Walking the streets of London

 Tuesday 

23 July 

Day 23

73 to go

Well that was a big day! It started off easy enough with sleep in til 8ish and then we took our time sorting everything we needed, before Chell dropped us at the station for 10 and we caught the train into St Pancras Station about an hour away. 

Once out of The station we began a walk of the streets of London. There was some light drizzle about. Thankfully we found an abandoned umbrella that became ours for the walk. We wandered streets we hadn’t previously, winding our way to the Thames. 

We crossed to the other bank, walked through a train station, picking up a Paddington Bear and then along the river front, passing the TATE modern museum and the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. 

We then caught a train to Tower Hill, where we alighted, had lunch and then a drink at a Craft Beer  Pub. 

Following our stop, we walked down to the Tower of London. There were plenty of tourists around this area. We walked around the boundary wall to the Tower Bridge. With obligatory photo taken, we were back on the tube heading to Paddington Station. We found the exit, before a guard told us where we actually needed to be. We followed his directions locating the area of Little Venice. This is an area of canals with many canal boats that traverse the waterways. It is also another area we have never checked out. 

We followed the canal for most of the journey to Regents Park. It was a a good hour of walking. Most of the scenery was quite pretty with plenty of canal boats being used as homes. There were also large estates backing on to the canals. 

While there was plenty of glitz, there was also a seedy side; a dead dog in the canal, dead rat, live rat, graffiti and homeless people. 

We walked across a green in regents Park, there were plenty out enjoying the weather, now that the rain had ceased and the sun was trying to poke through. It was more muggy than anything. We found a pub to just sit and do nothing in for a bit before walking to Chalk Farm station and catching a train to the O2 stadium in Greenwich. 

We found somewhere to have our dinner, expensive Thai for not much on the food. We walked the perimeter of the stadium finding the H entrance and then waiting for the doors to open. Unfortunately the tickets said 630pm, so we assumed the game was to begin then, but it turned out that was just for the doors opening and the game would not start until 8pm! Oh well.

We found our seats in row X, behind the baseline end of the USA team. They were actually really great seats for the cheapest available. 

We watched the warm up of the teams, recognising some of the girls on the floor. Britney Griner, who was imprisoned in a Russian jail for 5 months in 2022, wasn’t playing, but instead was signing autographs. 

Pregame entertainment began at 730pm and then the game between the USA and German women Olympic teams. Just before the game started, some of the US men’s team came out to sit courtside. It included; Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Bam Adebyo, Kevin Booker.

The game itself was a little below par, with Germany not really putting on their best performance. In the end it was an easy win for the US 84-57. We didn’t see the end, electing to leave 10min early and get on the train. We had a change at London Bridge and then it was through to Hitchin Station. We walked back to Chell’s finally arriving home at 1130pm. A long day finally done.