Can you have too much of a good thing?

Yesterday evening, Caroline, an old school friend of Doug’s, and her husband Geoff, came over to see us from their home in Richmond.

After a glass of wine or two on ‘Chance’, and much catching up chat, we all walked across Hampton Court Bridge for a meal at Zizzi .  This being the second time on Sunday we’d walked across the bridge for a meal with friends but it was no hardship we can assure you!  Geoff, Caroline Doug and James about to tuck into four ‘mega’ pizzas.  It was very nice to meet up with you guys and thank you for coming to see us and hope to see you again soon.

This morning it was a very short journey for us – two and a half miles down to Kingston-upon-Thames, during which time we just got the washing done before mooring up.

Even during a 30 minute run there’s plenty of interest on and around the river.  We joined a convoy of  three beautifully restored wooden cruisers as they made their way down river.

The three wooden cruisers in front of us.

You either love it or hate it. 

There’s still very little ‘traffic’ around so we have plenty of room to float about a bit.

The beautifully presented church of St Raphael on the riverside as you come into Kingston-upon-Thames.

There’s still some unusual craft around to arouse interest!

We were very soon at Kingston and meeting up with Philip, a friend from home, who works locally.  He made time to have lunch with us in the Riverside Vegetarian Restaurant, which we managed to moor just 100 feet away from.

Two vegetarians and a carnivore – Doug didn’t mind, but he’s now hunting for a good fish restaurant to drag James to!

After lunch with Phillip we took our rucksacks and walked the mile to the Asda store for some shopping and when we got back we did a quick hop over to the opposite bank to moor up for the night as it’s further away from the riverside pubs and eateries.  The mooring is good but wet as the concrete is only 4 inches above the river level and when there’s any appreciable wash from boats the water comes up over mooring.  But never mind.

Tomorrow we will enter the tidal Thames at Teddington lock, so checked with the lock keeper today regarding the tide times.