Star struck and a court appearance

Yesterday we decided to have a mooch along the South Bank so we got the tube to Piccadilly then crossed the river……….

…….. by the Golden Jubilee Footbridge to the south bank.

There were a number of strange and unusual sights as we walked along Queens Walk.  For a start there was this rhubarb growing upside down!

Then this perfectly preserved 1950’s ice cream van.

Then a man building sand sculptures on the “beach”. 

Yes, there’s quite a good beach when the tide is out.  As we walked on we came to the ITV studios were we decided to pop round to the entrance near Gabriel’s Wharf and see what might be happening.  Well, James won first prise in serendipity!……….

…… and we met Joe McElderry just as he’d finished an interview on “This Morning”.  If there was anyone James would wish to meet it would be Joe – a great voice and a credit to his generation.  He was so friendly and polite and quite happy to spend a few minutes with us before he got into his car.

Walking on down Bankside we passed the very busy Shakespeare Globe Theatre on our way to the Old Clink Museum.  The historical story of “The Clink” was quite interesting but the experience of the museum in general was a bit tacky.

After a nice lunch in The Anchor in Clink Street, we crossed back over the river via Southwark Bridge and then hopped on an old Route Master Double decker bus.  This was a treat for Doug this time as he’d not ridden on one for many years.  The conductor told us there are only eight still in service. 

We took the Route Master to Ludgate Circus and then walked up to The Old Bailey where we spent a couple of hours in the public gallery of Court 15.  We were lucky to see the start of a murder case – the swearing in of the jury, the judge’s opening address and the start of the prosecution case.  Two people were in the dock and they were obviously guilty!

In the evening, after getting back to ‘Chance’ for a refresh, we went to see Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace theatre.  James thought it was sensational and a very powerful performance.  Doug’s not so sure!  Whatever the opinion, the lad that played Billy was fantastic, as were all the performers.  We ended the evening by popping over to Vauxhall for a drink, getting back early this time by 1:30am!

This morning we reluctantly left Paddington Basin as our time was up. We made the trip down the Regents Canal……

…… here we are approaching the Maida Vale tunnel having just passed through Little Venice.

We passed some very grand residences along the way…………

…….. passing through Regent’s Park Zoo with the Snowdon Aviary on our left.

We soon arrived at Camden Locks – the last time we were here was only days ago when we met up with Richard and Sue on nb ‘Indigo Dream’.

We have booked into the London Canal Museum moorings, just a bit further on from Camden for tonight and, getting there at midday, we temporarily tethered outside until we could get in at 3 o’ clock. 

We arranged with Adam (nb ‘Briar Rose) to have lunch with us as he’s working in London today.  He kindly brought some oil and air filters, which he got for us from Beta Marine at the Crick Show last weekend.  It was great to catch up with him as we haven’t seen him for quite some time.

We got onto the museum moorings at 3:45 so here we are, at Kings Cross, sitting quietly in the dramatically named Battlebridge Basin with the luxury of shore power and water.  We’ve had an absolute ball in London for the last few days and our time here hasn’t finished yet!