Seeing London at a different angle

The second day of my pre-trip trip could not have been nicer!  The sky was perfectly blue and the temperature was perfectly comfortable.  Gina and I headed off to a part of London neither one of us had ever been to, and we loved it.

 

First though, we needed sustenance and went to the Queen's Arms pub just across the street from our hotel, we could see it outside our window.  We sat outside right at the table under this sign. They only served a full English breakfast and we did not need that much food, so settled for a latte!

Little Venice was beautiful, with too many canal boats to count.  At first we were just going to look around, but while eating lunch at the Waterside Café, we were inspired to take the water taxi to Camden Lock!  After enjoying our Ploughman's lunch, we boarded the taxi and nabbed the very front seats.

 

If I remember correctly, the trip from Little Venice to Camden Lock takes about 90 peaceful and beautiful minutes.  And it also has a stop at London Zoo!  The houses across from London Zoo are so nice, bit and beautiful with sweeping lawns ending in canal side docks.  Wow!  How lovely (and expensive) it must be to live there!

At Camden Market, the very first stall grabbed me as I went past and I purchased a gorgeous bracelet in less time than it took to ask the stall holder. "Do you".  She said yes and I gave her my card....have not taken it off since!  It was the fastest and most powerful impulse buy that has ever happened to me. 

Gina and I wandered along the market a while before returning to the hotel to dress for tea!











Based on Pamela's recommendation, we trundled off to The City, near St Paul's Cathedral to indulge in afternoon tea. The location is perfect for tourists, but it also looked to me like local folks enjoyed this location too.  Bea's of Bloomsbury  If you look at this link, there is a view of tables and at the far end is a china cupboard, Gina and I were at the table closest to the china cupboard.

Before

 

 

After!

 

 

This was my first tea, which is strange since I have lived in Britain almost 30 years!   It was lovely and far too much to eat, so it lived up to exactly what I expected!    

We rolled back to the hotel and I slept better than I have in months! Overindulgence rules!

But somehow on our journey home, it went suddenly from 7:30 to 9pm.  We were trying to creatively get back to the hotel by bus but the one we were waiting for never seemed to come.  Eventually we decided to just catch the first one that came next.  Then, after 2 stops, the one we really needed was in front of us. How did that happen?  We got off our second choice bus, gave up and took the tube back.

But even with that glitch, this was a perfect London day!

“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”

Oprah Winfrey quotes (American television personality,Actress and Producer, b.1954)