Goodbye London...till next time

Our 5 days in London have been fun and interesting, From the noisy 24 hour building site that is the new Hammersmith & Central & Circle line entrance at Paddington Basin, to the ride on the London Eye on an overcast and misty day.

Cabaret, the show on Friday night was great. Andrew and I both really enjoy live theatre. Awkward times though as the show starts at 7:30pm and finishes around 10pm. To early to eat before and couldn't be bothered afterwards. Not only that but on getting back to the boat, or should say trying, the steps up from the new entrance were closed and from within 10 meters of the boat we had to turn around and walk all the way back to the main Paddington station entrance and back past the hospital, a 15 minute walk all up. Not great when you are already tired. Still was a great evening.

Saturday was breakfast out, to get away from construction noise ( I was ready to wallop the first technicolour builder who walked past after a terribly noisy night), and then on to the Victoria and Albert museum. I enjoyed the displays but after spending a lot of time checking out all the jewellery, I think Andrew was getting a bit bored. I dragged him round anyway. ( I was bored - A)

Back to the boat to give it a good clean and tidy before Jody and Gina's visit on Sunday.

Sunday was  lovely relaxing day spent with family. Lots of laughter, drinks and food made for a fantastic day.  Looking forward to seeing them again in the next few weeks if that can be arranged. Their weekends are full, ours are pretty much empty :) but hopefully something can be arranged.

I missed this photo opportunity last year when we were here, so made absolutely certain I got it  this time. Helped that we were through here every day!

A view down the train - the Metropolitan Line

Silly me did not take any photos in Baker Street Station, one of the original stations for the Metrolpolitan Railway, the world's first underground railway, opened in 1863 (to quote Wikipedia) A beautiful station indeed.

Once I get myself and Andrew better organised we will do the National Archives at Kew and fill in some of those family tree blank spots. For now though we were both getting itchy feet and so today we started the trip back up north.

We, or probably more me, wanted to cruise up the Regent's canal for a bit before turning back.  Interesting canal with some very different views on living along here. A quick view of the London Zoo and then on to Camden, Locks and market. We were heading to go through the Islington tunnel before our turn around but I managed to put a halt to that after I slipped on some wet, mossy wood at the bottom of St Pancras lock. My left wrist is now quite swollen and very painful. Was concerned for  while that I had broken it but all fingers and thumb all moving okay, just bloody sore. We turned around in Battlebridge Basin and headed back. Unfortunately with my left hand out of action Andrew had to get us back through all the locks single handed as I cannot even use the throttle to help out. Thankfully there were only 4 but Camden Locks is very busy after lunch it seems. Andrew had quite an audience (and loved it !) ( True - A)

We are now moored up at Kensal Green and with tomorrows weather report looking pretty poor, we will probably stay put.