It's been a while since we have been able to spend a full day in London and this trip would mark 1 year since we started going to places on the train.
I won't bore you with the details of how we got here as we always get on the same trains now, at least everything was on time and he eventually turned up with a ramp for the train. Even though the off door was locked for the passenger assistance it turned out he was hiding inside.
We arrived at Waterloo Station just after ten o'clock and headed out to the bus stop and caught the 139 then changed to the 274 at Baker Street which brought us to the bottom of Primrose Hill about 40 minutes later.
Primrose hill sits just north of central London, at 213 feet it gives you extended views back into London with most of the famous landmarks like The Shard, London Eye and Saint Paul's visible even though today was cloudy. You also get to watch the planes going in and out of Heathrow at a low altitude but just as we got to the top they changed the flight path so I wasn't able to get the photos I wanted.
Something I didn't know was that Paddington Bear was filmed around here.
Primrose Hill
Primrose hill sits just north of central London, at 213 feet it gives you extended views back into London with most of the famous landmarks like The Shard, London Eye and Saint Paul's visible even though today was cloudy. You also get to watch the planes going in and out of Heathrow at a low altitude but just as we got to the top they changed the flight path so I wasn't able to get the photos I wanted.
Something I didn't know was that Paddington Bear was filmed around here.
Regents Canal walk & Camden
It was only a short walk back down the hill and on to the Regent's Canal which was completed in 1820 and runs eight and a half miles from the Grand Union Canal to the River Thames.
The section we walked was from London Zoo to Camden Lock which is around half a mile, the lock used to have stables and a range of warehouses that have now been turned into overpriced trendy bars and restaurants. Bizarrely, it was extremely crowded in these but the Wetherspoon pub was relatively quiet, it also helped that beer was a lot less expensive than I thought it would be so it was time for a couple of beers the Ice Wharf before heading to Macdonalds for some lunch.
The best way to describe this area is manic, it's that bad it's hard to walk down the pavement with so many people so decided to catch the bus one stop to Camden Market, we didn't hang around here too long as it was far too crowded.
Disused station
Just across the road from Camden Market, we caught the bus; the plan was to head down to near Westminster then have a couple of drinks in a pub before taking a walk along the Thames after dark but with some time to kill we decided to get off in Holborn and go in the Shakespeares Head which has the added benefit of being right next to the bus stop.
After about 90 minutes in here, it was time to move on as darkness was approaching so hopped on another bus unfortunately, I got my bridges mixed up so ended up getting off way too soon, I did think at the time it should have taken longer to get where we're going. This worked out better in the end as we were right by one of the old disused tube stations on The Strand that I've wanted to look at for a while now and even though it was dark still managed to get a few photographs.
London Eye
It was too far to walk to the where we needed to be on the river but there are lots of buses that run along The Strand to Westminster Bridge so only had a short wait then a 10-minute ride.
For the past few years, the London Eye has sponsored by Coca-Cola and illuminated in their colours of red accordingly but from the middle of February, a travel company took the sponsorship over with their colours being pink and this was just good an opportunity to miss a photo that you can call pink eye!
Like most places in London, this area attracts lots of tourists so was crowed but I managed to find a space to set up my small tripod on the north bank looking across to The Eye for a few good shots of it lit up.
It's an impressive sight at 442 feet and takes around 30 minutes to complete a full rotation in one of the 32 pods but im not sure if I would pay £30 for the ride.
Super Moon
Today was also a super moon and at 99% full it was the perfect opportunity to get some good closeup photos. I had bought myself a new camera a couple of months ago but the weather had been so bad every time I had a day off so I hadn't had a chance to get to use it for any length of time. I was very impressed with the quality, its surprising how much technology has moved on since I bought my last bridge camera over ten years ago.
Now was time to start making a move back to Waterloo Station to get the train home in about 40 minutes, this should have been plenty of time and we could have even walked it in about 15 or 20 minutes but decided to catch a bus which would be a five-minute ride if all went well, it didn't.
Instead of having plenty of time to get a sandwich from the shop we had to wait for ages for a bus and only had about 10 minutes to spare, it didn't help that this was an extra-long train and they decided to put us all the way down at the far end. Being put in coach 3 of a 12 coach train wasn't the best idea when you have to walk to coach 6 to find a working toilet which caused a bit of problem for Jane with the shaking from side to side but with a bit of planning you can make it most of the way when it stops at stations.
And so ended another day trip to London.
