Saturday, May 16, 2009

A day on the River Thames with Friends



A good early start to the day as we are meeting with friends John and Lyn Lake, who own a lovely boat on the River Thames, and also Roger and Sue Allen.

We started early with a John prepared Bacon butty and a cup of tea before leaving for the boat which is moored at Sunbury upon Thames. The boat is a very nice cabin cruiser called 'Griffin De Mer' which I think is short for 'horse on the water' but it was previously owned by the actress Susan George.

We headed down the river in the direction of Teddington, passing by Hampton Court Palace and also Kingston and the weather was extremely nice. The view's over Hampton Court with the large Gold plated gates were also very impressive. There has been a lot of building on the riverside and there were many beautifully restored houses and also new houses with great river views. We also passed by a very attractive and interesting boat parked near Hampton Court which had been converted by Roger Gilmour of Pink Floyd fame and is used as a water born recording studio.

Just shortly after eleven am the bar opened and so we all partook of some 'vino' to settle the nerves before lunch which was taken at the 'Wharf Cafe and Bar' which is very nice indeed with great river views and also excellent food. Many hours and bottles later we headed back to the boat for the return journey to Sunbury where we finally arrived at around 6pm which was early enough to reopen the bar at John and Lyn's place followed by a smorgasbord and of course just a teeny-weeny little more wine before we all decided to leave before it got too late.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable day- out on a magnificent craft with good friends on a beautiful day. What could possibly be better than this?

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