19000 Steps

One of the advantages of travelling is that we all increase our walking. At home, our busy lifestyles and work choices mean that we spend far too much time sitting down. This is silly really as we all enjoy walking. Like our last big trip, the first couple of days seem to be tough on hips, knees, ankles and feet, but after we get everything moving it becomes more fun.

Today was to be our biggest walking day yet of the trip. Megan and Amelia have fitbits, Hamish has an Apple Watch and Anthony always has his phone on him. This means that we all have a method of tracking our number of steps (with remarkable consistency between the devices).

Before this day was done we would have completed around 19000 steps – not necessarily a big number for some but at perhaps four times our daily average at home it’s a nice improvement.

When Megan lived and worked in the UK around 20 years ago, there were times when things could be a little isolating. Megan’s antidote for this was to visit places with lots of people and things to see. We had already checked out her old stomping grounds of Leicester Square and Covent Garden – today we were visiting markets.

The first market we visited was Portobello Road. Even if you have not been to Portobello Road there is a good chance you’ve heard references to it in songs and movies.

The weather today was somewhat reminiscent of Melbourne in its variability. We headed out prepared for sun, cold, wind and rain and we’d see all of this by days end. A sunny walk to the underground saw us descend into the subterranean world of the Tube only to exit into darkening skies.

The first drops of rain began to fall as we approached Portobello Road. Initially this was not enough to worry us, and we were able to check out a number of stalls including one with all manner of older and antique cameras.

With umbrellas out everywhere it was getting nearly impossible to move around the market, let alone see the stalls properly. Agreeing on a strategic withdrawal (A.K.A. a retreat) we found a busy cafe behind the market stalls and hid inside from the rain while we enjoyed coffee, juice and cake.

Morning tea was finished soon enough and heading out into the market once again the rain had eased to occasional showers. We enjoyed the wide variety of stalls and antiques and also looking at the buildings rising behind the stalls.

Although it would be pretty straightforward to use the Tube to get us to Camden Market, we were all keen for a walk and some more exploration so Megan developed a plan for us to travel to Baker Street station, where we could then walk through Regent Park and see Regent Canal, eventually arriving at Camden Market.

It was a short ride to Baker Street and from there a brief walk (going past the Sherlock Holme museum) to the park. By the time we arrived at Regent Park, the showers had once again been replaced by blue skies. We meandered our way through the park encountering walkers, joggers, dogs and a pickup game of soccer (they call it football here).

We stuck to the made pathways as recent rains had turned the grassy areas into mudpiles and overflowed the lake. The birdlife didn’t mind either though and we enjoyed seeing a wide variety including one that had markings making it look as though it was wearing headphones. We even saw a green parrot which looked totally out of place. Someone may know the story, but Megan vaguely recalls hearing about there being a resident family of parrots in Regent Park that established from escaped or released pets.

Reaching the edge of the park, we crossed a bridge to follow a path on the other side which lead down to the Regent Canal. At first this followed behind the London Zoo giving us glimpses of wild dogs. It was here also that we saw two ladies (volunteering presumably) on paddleboards moving up and down the canal fishing out rubbish including a street sign.

We are not fans of graffiti tagging or rubbish spraying colours without a plan – we are however fans of genuine wall art. The embankment walls were adorned by quite a few interesting pieces however we were all taken by the Pink Panther and Inspector Clouseau.

Continuing our journey we spied canal boats (many of which were homes) and even a squirrel, although nothing like the number we saw last time.

Our arrival at Camden Market coincided with calls from the kids for lunch and darkening skies once again. The market was absolutely teeming with people and although there were plenty of food trucks we could not find anywhere to sit.

Rounding a corner we found a sign to Italian Alley and spying some seats under market umbrellas we decided to camp for bit to deal with lunch and the rain. A simple lunch of pizza for three of us and Gnocchi for Hamish filled the hole before we set off to check out the market. During at least 2 hours of wandering about we found plenty of things to buy but left them alone as we could never get it all home.

We checked out the Doc Martins store – Megan had fond memories of getting her Doc Martins in the UK when she lived here and was keen for Amelia to get a pair – she decided against it.

Hamish was keen to try some fudge – he found a stall selling “Butterbeer” fudge (a flavour well known to Harry Potter fans). Having tasted both good fudge and butterbeer (from the Harry Potter studios tour) we can say that the purchased fudge was neither.

It had been a pretty long day by this point so we once-again boarded the Tube for our trip home. Although it required a few detours due to weather, this was a great way to see another side of London.