Paddington, St Paul's and the cycling superhighway

October 22, 2017

In anticipation of a train trip to Oxford on Monday, we began the day by riding to Paddington Station to pick up our train tickets. The Great Western Railway site was not super easy to work with, but I managed to buy two open return off-peak tickets for about £52 each, or about $92.00 Canadian. We thought that was pretty reasonable.

Anyway, so we set out on our trusty little bikes through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. The hotel we stayed in, the Best Western Burns Hotel, is just a bit south of Kensington Gardens and literally steps away from the Earl's Court underground station, so for our purposes, the location couldn't be better.

When I came to London on my own in April 2015, I visited Paddington Station, but I didn't spend much time looking at the canal. Today we started our explorations with a coffee at Starbucks on the patio between the station and the canal. Although the Burns Hotel is convenient and comfortable, it does not serve good breakfast coffee. 

While enjoying the dark roast, I was attacked by a bird. A titmouse, to be precise.


Yes, you read that correctly. A smaller-than-robin-sized bird flew directly at me and into my hair. Of course I screamed, and onlookers regarded me with expressions of either sympathy or annoyance. 

In my defense, the attack was completely unexpected and rather terrifying, so I don't apologize for my reaction. In the bird's defense, it seemed to be injured or mentally challenged, perhaps both. Whatever the case, it didn't seem to be all there. I wish it well, but I suspect it was not long for this world.









Coffee was followed by a ride/walk along the canal to Little Venice. The houseboats here are very picturesque, with rooftop gardens, bags of coal, bicycles, solar panels etc. -- all the necessities of life -- neatly arranged. And the overhanging trees give such a peaceful feel, letting you forget that you are in the middle of one of the world's largest cities.

Not forgetting our purpose in coming to Paddington, we next went into the station where I collected our tickets from a machine. That was easy!

Of course, a visit to Paddington Station would not be complete without a nod to the bear himself. Right now there are two different places to have one's photo taken with the bear from darkest Peru: this new display, next to the Paddington bookshop (right) -- 










and the original Paddington statue, under the clock.

Our next destination was St. Paul's, so we decided to pay a flying visit to Buckingham Palace on the way.  Through Wellington Arch...

and Constitution Arch...

... and on to the Palace.

It was rather busy there, considering there were no palace tours and no changing of the guard. People were there, apparently, just to look. 

There was a cadet parade in progress, which necessitated closure of the bike lanes, so we had to walk our bikes for the last bit.























From the palace  area, it's a quick ride to Trafalgar Square, where we decided to have lunch, or rather afternoon tea, in the Crypt Cafe at St. Martins-of-the-Fields. I neglected to photograph the tea stand. Next time...

Adequately replenished, we continued on our way, winding through the Temple Courts area, and finally on to St. Paul's. It turned out we were exactly on time for a church service, so we thought maybe that would be interesting. It wasn't. We were so far back that we couldn't see anything and sitting on chairs, surrounded by hundreds of other tourists, listening to a disembodied voice was not entirely satisfactory, so we decided to leave and return on Tuesday for the full tourist experience.

Since The Monument is close by, we thought we'd ascend, but alas -- as was the case when I came on my own, cash only is the form of tender here. We didn't have cash, and although there are several cash machines in the vicinity, none of them were open. 'Tis true. Don't try to find cash on a Sunday in this part of London!

Oh well, as we started riding again, we found ourselves on the Cycle Superhighway, where a sign informed us that it was a 30-minute ride to Canary Wharf. Why not? 

This is a fun ride, passing dockside residences, quaint neighbourhoods and a variety of businesses, old and new. 

The term "superhighway" seems an overstatement. There are places where the blue pavement is completely separated from vehicle traffic, which is pretty super. But there are also plenty of spots where cyclists share the road with motor vehicles. And the path switches sides of the road a few times, changing from shared-use to cycles only, and it is sometimes hard to tell where it continues. 

As adults who are experienced in urban cycling, we were quite comfortable riding there, but it's not the Netherlands -- I don't think it's really suitable for young schoolchildren.

I didn't take any photos, as we were riding along at a pretty steady clip.

Once we reached the Canary Wharf area -- actually we inadvertently rode right past it -- it was getting dark, so we turned around and rode back the way we'd come. After Tower Bridge we headed down to the Thames and continued riverside until we were back at Buckingham Palace, just in time for some evening photos.

This is the Canada Gate, dating back to 1911 and currently under refurbishment.

