This weekend time stood still. For an hour anyway. We turned our clocks back yesterday to end official UK summer time. I think I’m over the jet lag now, but all of yesterday I kept thinking, “This time yesterday, it was an hour later.” Confusing times indeed, for a Saffa in London.
The sun now sets earlier on these beautiful autumn days, and it feels like winter is truly calling.
We decided to continue our “exploring London” adventure over the weekend and went into east London to Victoria Park. Affectionately known as Vicky Park, it is described by LondonTown.com as follows:
“One of London’s best kept secrets, Victoria Park is a fantastic place to spend an afternoon. The city’s first public park, it was opened in the East End in 1845 after a local MP presented Queen Victoria with a petition of 30,000 signatures. The aim was to make it a kind of Regent’s Park for the east and it originally had its own Speakers’ Corner. The landscape has changed little over the years, with countless varieties of trees adorning the skyline: oaks, horse chestnuts, cherries, hawthorns and even Kentucky coffee trees.”
We took the overground train to Shadwell and a bus to Bethnal Green and then we walked along a section of Regent’s Canal that lines Victoria Park’s western border. Regent’s Canal was built in 1812 to link the Grand Junction Canal’s Paddington arm with the Thames at Limehouse. It is eight miles long and it passes through Camden Town, King’s Cross and Mile End. It features three tunnels through which it runs underground, and is the only canal in London to pass underground. We thoroughly enjoyed the section of the Canal we walked along before going into the Park, and we will certainly make a day of walking the length of it.
We did, however, walk the length and breadth of Vicky Park, stopping for lunch at a cafe next to a beautiful little lake. The sun came and went, we got rained on but mostly we soaked in the rich autumn colours and the sights and sounds of a chilly autumn day in London.
The weekend started with a crazy, energetic session of Bollywood aerobics! Our latin aerobics instructor has left London, and that fun class has been replaced by another one led by a fabulous eastern European instructor. She led us through an hour of high-intensity cardio with Bollywood expression … head flicks to give you whiplash, eastern hands that could chop bricks and the Bollywood neck movement that is so hard to master. Our instructor gave us Bollywood homework – to brush our teeth by holding the toothbrush steady and not moving our hands! That way we can get used to the sideways and forwards/backwards movements with our necks! How funny is that? I will practise – you never know when Bollywood will call.
Sunshine signing off for today!
Sunshine in London 
Thanks for another great suggestion of where I can go in London. I’ve already told my daughter I want to go to Brick Lane. You are better than Frommer!
Thanks, Renee! We have so much fun finding all these places – we haven’t been disappointed with one single ‘adventure’, not even when we’ve got lost! You’ll have to blog about your London trip – can’t wait!
Thanks for another London travelogue…beautiful photos! Our time doesn’t go back to Atlantic Standard Time until next weekend…not looking forward to the days when I’ll be getting up in the dark and coming home in the dark!
Love the Bollywood homework…hope you told Mr. Sunshine about it so that he won’t be disturbed when he sees you “practicing”!
Hugs,
Wendy
Thanks, Wendy. I find the clock-changing so weird, never having done it before in Africa at all. Yes, I did tell my husband about the Bollywood homework – he laughed so much!
I know that park! I love the quiet off the beaten track kind of feel. I really enjoy your weekend adventures! Thanks for bringing me along 🙂
Isn’t it an amazing park? I’m so thrilled you know it, and thanks for coming along on our weekend adventures!
Great pictures, Sunshine. Looks like another lovely weekend in London.
As a Kentucky native, I also appreciated the reference to the Kentucky coffee trees! The name comes from the fact that pioneers used to roast the seeds as a substitute for coffee. By all accounts, the fake coffee tasted awful, and unless you roasted the seeds thoroughly, the stuff was pure poison.
Thanks, Todd – it was. I did wonder about the Kentucky coffee trees – thanks for the explanation.
Wow, lovely photos! Is this another of your many talents?
Especially love the “A bridge over the River” and the “Water or wheels” ones. Interesting compositions.
Thank you so much! I really love photography, and trying out new things. Not sure if it’s a talent, but it’s another passion!
What kind of camera are you using?
Just looked on a map of London. You haven’t even made it beyond the “Ring Road” yet in your weekend wanderings. Or have you?
My camera is a cute little Sony Cybershot. We don’t have a car, so our adventures are confined to where we can travel by public transport!
The Sony Cybershot is a nice camera. Good colour reproduction.
Isn’t that just the most amazing thing about London? That you can see so much, all within easy reach.
I love my camera – I’m no expert, but it does what I want it to! London is amazing – in fact the whole of the UK is amazing. It is such a small country and SO much happens here. All the time!
Loved the pics and the trip through the park sounds lovely – I, too, enjoy crisp autumn days and it’s lovely to see the trees change, but the leaves are falling now and that tells me nasty old winter is right around the corner. We change our clocks next weekend – honestly it’s so annoying and I almost always forget at least one clock, usually the one in my car! 😉
I like that the clock on our laptop self-adjusts! Yes! Glad you enjoyed the pics – we had a great day!
Sunshine, what beautiful photographs. I have always dreamed of traveling to London. Sounds like you are making the most of your time there. Diane
Thanks, Diane. I hope you can make your dream come true and visit London one day. We are really having fun!
“A riot of colors” is right! Sunshine, these photos are gorgeous!
I’m like you–I love that welcome mat in front of the tiny door. How qaint and odd and funny!
Thank you, Maura! Autumn is just beautiful. And that door is too cute – quaint, indeed!
Beautiful ,beautiful, beautiful – just like you!
XO Patty
Thank you, Patty! Glad you like the photos.
Autumn leaves are always so rich and warm. Looks like it’s cooling down quickly there. I never get used to the daylight savings time thingy. Scott and I often forget and realise a day or so later um……
Love the Bollywood toothbrush manooooovers. Will be trying that one when I next brush the pearly whites 🙂
Love to you both from us both xx
It is really chilly over here now – I don’t remember it being this cold this time last year. Brrrr! Good luck with the Bollywood moves – I keep forgetting! xx
I keep forgetting to do the Bollybrush myself.
I love the colors of autumn. The sunsets we get at this time of year are also amazing! Your pictures are great. I like the one with the coffee cup by the water.
Thanks, Darlene. Hope you’ll post some pictures of the sunsets, on your blog? 🙂
Coffee with a view is my favorite! I wanted to transport myself right then. Just call me green with envy. Between you and another blogger, that is blogging about her stay in Paris, I am beside myself with longing to be across the pond!
So when are you coming over? Hmmm? Glad you loved that pic – I do too!