Travelogue: Camden Town

This morning, I made my way out from the hotel to Camden Town. It is a wonderfully tacky place full of curious shoppes that sell jewelry, shoes, leather clothing, tattoos, piercings, and all manner of artsy-fartsy stuff. The market that many people seem to thing is Camden, is such a small part of it; and I mean that quite literally!

The Camden Market is a lot which cannot be more than a half-acre lot jammed with stalls. Basically there is no room between the stalls for two people to pass unless one is standing half inside a stall. Interestingly, for as popular as this place seems to be, the variety and cost of things available in the shops is not very good. About ninety percent of the stalls sell the same overpriced tee-shirts and sweatshirts. There are a few that sell jewelry and items that we shall refer to as, uh… smoking paraphernalia.

Some of the artists selling items in the outlying stalls were impressive. One of the stalls had an artist who was selling candle holders. These items were great. They were nesting circles. Nested inside the larger one, each carried a candle at the top. They were lovely pieces and not a bad price either. I would have bought one, but where would I pack them?

After a day of walking around and poking in the shoppes, I headed southward along the tube and took in a couple museums. Although the museum is really geared toward children, the Transit Museum in Covent Garden is really quite interesting.

I enjoyed the display of the history of the Blitz and how the Tubes were used as bomb shelters. I had often heard that the Tube had been used as bomb shelters, but two things I learned today at the museum were interesting.

It never occurred to me how dangerous this plan would have been. One hit on the tube and you would lose a lot of people instead of the few that would be killed if their house had been hit. And apparently, there was a tube station hit that resulted in many deaths.

The other thing that had never occurred to me was that this use of the tube as shelter was not actually sanctioned. In fact, the government tried to keep it from happening; they claimed this would prevent the efficient use of the tube to move munitions, supplies, and soldiers around London.

I returned to the hotel this evening sore and tired. I stopped to grab a curry on the way home. A quick glance at the pedometer tells me why I am so sore. I walked over a dozen miles today in my attempt to see the sights.

Wherever you are today, I hope you have had a lovely weekend!

Don Bergquist - 06 February 2011 - Maida Vale, London, UK