This weekend London is celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. On Sunday there will be a pageant of 1000 boats making their way down the Thames. There will be all kinds of boats included in the flotilla starting with the Olympic rowers and then a group of small boats which were part of the Dunkirk rescue ( a quarter of a million troops trapped on French beaches by Hitler's troops were rescued by thousands of very small boats ferrying them back across the channel).There will also be steam boats, yachts and tugs. In fact every kind of boat that is able to navigate under the Thames bridges.
Today I went down to the Thames to have a look at some of the boats preparing for Sunday.
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| The sight of all the colourful flags was really exciting. There was a real buzz in the air. |
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| The boats are all getting ready in St Katherine's dock next to Tower Bridge |
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| Smaller vessels queueing to go through the lock into St Katherine's dock to moor before joining the flotilla on Sunday. |
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| Tower bridge opening to allow one of the tall masted boats through. |
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| This boat is going for the noisiest klaxons on the river! |
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| Two of the oldest steam operated tug boats |
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| These sailing ships will not be joining the flotilla as their masts are too high to get under the bridges. |
Oh how neat.... I told my hubby that we needed to get in our private jet and go to London ---by SUNDAY... George LOVES sail boats --and when I mentioned the Avenue of Sails, he was ready to go... (We WISH... ha)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos.
Hugs,
Betsy
Hi there - if the country grinds to a halt and celebrates in the same way it did for the Silver Jubilee it will be a good day.
ReplyDeleteI remember I huge BBQ at the village hall in the evening - vast amounts of food!
Stewart M - Australia (but Somerset 25 years ago!)
A very good idea to go there before at least you could take some nice pictures without too many people. I do that when the flower carpet is displayed at the Grand'Place in Brussels. This year it will be again. I go there at 7 in the morning when nobody is around (except some Japanese tourists), lol ! It only takes place each 2 years. I watched BBC yesterday evening because Prince Charles was talking about his mother and showed little films and photos from when she wasn't Queen yet. It was so touching.
ReplyDeleteIt will be a great show. It is on or tele at the moment.
ReplyDeleteI like to look at sailing boats. But I don´t liek to be siling. Am getting seasick. :(
ReplyDeleteBeautiful boats!!! But now I understand why I didn't hear anything about all this on the TV in Spain... that weekend I was getting on a sailboat in Greece for a weeklong cruise of my own! :p
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