One of the more pleasing aspects of growing older is that you don’t care about trying to be cool.

Last week I found myself travelling around central London on board a ‘Duck’ – an old wartime vehicle transformed into a tour bus/boat – and happily waved at passers-by.

It’s a daft-looking contraption but it was a fun way to tour London’s landmarks – particularly when it went splashing into the Thames.

When I was in my 20s I wouldn’t have set foot near it. I’d have been mortified at the thought of being spotted in public as a shameless tourist.

These days I have no such hang-ups; in fact I love being a tourist. Give me an open-topped bus and a chirpy guide and I’m happy.

There’s an element of snobbery among ‘serious travellers’ about organised trips, and the notion of being herded around en masse and told what to look at.

I, too, am guilty of that snobbery; I’m sure I’m not alone in sniggering at coachloads of Japanese tourists in matching baseball caps, taking endless photographs of red telephone boxes.

Yet I find something comforting about being a tourist. I like learning about new places and I’d rather be shown around by a professional guide than wander aimlessly clutching an upside-down map.

Often a tour guide will reveal nuggets of information that might otherwise pass you by. Without that trip on the London Duck, I may never have known that the Trafalgar Square lions are structurally incorrect. Our friendly guide informed us that artist Edwin Landseer used his pet dogs as models, resulting in lions that crouch, front legs outstretched, which isn’t the way cats lie. “The lying lions are lying,” said our man.

I was in London for a few days with my nephews, who took it all in with wide-eyed excitement. Having lived in London, and having been since for work or to visit friends, it was nice to be there simply as a tourist.

I first visited London as a young child and still remember the bright lights and bustle, and being amazed that shops were open after dark.

I wanted my nephews to have those memories too, so we hit the sightseeing full on. They had photographs taken with the Queen’s Guards and the Natural History Museum’s blue whale, we wandered around Harrod’s food hall and stuck our heads against the railings of Buckingham Palace, as generations of tourists did long before us, and we bought the fridge magnets and novelty coasters that no trip is complete without.

We stopped short of buying Union flag top hats, though. Even to a shameless tourist like me, there are limits.