…seriously, it’s excellent!

Three of the Moneymagpies and I went on the RIB Thrill Ride on the Thames on Friday and it lived up to its name. It really is a thrill.

Essentially it’s a guided tour of the Thames on a speedboat with sightseeing, historical nuggets from a comedian and a thrilling, rollercoaster-style zoom around Canary Wharf. That bit, by the way, is not for the faint-hearted. If you can’t cope with rollercoasters, don’t do it.

We went on a particularly sunny, but quite windy, day which added to the fun. We chugged along from the South Bank pier, taking photos of sights like the Oxo Tower and The Globe theatre, lulled into a false sense of security. Then, suddenly, it’s vroom and the boat speeds off veering wildly and making a few of us scream. Great fun but scary!! They say that they allow children above the age of three on the boat but personally I wouldn’t want any under ten doing that bit.

Then, phew, we settled down again and our entertaining guide gave us fun little historical nuggets about the buildings on either side of the Thames.

Did you know, for example, that originally Sir Christopher Wren wanted to build the dome of St Paul’s in the shape of a pineapple? Imagine what that would have looked like!

You can book one of these tours on their website or on the phone at 020 7118 1281.

It’s not cheap – £29 for adults and £19.50 for children – but if you want to splash out a bit, I certainly recommend it as a really fun 50 minutes on the river!