The Thames is Tidal!

We hadn’t found a hostel in London, so I wrote about it in my facebook status. A woman responded to my posting that her father-in-law had a houseboat on the Thames. Jessica had babysat her son and I had filled-in one day. She kept in touch and was happy to figure out the details and make it all work. So we arrived at around midnight, found the keys just outside the door to the boat and explored our new “digs.” It’s like living in a small, one-bedroom apartment: there’s a living room area with a TV/DVD player, a kitchen, a full bathroom and a bedroom. When we got here, it was late and the tide was out. We just figured there wasn’t much water in the river due to lack of rain or something like that. We made some tea, watched a movie and had snacks. Then we went to bed. At 5 am the next morning (Friday) the boat was rocking vigorously. We were too tired to get up and figure out what was going on, so we rolled over and went back to sleep. When we got up at 10, we were in the mud again. We thought maybe the rocking was from the break of a big boat or something. It wasn’t until we returned back to the boat at 7:30pm that I realized the Thames is tidal. This time the boat and all the docks connecting the berths were under water. The tide went as we cooked dinner and watched another movie.

Our houseboat is in a nice neighborhood: we’re in Chelsea and have a great view. We started Friday with a walk to explore our neighborhood. Eventually we wound up at Hyde Park where we checked out The Serpentine Gallery. Then we walked toward the center of London, stopping at a Mexican-Polish restaurant for lunch. I had prawn and crayfish cocktail with guacamole (Mexican) and Jess had wild boar sausage (Polish). The food was great the place was really charming. We were served by an older Polish lady who seemed to be running the place alone (there were people in the kitchen to help her). It was nice out, so we sat at a sidewalk table and people watched.

Then we wandered through the center and eventually found the Orla Kiely store, which was amazing! They had tons of things I had never seen before and all the bags I had been seeing on the internet. After that we walked through Russell Square to a school and shop called the School of Life. Jess had read about them in the New York Times. Basically they do a lot of classes, workshops, sermons and dinners on practical subjects like how to make polite dinner conversation. They can also arrange one-on-one conversations with experts in various fields and can help with ideas about what kinds of books you might find interesting. Their quirky store had books and postcards around the various themes of their classes.

We walked toward Kings Cross and turned back to The Church at St. Pancras where we saw a show called “The Space Between” in its crypt-gallery. The space was dark (we were given flashlights to see one of the pieces) and it was chilly under the church. I had never seen a show in a crypt before and it was kind of creepy. The artwork wasn’t that exciting, for me it was more about seeing the space.

Leaving the Camden area of the city, we walked back through Chinatown, Piccadilly Circus, Green Park and the Westminster area before stopping at a grocery store to pick up some stuff for dinner. When we arrived, we were in water!