Day 4 Part 1 Richard's Walk: Place 14 Camden Passage

"Richard crossed the road...The day was cold and bright, which he liked. He walked across the top of Islington Green, where winos get beaten up, past the site of the old Collins Music Hall which had got burned down, and through Camden Passage where American tourists get ripped off."

Here I am in Camden Passage, Islington Green behind me.

Below is the shop Mark and I went into, and yes, probably got ripped off in, but the store is called "Smug." How could we NOT buy a hilarious tea towel with an adorable critter on it? Also let's all make an effort to go back to the 1588 usage of this word, shall we?

We stopped in at the chocolatiers with Mark picking out several kinds of truffles, brownie bites covered in chocolate with red glitter on them, and dairy free hot chocolate: literally melted chocolate in a cup. The chocolatier asked Mark whether he wanted any additional spices in his chocolate. In true Mark form he said, "Yes!"

"To which?"

"Everything except the cardamom." 

I definitely remember that he got cinnamon, a spicy pepper, and...three other spices that I don't recall. He found it veeeery tasty, but I could only handle one teensy tinsy small sip.  Much too rich for me.

A bit further down the passage we looked at all of the fun antiques. A lovely French woman would not take no for an answer, and forced us to allow her to take our photograph. 

Then I needed tea, so we sat and rested a little in the beautiful Camden Head to fortify us for a long walk in the footsteps of Dirk Gently, searching for cigarettes in the middle of the night.

Day 3 Part 5 Places 11 & 12: Regents Canal and Lifebelts

Places 11 and 12 were also part of our tour with David Haddock. In Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Richard walks over a canal to get to Dirk Gently's offices. DNA may have imagined him walking over Wharf Road:

"From here he threaded his way through the winding back streets, over the canal, past the council estates that lined the canal, through a number of smaller and smaller squares, till finally he reached Peckender Street, which had turned out to be a good deal farther than he’d thought."

Peckender Street appears wholly fictional, but the system of canals that run underneath the roads of London are very real. The canal in Islington is The Regent's Canal.

Later in the novel, Dirk takes Richard for another walk after hypnotizing him, "You have been under hypnosis for a little less than an hour,” said Dirk, “during which I have learned many interesting things and been puzzled by some others which I would now like to discuss with you. A little fresh air will probably help revive you and I suggest a bracing stroll along the canal. No one will be looking for you there."

There are swans, Canada geese, and mallard ducks in the canal. I made noises at the swans and they followed us looking for handouts.

David reminded me of what I had read in DNA's biography: A couple of canal barges were used as offices for the scripting of The HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy movie.

Eventually, Dirk steers Richard: "Dirk and Richard were walking along from the fringes of South Hackney, a mile from Dirk’s office, back toward the heart of Islington, where Dirk knew the nearest life belts were positioned."

David suspects that this area is what DNA had in mind when he wrote the following:

“Do you know,” said Dirk, “what my old maiden aunt who lived in Winnipeg used to tell me?” 

“No,” said Richard. He quickly took off all his clothes and dived into the canal. Dirk leaped for the life belt, with which they had just drawn level, yanked it out of its holder and flung it to Richard, who was floundering in the middle of the canal looking completely lost and disoriented."

After pulling Richard out of the filthy canal, Dirk hands him a towel, proving that no matter how irritating Dirk is, he IS the one who knows where his towel is.