May 12th--18th

I wasn't sure how long we were going to stay here, but Trev's enjoying it,
and so we shall be here at least until next Sunday, May 23rd.
We're certainly making good use of our floating London hotel.
It's surprising how quiet this spot is in the week.
At the weekend it hots up a bit, but it seems to be only high spirits, not threatening behaviour.
To help you get your bearings, we're quite close to Paddington,
and in fact on Wednesday we walked to Paddington Station,
then down the Edgware Road and along Oxford Street.

We had lunch in Selfridge's
and Trev was delighted to see that there was a Brazilian theme in the store.............



On Thursday, we bought a week's tube ticket for £20 each,
as it had cost us £2 for each single journey we did yesterday.
Now we can go where and when we like within zones 1 & 2.
So we set off for the Victoria & Albert Museum, which was fascinating.
It's so vast, we just browsed in the areas which interested us most.
One of the interesting exhibits was The Great Bed of Ware.
It's a huge bed, about eight feet wide, I would think, and probably about seven feet long.
Its origins have been lost in the mists of time,
but it seems that it was used in several of the pubs in the town of Ware
and then eventually went in to storage.
Now it has been restored and has new hangings and looks most splendid.
We also enjoyed the Turners and Constables, and the tapestries, some of which were enormous.

We had lunch in the museum, and then went to The Houses of Parliament.
Here we had a bonus, as we weren't expecting to go inside.
But the queue was very short and moved quickly, and within ten minutes we were in The Strangers' Gallery,
listening to a debate about the armed forces in SE Asia!

It was just as one sees on the television, except there were even fewer MP's present
than I've ever seen on the small screen, and that's not many unless it's an important debate.
There were less than thirty members there, some lolling around ,
others talking to each other, others passing notes around or walking over to a colleague for a chat,
and a handful actually listening to the person speaking.
It certainly did nothing to restore my faith in the system, but then may be I'm a cynic!

We stayed in the Commons for about half an hour and then adjourned to the Lords.
That was certainly more luxuriant, much better carpet on the stairs up to the gallery!
And their benches had plush covers, rather than the leather of the Commons.
But the piece de resistance was the throne where the Queen sits to open Parliament.
It was a magnificent gold affair, with a huge screen behind, also of gold.
Lord McGregor, a Tory ex Minister of Education, spoke,
as did Baroness Blackstone and Lord Winston, all people we recognised.
We stayed there for about forty-five minutes and then made our way out.
It was an interesting experience, and it's a magnificent building.



JUST TO PROVE WE REALLY DID GO!

On the other side of the road was the "camp" set up by the Iraqi war protestor.
He's been featured on television a few times, as the police want him moved,
saying he's creating a security threat......
His camp is certainly tatty and looks a mess, but I don't think it's much of a threat.

On Friday, we went for a walk along the Thames, from Blackfriars Bridge to St. Katherine Dock.
This was a really interesting walk, we passed so many landmarks,
including the Customs House built by Sir Christopher Wren,
lots of new apartments overlooking the river,
The Tower of London, Tower Bridge--under which we shall eventually cruise ,
and, the best of all, St. Katherine Dock.

St. Katherine Dock has been the site of a dock for over one thousand years,
and was one of the most important docks in the country.

Teas, silks, exotic spices, all the new imports from all over the world,
were brought in here and then offloaded and sent throughout the land.
And, of course, this is where the canals came in.
Goods were loaded on to barges and set off up The Grand Union Canal and the Regents Canal
to deliver all of these wonderful new goods inland,
and then returned from The Midlands and the North
with cargoes of woollen and cotton goods, china and coal.
The sailors of yesteryear wouldn't recognise St. Katherine Docks now.
It has been redeveloped as un upmarket marina, with shops and apartments, and yachts berthed there
which must be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds if not a million.
There are also some well preserved, original Thames sailing barges.
It has a great atmosphere, it's a busy area with restaurants
and a lovely pub, supposedly from the eighteenth century.


THE DICKENS INN AT ST. KATHERINE DOCK

On Saturday, we went back to the Thames and continued the walk down to Limehouse,
as we wanted to see what it would be like when we come out on to the Thames.
I must say that the Thames got rather wide and pretty swift as we walked along,
and I began to feel quite apprehensive about it again.
Trev told me he is supremely confident about it all......
We only have one lifejacket and that's MINE!

At Limehouse we had lunch at a pub right on corner where the canal comes in to the Thames.
It was a very lively place, the weather was fantastic, we sat out in the sun
and it felt very much like being on holiday!
Then we walked around the corner to check out the canal and that looked fine.
We saw where we shall moor whilst we wait for the tide to be right for us to go out through the lock.
Apparently we go out three and a half hours before high water.
The journey of the tidal Thames will take about three and a half hours,
it's about fourteen miles, and then we shall go back in through the lock at Teddington
and on to the non-tidal Thames.
And I shall breathe a sigh of relief, and Trev will tell me there was never anything to worry about!

Afterwards we caught the tube to Covent Garden Market and watched the street entertainers.
There were two women there whose objective seemed to be to save us all from our sins.
I'll give them their due, they had incredibly penetrating voices, and you couldn't possibly ignore them.
But their message was rather predictable,
and when some of the young people around tried to engage them in conversation,
they would have none of it. They just wanted to preach!

On Sunday I managed to negotiate a day of rest!
My feet had had enough, and I just couldn't face trudging around any more.
The weather has been fantastic for days now, really warm, but rather too hot for walking the streets!

But Monday saw us back on the tourist trail--I don't get much respite with Trev!
Today we visited the British Museum.
I didn't find this anywhere near as interesting as the V&A.
The exhibits were really all pretty similar, a lot of sculpture and frescoes,
from Greece, Italy, Egypt, etc.
Upstairs was more interesting, with some British artefacts, and the Sutton Hoo Treasure was fascinating.

On the way back, as if we hadn't walked enough, we had to go to Lord's Cricket Ground
to ask about tickets for the Test Match on Thursday.
We went to the wrong entrance and were directed "round the corner"
which was at least a mile, and I think Trev scented rebellion in the ranks!
So after we had sorted out about the tickets (£25 for the cheapest......)
and on the way back to the boat (on foot, of course.......)
he suggested we might like to call in at a cafe for a drink!
I wish I'd had the camera with me, as the cafe is quite a local landmark,
it's on a bridge overlooking the Regents Canal, and the views are lovely.

And today, Tuesday, I managed to get another day off!
We went down to the waterpoint and filled up and another boat came in and pinched our mooring spot!
Fortunately, there was another place, so we filled up and scuttled back quick!
Then we did the washing, and hung it out on the back deck and also on an airer on the roof to dry in the lovely sunshine.
Tonight, we shall eat at the Thai restaurant again.
Life's not so bad, is it?!

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