15 June 2011

Lift still out – legs must be getting fitter! All the way to the basement, breakfast, then back up to the room.

Spent a bit of time catching up with the blog. Laughed at some of the comments, particularly those from Mike & Stu. Don’t know who wrote what though! Great way for us to keep in touch – thanks.

Well I did warn Jannie that today was another walking day so we set off for the tube station which is a five minute walk. Caught the train to Oxford Circus and changed to go to Warwick Avenue where the Regents Canal walk starts.

Got to Little Venice quite quickly and enjoyed the sight of the canal boats all moored along the side of the canal. They are very well set up and even have power plug in poles alongside the canal for them to get their electrics.

We then had to walk a couple of streets that run parallel to the canal as the tow path is only for private access for the boat owners. The homes here are really at the better end of anything that we have seen.

Stopped for coffee in a café that sat on top of a bridge over the canal and enjoyed the view with a few boats coming and going. Then it was onto the towpath proper. Walked past Lords Cricket ground, the London mosque and then the canal skirted Regents Park. Originally it was to go through the park but they decided against that as it would not be proper for the plush houses to have to look at the industrial comings and goings below them.

Next was the London Zoo. The canal actually goes right through the zoo and there was a huge aviary on the same side that we were walking on and on the other side were animals. Not that we could see many but there were a couple of huge warthogs having a go at each other only about 30 metres away. There was the large giraffe house and a number of other buildings.

It’s very green on both sides but the water of the canal is a muddy brown colour. Doesn’t look like there are any fish in there but we saw lots of fishermen, mostly OAPs we thought. A lot of the greenery is blackberries and was laden with fruit, still green, and flowers.

We passed under lots of bridges and what was surprising was the way that they were built. All of the ceilings above where we walked were lined with small bricks, only about 100mm x 50mm. They must have built a form in a curved shape and laid the bricks and then formed the roadway over the top. One of the bridges actually carries the River Tyburn over the top of the canal but no sign of a leak. Another bridge was called the blow-up bridge after a barge loaded with gunpowder blew up directly under it. Sounds like a likely story to me, bloody terrorists!

Beyond here was a large basin that was filled in after the war with rubble fron the London bombings. It’s now an allotment.
Ahead was a bridge built in the form of a castle and beyond this were the first of the locks with an old lock keepers cottage. This was Camden lock and through a hole in the wall off to the left we entered Camden market. This was a huge market that was situated in a building that they housed the horses that towed the barges up the canal. Shops, stalls, eateries you name it they had it and stuff was so cheap except we didn’t need anything. Had lunch and walked around the maze and eventually got back onto the canal path. We spent 15-20 minutes watching a couple of long canal boats negotiating one of the locks. This was mainly for our own information for when we hire the boat in France. Jane, the two lady “jumpers” were busy as – keep practising! There was a series of locks in very quick succession. We could see the spire of St Pancras station in the distance. Around the corner were two tunnels for the boats that were bored in 1852, and a few more bridges. One of the tunnels was 960 yards long and in the olden days the horses had to be taken up and over the top and the barge men used to lie on their backs on top of the barges and “legged” the barges through by walking along the roof of the tunnel.

Here we left the canal and wandered into Islington and through the Chapel Market to Angel Underground Station. Changed trains twice and got back to the hotel. Lift still not fixed!
We are meeting Tori tonight for a drink and dinner.
The weather today is still warm but expecting rain tomorrow. It’s London summer everyone tells us.