Rus in Urbs

In London for the weekend to visit friends, we did no traditional sightseeing, no shopping, no shows, no nowt apart from some very beautiful relaxed walking.

We stayed in Camden in a lovely early Victorian square which has been somewhat wrecked by the imposition of modern flats along one side and by the building of greenhouses and what look like educational accommodation in the old green space, but the original houses are still fine. An ex-cabinet minister lives two doors along from our friends.

Our Saturday walk was direct from the house. We were able to reach the lower reaches of the Grand Union Canal and from there walk westwards via Camden Market towards Wembley, passing through thick crowds to start with towards the deserted reaches of Kensal Green and areas of London that I'd hardly heard of before.

We turned at the Grand Junction Hotel, somewhere in West London, taking a drink served by the most unfriendly surly barman I've met for years; an Aussie I think, who was almost reluctant to serve us with anything, and certainly not the coffees which we'd asked for and which were advertised outside the pub. Fortunately it was only a couple of hundred yards from the nearest tube and railway; it only took us half an hour to return back to Camden.

:o)