London

We are enjoying being securely tucked into our berth here at St. Katharine’s Dock, London, miles from the sea. It’s hard to imagine that we are located right at the heart of the City, yet, we are in a marine environment with all its charms (and drawbacks). Although surrounded by apartment blocks, shops and restaurants, it’s remarkably quiet. We have lots of coots (very loud squawkers) and mallard ducks swimming around the boat and occasionally tapping on the hull. We even have a beautiful heron fishing from the pontoon that can be seen in the early mornings while on the trek to the toilet/shower block.

I really enjoy seeing this heron every morning.

The marina this year seems to have an extraordinary number of cruising boats, there are two other Canadian boats and around six/seven American boats. It’s our first real experience of being with other cruisers and it’s quite a social whirl with coffee mornings and outings. As we’ve lived in the U.K. before, it’s maybe not so exciting for us to be here, but, it’s fun to see them all buzzing around and enjoying things for the first time.

The marina facilities are not the best we’ve encountered with spotty wi-fi, one washer/dryer, cold water only, for the entire marina and floating cabins with toilets/showers that often have a queue in the mornings. However, I’m not really complaining as we’re paying about the same as we’d pay in Toronto for an average apartment for our berth. At this location, I’m sure it would be at least quadruple that for an apartment. In London, rental apartments are priced by the week, not the month, maybe they’re trying to lessen the sticker shock!

London is changing rapidly. One of the things I always liked about it was its low-rise nature. Not sure if it’s the Olympics coming next year that has spurred on construction, but, the horizon is literally dotted with huge construction cranes and there is construction everywhere in the city, with gleaming towers getting inserted everywhere into tiny downtown plots. It’s losing some heritage, but, there’s still a lot left. Every streetscape has new and old buildings side-by-side. The street names are also so evocative. Close by, I happened across ‘Seething Lane’ and ‘Crutched Friar Street’, names that really make you wonder how they came about. (I found out later that Seething Lane is where Samuel Pepys lived and actually the name only has something to do with corn processing, not quite as dramatic as I had imagined.)

The London street market culture still exists with both flea and food markets thriving. I recently encountered ‘Borough Market’ which is a fabulous food market with absolutely everything you could imagine set up on stalls. Luscious French cheeses and pastries, British cakes, white truffles in honey, ostrich and other exotic meats, wonderfully fresh and unusual fruits and vegetables are all on display.

Just walking the streets provides entertainment: a very old man on a bicycle riding by with a huge bouquet of orchids slung over his shoulder, a red double-decker bus festooned with crepe streamers with a Japanese wedding party, including the bride and groom in all their finery inside, another wedding party in a horse-drawn carriage, a building with blue/gold human-like, sculpted figures climbing its front and another with gold-leafed figures diving off the roof, a doorway with a very old skull and crossbones sculpted above it and many other fascinating sights. Just yesterday, I came across a man, dressed in full Cockney ‘Pearly King’ regalia waiting for the bus.

Growing up in Canada, our British heritage has had more impact than I think we’re aware of. It seems that almost every city and town name in Canada has its original version in the U.K. Streets in London have such a familiar ring to them that even if you’ve never been here, I’m sure there would be a familiar sense. Street names like Fleet Street, the Strand, Chancery Lane, Pall Mall, Cheapside, Threadneedle Street and the Embankment are all so familiar. Likewise, London neighbourhoods like Knightsbridge, Kensington, Soho and Westminster all live in our collective memories. Having said that, I found it really interesting to see that there has been some Canadian impact on London as well. The Canary Wharf and Docklands areas were redeveloped by Canadians and Canada is well represented with street names like Quebec Way, Maple Quays and Canada Water among others.

Generally, we prefer smaller locations and avoid big cities like the plague. I’m finding though, that now we don’t have to actually work and/or commute to the big city, it’s actually quite enjoyable. We can walk in any direction from here and see fascinating sights at every turn. You don’t need a tour map, there are big and little treasures everywhere.

Some of the big treasures:

St. Paul’s Cathedral

The Monument to the Great Fire of London

The famous Savoy Hotel

Some of the smaller sights are little details like the following examples:

A Viking ship weathervane on St. Olav’s Norwegian church, London.

A Twinings tea shop with a fabulous sign.

An interesting church clock near St. Paul’s.

The gates at Buckingham Palace.

We are looking forward to a winter’s worth of such sights. In addition, of course, we’ll be weaving in work on ‘the list’ to get the boat ready for another season of cruising next year. In the meantime, as I’m sure most people are already familiar with London, I’ve decided to take a break from writing this blog and will resume again once we restart our cruise. Right now, we’re unsure how long we’ll be in London. We hope to be on the move again in the spring, but, we may stay longer, depending on events. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this blog so far and that you will rejoin us in our travels when we resume our voyage aboard Black Sheep II. Thanks for reading…