I have been lucky enough to have a fantastic weekend. On Friday I was treated to tea at the Ritz! It was last year's Christmas present from my son's partner and included myself, my sister, my daughter and son's partner.
We started with a glass of champagne moved on through the finger sandwiches and some fancy cakes and tarts, then onto scones and finished up with a choice of either Bakewell tart or lemon drizzle cake! All washed down by copious amounts of very tasty tea.
After we went our separate ways I jumped on the DLR to Limehouse where I met up with Heather who had invited me to accompany her on a trip on the Thames the next morning. There was a briefing in the evening after which we moseyed on down to Island Gardens where we had a brilliant viewpoint for the firework display which was part of the Totally Thames festival. The added bonus was that after the display a lot of the tall ships started moving to their positions for the next day.
On Saturday we were up early ready to cast off at 07.30. Sixteen narrowboats and one cruiser were to make the journey in a convoy. We took off along Limehouse Cut and down Bow Creek coming out onto the Thames opposite the O2 dome.
The river seemed very calm and just right for a newbie like me. We cruised past Greenwich and across the river to the south side behind a massive cruise liner, Europa, where we found the entrance to Deptford Creek. This is not a pretty creek but it was interesting to see it and we attracted several bystanders who enjoyed seeing all seventeen boats cruising up and back. One little girl had a horn which she "parped" so we really did have to return the compliment :-).
When we got back out onto the Thames, once again crossing the river to the north shore, the water seemed to be quite lumpy and we had several of the jet experience boats zipping around near us adding to the waves. I found this a bit of a white knuckle ride and was happy to hand the helm back to Heather who took it all in her stride and got us back into Limehouse lock. All in all a very enjoyable morning. After lunch we went into Greenwich by DLR but it was absolutely rammed with people visiting the Tall Ships festival events. I gave up and went to stay at Tom's house.
On Sunday we went to the Angel Canal Festival. Luke had a stall there which attracted good interest. There was plenty to amuse a two year old including donkey rides, funfair, creepy crawlies and hawks and owls, boating activities and much more.
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