Every year the Thames is host to the Mayor’s Thames Festival which celebrates London and the river. The format changes every year but there is normally a parade of stalls, exhibitions, music and small acts along the Thames, a parade (similar to the Notting Hill Carnival parade but much much smaller) and a finale of fireworks on the Sunday evening.

After our day of tennis and sporting adventures Rita and I decided to check it out. I haven’t been to the festival for a few year’s now with the last one being back in 2005.

We were starving by the time we got to the Thames so headed straight to a very early dinner at Giraffe. We were extremely tempted by all the churros stalls along the way but didn’t think it would be right to start with dessert … so we saved that for after. The queues for the churros were huge! Worth the wait though for the yummy liquid chocolate the churros were served with. Mmmm …..

There was heaps going on by the river it was almost overwhelming. The Night Carnival had started by the time we finished with our churros so getting a good position to watch the parade was darn near impossible. Not that we didn’t try our hardest. Eventually we did manage to get a spot to catch some of it even though I had to use my camera to take photos of what was going on so I could see over the tops of everyone’s heads!

The Fire Garden, an installation in the Tate Modern Forecourt by fire alchemists Compagnie Carabosse, also sound intriguing. And it was. I could have watched the fire all day …

… but we had some fireworks to get to. We waited for what felt like ages for the fireworks. And though it was good I felt that it felt like it was over before I knew it! During the wait we entertained ourselves though and made a friend of the guy behind us who was laughing at the word games Rita and I were playing to pass the time.