Thames Barrier

Well this was my last weekend by myself, as long as Denise wasn't stopped from coming home because of the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland. I went across to London to spend the day with Rebecca and Nylan, and Nylan was available as he wasn't working till sunday.
This was the first time I had actually driven in London, all the previous times we had been to London we stopped on the outskirts and took the tube in. I went to google maps and printed off instructions how to find Rebecca & Nylans place and was surprised to see only one page of instructions. I had expected at least 2 to 3 pages and could see myself getting lost quite easily. It was really easy all I had to do was come off the last junction of the M4 and follow the North Circular till the A109 & A105 and I was there, it really was easy and didn't get lost or make any wrong turns.

We decided that we hadn't been to see the Thames Barrier so we took off to see it with Rebecca navigating, we got to this park by the barrier and were surprised to find a car park that was free for 2 hours, in London that it is unheard of. The barrier is to prevent London from getting flooded when there are exceptionally high tides.The barrier can be seen from this nice park area where  there were lots of people picnicing and having a good time. We had a picnic here before moving on.

After the barrier we moved on to Tilbury Fort, which the kids haven't been to before, this is the fort that was built to protect the Thames from sea born attack but was never needed.

After the fort we went to South end on Sea which is another Sea side town on the mouth of the Thames. It is like most other British sea side towns with a pier and side shows and a beach and deck chairs. The towns claim to fame is having the longest pleasure pier in the world at 2158 metres long, it used to have a fun fair at the end but was destroyed and now the only thing at the end is a RNLI lifeboat station and place to have cuppa. Because of the length it has a small train that runs along it for those who can't manage the walk there and back. We did cheat in walking out and taking the train back.

After our afternoon at the seaside we went back to the kids place and went out for a meal at one of the local eateries.

Next day I was able to sleep in before heading to the airport to pick up Denise, her plane was about 20 minutes late but at last she was home and we headed off back to Bristol.