5AM—Good Morning London! We are on a crazy sleep schedule now. At 5:15am B-Koog was warming the kettle and taking tea orders. We were all up by 7 and showered and downstairs for breakfast around 7:30.
Breakfast at the UJC is an interesting experience. It’s sort of the food equivalent of “meant well.” There are fried eggs that look more like unlanced cysts than eggs. The scrambled eggs are the color of an unpopular president. I tried the orange eggs, the bacon rashers and my favorite British breakfast items, baked beans, mushrooms and grilled tomatoes. In the words of a E, “it’s mid.” That about sums it up.
After our mid but fine breakfast we headed to Waterloo tube station on our way to Camden Town. For reasons unknown, we were in a hurry. Unfortunately, nothing really opens in Camden town until 10am. It was about 8:45am. We stopped at a chain coffee place with a bougie French name that I always forget so I refer to it as “the manger.” No, baby Jesus was not in yesterday morning. We had a much better cup of coffee and the boys enjoyed second breakfast and we were alone together on our phones to kill some time. We only killed about 15 mins so we decided to walk. Unfortunately, we made it one block until the teenagers spotted a gelato place and stopped for 3rd breakfast. They opted to not get gelato and instead get 2 pastries. I think they felt it was too early for a breakfast dessert.
With 3rd breakfast down the teen gullets, we continued our walk. It was a nice and there was some fun street photography opportunities as shopkeepers were setting up their wares and the market stalls were being uncovered. The quiet of the streets and the emptiness of the picnic tables in the plastic domes with the light shining through were pretty cool.
We walked all over as 10am hit and the market was waking up and the stalls were opening for business. The food vendors kept handing E-Koog food samples. Not me, the Mrs, or B-Koog…only E. I mean, they did pick the right one. After collecting free samples of tacos, Malaysian street food, Korean wings, slider burger and chips we found the canal.
Mrs. Koog is the opposite of me and enjoys engaging with other humans that she does not know. I try to keep my head down and look unapproachable. She immediately struck up a conversation with the old man that is the volunteer lock keeper. They talked as a boat (and them) moved through 3 locks on the Regent Canal.
While they were at the first lock, a group of piss drunk but very funny/friendly vagrants were calling to me to take their photo. As I mentioned, I do not like to engage with people. I want to be left alone. They were so desperate to get my attention, they yelled “buddy, if you don’t take our picture, we will start killing old people.” I turned around and told them I was not a big fan of old people so they were going to have to give me a better threat. We all laughed. They thought I was kidding. (Of course I was, sorry Momma Koog). The three vagrants with a total of 9 teeth between them enjoyed their short photo shoot and got back to drinking their beer. Actually the photos are pretty cool.
It was just as I was wallking away from our never-male-models that Mrs. Koog said, “we have to go, we only have an hour before our boat ride.” So we started walking to the boat. This is where things got interesting. As we were walking, Mrs. Koog mentioned we only had 45 minutes to make it to our canal boat reservation. I asked her the question I should have asked before. “How far is this boat?” 2.1 miles. The teens and I were unprepared for that answer.
So, we continued our Battan/Canal Death March from Camden Market to Little Venice. I am happy to say I complained a lot. I’m also happy to say, Mrs. Koog was completely immune to my complaints and just enjoyed the stroll. The canal offered many beautiful vistas and the sounds of birds singing. It also offered a loud cacophony of screaming school children having some type of recess in their school yards. I enjoyed the birdsong much more.
As we made our way toward Little Venice, we saw some kids kayaking with some kayak instructors paddling behind. This one kid was leaning so far out of his boat he flipped it. As he flipped and flopped his kayak around the instructor, in the calmest tone I’ve ever heard said “Don’t keep turning the boat because it will sink.” I would have been in that water grabbing that kid and screaming if I were the instructor. I guess that’s why I was never entrusted with a role that required calm and coolness. Instead, I became a management consultant.
The kid got back into the boat and we kept moving. We passed several mooring areas for the large, long, live-aboard canal boats. Each had a full garden like thing on the dock that we had to walk through. It was quite lovely. As we passed through the pretty gardens, the boys and I looked to our right and spotted about 5 rats that were the size of house cats. We were grossed out and walked faster to catch-up with Mrs. Koog who had missed the giant rodent outpost.
Finally we made it to Jason’s Canal Boat. The 2 men that ran the board were NOT named Jason. We took our seats and waited for the tour to start. It was so smooth and slow and relaxing. I was able to get a few good shots. Unfortunately, the good shots were of the always-moving elbow of the lady in front of me. It was as if she was having a reflex test. Every single time I brought my camera up to my eye she would flail this elbow wildly to get herself set up to take a photo from her phone. I wanted to throw her and her elbow overboard. She started talking to her companion. They were Americans. From Alabama. Enough said.
