London

Ride the DLR from the front

26 Take the Duck Tour
We turn down an alley hidden alongside Terry Farrell’s MI6 building in Vauxhall, pass through a security gate and then motor down a short slipway. The vehicle jolts as the wheels come off the cobbles and on to the Thames-side shingle, then shudders as it plunges into the brown water. The windscreen slumps downwards, towards the domain of abandoned Saxon swords, cut-up bodies and rusting Ford Cortinas beneath the river’s choppy surface.

I expect to get wet but thankfully the windscreen comes up as sharply as it had gone down and the vehicle remains buoyant. As it should, for this is exactly what it was designed to do. Furthermore it was designed to do it while several angry Germans were shooting at it.

I am in a DUKW, a half-truck/half-boat, amphibious military vehicle built by the American General Motors Corporation to ferry men and supplies on to the Normandy beachhead on D-Day. It has less testing duties now, merely taking 30 passengers a time on an unusual trip along the river we spend so much of our lives ignoring. Rebranded as a DUCK, the vehicle has been painted yellow and there are seats where previously terrified soldiers had only standing room, but despite these cosmetic changes the vehicle still has an atmosphere of great deeds about it.

Sixty two years later war is still with us, most obviously in the shape of the MI6 building, espionage Legoland for the secret side of modern conflict that looms brashly above the water. But as we chug east it is an older building that brings home present conflicts in an uneasy way. In the water alongside the Houses of Parliament bob a series of hi-tech buoys bearing orange metal spikes and blinking surveillance equipment. ‘If you get too close,’ says the man next to me, ‘they release torpedoes.’ He’s joking, of course. Michael Hodges
London Duck tours (020 7928 3132/www.londonducktours.co.uk). Feature continues

27 Get a full head of steam
London’s only steam railway; Sundays at Kew Bridge Steam Museum (Mar-Nov).
Kew Bridge Steam Museum, Green Dragon Lane, Brentford, Middx (020 8568 4757/www.kbsm.org). Gunnersbury tube/rail or Kew Bridge rail.

28 Shop for tobacco
G Smith & Sons has hardly changed since it opened in 1869. Fill a pouch.
Smith & Sons, 74 Charing Cross Rd, WC2 (020 7836 7422). Leicester Square tube.

29 Get your eyebrows threaded… by expert Vaishaly Patel
Initial consultation and session £70. Subsequent sessions £40.
Vaishaly Patel London, 51 Paddington St, W1U 4HR (020 7224 6088/www.vaishaly.com). Baker St tube.

30 Spend a day at the Bliss Spa
Deep sea detox £130.
Bliss London, 60 Sloane Ave London SW3 3DD (020 7590 6146/www.blisslondon.co.uk). Sloane Square tube.

31 Take afternoon tea
Order cake and a pot for two for an old-fashioned afternoon at The Wolseley, a stunning Piccadilly restaurant, inspired by a grand Viennese café.
The Wolseley, 160 Piccadilly, W1J (020 7499 6996/www.thewolseley.com). Green Park tube.

32 Check out the city from the crest of Parliament Hill
Best visited at sunrise or sunset.
Hampstead tube/Hampstead Heath rail

33 Read in the shadow of the King George collection
This towering black storage facility in the British Library houses its priciest tomes and overlooks the tranquil entrance hall and the attractive – if pricey – café.
British Library, 96 Euston Rd, NW1 (0870 444 1500/www.bl.uk). King’s Cross tube/rail.

34 Ride the DLR from the front
Push the kids out the way and pretend you’re the driver. Because kids can’t drive trains.
www.tfl.gov.uk/dlr

35 Take a dip on the Heath
For those who like their swimming bracing.
Hampstead Heath Ponds, Hampstead Heath, NW5 (020 7485 4491). Hampstead tube/Hampstead Heath rail.