We arrived in London early Sunday morning on Mother’s Day to beautiful Spring weather. The sky was shining brilliantly with absolutely no sign of rain, and the weather was going to heat up to delightful 80 degrees (26 C). Everyone was out and about enjoying the great outdoors and the parks of London.

Having just arrived from a transatlantic flight, my mom, sister and I were all very tired but we were determined to not let our jet lag make us sleep. Instead, we explored Central London and decided on taking an afternoon cruise along the River Thames on an open-air boat. It ended up being the perfect way to see London and enjoy some of the historical and unusually new, modern architecture of this amazing city.

A beautiful day in London

We walked the short distance to the River Thames from our hotel located a block away from Trafalgar square and purchased our tickets for a round-trip ride with City Cruises. Unfortunately, we were unaware at the time that a river cruise is included in the hop-on-hop-off bus tour package we would take the next day with the Original Tour. However, we timed it right given the bright sunny skies. Our bus tour would be wallowing in the infamous London rain.