A Capital week end

After a quick journey up to Packet Boat marina, a quick load up on ‘Chance’ with our “stuff” and a slow four hour trip up the Paddington Arm we arrived on Thursday evening at 6 o’ clock and, miraculously, found a mooring in the basin.

Today the basin is full, as the space in front of us has now been taken.  We were not able to find space on the pontoons but we’re very happy where we are.

This morning we spent a few hours spring cleaning – it seems we’ve chosen a dry and very warm week end to spend in London.  Doug took all the windows out and cleaned all the frames and James was busy on the outside, cleaning and polishing everything to within an inch of it’ life.

As the last few weeks have been a bit sedentary for us we decided we needed to do some serious walking.  This afternoons journey took us from Paddington to the Embankment and back – an interesting  journey of some six miles.  At Marble Arch, normally viewed from the top deck of a bus, today we had chance to properly appreciate this stunning sculpture. 

In Bruton Street the tiny “Coach and Horses”pub sits strangely and serenely all by itself.

After walking down Bond Street, where the prestigious windows of shops such as Faberge, Aspreys, Gucci and Cartier firmly confirmed our own position in the world (!) we took a gentle stroll in the sunshine (and 17 deg. temperature) through St. James’ Park -  where spring has definitely sprung ……..

………. and then on through Horse Guards Parade where we stumbled across the daily inspection of the guards at 4 o’ clock.

Having reached Embankment we headed back towards “home” – stopping for a quick pint in Chandos, one of our favourite watering holes.  In Leicester Square the 27 bell Glockenspiel  ( a gift to the city from the people of Switzerland and Lichtenstein) performed an enchanting 5 minute “concert” at 5 o’ clock for us.

Flash it may be (and James wants one!) but this is not what you want to be saddled with in Oxford Street during the rush hour.

Getting back to Paddington we discovered the end part of the basin has now been drained as part of the “improvements” to the area.

This is the coffer dam holding back the water in the basin.

It’s a huge area of the basin that’s being affected (right up to the buildings at the far end).  Oh well!