Who Says You Need a London A-Z?

I'm scared of taking the London Tube by myself. Which is obviously an embarrassing problem. But, it does have a few advantages... I see things that not everyone gets to, just because I walk. Although, come to think of it, I would probably see way stranger things if I just hopped on the Tube and hoped for the best. I guess my survival instinct kicks in and tells me that is just nuts.

There's a cool thing called room auction/hotel auction or something like that - you can bid on hotel rooms and we were lucky to end up in a five star hotel for $125 USD a night. What a deal! We stayed at the Wyndham Grand in Chelsea Harbour.

One of the great things about London is that pedestrian signage really very good. I started out and followed the Thames Path all the way from Chelsea and ended up at the Tate Britain, where I checked out the Francis Bacon exhibit. Amazing. Along the way I stopped at the Chelsea Physic Garden, which was started in 1673. Every kind of plant you can imagine, it's there. Over 50,000 plants there. I had a lovely cheese plate and chatted with some older English ladies as they drank tea.





















So far, so good! Then I made the fateful decision to cross over to the other side of the Thames and see London for the other side. Again, the signage for the Thames Walk/Riverside Walk was excellent. However, there is a lot of construction going on and I must have missed the sign because all of a sudden I was in Battersea nowhere near the river. The nice thing about the mountains in Vancouver - you can see them from pretty much anywhere. Stupid rivers and their low ways. Did you know that Battersea has the biggest and most famous dog and cat shelter in all of England? I saw it. (Luckily it was closed, or who knows what might have happened.)I finally realized that I wasn't getting anywhere so I turned right. You won't believe it, but I turned right onto Battersea Bridge Road (honestly, I didn't even look at the road sign) and was back on track. Forty five minutes later I was back at the hotel soaking my tired body in the tub.