Little Venice, London

We rented an Airbnb apartment in the Little Venice of London.  Once again, we were overwhelmed by the charm and good fortune of our circumstances.

Douglas House, Maida Avenue.

When we walked out the front door of our building, we were greeted by this canal with barges lined up on each side.

We're having coffee right on the canal.  The cafe is in a barge.

If we walked to the right of our front door, we encountered Edgware Street.  On Edgware, if we turned left, we came to a parade of shops that pretty much looks like the streets of Westmoreland, the neighborhood where we live in Portland, Oregon.  However, if we turned to the right the parade of shops became a a chaotic foreign environment.

I guess some of the products came from Morocco.

As you can see, everything is for sale at the market - even the kitchen sink.

If we turned left from our apartment, we had our choice of two different tube stations: Warwick Road or Paddington Station.  In the jumble of streets in that area, we also discovered Clifton Nurseries.

This nursery is tucked into a block with apartment buildings surrounding the perimeter.  The buildings on the block look pretty much like the one we stayed in.  The difference being that the block must have been quite a bit larger to afford the huge area that is an urban nursery.  This nursery had every thing.

In addition to a florist and a landscape designer, there were lots of plants that I wanted to buy right then and there.

I wanted to buy this bay tree.

But the best part was a green house that was a cafe.  Taylor and I met Syvart and Iris there one afternoon for coffee.  I think it is pure genius to include a cafe in a garden center.  Gardeners always get hungry imagining the work they will have to do if they make purchases.

We were here in the late afternoon, so the lunch crowd had dispersed.

Would I stay in Little Venice again?  Absolutely. I felt like a Londoner in this neighborhood, away from the tourist crowds.