I Am Only Making One Post Today,

and I have split it into two parts,

as there are lots of photographs, so glad rags on and we were off,

nearly to the wrong station! all direct trains to London Bridge had been cancelled, so off to New Beckenham instead,

arriving at London Bridge Diana just had to pop into a shop,

but bought nothing,

a quick pose,

and we were on our way,

this is new in the Hay's Galleria, 

another quick pose,

or two,

as I was taking a photograph across the river,

Diana was busy taking a photograph for a group of people,

H. M. S. Belfast now open after its long lay off, the new paint work that it received when closed looking good,

and other quick one,

not yet open, the Belfast bar,

a few more,

it was a glorious day,

this has to be the tamest,

and most photographed seagull on this stretch of the river,

the Tower of London in the distance, as it happen we visited the tower way back in May 2016,

further along the Walkie Talkie building,

I just took this photograph of Diana,

when Diana's photographic skills were put to the test again,

I missed the moment by a fraction, the lady walking past Diana was literally head and shoulders taller than her,

we stopped to look at a dancing school,

it was quite entertaining,

difficult to show,

but the dancers were very accomplished,

we continued on our way,

stopping every now and then,

we are headed over there,

on to the bridge,

in the distance a number of barges moored, it was a bit of a shame, there was a sort of haze in the air, almost like a fine dust,

but never mind, well I just had to!

as did Diana,

and there she is again,

this time just a tad windswept,

through the arch,

the tower on the left,

but this is where we were going on the right, the Classic Boat Festival 2021,

berthed in the marina,

scores of boats,

we then passed into the main lagoon, 

and I was in my seventh heaven,

leaving aside the rag and stick vessels,

the lagoon was chock a block full of just the very types of boat I would just love to live on, I made a mention of this way back in 2017,

talk about all smiles!

and as it happened Diana like looking at them too,

I should say the vast majority of boats here are the famous Dunkirk 'little ships',

this one remined  us one of the television series we always watch, Endeavour,

I was snapping away for all I was worth!

in the distance the Queen's rowing barge, more of that in the second part of this post,

we were looking down on the boats,

along the gallery legends about each individual boat,

and here she is,

every boat's mast decked with a myriad of flags,

what a wonderful way to spend the day,

yes that one will do for us!

wonderful!

if only we had the money!

not that any of these are for sale,

I could imagine them being handed down through the family,

according to this article, 'Of the 700-odd officially recorded 'Little Ships', over 100 never made it home and were part of the 220 vessels lost during the evacuation', but it must be remembered that a number of boat owners just joined in and were never officially counted, I am amazed that so many are still sea worthy today,

we made our way past the 'gin palaces' of today,

and walked along the far end of the walkway,

a quick stop,

we decided to make our way to the pontoon entrance,

but first we just had to listen to the band,

and very good they were too, playing as fitted the day hits from the 1930s and 40s,

it truly was wonderful to see so many old craft,

all of which had served their country so well, in the distance the Queen's rowing barge, we will be making our way there in the next post, if you would like to see the rest of our day, just hit the Older Posts button on the bottom right of the page.