Cinco de Mayo Canal Walk

Wednesday's class with Peter confirmed that my Portuguese vacation had put me out of shape. My feet were broken by the end of this excursion and Peter chided us saying that we had "only walked 5 miles". Thanks for going easy on us prof.

We began the march of pain at Holborn station. The first half of the day was to wrap up some bits and pieces of the city that had been overlooked on previous classes. One of the spots we took a gander at was Sir John Soane's museum, once a residence to an obsessive collector of Italian and Greek artifacts and an all around loon. He bought more and more property because he kept collecting so much "art". He once threw a legendary party because he acquired the tomb of some dead pharaoh. Whacko. But the museum is a must see and I definitely want to see what his poor family had to put up with. So I have added it to my to visit list.

Another morning highlight was visiting St. Bride's (Bride is short for Bridget) and learned a charming little bit of history.

The church, built by Sir Christopher Wren (who else?) was admired my all, especially a baker situated on the corner. He liked the design of the tower so much he created a cake with the same dimensions and marketed it for weddings. It was an enormous hit and the history of pastries was forever changed. Being a lover of frosted goods, I was especially moved by this tale and proceeded to take copious amounts of photos of the tower.

Ding Dong

We then had a 2 hour lunch break and then met up at Kings Cross for the canal portion of our trip. One can walk the canals all the way to Liverpool, and they offer an especially unique view of the city. I was amazed by how quiet and serene it was during our tour. I also freaked out when I saw the lochs. I have always been a fan of Keeping up Appearances and there is a famous episode in which Hyacinth capsizes on the lochs during her afternoon of riparian entertainment. Shockingly enough, no one else shared my love for the 80's British sitcom.

It's pronounced Bouquet

We saw lots of house boats, a dead eel, aggressive bikers and a rabid goose. Then after all the feeling in my toes were gone we ended our trip near Regent's Park. Our group had a quick dinner in Camden. And to celebrate a holiday no one else on the continent cared about, we took shots of tequila to keep the memory of Cinco de Mayo alive.

RUN

Our day was not finished, we tubed it up to the National Theater and saw Women Beware Women a bizarre tale of sex, incest, murder and more murder. Strange play but the theater was amazing, it's gigantic and has a huge rotating stage.

Cinco de mayo might have been forgotten but we had plenty adventures