As we finished our boat ride, the men not named Jason tied our boat up at Camden Market. We were happy about this because it was lunch time and E had gone about 90 mins without food so he was starting to fade. There were no less than 20 million people at Camden Market. It was so crowded. We all managed to get something except B. He was not hungry. I think B celebrated Opposite Day yesterday because he took the opposing position to whatever we were doing. I also wanted to toss him overboard.
We secured our lunch and even secured a seat in one of the plastic bubble things. It was nice, we were seated with strangers and Mrs. Koog was seated away from the strangers so B and I could limit any conversations she tried to start with the other humans. I don’t think she was aware of this plan but B and I needed to reel in her friendliness.
With full bellies and a bit of the burps, we headed into the market to look around the shops and stalls. I found a really nice leather bound journal. After a meander, a stop for B to have a crepe, and more shops we stopped in Camden Tea Bar for some refreshments. It was also at this stop that E asked for more lunch. He procured 2 more birria tacos and came to the tea bar to enjoy them with an iced tea. We were so happy we could watch him suck down the super spicy tacos with extra sriracha. He didn’t ask for the sriracha but he didn’t remember to tell them to hold the sauce. He turned red, sweat a bit and downed the ice tea but he powered through and ate every morsel.
After the tea bar, we headed back to the tube for a nap at the hotel. When we arrived yesterday, the hotel was like an oven. Luckily, the windows opened and Mrs. Koog brought 2 rechargeable mini-fans to move the air. So, it was hot overnight but not so uncomfortable that we couldn’t sleep. We woke up this morning and were trying to make sense of our luggage and we opened the closet. In the closet were 2 large Dyson blade fans. We had a laugh because they were there all along and yet we used our mini-rechargeable fans that are as powerful as an asthmatic blowing out a birthday candle.
Anyway, with the fans now turned on and the weather cooled down the room was quite comfortable and we commenced with napping. About 3 hours later we woke up. I should clarify, Mrs. Koog and I woke up. The boys were down for the count. We left them at the hotel and headed to Westminster to take some long exposure photos and have a pint of cider. We walked back across Westminster Bridge to the opposite side of the river and took more photos that made our way down Southbank to a small Spanish Tapas place for dinner. Impromptu date night, yes please!
We felt bad the guys hadn’t eaten in a few hours so we stopped at Tesco and grabbed some sandwiches and fruit. We got back to the hotel to find the boys still in a horizontal position but they were awake. We gave them their food and while they ate we talked about our night. I’m not sure they had any interest but we were going to make them listen anyway. In less than 3 mins the sandwiches were gone, as was the fruit and they were back in bed ready for sleep. Mrs. Koog and I checked our step counter and we logged more than 22K steps. We were asleep in under 5 mins.
Until tomorrow…
Breakfast at the UJC is an interesting experience. It’s sort of the food equivalent of “meant well.” There are fried eggs that look more like unlanced cysts than eggs. The scrambled eggs are the color of an unpopular president. I tried the orange eggs, the bacon rashers and my favorite British breakfast items, baked beans, mushrooms and grilled tomatoes. In the words of a E, “it’s mid.” That about sums it up.
After our mid but fine breakfast we headed to Waterloo tube station on our way to Camden Town. For reasons unknown, we were in a hurry. Unfortunately, nothing really opens in Camden town until 10am. It was about 8:45am. We stopped at a chain coffee place with a bougie French name that I always forget so I refer to it as “the manger.” No, baby Jesus was not in yesterday morning. We had a much better cup of coffee and the boys enjoyed second breakfast and we were alone together on our phones to kill some time. We only killed about 15 mins so we decided to walk. Unfortunately, we made it one block until the teenagers spotted a gelato place and stopped for 3rd breakfast. They opted to not get gelato and instead get 2 pastries. I think they felt it was too early for a breakfast dessert.
With 3rd breakfast down the teen gullets, we continued our walk. It was a nice and there was some fun street photography opportunities as shopkeepers were setting up their wares and the market stalls were being uncovered. The quiet of the streets and the emptiness of the picnic tables in the plastic domes with the light shining through were pretty cool.
We walked all over as 10am hit and the market was waking up and the stalls were opening for business. The food vendors kept handing E-Koog food samples. Not me, the Mrs, or B-Koog…only E. I mean, they did pick the right one. After collecting free samples of tacos, Malaysian street food, Korean wings, slider burger and chips we found the canal.
Mrs. Koog is the opposite of me and enjoys engaging with other humans that she does not know. I try to keep my head down and look unapproachable. She immediately struck up a conversation with the old man that is the volunteer lock keeper. They talked as a boat (and them) moved through 3 locks on the Regent Canal.
While they were at the first lock, a group of piss drunk but very funny/friendly vagrants were calling to me to take their photo. As I mentioned, I do not like to engage with people. I want to be left alone. They were so desperate to get my attention, they yelled “buddy, if you don’t take our picture, we will start killing old people.” I turned around and told them I was not a big fan of old people so they were going to have to give me a better threat. We all laughed. They thought I was kidding. (Of course I was, sorry Momma Koog). The three vagrants with a total of 9 teeth between them enjoyed their short photo shoot and got back to drinking their beer. Actually the photos are pretty cool.
