Sunday 24th August LONDON
Summer has definitely come again here – this morning we had
beautiful blue skies, and it got to at least 24 degrees!
We started our day by strolling up the street to our
favourite building, the Michelin Building, which I’ve mentioned before. Built
in 1911, it has a lot of Art Noveau about it, but also Art Deco features. And
lots of cool mosaics and tiles featuring the Michelin Man and cars, too!
The front part of it is now a restaurant, so we were their first customers for breakfast at 8.30. We all enjoyed our meals immensely. It’s a French restaurant, so I decided to try their French toast, which came with maple syrup and a caramelised finish – delicious! Lex had granola followed by a perfect croissant (as one would expect) and Glen had scrambled eggs with ham. We were all very happy as we returned home.
Lex and Glen decided that they would go off to Battersea to
look around the area there. There is hardly anything left of the original powerhouse machinery, but the huge building is still there. It's now all retail - a huge shopping centre! I elected to finish yesterday’s blog, put on a
load of washing and hang it out before I went out to find the statue of St
Thomas More. We booked a canal boat cruise for the afternoon, and I agreed to
meet them at Camden canal before then.
I got the blog written (but not published), hung out the washing, made myself a sandwich and a cuppa for an early lunch, then set out for the 20-minute walk to beside the Thames in Chelsea where the More family lived in the 1500s. The statue was erected in 1969 on what would have been their front lawn. Their house, unfortunately, was demolished in the 1700s. I enjoyed the walk through the lovely streets of Chelsea – lots of sweeping rows of Regency and Georgian terrace houses. Once I’d found the statue, and looked at the river, I made my way back to South Kensington Station once more, and took the subway to Embankment. I changed there to the Northern line and got off at Camden Town. There are market stalls there everywhere – 95% of them selling souvenirs, from what I could see, but fortunately thoughts of excess baggage stopped me going crazy! Lex and Glen texted to say they were in the Wetherspoons there, so I found it without too much trouble and joined them for lunch.
Camden Town was packed - people everywhere enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend and the summery weather. We were really glad to get into our canal boat, Gardenia (1947) and enjoyed the 45-minute cruise up the canal to Little Venice. Our captain gave a great commentary on the areas we passed as we sailed along.
From Little Venice, it was only a short walk along the canal to Paddington Station, where I stopped in the Paddington Shop to get a Paddington Bear for Danny for Christmas. No one tell him, please! It was only a few stops to South Kensington, a call into Sainsbury’s for tea, and we were home for a much-needed cuppa by a bit after 4. Lex had a short nap while I finally finished yesterday’s blog and started today’s (all this having fun is very time consuming and tiring!)
We’re running out of London time – Glen goes home tomorrow, and Lex and I only have two more full days here. Let’s hope the weather stays so nice.
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