Camden Lock

As mentioned in my earlier post we arrived in Camden Lock having travelled here by canal boat.

I had not been to Camden Lock before. It was certainly a buzzing, vibrant place - full of people dressed in gothic attire, sporting mohicans, multiple tattoos and piercings. It made ordinary people look dull and boring!

Definitely a place for the younger generation -  I'm not old but, I was pretty old for Camden. Oh, to be in my late teens and early twenties again. Mind you a place like this would have frightened the living daylights out of me then - being a young Welsh girl, pretty much only used to seeing mountains and sheep!

Most of the shop fronts had been kitted out in some way - vying for attention amongst the craziness of it all!

The Levi's shop front was tame in comparison to the many others as I will reveal below!

There were many shops selling all kinds of footwear - I loved the rather large Dr. Martens boot on the front of this store. The shop next door was called "Cold Steel" and from the polished steel on display on the shop front you can quickly gather that they perform all sorts of piercings! I'm not really a piercing person - I've got my ears pierced but hardly bother with earrings these days. I get goose pimples looking at eyebrow piercings and a belly piercing makes me wonder how people don't get the ring / bar stuck to their zips! Call me old fashioned but I do think this act of mass piercings is a strange fad.

A closer look at the said boot!

Further down the road there was a tattoo shop. The word tattoo always brings a wry smile to my face as the word tatws in welsh - pronounced the same, means potatoes. If I heard the phrase "Do you want to see my tattoos?" The vision in my mind would be that of a field full of potatoes!

A form of self decoration which has moved on a lot from my grandparents day. They would have been horrified at the very notion of one tattoo let alone women with tattoos! My grandmother was even aghast at women going into pubs - that's Welsh Presbyterian upbringing for you! Thankfully, the world has moved on but is it for the better!

I liked the above shop sign displaying London landmarks.

Some more fashionable footwear!

A combined tattoo and body piercing shop!

A closer look at those shoes!

A return to the Dr. Marten shop for another shot at that shoe!

Another footwear shop!

A Chinese Restaurant or tattoo parlour!

A billboard asking for donations to save children from dying in Africa displayed above the local fish and chip shop - food for thought! Spend less money at the chippie and donate to Africa! People in this country rioted because they could and were greedy whereas those in Africa die from disease and hunger - puts it all into perspective.

There was a high Police presence on the streets. I don't think I've seen so many officers in one location in broad daylight before!

More funky shop fronts!

Let's try and entice people into the shop by displaying our wares on the outside! A good strategy - I'm not too sure!

Back to footwear!

This shop was shut - a store that sold sportswear - Adidas etc. Its windows had been smashed the day before apparently!

A tribute to Amy Winehouse.

Amongst all the footwear shops, the tattoo and piercing parlours there's a KFC!

Street art on a shops' shutter - I think this is the work of  "Sweet Tooth".

More street art. This one spotted by Our Daughter.

The Police had advised all the shops to shut early to ensure that the streets were cleared before it started getting dark.

After having some trouble locating a bank that was open to buy some euros we decided to have a quick tour of the area whilst at the same time getting our bearings - locating the tube station and taxi rank!

We saw this young lad with dark clothing sporting a mohican, tattoos and piercings. I think Our Daughter was a bit unsure as to what to make of him. I started a conversation asking him how long it took him to do his hair - an hour apparently! That yellow can in his hand is hair gel by Schwarzkopf! The bottle contains water!

He was well spoken and courteous and agreed to have his photo taken with Our Daughter.

So, as the old adage goes - Don't judge a book by its cover!

It's important for children to learn not to be judgemental of others - children are often taught in school to respect other faiths but not much is said about appearance and being different.

We saw this brightly coloured bridge with its painters!

We came across this old car!

Our Daughter posed in front of it.

Street art - similar in style to Andy Warhol!

Don't ask about the statue - it seemed out of place! There must be a story to it!

How do you fancy having a snack in this outdoor caff sat on half a motor bike!

There was a vast difference between the solitude of the canal and the busy High Street!

 The shops were closing early and were being boarded up - there was a sense of anticipation brewing. We agreed that we had better make our way back to the hotel. We caught a taxi back to our hotel and agreed that the best thing to do was to order Room Service rather than risk being out after dark!

Our room overlooked Big Ben and the London Eye.

The pods look a bit spooky at night!

With the blue light on I thought that they looked a bit extraterrestrial! "E.T. ... Go home!"

The following morning we made our way to St. Pancras to catch the Eurostar to Paris!

Plenty more to report next time.

Until then,

June.