It was just as I was wallking away from our never-male-models that Mrs. Koog said, “we have to go, we only have an hour before our boat ride.” So we started walking to the boat. This is where things got interesting. As we were walking, Mrs. Koog mentioned we only had 45 minutes to make it to our canal boat reservation. I asked her the question I should have asked before. “How far is this boat?” 2.1 miles. The teens and I were unprepared for that answer.
So, we continued our Battan/Canal Death March from Camden Market to Little Venice. I am happy to say I complained a lot. I’m also happy to say, Mrs. Koog was completely immune to my complaints and just enjoyed the stroll. The canal offered many beautiful vistas and the sounds of birds singing. It also offered a loud cacophony of screaming school children having some type of recess in their school yards. I enjoyed the birdsong much more.
As we made our way toward Little Venice, we saw some kids kayaking with some kayak instructors paddling behind. This one kid was leaning so far out of his boat he flipped it. As he flipped and flopped his kayak around the instructor, in the calmest tone I’ve ever heard said “Don’t keep turning the boat because it will sink.” I would have been in that water grabbing that kid and screaming if I were the instructor. I guess that’s why I was never entrusted with a role that required calm and coolness. Instead, I became a management consultant.
The kid got back into the boat and we kept moving. We passed several mooring areas for the large, long, live-aboard canal boats. Each had a full garden like thing on the dock that we had to walk through. It was quite lovely. As we passed through the pretty gardens, the boys and I looked to our right and spotted about 5 rats that were the size of house cats. We were grossed out and walked faster to catch-up with Mrs. Koog who had missed the giant rodent outpost.
Finally we made it to Jason’s Canal Boat. The 2 men that ran the board were NOT named Jason. We took our seats and waited for the tour to start. It was so smooth and slow and relaxing. I was able to get a few good shots. Unfortunately, the good shots were of the always-moving elbow of the lady in front of me. It was as if she was having a reflex test. Every single time I brought my camera up to my eye she would flail this elbow wildly to get herself set up to take a photo from her phone. I wanted to throw her and her elbow overboard. She started talking to her companion. They were Americans. From Alabama. Enough said.
As we finished our boat ride, the men not named Jason tied our boat up at Camden Market. We were happy about this because it was lunch time and E had gone about 90 mins without food so he was starting to fade. There were no less than 20 million people at Camden Market. It was so crowded. We all managed to get something except B. He was not hungry. I think B celebrated Opposite Day yesterday because he took the opposing position to whatever we were doing. I also wanted to toss him overboard.
We secured our lunch and even secured a seat in one of the plastic bubble things. It was nice, we were seated with strangers and Mrs. Koog was seated away from the strangers so B and I could limit any conversations she tried to start with the other humans. I don’t think she was aware of this plan but B and I needed to reel in her friendliness.
With full bellies and a bit of the burps, we headed into the market to look around the shops and stalls. I found a really nice leather bound journal. After a meander, a stop for B to have a crepe, and more shops we stopped in Camden Tea Bar for some refreshments. It was also at this stop that E asked for more lunch. He procured 2 more birria tacos and came to the tea bar to enjoy them with an iced tea. We were so happy we could watch him suck down the super spicy tacos with extra sriracha. He didn’t ask for the sriracha but he didn’t remember to tell them to hold the sauce. He turned red, sweat a bit and downed the ice tea but he powered through and ate every morsel.
After the tea bar, we headed back to the tube for a nap at the hotel. When we arrived yesterday, the hotel was like an oven. Luckily, the windows opened and Mrs. Koog brought 2 rechargeable mini-fans to move the air. So, it was hot overnight but not so uncomfortable that we couldn’t sleep. We woke up this morning and were trying to make sense of our luggage and we opened the closet. In the closet were 2 large Dyson blade fans. We had a laugh because they were there all along and yet we used our mini-rechargeable fans that are as powerful as an asthmatic blowing out a birthday candle.
Anyway, with the fans now turned on and the weather cooled down the room was quite comfortable and we commenced with napping. About 3 hours later we woke up. I should clarify, Mrs. Koog and I woke up. The boys were down for the count. We left them at the hotel and headed to Westminster to take some long exposure photos and have a pint of cider. We walked back across Westminster Bridge to the opposite side of the river and took more photos that made our way down Southbank to a small Spanish Tapas place for dinner. Impromptu date night, yes please!
We felt bad the guys hadn’t eaten in a few hours so we stopped at Tesco and grabbed some sandwiches and fruit. We got back to the hotel to find the boys still in a horizontal position but they were awake. We gave them their food and while they ate we talked about our night. I’m not sure they had any interest but we were going to make them listen anyway. In less than 3 mins the sandwiches were gone, as was the fruit and they were back in bed ready for sleep. Mrs. Koog and I checked our step counter and we logged more than 22K steps. We were asleep in under 5 mins.
Until tomorrow…
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