London - Battersea

I popped up to see Caitlin last weekend.  A long old trog up the Waterloo line - over 4 hours due to speed restrictions - but easy enough.  The train was very busy when I joined so I plonked myself in First Class and was never turfed out.  Happy days.

On Saturday, at my request, we headed to Covent Garden.  I needed to reacquaint myself with Stanfords, as I haven't been there for years and hadn't realised it had moved!  The new shop is smaller and less shabby/comfortable than the last one but still oozing geographical goodness aplenty.

Then a stroll through the jammed Covent Garden market, a swing by the London Transport Museum shop and lunch in Fatt Pundit - full of Asian yumminess.

We then headed west to the Design Museum.  This too had moved since I'd last visited and it wasn't as fun as I'd remembered.  Perhaps, because it has spread out into an enormous space, it's lost its cosiness and I felt a bit lost in the large open areas full of pretty much nothing to be honest.  But it wasn't bad bad, and I enjoyed a trip down memory lane with the wall of old PCs and cameras etc.  There were few parents trying to explain these things to their kids saying things like "we'd type in here and the paper would come out there," received by their offspring with looks of disbelief.

On Sunday we headed for the very newly opened Battersea Power Station which is just around the corner from her. 

I get easily distracted on walks like this.  A benchmark all nicely marked up to make it even easier to spot!  And the house boat community of Tideway Village. 

At last - the iconic towers appeared.  The restoration of this Grade II listed building took decades, involving numerous designs (amusement park, football ground etc) that were variously applauded then binned.  This restoration keeps the original skyline with no embellishments and is nicely done.

Inside it was pretty busy, as expected, even though at least a third of the shops are yet to open.  We considered looking at one of the old Control Rooms but the queue was long and, as she lives so close, it'll be easy to come back when it's a lot quieter.  

We tired quickly of the crowds so peeped over into the Thames.

We then found a coffee and wandered back.  I loved the lined up cranes and also the mini bridges on the pavement (there are large parts of me that have never grown up thank goodness).