Today started grey but dry though with a promise of rain later.

Shops, Camden High Street

We caught a 214 bus to Camden Town Station and walked through to the upper end of Camden High Street. The lower end, between Camden Town and Mornington Crescent stations, is lined with conventional shops and restaurants but the upper end belongs to the “trendy” or “alternative” world. The shops tend to be open-fronted like oriental bazaars and to be extravagantly decorated, often with oversized 3D models of items that they sell.

Buy your boots here

Shop dummies marshalled on the pavement in front of the shops are also a common sight.

Rainbow flag pedestrian crossings

The pedestrian crossings here are painted in the colours of the rainbow flag.

Dragon, Chinese buffet

This Chinese buffet has a Chinese dragon on its façade. We thought of having lunch here but experience suggests that buffets don’t have much choice for vegetarians and so we looked elsewhere.

Regent’s Canal

Camden High Road crosses over the Regent’s Canal which we photographed from the road bridge. Along the left side of the canal are pubs and coffee bars and on the right side the extensive Camden Lock Market.

The covered market

We went first into the covered market which comprises more or less permanent stalls and boutiques. The stalls are free-standing.

Boutique

The boutiques, like this one, inhabit alcoves. They have shelves for the goods on sale and, though small, can be entered by a few customers at a time.

Can you guess which boutique Tigger was intending to visit? (Clue: it begins with, and sounds like, ‘T’!)

Camden Tea Shop

It was this one, called the Camden Tea Shop. They sell a range of teas and a small number of items of “teaware”, such as teapots and cups.

Tigger’s selection
Photo by Tigger

Tigger explored the stock thoroughly and made her selection. (“Chakra” just happens to be the name of one of her choices. Neither of us indulge in woo-woo beliefs or practices.)

Some outside stalls

There are many more stalls outside, like these, beneath a sculpture or model supposedly of a Zulu. There are food stalls too and in the “old days” (pre-Covid-19), the area would be so crowded that it was difficult to move about. Today, though the stalls were hopefully plying for trade, there were few people about.

Starling hoping to share food
Photo by Tigger

Beside one food stall were tables and a few diners. Some starlings were busily looking for food like this one hoping to share the meal.

Handling goods on the canal
Photo by Tigger

Walking along the canal looking for lunch, we spied this sculpture. I don’t know who the artist is or the official title of the work but I suppose it represents a man loading or unloading crates from a canal barge.

Inside Wagamama

Faute de mieux, we ended up at the local branch of Wagamama, a supposedly Japanese restaurant. Thanks to Covid-19, the place was virtually empty of customers. Nice for us but not so good for the business or employment prospects of the staff.

Wagamama, the menu
Photo by Tigger

They have paper place mats on which is printed the menu. At top left of the menu, you can see a QR code and an empty space beside it. The waiter enters the table number in that space and, when you have finished your meal, you use the QR code on your mobile to access the website where you enter the table number to locate your bill which you then pay electronically, for example using Apple Pay or typing in your credit card details. No money changes hands and no cards are handled, helping to avoid infection.

Jasmin flower tea

To drink, we ordered “jasmin tea” which was probably a mistake in a Japanese restaurant. We should have asked for “green tea” which was what we had on previous visits. What we received was jasmin flower tea. The flavour was very delicate, so delicate in fact as to be virtually undetectable. Live and learn.

Avant Gard’n with vegan “egg
Photo by Tigger

I don’t usually bore you with photos of food but I thought I would show you my main dish because if its curiosity value. It is called “Avant Gard’n” but the detail of interest is that it comes with “vegan egg”. To be honest, the dish was not wonderful and I won’t be ordering it again but it satisfied my curiosity, well, after a fashion. The “yolk” was a gobbet of liquid sauce of some kind. What the white was, I have no idea. It was a tasteless white semi-solid of some kind.

It’s raining

When we emerged from Wagamama, it was raining. Not that we could complain because the forecast had specified rain later and so we were expecting it.

As we had done everything we had intended, the sensible course of action was to take the bus home. And that was exactly what we did.