Tourist Day-Little Venice

Wednesday was Tourist Day, so Charlie and I set out for a London Walk with bright blue skies, crisp air, and a shining sun. We opted for the Little Venice walk, which winds through the residential areas along Regent's Canal and the Grand Union Canal. This is a very posh area, boasting residents such as Earl Spencer (we stood in front of his house), brother of the late Princess Diana, Joan Collins, numerous British actors and actresses, and major players in the West End Theater District....think Andrew Lloyd Webber status.

The area reminded me alot of Paris, with white stucco facades and black iron balconies. Regent's Canal is home to many of the long canal boats, some are permanently moored, and is the place from which you can hop on a boat and take a nice 50 minute ride to the Camden Lock and Camden Markets. Richard Branson, czar of everything branded Virgin (i.e. Atlantic, music label, media, etc), used to live in a canal boat here, but apparently sold it a few years back. I am currently reading his autobiography, so I'm going to go back through the photos to see if I can identify which one was his-our guided didn't know (WOW! Something a London Walk guide didn't know!). After the walk, Charlie and I headed to a little cafe on the canal and enjoyed our panini's in the sunshine.

We learn lots of little interesting facts on our walks. Some of them I remember, and some of them leave as soon as they go in, but I will remember one factoid from this walk that I will pass along to you. The beginning of our walk had us stop in front of the Hotel Colonnade, birthplace of Alan Turing, the father of computer science and the man who cracked the Nazi code with Enigma machine during WWII. While he was very successful in life, he was very personally unhappy and committed suicide by biting into a poisonous apple. Ever looked at the logo for Apple computers? Yep, it's an apple with one bite taken out of it...an homage to Alan Turing? While the field is divided, it's a fun little urban myth to roll around and talk about.