Before delivery trucks and vans, before railway trains and the underground, London used canals as it's main system of transportation for merchants' supplies and city imports. Canals used to run all throughout the city. They'd transport coal for energy, produce and other food supplies, all sorts of goods. Now just a few canals remain. One is right above our house, about a mile north of us. Last Saturday (Sept. 14th) DJ and I took a tour of one of the canals, riding up to Camden market and back.
On the boat, just getting the tour started...
People actually live on boats on the canal. They pay 700 pounds a year to dock their boat at one of the locks, not a bad price for London real estate!
Before motorized boats, horses would pull the boats up and down the canal. The pathway to the right of the canal is where the horses would have walked.
When the boat would come to a tunnel, the horses would have to be disconnected from the boat. To get through the tunnel, they would put a wooden board across the boat. One man would lie on either side of the wood board and would literally walk the walls of the tunnel to pull the boat through. This tunnel we are going through took us less than 5 minutes to go through on a motorized boat. It would have taken an hour to get through by walking the walls. Now that's a workout!
Our end destination was Camden Market. Camden Market is a huge outdoor market with all kinds of food vendors and artisan shops. Come hungry, because it's too hard to choose just one food vendor! I finally settled on the Turkish kebabs. Next time I'm totally getting the Polish sausage and pirogi.
Dutch pancakes for dessert! Smothered in Nutella, how can you go wrong?
Vespa Bar
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