London, Day 1

Crossrail Place Roof Garden, Canary Wharf


I arrived in London at 10am... or 5am EST, having slept about two seconds on the plane. It took me a million years to get from Gatwick to The Good Hotel in the Docklands/Canning Town because it was my first time using public transit here and I got some bad advice. Whatever, it worked out well enough.

Since check in is at 3pm and I was there at 2pm, I couldn't check in right away. So I went for coffee and a walk along the water, east. It was not awesome, but now i know. The coffee was from the Coffee Station, a little kiosk at Royal Victoria DLR station. It was good. Not great. But good is good for a picky-pants coffee drinker.

By time I'd gotten settled and organized it was 3:30pm. So I set out on a walk to nearby neighbourhoods:

• Museum of London Docklands: Great museum. And free. That worked well, since I only had an hour anyway. I could have spent more time. Quite interesting about how important the docks were to London's economic growth and growth in general.
• Dinner at Brown's: Fish pie. Good, not great. Amazing location if it's sunny and there's room on the patio. The building is an old merchant's warehouse for sugar, rum and coffee imports in the 19th century. I was thinking instead of going to Giant Robot, but it really didn't have that much in it. There may be a future here for me.  I also wanted to eat at The Gun, but I didn't have any juice left in me to get there.
• Canary Wharf: Very cool area. Walked around a bit along the water, which was pretty. Lots of nice shops and squares.
• Jubilee Park: Beautiful surprise! Sculpture,fountains, green and beautifully laid out.
• And then I walked back along the water much of the way, passing Trinity Buoy Wharf, which appears to be just starting revitalization

What I learned in general:

• The roughest areas become the coolest areas when cities need space. 
• Everything works out. If you leave yourself open to whatever unfolds, the universe reveals all sorts of hidden treasures!
• I don't think you would want to stay in this area for very long unless you were at a conference.

Wreck metal buoy, Canary Wharf, outside Brown's

Wren Landing sculpture


Canada Square


Canada Square


Jubilee Park

Map of my walk