A busy week comes to an end.

As a quick update on the mooring problems at Paddington basin this week, we went to the C&RT office at Little Venice where they were quite clear that the managing company at Merchant’s Square / Paddington Basin initially only required the clearance of the centre channel in the basin and that’s what had been achieved.  It seemed that the total clearance of the basin was desirable by the management but completely unnecessary.  The outcome was that we happily agreed to vacate our particular mooring and move to one further down the basin so that the public could get a better view.  We chose not to accept the bribe of a bottle of wine for the favour – nice as the offer was!  All’s well that ends well.

Some of this fish in the basin (now that the water is crystal clear) are enormous and fast becoming a tourist attraction. 

Manel chose to experience Camden Town on Thursday – it was another scorcher of a day so we chose to walk there through Regent’s Park.  The roses in Queen Mary’s Gardens are magnificent right now.

Some of the details of our history are fascinating – of course, everyone will have heard of the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association! – seen here on a superb Victorian (and still functioning) drinking fountain in the park.

Doug and Manel enjoying a Chinese, scooter based, lunch.

In the Stables Market the many horse sculptures are extraordinary ……..

……… and again!

We popped back to Paddington late afternoon to see the Dragon boat races (which all the fuss had been about). Everyone enjoyed the spectacle and had great fun.

Early evening saw us down in Soho and meeting up with Steve and Harvey(from our week in Sitges). Steve had a few days off from his work and Harvey was fortuitously down in London for the day .  We had a great time seeing them again.

Friday held a trip to Greenwich to show Manel some of the treats in that area.  He was amazed to discover that the Cutty Sark was original! We were delighted that Steve, during his days off, wanted to join us for the day ……..

….. and after a drink in The Gypsy Moth pub we all made our way to Goddard’s Pie and Mash shop.  We’ve featured this fabulous place before and it’s a ‘must’ if anyone’s visiting Greenwich.

A trip up the hill to the Observatory had it’s delights in East and West Hemispheres – Steve choosing the East and Manel favouring the West on this occasion.

The last pic of the week has to go to Manel with the whole of London in the background (having just pushed three children down the hill!).  After Greenwich, it was back to a club in Soho and at 3 o’ clock on Saturday morning, in Park Lane, we saw him onto the bus for Luton airport and his flight back to Fuerteventura.  We’ve had a great week.
The rest of Saturday had us taking ‘Chance’ back to Packet Boat marina for a couple of weeks while we set off on our next adventure in a couple of days.  After which we shall hopefully be back on board for the summer.