Ireland day 0935. Saturday 20 April 2024- London Family Day 3 *

Ireland day 0935. Saturday 20 April 2024- London Family Day 3

Today’s summary	Went out for brunch with the family then in the afternoon went on the new Northern Line extension tube line to took at the new Battersea Power Station complex. Then took the riverboat back to Bankside and walked from there upstream to central London and finished off the afternoon with early dinner at the Delauney. A very nice day
Today’s weather	Overcast but dry. Light northerly wind. Appx 10c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

First things first – “Operation Mincemeat” last night was excellent. We thoroughly enjoyed it and would give it 5*. Highly recommended.

Anyway, this morning we decided to forego the pleasure of making our own breakfast and went out for a “brunch” (it’s the thing to do on Saturdays, of course) at the “Caravan” café with the rest of our UK family. Then once we had gone our own separate ways, Val and I decided to head south of the river, to explore the new Battersea Power Station development. It turned out to be extremely interesting, especially as to get there we went on the new Northern Line tube extension. It’s good to see all this new development, but it would be nice to see it reproduced more widely across the UK.

We thought about going up the lift to the top of one of the chimneys but at £42 we decided to give it a miss. Instead we headed down to the riverbank and caught a passing riverboat for the journey downstream to the city centre. We deliberately overshot our destination, and got off at Bankside, hoping to check out the “Frequency” café in the Locke at Broken Wharf hotel. Unfortunately the café was closed but we had a good look at the hotel, which was fascinating.

We finished off our day with an early dinner at the Delauney at the bottom of Drury Lane. There’s an up-market restaurant there, but we went into the Swiss-themed café for Rosti and Tarte Flambé, which personally I think is better. Very relaxed and enjoyable.

So today wasn’t exactly cost-free, but we don’t do it every day of the week, and I think we both concluded it was thoroughly worthwhile.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Northern Line extension to Battersea Power Station station. Lots of new infrastructure in London at the moment and you can see the economic impact everywhere	In the new shopping mall in one of the turbine halls

A spontaneous journey on the Thames riverboat. A great way to get around London	Where it all happens (or should do)

On the newly pedestrianised Aldwych, outside King’s College. It’s a great traffic-free oasis	Last stop of the day – the Delauney café at the bottom of Drury Lane. A little bit of Switzerland in the heart of Theatreland

In Battersea, outside Europe’s biggest brick building. Once, of course, a power station and now a complex of expensive shops and restaurants, and up-market apartments