The Great River Race!

Aline writes: On September 17, we witnessed The Trafalgar Great River Race. It’s a 22 mile course for “traditional rowed or paddled boats.” The winner does the course in just over 3 hours. The boats actually trickle by for at least 1 ½ hours.

It was quite an enchanting sight, as about 300 boats from all over Europe and the US rowed or paddled all kinds of boats, such as currachs, cutters, Chinese dragonboats, Hawaiian war canoes, and Viking longships. We hung out on Blackfriars bridge and cheered them as we went by. They looked liked they were having an awful lot of fun considering how hard it must have been!

Here are some of our favorites. Click on the pics to see more detail. But remember, these boats were moving fast, so sorry about the blurry images.

Here they come!



I liked their stripy shirts



They were a very serious team



I loved the dragon boats





And these folks were having a lot of fun



This looks like it should be on a Venetian canal



But this is my personal favorite - Wagner, anyone? (look at the guy on the far left)