harasness: Oxford and Cambridge boat race

The 155th Boat Race, held between Cambridge and Oxford Universities, took place way back in March. It didn't start off as an annual event, but quickly became one as the rivalry grew. It's a very 'British' event, so naturally was on the list of things to see and do whilst in the UK.

As usual, Tamara did the research into it and came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to do a lunch cruise and to view the race from the Thames itself, rather than on a crowded bank or pub. We went through the usual travel rigmarole, this time involving me being at the meeting place first (a rarity, given that with Tamara taking the tube and me on the overland, it's usually me delayed), and then hot-footed it over to Festival Pier to jump on the boat. We somehow scored a table upstairs at the window, and enjoyed the first part of our cruise down towards St Paul's Cathedral. We reached there and then turned around, cruising past such icons as the Globe Theatre, Battersea Power Station and Fulham FC. Not that Fulham FC is an icon to me, or to most people in the world, but I know that it's considered to be one to a lot of people in the UK. But I digress.

We had lunch whilst cruising towards the finish line for the race, where we were to anchor to await the race itself. The banks all along the river from the starting point of the race were crammed with people, and we were thankful to not be part of it all. There were helicopters everywhere, along with television crews, and there we were, perched merrily in prime position without anyone impeding our view. It was awesome.

Eventually the first race started. We weren't entirely sure of what to expect, in that we didn't really know much about the history of it all or the other races taking place. We were pretty happy just to be there really. I got a few photos of that one, and then came the main event. There was a sweepstake on the boat, which we entered, trying to guess the correct time of the race. Tamara and I also had our own bet, not that I've cashed it up yet, but it was in the spirit of things!

In the end, Oxford won, to our mutual disappointment. We'd decided that we wanted Cambridge to win, because having visited both cities, we liked Cambridge more than Oxford. In the end this brought the historic score to 79-75 in Cambridge's favour.

After the race we waited around for a while to get the official time, so that we could settle the sweepstake. We then cruised up to Kew, and got off there, as it would have been a very late night had we waited for the tide to go out to allow us to go back to Festival Pier. All in all, another good day out in London.