and am glad I did. The journey back to Westminster Pier took 3 hours, but only made a few stops along the way. Those that sat “up top” predictably got quite sunburnt.

The most picturesque part of the route is from Hampton Court, through the river as far as Barnes and Mortlake. You can see some beautiful properties which lie beside the banks of the river and it’s extremely pretty. Once you are past Putney, it’s mainly a few parks and office buildings, but the journey itself is very pleasant, relaxing and a great chance to chat with friends, have a beer/wine or whatever and just relax.

You get that call from one of your best mates announcing that they are heading to the big smoke for the weekend. Fantastic. Then they say that you must know London really well by and they are sure that you’ll be just the person to show them all the sights. Panic, suddenly you can’t think of a thing to do in London for apart from head down to your local from Saturday afternoon onwards followed by brekkie in the greasy spoon next door… but, no fear, the answer lies in the river, or rather on it. Getting either the tourist boat (one of them has a great commentary – the co. that do it live, not recorded) telling you all kinds of weird and wonderful facts some of which the most experienced Londoners don’t know! Or you can get a day ticket on the clipper which will take you from the London eye, stop of at the Tate Modern right down to Greenwich for a good look round the market, you can hop on and off all day with the same ticket, great stuff!