Last week Peter and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. I can believe how quickly the last 10 years have flown by. We weren't able to celebrate on the day as both of us had to work, but we did get away for the day on Saturday. We deiced to go to Kingston-Upon-Thames for the day. We went because on the day after our wedding in Canada while we were driving to Ottawa to get my visa we stayed over night half way in Kingston, Ontario. So we went to see what the England equivalent was like.
The town it's self is much like any other urban city with lots of shops etc.,but running through it 
is the river Thames and we enjoyed a lovely morning stroll along the banks. We saw several swans, geese and coots. On the river there was a lot of boat activity especially people in long row boats, and along the riverbank there were many channel boats ofter with lots of potted plants growing on 
them. Part way down the Thames we came to a dock where you can get boat trips. We decided to take a trip to Hampton Court Palace. I was a nice day so we sat out in the bow and enjoyed a leisurely cruise along the river watching all the beautiful riverbank scenery go by.
We got to Hampton Court Palace and decided to have a look around. The palace itself would have 
taken 3 hours to go through and the boat back left in 2, so we just paid to go into the private gardens instead. The weather had got a bit cloudy, but it was still nice. As the clouds came in I would put my sweater on and then the sun would come out and I'd have to take it off again. In the end I just keep my sweater on cause every time I took it off the 
clouds would come. After that we had a nice sunny day. We strolled around the gardens enjoying all the water features, birds, manicured trees, sculptures and the few remaining flowers for this time of year. We didn't make it through the whole of the grounds before we had to start thinking about heading back to the boat. We grabbed an ice cream and meandered back to the dock and just made it in time for the boat back to Kingston.
Back in Kingston we went around some of the shops. I was quiet intrigued by one called Candy Cakes. We went inside, but I must admit that the cupcakes they sold did not look appetising at all. They were covered with this thick icing in bright colours that looked almost like play dough. We did however buy a few French Macaron which reminded us of Luxemburgerli we've had from Switzerland. We found a 
cafe with a few of the river and had a drink and a few of the Macarons. They were enjoyable, but not nearly as nice as Luxemburgerli.
In the evening we drove over to Epsom and meet up with a friend who we haven't seen in a long time and enjoyed a wonderful Italian meal together. We started off with olives and garlic bread, then I had a calzone, Peter a spicy pizza and our friend Geoff had a chicken caesar salad. We finished the meal off with profiteroles filled with ice cream. It was great to catch up with our friend and to share a meal together. Then it was back on the road and heading home after a wonderful day spent together.
More photo's from our day together here
