Day 1 - Canal walk and Mamma Mia!

Arrived in the morning after an uneventful flight.  I normally take the Picadilly line into central London, but the new(er) Elizabeth line was the fastest connection to our AirBnb in Hoxton.  It was one smooth, quick ride!  They are remodeling the pub on the first floor, but the rooms above were quite nice.  We got a "loft room" that was fun!   

Hoxton station is relatively new and built from an old viaduct.

Charlene is training for a half marathon and has to do a training run tomorrow, so we explored a canal route leading to a park where she could run.  It was fun exploring a little ways and looking at all the different canal boats. 

There was a local street market on Sat am, but only Charlene got to see it when she went for run. 

The canal was tucked away right in the middle of the district with flats all along it and some eateries as well.  

A sunken skiff

In most places the path was not very side, so when bikes came along, you had to step aside.  

Riders would call 'bike', but any walker with earbuds did not hear them.  They ended up stopping a lot until the walker became aware of their presence. lol.

The water was amazingly clear, which surprised me. I'm not sure where the water comes from or goes too, but it was not stagnant and not full of algae.

This was one of the tidiest boats I saw.

This looked like a trash scow, but had someone on board. (Yes, that is a metal, wood burning stove sitting on the gunnel)

Look closely...Yes, that is three large plastic sharks rising out of the water!

After walking along the canal and taking a little nap, we headed down toward the river to meet up with Delaney and catch a show.

It was a pretty sunny day on the Thames.  Temp about 73. 

We arrived about an hour before the show and walked around and had a pastry snack. 

Delaney's train was delayed and she had to dash from Waterloo to the theatre and was just seated when the lights went down. 

The show was great!  The set quite simple, but the story and music - wow!  The cast did several encore numbers with some great costume changes.  My favorite was Dancing Queen.  Everyone in the audience was on their feet singing and dancing. 

It was a pretty theatre.

I had to laugh when we came out of the theatre, there were 5 or 6 blinged out rickshaws that were prowling for riders.  All of them were blaring songs from the show.