Nic and Sue’s Euro River Cruise and l bits on the side. Autumn 2026. Day 19 – Plan C. London.

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A lovely long sleep last night. We had dinner at a nearby Greek place and home early. I was trying to blog and watch Ted Lasso and fell asleep. Sue had to wake me to turn off the show. I fell back asleep pretty quickly and woke about 6am.

Nothing planned for the morning, our first stop is lunch at The Vault 1894 under the Tower Bridge. I figured it might be a different swing on a landmark.

The train ride was a busy one this morning on the Circle District line from Bayswater to Tower Hill. We popped up near a cool sundial sculpture with a timeline of the history of London from the Roman invasion to the construction of the Thames Barrier with everything from plague, fire and revolution included in between.

Then we wandered around the historical area of The Tower of London which houses the Crown Jewels, looked into the dry moat, saw the remains of the Londinium wall (which dates back to 200AD) a Roman Statue, thought to be Roman Emperor Trajan, and then walked across the Tower Bridge and the Thames. Learnt a fact about Catherine Wheel fireworks we used to have.

Lots of action on the Thames, cruise ship and HMS Belfast on one side of Tower Bridge and a monster luxury privately owned yacht moored on the other. The Tower Bridge is an historical lift bridge. Still in use since 1894. It’s a cantilever bridge and incredible to think it’s still in working order.

Lunch was in a small pub, The Vault 1894. We had a table right on the window with views under the bridge to the pylons. The tide was going out and it was dropping in front of our eyes. The rocky shore and other infrastructure started appearing – down below us. The fish and chips were good- not keen at all on mushy peas.

After lunch we had a walk along the new riverfront wharf area. Quite upmarket, lots of eateries and business spaces. Got a better look at the super yacht “Kismet”. I googled and it’s owned by a Sheik, $330 million to build ( approx $600mill AUS). You can hire it for between $3.3 and 5 million a week plus costs. It sleeps 16 with a staff of 36 or 37. The staff were hard at work polishing the back deck and cleaning the boat.
I was fascinated by the mud flats caused by the low tide.

I went down to the river for a look and met a lady down there. I had noticed her while we had lunch. Turns out she is “mud larking”. She has had her licence to fossick in the rocks and mud for about a week. She had some loot in her zip lock bag. She explained that the clay pipes she had (just short white tubes really) were common. Back in the day the clay pipes were purchased pre-stuffed with tobacco, so the pipe was disposable (just like cigarette butts strewn everywhere today) she had a couple of them and some other decorative rock piece that she would take to an expert for some identification. They are allowed to keep anything under 300 years old. Over 300 it has to be cleared with some authority.

Then we hopped an Uber Boat to trip along the Thames – we had no particular destination in mind. I was happy to see whatever there was to see and the photo spam will show that. There was a lot of housing and many bridges and a few historical/other buildings and landmarks.

London Bridge
Mudlarkers
St Paul’s Cathedral
London Eye
Elizabeth Clock
Victoria Tower
Houses of Parliament
Vauxhall Rd Bridge with Statues, Battersea Power station which is now a shopping centre.
Cadogan Pier
Wandsworth Bridge.
Western Riverside Waste Authority (red and yellow.)
Emirates plane
Cleaning the river.
Putney Bridge and Castle
Albert Bridge – pastel coloured pillars. @Cadogan pier.

We travelled out to Putney, where we tapped off and back on again and travelled back to Canary Wharf where our boat terminated.

We jumped on another to Greenwich where we finished the boat part of our day. Had a wander past the Cutty Sark, the Foot Tunnel under the Thames and walked up the hill to the Observatory to stand astride the Greenwich Median Line.

Then tea (scones and a cuppa) at a bakery in Greenwich before dicing with the trains to get home. Had a bit of trouble at Canary Wharf – superb new station and we had to get to another platform. Lucky there was a man to help in the end.

Train then Bolt from Piccadilly with Javid who was very unhappy and displeased with EVERYTHING in London and England. He was not a happy camper and he didn’t draw breath. It was funny. So displeased with politicians, mafia, corruption, bicycles, immigration. There was nothing he was happy about. Kept us amused for our short trip.