London, Day 16 - 29th February 2016

Before we left Australia, I had marked out a few things I wanted to do in every city we stopped at, mostly because I was so excited that I wanted to feel like I was travelling before I was travelling, but also so that we didn't waste any time hanging around the same areas day after day. Even if we didn't see anything on my list the time spent looking at different areas meant that I had a pretty good ideas of different routes and interesting places to go.

Along the way I had come across 'St Dunstan in the East', a shell of an old church that had been turned into a park. St Dunstan was quite literally right behind our hotel. If we used the back entrance, it opened straight onto St Dunstan. It was a unique use of the old building remains.

St Dunstan in the East

I had marked off some of the more natural looking areas in London, including the Parkland walk from Highgate. We both felt like a bit of nature and less people today, so we hopped the tube from Bank (which joins onto Monument) to Highgate. The walk starts just below the tube line, and when we got off the tube there was a group of older people with walking poles preparing to do the same walk. Not to worry though, the walk is not strenuous - I guess being old they just didn't want to fall over. 

Parkland walk is a breath of fresh air in London. It's an easy place to forget about the traffic, noise and busy streets of such a big city. The Parkland walk follows an old railway line and starts off with oak trees and woodland, covered in Butterfly bush and brambles. We passed under bridges and over an old platform. A fairy peered from a crumbling wall.

Fairy in the Parkland Walk

Wooded playground along the walk

For a while we followed a man and his 7 dogs. I almost laughed with how quintessentially English the image of an old farmer type in gumboots walking a troupe of dogs was.

3 consecutive bridges on the Parkland Walk

The walk took us about an hour and a half (I made us stop to play in a park, and Hugh made us stop to take photos) to Finsbury Park.

The cold air and walk had set our tummies grumbling. I knew we weren't too far from Camden, so we hopped on the #29 bus to Camden.

Camden is not a place I can easily describe. There was so much going on that I feel like I was both overloaded and missing everything at the same time. Markets seemed to spill from every spare space of the main road. They sold tourist wares, alternative clothing, hand made arts and crafts and hot street food. People scurried every which way like ants over an open picnic basket, confused and frenzied.

The road followed along to a canal, where narrow boats were moored behind locks. It was behind the canals that we found Shaka Zulu, an African themed restaurant. 

Camden Lock Canal

Canals at Camden

It was easily one of the coolest restaurants I have ever been in. The atmosphere took me to a tribal jungle setting with low lighting in green and purple, carved spaces everywhere I looked, and a sense of space that replicated a treetop canopy.

Shaka Zulu

Shaka Zulu

 

This elephant at Shaka Zulu was carved from one piece of wood

The food was just as good, with an African-inspired lunch menu that cost just £10. Hugh was even game enough to try the Ostrich burger!

After lunch we wandered through the markets in Camden some more, and stopped along the canal for a while to just relax. We had arranged to meet Sarah again for dinner at a restaurant at London Bridge before heading to bed early for a big trip out to the Warner Brothers Studios the next day.

The view from London Bridge at night