Little Venice to Camden Lock

On Tuesday of last week we went to London for the day and to stay the night before catching an early morning Eurostar train to Paris. A few days before I had been surfing the net to look for something interesting and out of the ordinary to do in London. I came across a website which suggested a canal cruise in Little Venice. Having only ever heard of Little Venice and not really knowing much more than that I thought that we would take a gamble and see what there was to discover.

We got to Little Venice and found that the next boat trip wasn't until 2.30 p.m. A canal boat was moored to the side which turned out to house a small cafe. It was a hot sunny day - the complete opposite of today which is miserable and very wet! We had a light lunch on the boat and waited for our boat to arrive.

Our boat arrived and we clambered on with the other sightseers.

There was a lot of blanket weed.

There were many canal boats. I like the look of those houses - if I had seen one of those houses with its view in a Country Homes magazine I would never have said that it was located in London! How little I know!

More boats.

You may think that I was trying to be artistic with the camera here but in truth I was trying to capture the flowers painted on this boat but our boat went a bit faster than anticipated and I got some of the window in too! I mean the boat was travelling at 4 miles per hour!

We went under many bridges!

I do like canal boats. Could I live on one permanently like some people do, I really don't know. Although the idea of it is rather enchanting - a get away from it all and a very slow pace of life - I'm sure the reality is somewhat different especially in harsh Winters and when it's raining hard like today!

We carried on down the canal - passing more and more boats.

I liked this flourescently painted one!

In the middle of the trip we came across an area with fewer boats which made me look onto the pathway - there was a lot of graffitti on the walls.

More graffitti which looked as if it had been placed on an area which had previously been painted to disguise earlier graffitti.

Quite an interesting comment and thought provoking - "Imagination is more important than knowledge." The other word sprayed "Rage" was quite appropriate bearing in mind that the night before there had been widespread riots in London. Rampage would have been more appropriate! On this tranquil boat ride you wouldn't have thought it at all possible. When we arrived at Camden Lock though you knew that there had been some disorder - there were many Police Officers on the streets and there was a sense of anticipation lingering in the air. We did see a few smashed windows and shops were being boarded up to try and prevent any looting should things turn as ugly as they had the night before.

You wouldn't think that the above was in London would you! Interesting how trees seem to root themselves in the most bizarre of places!

Part of a bridge!

We came across this graffitti - "Revolution will be Televised." Certainly the riots were televised! In our apartment we only had access to BBC Sky News which seemed to show continuous footage of the violence and arson attacks. The looters were allowed far more coverage than they deserved.

The canal even boasts its own Oriental Restaurant!

A gothic(!) boat!

From the darkness of the above to the lightness of "Summer Breeze" - made me think of the song of the same name!

We crossed paths with another boat of trippers.

We went past a Childrens Activity Centre which looked like great fun.

I love the primary coloured small canoe boats and their paddles.

We arrived at Camden Lock. The boat trip lasted for 45 minutes and was a good way to relax and see some of the sights in London which you don't normally see - we even went past the London Zoo and could see into one of the aviary enclosures.

When we arrived in Camden Lock there was a camera crew filming.

I supposed, rightly or wrongly, that they were there to get peoples opinions on the riots that had just taken place. We quickly exited as we didn't want to be waylaid. Whilst on the boat we had realized that we had no euros which of course we would need in Paris. Our mission therefore when we arrived at Camden Lock was to seek a bank that would be open! Quite a task after the riots as most of them had decided to close early and were shut by 3.00 p.m.

We did eventually find a Nat West that was open and did manage to get some euros. We were very lucky though as just as we had got into the bank they were shutting their doors and preventing other customers from getting in. For a short while we had visions of us arriving in Paris with our luggage and having to walk to the apartment where we were staying at in Montmartre - quite some distance with heavy luggage.

We did a quick tour of the market before heading for the main shopping area.

I still have many photos of Camden Lock to put into a post. I had anticipated being able to do more today but there is so much washing and ironing to do. The grass also needs a good mowing but the rain has put a stop to that task for today at least.

The dogs have come back from the kennels and George has grown a heck of a lot in 8 days!

He also seems to be much quicker and he was pretty quick before - I'm sure there's a trace of greyhound in him somewhere!

Until next time,

June.