The Lull before the Storm

On Saturday evening, after our great day out with the St Pancras Cruising Club, we went back to their club house (in the old Victorian water tower) for the annual Halloween party.

We had a great time meeting a lot of the members…………….

……. and spending an enjoyable time with Frances (Mrs Commodore), who tried hard to be a witch but she’s far from it! Doug’s not drunk, he’s just in mid laugh.

Yesterday was an opportunity to do some ‘walking in the park’ as it might not be there after the forecasted great storm expected during the night.  We had a very good Sunday lunch at the Bayswater Arms before walking across to Hyde Park.

Close to the Serpentine Gallery Doug took some persuading to pose for this photo.  He’s not convinced that two big stones are a particularly good example of modern art.

We stopped for a while at the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain which was very pleasantly quiet.

The Serpentine, with the cordoned off Lido swimming area in the foreground.  Not very enticing at this time of year but many hardy Londoners still use it through the winter months.

The wonderful peace of the park ………..

………. is dramatically shattered as you emerge onto Knightsbridge at Hyde Park Corner …………

………. and cross towards the marvellous Wellington Arch (which we must go to the top off one day).

Close to Hyde park Corner is the Australian War Memorial, which usually has water cascading over the thousands of place names etched into the marble.  Today the water was switched off and a workman was painstaking cleaning each tiny name. He’s obviously learnt not to look too far ahead!

We walked down a very quiet Constitution Hill to the Queen Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace.

The area around the Palace was traffic free, which must be the case on Sundays, and so it was a pleasure to be able to wander around at leisure ………

……… and then walk up the Mall (also traffic free) to Trafalgar Square…….

…….. where there was a very well attended Diwali festival in progress.

After some refreshment in Soho we got back to ‘Chance’ to weather the storm that was brewing.  Our London visit is coming to an end soon and we’re due for just a tad more canal cruising – hope we haven’t forgotten how to use the tiller!