Canary Wharf

The 21st September sees us return to London for a few days before we fly back to Australia, this time staying at Canary Wharf. It’s a basic apartment but quite comfortable, in fact more comfortable than our first apartment in the Islington Barbican area a few weeks ago. The down side to this place is that it is much further from the Tube than we were led to believe from studying the maps and doing our due diligence organising ourselves for this trip. Added to that is the fact that the Tube station is split into two, one part on the Jubilee line and the other, on the Elizabeth line, the former having its own station, and the latter having its own station as part of a giant labyrinthine shopping mall. We never did quite work out where the Elizaeth line station was located.

Canary Wharf is a relatively modern part of London these days, although built on a very old and historic part of the Thames. It has a few sky-scraper buildings and lots of glass but also canals and waterways and bridges and art installations. You don’t see a pub here every ten meters like you do in the rest of London. But this was our stay. A place to slow the pace, collect our thoughts and decompress before the long journey home.

We took a ferry into town the first full day. We returned to Foyles bookstore and both of us purchased some more language texts. Mine was a Italian verb book which trains you in the dark arts of using romance language verbs, and I also bought a book on epistemology for some preparation for a book I’m thinking of writing. Foyles is fun. There is so much there.

We took some walks around Canary Wharf and ended up in Limehouse with its lovely canals and punts and of course, a tow path, and had a go at taking the DLR (Driverless Light Rail) train to get home. Full marks. Excellent, comfortable, smooth ride. Coffee in a local restaurant bar owned by two cute Italians and finally, a trip into Tower Bridge to attend the theatre.

Bridge Theatre was the venue for The Lady from the Sea, written by Australian Simon Stone and based on an Ibsen play of the same name. It starred Andrew Lincoln and Alicia Vikander. They along with a small ensemble of three or four others, including Australian Brendan Cowell were absolutely wonderful. The play was powerful, funny, thoughtful and brilliantly staged and performed. The penultimate scenes were unbelievably performed under a heavy rain shower with actors saying their lines drenched, and in the final scene, the actors performed in a swimming pool that they dived into and swam laps. Yes, the stage magically turned into a swimming pool. Judos to the stagecraft people. I loved this theatre. I gave it five stars, and it adds a third to the two best plays I have ever had the pleasure to witness. The theatre was gorgeous with its foyer and bar lights tied in sheer tule, as was outside alongside Tower Bridge, all lit up and looking quite majestic. So beautiful. That was our last night in London proper.

The following day, a small walk, a pack up, and a long Uber ride out to Gatwick Airport Sofitel Hotel, there to stay for the evening in order to get our 10 am flight back to Australia the following day. Dinner was a shared pizza, some spritzes and a chat about our trip overall, our ambivalence about leaving and going home and what the next year is going to bring us.

We left home on 25 July and returned home 25 September. What a ride !Baca lagi