Returning to Richmond

We arrived back in the UK last week and spent our first night here in one of the many hotels by Heathrow airport. We actually arrived later than we were meant to due to our flight leaving Singapore late which then meant we missed our connecting flight in Doha. We eventually got on a different flight but this meant it was all the nicer to know, when we did arrive and after we got all our suitcases, that we only had a short journey before we could collapse into bed. 

We woke bright and early the next morning (thanks jet lag) and headed into London, more particularly to Richmond. Richmond (or St Margarets just up the road) was where we lived before we moved to Singapore so it's a place we are very fond of and have been back to for several visits whilst we were living overseas. We had also arranged to meet friends there who live in Australia but used to live in the UK and were back here for a holiday. The plan for the day then was to meet them for lunch and then collect our cat (who had arrived that morning) from the Animal Reception Centre at Heathrow later in the afternoon.

Obviously with us getting up pretty early we were in Richmond well before we were due to meet our friends. However this gave us the chance to do a couple of 'just arrived back in the UK' errands, eg. buy some toiletries and get suitable sims for our mobile phones and then we decided to go for a walk to give our legs a good post flight stretch.

Our walk took us up to the top of Richmond hill, somewhere that gives great views down towards the meandering River Thames and offers up a quite different vista to what many would associate with London. From the top of the hill we walked down towards the river bank and then walked back along the river to the centre of Richmond. For our first full day back in the UK we were welcomed with some lovely Spring weather which made our leisurely pre-lunch walk all the more enjoyable.

View from the top of Richmond hill

After our walk and a hot chocolate we met our friends in a nearby riverside pub which was also a firm favourite of ours previously. As I said the weather was very pleasant and it was warm enough to sit outside for our lunch which was a lovely welcome back. However lunch also coincided with high tide on the River Thames and this was one of those days where the river flooded the path quite spectacularly. Luckily we were far enough in not to be affected but a couple of cars close by were parked in unfortunate spots. One of which the driver was sitting in and it seemed a ridiculously long time before he decided to move his car! Anyway for us it was fun to watch and wait out until the tide started to recede.

Richmond bridge

High tide was approaching and the path alongside the River Thames is flooding

High tide flooding

High tide receding

After lunch it was time for our friends to go and meet another couple of friends before they left for Australia the next day and for us to go and collect our cat, George from Heathrow. For our first day back it was a lovely start and the weather could not have been kinder, being back in our old haunt was lovely!