London Town

We are very happy to be back in London. The flight from CapeTown, via Zurich, went smoothly, but took forever. Approaching 14 hours before we touched down at Heathrow. One night at the good, old Ibis Hotel Heathrow. Then, at about noon, we took the London tube to King's Cross and it was raining. Sheelagh's knees have been better of late, but the job of her dragging two suitcases over uneven sidewalks in the rain defeated us, so we dodged into the very up market St Pancras Hotel for a bowl of soup and a bun and a cup of tea. Also, to catch a cab to our digs.

We're in a tiny flat in Camden Town. Every ethnic restaurant you can imagine is within a couple of blocks. A tube station and lots of bus routes are outside the door. And, the famous Camden Market is within walking distance.

This is a rabbit warren of local clothes designers, leather merchants, a watch designer, jewellery makers, hat shops and more food than you can conceive.

We had a good look around before catching a canal boat from Camden Lock to Little Venice. This is another neighbourhood about 2 miles from Camden along the Regent canal. The poet, Robert Browning, declared that it reminded him of Venice with its canals. 

The long narrow boats had been fitted with seats.

We puttered along at about 3 miles per hour.

Past many other canal boats. Some, better than this one, were dwellings for people.

Lots of mansions. One was the home of the US ambassador.

Through tunnels. The boats used to be pulled along by horses. There was a tow path along one side of the canal. When they came to a tunnel such as this, people lay on planks out from the sides and used their feet to push the boats through.

In Little Venice, we found the Warwick Castle Pub for our lunch.

Then we tottered off home by dark.