Superbloom!

Sophie and I had bought our train tickets last night and chosen a 9.25am train down to Euston. I was just very glad that there were no train strikes today. What would we have done? 

Keith dropped us at the station early and we managed to get a seat on an earlier train. There were lots of people travelling down to London, and some of the outfits people had chosen to wear were mind-boggling, including one girl who was just wearing a skimpy bikini and a tiny skirt. Sophie said it's the new fashion, apparently!

At Euston, we had a coffee and a muffin and then took the tube to Tower Hill. We had toyed with the idea of getting an Uber but the charge would have been over £20 so we decided to use the underground instead. Sophie was wearing a lovely little dress and as she walked down the steps to the platform, the wind nearly caused a mischief!

A "flooded" moat...

Thankfully, the train on the Circle line was air-conditioned so it was lovely and cool. We emerged into the sunlight and walked the short distance to the Tower of London, already thronged with crowds of people. This area of London is hugely popular with tourists, it's right by the river and has fantastic views of Tower Bridge and the Shard opposite.

My own beautiful flower

We were a little early for our timed entry but that didn't matter and we were soon inside the moat. At first, I wasn't impressed - the flowers that we saw are the kinds we see at home in the fields and hedgerows, and everything did look a tiny bit scruffy!

We kept hearing screams and realised that there was a slide nearby and people were going down it and making a right din! It reminded me too much of the slide we used to have at our soft play centre, so we decided not to join in!

As we moved around the moat, the flowers became more colourful and things improved. There were some pretty flowers and we had a little booklet telling us what some of them were. It was wonderful to see so many pollinators buzzing about in the heart of a big city!

By now it was very warm and there were lots of people around. There are benches to sit on alongside the walls of the moat but there was very little shade. It was lovely to wander about, though, and admire the gorgeous flowers. We saw some russet-coloured sunflowers that I'd never seen before. I thought they were all yellow!

Along the way were various sculptures - a woven willow structure that must have taken ages to construct, an archway and beautiful little metallic dragonflies.

We noticed a viewing walkway above and you can go and see the moat for free. However, it was lovely to be in amongst all the flowers and take photos. 

We hadn't bought tickets to the Tower of London itself, so once we'd completed the circuit of the moat, that was it. We joined the throngs of people walking along the river and popped into one of the gift shops to have a look. There was nothing we liked so we carried on and spotted a van selling cocktails! All along this stretch were trucks catering for every kind of food and beverage, so Sophie treated us both to an Aperol Spritz. The drinks were £10 each and although delicious, we do them far better at home... and they're stronger! It was heavenly to sit on a bench gazing at the Shard, though and do a spot of people watching!

A cruise along the river...

We had made a lunch booking at Coppa Club for 2pm but we had over an hour to kill, so we decided, on a moment of impulse, to take a boat cruise to Greenwich... The boat was leaving at about 1pm and took half an hour to make the trip to Greenwich. With the half-hour return journey, we thought it would fill the time beautifully...

Amazingly, the company running the cruises was the same as the one we went on in San Francisco - Hornblower!

We queued up on the gangplank and waited for people to file off the boat. We decided to sit inside by an open window to catch the breeze and get out of the sun for a while. Inside, I have to say the boat was scruffy but the views were gorgeous.

A huge seagull sat on the glass roof for a while before flying off! We had a running commentary by the captain (I think that's what he was!) along the route, which was very interesting. Unfortunately, we were next to a table of rowdy teenagers who showed no interest whatsoever in the river and were playing cards and screaming and shouting.

Luckily, they disembarked at Greenwich so peace reigned. There was one slight problem, though, the boat wasn't going back immediately... we had to wait twenty minutes, which meant we would be late for our lunch booking...

Sophie called Coppa Club and after an age, someone answered. She said we couldn't move the booking to 2.30pm as they were full but would make a note that we would be late. If we cancelled we'd incur a £40 charge!

This wasn't good news at all. We willed the boat to leave on time, which it did, and as we neared Tower Bridge Sophie and I stood by the gangplank gate so we could get off first! We did enjoy the boat cruise, though, and it was wonderful to see London from the river. If we hadn't booked a table we could have gone up to Westminster, so it was good value.

Once the boat stopped, Sophie and I hared off to the restaurant which was right next to the river. There was a short queue of people waiting to go in and we could see lots of empty tables. The girl who was showing people to their tables didn't look as if she cared one bit that we were late and we were shown to a table outside under a huge umbrella.

Lunch by the river

There was a huge feeling of relief when we were seated, and I asked Sophie to order me a stiff cocktail! We had to order everything on Sophie's phone but I did see other people being given proper menus. We ordered two cocktails, parmesan croquettes, zucchini fritti and fried squid as starters, followed by chicken thighs with a mushroom sauce for me, and a small portion of carbonara for Sophie.

As we waited for our food and drinks, we had a good look at the people arriving. One couple arrived and I think the woman had modelled herself on Kim Kardashian. They spent a good ten minutes taking photos of each other in one of the glass igloos, but then decided it was too hot for them, so made a huge fuss about finding another table.

One of the glass "igloos"

As I looked around, it seemed that everyone was on their phones and the number of selfies being taken was staggering! When did everyone get so self-obsessed? We saw two hen parties which made for even more photos in the poor igloo, even though they weren't sitting there! The people who were looked very hot and were constantly fanning themselves!

Our cocktails arrived and mine was delicious, even though there was far too much ice which diluted it a bit! The food was very good and there was plenty of it, but with the heat, we couldn't manage as much as we would have liked.

The bill came to £85 - you're paying for the stupendous views, and I dread to think how much their rates are! - and we made our way back to the tube station. We'd looked at booking an Uber but it was £28 so we decided against that!

The tube going back was cool and quiet and when we arrived at Euston we bought some water and then managed to catch the 16.49 train which only stopped at Watford Junction and Milton Keynes.

Keith came to meet us and we drove home with the air conditioning on full blast! Bliss! Both Sophie and I had cold showers and then it was time to relax! What a lovely day we'd had!