London Cruise - rest day (1)

No sailing today – the crew were given a rest day and headed off to Greenwich. We stayed on board in the morning to relax, whilst I worked on the boat’s plumbing – we now have cold water on tap in both heads. Say ‘yeah’ everyone….and I promise to get to the hot water before too long….



After lunch we got our stuff together and walked along to the DLR station to treat Max to the best bit of the whole trip – a ride on the train. Five stops was not enough, at Canary Wharf he was distraught to have to get off and I suggest to Gesa that Max’s perfect day out is a travelcard to London and 8 hours riding the circle line.


Canary Wharf is home to one of the wealthiest parts of London these days, and it shows. Huge, gleaming office blocks are interspersed with exclusive and expensive little shopping malls and gardens landscaped in a suitably inoffensive corporate fashion. It’s nice though, really, and we hit luck as this weekend was a dance festival put on by the city to use the big spaces of this area that is usually quiet once the weekday workers have left.

We saw an amazing performance by two dancers (Wired Aerial Theatre, 'Glimpse') suspended above the floor, acting out a story of love and loss around and above the audience in a huge glass atrium. It was beautiful, moving and evocative – one of those wonderful things you stumble across when you least expect it. After that, we moved on to a courtyard where eight dancers (Strange Fruit) ascended five metre high poles and proceeded to sway and twist their way through a very enjoyable 40 minute dance that included mime, clowning, and an elegance of movement that I hadn’t seen before. It’s events like this that change your perception of a branch of the arts – modern dance has some breathtaking innovation and creativity. Congratulations to London for funding this sort of thing.