July 11 (Saturday) – Regents Canal, Harrods, Victoria and Albert Museum

After breakfast at the hotel we headed off to the Underground (Tube), bought “Oyster Cards” for the week for the Tube rides and headed off to Camden Town station.  Very eclectic area, a bit of Haight Ashbury from the 60's flavored with a bit of Goth. 

Then we found the Regent’s Canal that Mary had explored on a previous visit to London.  We watched some boats go through the locks

and then headed on a walk along the canal (probably about 2 miles).  There were bicyclists, walkers, and joggers enjoying the quiet walk along the canal’s tow path

and a lot of canal boats.

We saw some large, luxurious looking homes (mansions?) along a stretch of the canal.

Also saw a momma duck and ducklings.

We ended the walk in the "Little Venice" area of the canals (there were many more  canals but we had hiked enough).

There were more beautiful buildings in this area of town.

Parts of the canal in this area were a neon green, fully covered with vibrant green aquatic plants.

No this isn't a lawn, it is a very green canal.

After lunch along the canal we headed to Harrods.  Paul had been there once many years ago but had only a very brief visit as it closed shortly after he got there.  So he wanted to get a chance to see a bit more of it.  It is a gigantic and very expensive department store.  We had an ice cream snack at the ice cream parlor in Harrods (also very expensive).

Then we headed down the street to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Inside the Victoria and Albert Museum

We saw an art class in progress

and in the central plaza of the museum we saw more artists trying to capture the building façade on canvas and people enjoying the sun and ice cream.

The museum contained a wide variety of art types including sculptures,...

stained glass...

and even a small replica of the British State Carriage, used for coronations.

We had dinner near the hotel, at Masala Zone, a very good Indian restaurant.  We eventually found that all of the restaurants around the hotel (with one exception) to be very good.  The exception was the one we ate at when it was late and all the good restaurants were packed.  There was a reason this one wasn't busy.