Old and New

Our aparthotel is in the heart of the City of London. But it was little more than a ten- minute walk to our favourite restaurant, the Merchant's Tavern, in Shoreditch. The contrast between these two London boroughs could hardly be more stark - extreme wealth cheek by jowl with what was once extreme poverty, but is rapidly becoming one of the trendiest quartiers in the Capital. The architecture of the two still remains a powerful reminder of their very different histories - towering glass monoliths and classical stone icons on one side of the divide, and crumbling brick terraces and old factories on the other. On this Easter Friday, both were remarkably quiet, and we had the laziest of days after more than two weeks of constant travel that has taken us from Baker Street to Benbecula. Glad to be going home tomorrow.