 The sky was rather spectacular as we rode through this area.

 

And finally, out of the park and along this street, back to the hotel...

Riding to Hampstead Heath

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Dave was having a  bit of trouble with one of his bike pedals, so our first stop today was CycleCare Kensington, just a short ride from the hotel. Although we were riding lowly Dahons and not Bromptons, the Rolls Royce of folding bicycles, we were treated with respect and the mechanic made quick work of the repair. He even checked my pedals to make sure they were securely fastened.








The bike shop is across from a police station, so as I waited I watched the police coming and going. I don't know why our police don't use smaller vehicles and brighter paint.

Pedals in good shape, we set off at a flying pace. We had two objectives today: visit Hampstead Heath and scout out Euston Station. While still at home, I purchased tickets to Bletchley Park on a train that leaves from Euston Station. So we wanted to make sure we would know how to get there when the time came. Although the temperature was about 15C, it  was blustery and raining off and on, so we were glad we'd brought good rain gear. 

We took the Holland Park path off Kensington High Street to go north, turning off about midway. Actually, we first rode to the bottom of this hill, at which point I realized we'd overshot the mark, so we turned around and rode back up to the correct street. It was a good test of the lower gears on our bikes.

When walking or riding around London, I always tr to keep my eyes open for interesting blue plaques. 

Jean Sibelius once lived in this house. 

I also watch for appealing architecture, above, and old churches, below.

We took a stroll through the cloister and churchyard of this one. 

 
The doors on the right are labelled; one is "Boys and Infants"and the other "Girls." 
Guess which is which? If you guessed that the big red door is for boys, you would be right.  









Another blue plaque, this one for Ezra Pound. 

  







We stopped off at Regent's Park and took a peek at the canal. (No cycling on the towpath here.) Somehow I missed this on my previous visit here:
















En route to Euston Station, we rode once again through Hyde Park, this time exiting at the Animals in War monument. Here we paused to take some photos for ourselves and to accede to the request that I take a mother and son photo for some strangers.

It was very windy, so the photos of me that Dave took here show me trying in vain to keep the wind from blowing my hair over my face!

We stopped in at an Ask Italian for coffee and a light snack... I wonder how hard it would be to take care of plants in an arrangement like this?

After checking out Euston Station, we headed north towards Hampstead Heath, stopping sort of accidentally at Camden Lock and Market.  Look at that blue sky! It didn't last long, unfortunately.

This is a pretty cool place, but definitely not for those who suffer from enochlophobia -- fear of crowds! It is also not great for velophiliacs (bicycle-lovers: I thought I made that one up, but it looks like it just might be a real word) as there was not much room to maneuver even our 16" folding cycles.

 And at last -- Hampstead Heath:

Staying with the words-of-Latin-and-Greek-origin theme, being a bit of an anglophile, at least when it comes to books and TV series, I've always wanted to see this place. When I imagined coming here, I pictured myself strolling along, or possibly cycling, enjoying a light breeze and watching people playing with their dogs or children. But alas, the light breeze of my imagination was a stiff and cold 45 km/hr wind, it was raining a bit and the heath was pretty much abandoned.  We took a short ride along the margins, but decided that we will have to come back on a future visit when the weather is a little more accommodating. 

On our ride back to the hotel, we passed what claims to be the world's first YMCA. Looks pretty modern for that, don't you think?



 







Another lovely old church and picturesque street corner in Kentish Town (another name familiar to me from storybooks and novels.) 

I could never manage to drive in London (or other European cities, for that matter) as I would always be distracted by the amazing architecture, especially when it is interspersed with normal everyday buildings.

By this time it was getting late-ish, so we made our way back to the hotel, passing through  Piccadilly Circus and making a brief stop at my favourite shop, Cath Kidston. Before we left for London, I had decided that I needed a new lunch tote and that only a C.K. one would do. I left the shop richer by one lunch tote and a few small gifts and poorer by not a few pounds. 

Our day of riding around town concluded with a delicious dinner at a Lebanese restaurant just off Earl's Court Road, a block or two from our hotel.

I'm not a food photographer, obviously. 

And speaking of our hotel, the staff there were super! They were quite happy to let us keep our bikes in a locked storage room, so each day when we finished with them we folded them up and stuck them in the room, where they were safe and convenient. We could have taken them up to our room, but as is typical in London hotels (at least the ones that fit our budget) the room was quite small and the bikes would have been a little bit in the way.