So I lived in England from July 1, 1985 until June 30, 1988.
I went back for semester abroad, June 1991 to December 1991.
Hans took me back for our 15th anniversary July 4th- 8 2008.
I added a few days and a few friends to Hans' work trip September 18-24 2010.
With that all being said, I wanted this trip to be new.... not a complete walk down memory lane, but an exploration of the city that has changed so much since I really new it back in the 80's and 90's.
I love the British flag...old Union Jack!
So we arrived at 10am on Sunday the 19th and of course our room wasn't ready so we decided to hit the city. I had done a lot of research and had a plan for the day, we were headed to Little Venice and Camden Town Market. Our hotel was between Gloucester Road and Earl's Court on the district and circle lines. We were headed up to Paddington station to walk to Little Venice when we came across Queensway tube stop....I made Hans jump out, a little trip down memory lane. Queensway was one of the main tube stops I used when at the BYU center on palace court. So we started the walking a bit early!
The center was dark, everyone was at church, but it was fun to see just the outside. It really is in such a great part of town, in a really nice area.
A beautiful apartment building down the street from the center. This ended up being one of my favorite days.... we walked and walked through neighborhoods, seeing little parks, cool buildings, fun shops, I loved it!
Finally we made it to Little Venice. An area of London with the canal running through it. They have canal boat rides, looking at the map, we decided to walk (small mistake).
There were several little canal boat neighborhoods along the way. This boat was named Emily and she had some beautiful potted plants and a cute little table with a Union Jack in a pot. It was so fun. Some of the boats had their curtains open and man are they small inside....about as wide as a car....with a kitchen, bathroom, bed and little sitting areas. Incredible.
It was such a fun area, I kept wishing I could be running it.
After what I estimated to be about 5 miles of walking (boat ride would have cut that to about 2), we finally made it to Camden Market. This is the little archway that leads from the canal to the market. More about the Lock in just a minute.
The place was packed, food venders, antique dealers, crafters, souvenir booths, vintage clothing, seriously everything! It reminded me a lot of Portabello Road, but on steroids and a lot more artsy. I had an awesome nutella crepe and Hans had an amazing falafel. Later we had some diet cokes and traditional english scones with cream and jam. Delish. We sat above the market and people watched off a balcony.
This was part of the outside portion, we kept wandering and found an inside portion that was 20 times this.
The inside was old stables and each of the venders were in a stall, a real old time horse stall. I loved the huge chandeliers that were hung all over. We got lost and turned around several times, but found some great treasures for the kids. Awesome that I got that girl yawning! Ha!
We came back out of the Camden Lock archway just in time to see the Lock in action. Canal boats come in from the top, they shut the gates and then raise some little doors at the bottom of the lock.
The water lowers and when the pressure is off the big doors at the bottom, they can open them and drive on out. Later in the week when I came back, we saw a boat come in from the bottom, fill up the lock and drive out the top. Very cool.
Later that night after a little nap, we had dinner at an Indian restaurant that we decided probably would taste good because of all the Indian people inside eating, and we were right! It was just off of Leicester Square and because I was more awake, we enjoyed the night life and walked down to Picadilly. We took the tube back to our hotel and crashed! End of Day 1! I love this city and Hans for bringing me here! It's our town!
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