London Docklands – Passport collection
Given I had less than one empty page left in my passport (for entry and exit stamps) and it was fast approaching expiry, I thought it wise to get the thing changed before I fell foul of an official… So off to London’s Docklands and the passport office, where I handed over my old burgundy EU passport and replaced it with the new dark-blue (UK) version.
We lucked out with the weather, so in the four-hour wait between handover and collection, we decided to make a day of it.
I used my old geezers’ railcard to reduce the fare by a third, and within an hour of leaving our front door we emerged at Customs House on the swanky new Elizabeth line. I wish they all looked like this!
It was weird seeing all my old haunts on the Elizabeth Line rail map, places I grew up in, much further west… Hayes & Harlington, West Drayton, Southall, along with all the Heathrow terminals. How I’d have loved this line to have been operational when I was younger!
It was also nice to wander around the docks (the passport office is now located on the edge of the old Royal Docks). It was near here that both my grandad and father worked back in the day. Indeed, I also spent a few years here in the late 1980s during phase one of the Canary Wharf project. This huge new city, built to worship the finance gods, was constructed just up the road, where the old West India Docks used to be. I cut my teeth on this project in a new profession, after having screwed up my first career, but that’s another story.
We headed for lunch at The Ivy, Canary Wharf and tried out their 1917 menu, two courses for £22; you can’t go wrong. Well, perhaps if you order wine you can, it pushes the price up a bit… but it was 25 degrees outside, and it’s not every day we get a scorcher like this so early in April.
We then went for a wander around Canary Wharf, which was alive with people, many doing the same as us, families and workers enjoying the sun, sitting on benches and chatting.
The trees have woken up after the winter, leaves starting to sprout, and it’s green everywhere. It’s a lot cleaner and nicer than I remember from my last visit. The water features, mature trees, and dark green grass make this sprawling metropolis look quite attractive.
We were going to walk off our meal with a stroll along the Thames to Greenwich (and the pedestrian tunnel under the river that links Millwall Park with the south), but we ran out of time and decided to head back to the passport office to make sure I didn’t miss my collection slot.
We found a pub called The Gun which we’ll need to visit at some point in the future. It’s right on the edge of the river and has lots of nooks and crannies, plus a nice-looking menu – one to remember.
Oh, and lots of wildlife along the docks and river, swans and geese nesting, living in water that actually looked a lot cleaner than I expected.
So, all in all, a great day out, and a little teaser of the nice summer we hope to enjoy.
Back to the real world
Those extra calories have to go…..
Back home, and off to a spin class. No longer feeling guilty for a mid week treat!
