Amphibious Adventure

This Sunday, we went for an amphibious adventure!

This is what the busses look like today...

Last year, at my brother's school fair, we had won a voucher for a family trip on London's Duck Tour, which I finally traded in on Sunday. Nikki and I, my Mum and brother went for a ride in a part-bus part-boat modified DUKW (pronounced duck, stands for D-1942 U-amphibious-utility K-front-wheel drive W-rear-wheel drive, believe it or not!) vehicle which had, in a previous life, been to Dunkirk.

The tour went around Westminster and past Buckingham Palace, and seemed to be your regular tourist-tour, with the tour guide trying a little too hard to be funny, and the wind having an icy chill to it...

... and this is their previous guise as a military vehicle

Then we took a sharp turn into the river! Or, rather, we stopped for five minutes to get a 'waterman' - a driver qualified for the wet part of the tour - and then drove down a rather steep beach. I couldn't believe how low we were in the water! It was literally six inches from the window-base! I was glad that I had chosen to sit next to a closed 'window' (of the zippered-down-and-velcro'd pvc variety) - I would have gotten far more wet! When we turned in the river a fair amount of water was splashed up against our  window and a good trickle went down onto my skirt and Nikki's bag. Also, I would have been far more paranoid of Nikki making a dive for it had there been literally nothing to stop him!

As it was, I had my fingers through his belt loops and clung on rather too tight! It was, of course, as safe as it can be when there are no seatbelts and the windows are attached with industrial-strength velcro, but there is the unpredictability of toddlers to take into account...

Approaching the Houses of Parliament

Nikki can't stop talking about the 'long, long drive' in the 'bus in water' - he was less than interested in sightseeing, but his face was a picture when we drove into the Thames! He just can't get over the fact that the bus drove into the water!

All in all, a good morning out! I'm not sure that I could afford to pay the full price, though - our 2 adult, 2 child voucher was worth £62! 

Afterwards, we went to Pizza Express. We had a couple of vouchers (currently available in their supermarket pizzas) to get a second pizza for £2.50 with any pizza. So, Nikki got his own full-size adult pizza! This is what he made of it:

Yes, the pizza was the size of that plate! I was expecting around half a pizza to take home for dinner, but he managed a full 3/4 (minus crusts)!!! My 10-year-old brother managed a staggering 1 pizza, 2 extra slices! I struggled to finish... I simply can't understand where these skinny little boys manage to put all the food they consume!