In Which Bob and Jenny Are Entirely Surrounded by Water

Bob and I met at Baker Street tube station and had some coffee in Marylebone before heading over to Paddington where we took part in another InTransit artist-guided tour, this time on the Grand Union Canal. On our way to the water, we came across this rather galling sight:

Tonight's event, entitled Hints to Travellers, was meant to evoke the experiences and travels of Mary Kingsley on the water in 1895 Africa. The artist putting on the event, Melissa Bliss, read us excerpts from Kingsley's book
of the same name,
enticed us with a spread of food and drink that closely resembled items Kingsley consumed on her journey,
and sought to connect tonight's cruise along the Grand Union Canal with Kingsley's journey of more than a hundred years ago. Unfortunately, the conceit of tonight's event was its least interesting part--it wasn't that Kingsley's journey didn't hold great potential for translating into current-day London, it was that Bliss wasn't dynamic enough to tie together pieces of information in an engaging way. Sadly, she seemed to realise this, and her presentation kind of trailed off at one point, with her saying that she would stop for a while so that we could enjoy the views, and then she never did pick up her narrative again. In spite of the evening's disappointment as an artistic performance, it was still an amazing boat ride down parts of the canal (west of Paddington) that we'd not been on before--not a difficult way to spend a few hours on a lovely evening! Our boat, the Beauchamp, was an electric boat, allowing for many quiet moments along the canal.



We even floated beside the Westway highway, although traffic seemed to be light and we barely heard a thing.
There were some busy pubs and restaurants along the towpath, from which many people waved (two strangers waving at each other, when at least one of you is on the water, are being friendly, but if both of you are on land, then one of you is a bit crazy),
as well as one of the oddest buildings I've ever seen:

Even Spiderman made an appearance!


This particular narrowboat proudly displayed badges from various canals--all ones that the boat has travelled?
We turned around at this point
and headed back to our docking point, with the sun slowly disappearing in the night.






At one point, I noticed that several balloons were floating down the canal, all covered with writing; maybe they were someone's versions of releasing notes in bottles?

In any case, the current was too strong and I couldn't read any of the writing. Even zooming in the photos after I got home kept the messages secret. Not so secret were the many coots' nests we saw along the canal,
and some kind people even ensured that a pair of coots would get a head start on their nestmaking:

This stretch of bushes was very strange,with many sculptures and hand-scrawled plaques just barely visible behind them. As another person on the boat also tried to take photos, we commiserated over the impossibility of getting a good shot and decided that it wasn't entirely a coincidence!

Some art along the canal could only be viewed from the water:

This barge was full of garbage
and, quite fittingly, this piece of art was crafted out of litter!

The tour ended just past 9:00 P.M. and once back on land, we felt very lucky to have spent an idyllic few hours boating down one of London's many canals.