London Calling

For the first time ever we can proudly say that the alarm went of at 6.30 am this morning!  OK, I admit we had coffee in bed til 7.00 am - but it was still hellishly early for us !  I took the dogs for an enlightening walk around Alperton, but soon returned to the safety of the boat!

This is what we moored next to this last night - it's the beer garden of 'The Pleasure Boat' pub - what a dump!  I thought it had closed down but it hadn't - it closes Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays!


Elaine had another steer this morning ...

Nice bird, pity about the boat ...

These were terraced waterfront houses at West Kilburn...I think!  We thought they looked like Coronation Street on water ...

Nice sign ...

On into Little Venice ...

As we arrived at the Little Venice water point we found it was already occupied, so we carried on and then spotted a tap at the water bus stop around the corner!  So we quickly moored up, whipped the hose out, filled up with water and then quickly chucked the hose back in the boat ... phew, we made it just in time as the water bus was rounding the corner ... he didn't spot us !

We turned down the arm towards Paddington Basin and, lo and behold, got a really good mooring - right by Paddington Station ... it is just perfect!  (As Elaine said, the Gods were shining on us!!)  When we moored up we went to look at the Basin itself - really lovely but completely chock-a-block - no vacancies there!

We are so happy we finally made it to Central London ... and we brought our hotel with us!

We had a quick cuppa and then took the dogs walkabout, starting with the station ... as we walked through we spotted Grommit being unloaded from a ute.  Evidently he was going to Bristol, so we may see him again on the next leg of our adventure. 

We decided to head straight for Trafalgar square ... via the overground route - so we took the obligatory photos of us with the dogs on the top of the double decker ! 

... dogs allowed on public transport ... just as it should be !

It was Canada day at Trafalgar Square ...

The Canucks had taken over the whole of the square ...

How did that get there?  I know ... I was playing with the zoom!

Sammy wanted to take a dive in the water, so we had to hold him back while we took a pic !

We did try some Canadian beer while we were there ... makes the Aussie stuff taste good!


After all that excitement we walked the dogs through St James Park, down to Buckingham Palace. 

Past Captain Cook ...

We got to Clarence House and had a look but the dogs didn't like the bearskins, so they had to look away !

Green Park looked very.......green.

The flag wasn't flying; HRH wasn't in today ...

Yeah but I saw her ...

Yeah - so did I - there she is ...


Elaine was planning our route back to Paddo ...

This is an amazing 'Horse at water' sculpture at Marble Arch ...

We bus-ed our way back to the canal and deposited the dogs on the boat as they were really tired!

Then we popped round to the Basin to see James and Doug on NB Chance and had a couple of drinks ... thanks guys - see you again soon !

This evening we visited the first of the restaurants featured in the 'Taste Card' that we recently purchased; it was 'Ask Italian' - very nice it was too!

Tomorrow, let the sight-seeing begin in earnest!

Nearly forgot, I sent off an email last night to the MD of Image22 re the litter grub, got a prompt response this morning full of apologies, he said he had a word with the chap responsible and had sent him down there to clear up any litter that he may find! Plus apologise to any boat owners!