London Day 2

August 29:  Today was spent walking the Regent's Canal Loop, a side trip described in our guide book for the Thames River Path.  This canal was built in early 1800's, was named for the Prince Regent at the time, and provided a shortcut to the Thames, without tidal factors.  It is still in operation with hand-operated locks, though it is  decrepit-looking in many places, with lots of trash and duck weed on the water.  The users are mostly rented narrow boats, although some canal boats seem to have permanent moorings.

The 'Old Bailey', Criminal Courts

We began by walking to the Bank Station (by the Bank of England building) and catching the Docklands Light Railroad (DLR) from there to Limehouse on the east side.  The route was a loop around the canal system, starting and ending at Limehouse Basin next to the Thames.

We saw a variety of canal boats, most of which appeared to be either in disrepair or for sale.  Several were labeled with for sale signs with an asking price of 30,000 £.  There also a number of folks working on their boats.  It reminded me of the saying "a boat is hole in the water that you pour money into."

We went by a variety of new multistory housing units, both occupied and under construction, as well as industrial sites and old warehouses.   The route passed by the Queen Elizabeth Stadium and the swimming pool which were built for the 2012 summer Olympics.  There were lots of people out enjoying the path, including bicyclists who sometimes tried to run over us.  With the weeds and bushes encroaching on the path, it got narrow in places.  Still it was an interesting tour of a part of the city that few tourists visit (and we did not have to dodge cars).

The Three Mills, old windmills

We returned to the hotel for a brief rest before venturing out to find dinner and then to attend the theatre to see A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.  We rode to Leicester Square and joined mobs of people who were partying, etc.  We walked toward the theatre by way of Chinatown and stopped into a restaurant serving Chinese and Malaysian food.  I had seafood fried rice and Betsy had spicy rice noodles.

We arrived at the Gielgud Theatre in plenty of time to collect our tickets - Grand Circle, row B - a fancy name for way up in a balcony.  We had a good view looking down on the high-tech stage that was basically a cube with graph paper on the floor and three walls.  The play was excellent and won Tony Awards in 2015 (probably with an American adaptation).   The lead role (a teenager named Christopher) discovers a dead dog and learns to grapple with unfaithful and lying parents and their partners.  Christopher is a literal person who cannot tell a lie, deals with truths, avoids all metaphors, and is a math wizard.  He is probably a high-functioning autistic who cannot stand being touched (although the play never labels him as such) and is easily overwhelmed by too much sensory input (there are a couple of great scenes with stylized train and Underground subway stations).  He ultimately takes his A-level math test and scores an "A-star," presumably the highest possible score.  One of the play's morals or lessons is that 'you can became anything you want to be.'  However, it also empathizes with the pain and stress that Christopher creates for his parents, since he really cannot function in modern society without an extensive support system (and it would be unbearable not to be able to hug your own child).

After the ovation, Christopher came back out on the stage to explain how he answered a math question involving Pythagorean theorem on the A-level test.  He had to prove, using quadratics, that a triangle with certain mathematical characteristics, has a right angle.  For you math-inclined, the quadratic equation includes these three sides of the right triangle:  (n2-1), (n2), and (n2+1).  Square the two sides and add to get the square of the hypotenuse (i.e., A2 + B2 = C2.)  Note, all of the twos are superscripted - I don't know how to format that in this blog.  Hint, if you use n=2, you get a 3 by 4 by 5 triangle, the most basic of right triangles.

We walked back to our hotel, enjoying a cool starry evening.