London

London. What a city. It’s simultaneously massive and tiny. Around every corner is some sort of architecture that would be a feature piece in Alberta (Think Princess Theatre in Edmonton, but everywhere). The streets seemingly have zero sense to them, they bob and weave throughout old stone buildings, stopping and starting wherever they feel like. Driving in this city must be a nightmare. No wonder London taxi drivers are famed for their knowledge.

Two things make the city feel small. First, the transit makes everything very easily accessible. There are metro stops everywhere it seems, and buses running all the time. Second, there’s so much going on on every road, that it makes the walks much more interesting, and go much quicker.

We did Regent’s Park and Taste of London on the first day. You can see that story in our previous blog.

Here’s what we checked out on Day 2 but didn’t do:

1. Tower of London. The line literally wrapped around a quarter of the tower. No thank you. The outside was lovely though
2. Tower Bridge. 12£ to go a little higher????? No thanks. We walked across the lower level like peasants.
3. HMS Belfast. 27£ to check that out. We’re on a budget

We did a whole ton of other stuff instead. After saying no to basically all of the original plans, we made our way to Borough market and indulged in the sights and smells of the stalls. Massive pans of a mushroom risotto and seafood paella faced off across a laneway. Shouts of fresh strawberries!” and “watermelon juice!” could be heard throughout. The aromas of chees shops and cured meats wafted throughout the venue. We sampled a free mussel from the paella stall that was absurdly delicious. The white wine cream sauce was done really well. We had some delicious fish & chips for lunch. Cam refused to leave a little Croatian stall, and we really couldn’t get her out of the market altogether. Finally, we ended the market with a disappointing impulse chai tea buy, but the stall there was quite funny. Both Sophie Trudeau and Prince Harry had recommendations there. There was also a photo wall of the owner with various celebrities. The only other name I recognized out of the 15 or so photos was Stevie Wonder, who was staring in the wrong direction.

After the market, we headed to the British National Museum. That was cool. The Egyptian mummy room was quite creepy, the Greek Parthenon room was quite impressive. I can’t wait to see the rest of it in Greece. Unfortunately for us, most of the American and East Asian exhibits were closed. The African basement, home on the infamous Benin Bronzes, was pretty cool. The bronzes are an interesting story, which we previously learned about on a Freakonomics podcast episode ( https://freakonomics.com/podcast-tag/stealing-art-is-easy-giving-it-back-is-hard/). We spent most of the time trying to figure out how they were made. We decided the backgrounds were forged, the statuettes were cast, and then the two pieces were welded together.

We then took a walk to Piccadilly circus, stopping in Chinatown and Leicester square on the way. Lots of people walking in these areas as well, it really is a different vibe. There’s just people everywhere. We (Graham only really) keep accidentally bumping into people, looking at all of the stores and theatres in the area. The streets are very vibrant, even in the rain we were experiencing.

Day 3 we went hard. Long story short, we hit Big Ben, Parliament, London Eye, Government Buildings, Westminster Abbey, St. James Park, Changing of the Guard (accidentally), Embassy Row, Hyde Park, Kensington Palace, yummy Indian food lunch, Kensington, Natural History Museum, and the V&A Art and Design Museum. Was that originally the plan? No. Did we make it back to the hotel by 6:30 and essentially crash out for the day? Yeah.

The day started with Graham going on a solo adventure for breakfast. He made it to the Gherkin (egg building), which is very not impressive from the ground. A bizarre adventure through a Tesco Express, which are all full of pre-made meals by the looks of it, left us empty-handed for breakfast, so we ended up with breakfast sandwiches instead. Sausage and mustard, and a egg, bacon (actually ham) and mustard sandwich. Apparently you customize everything for the sandwich, didn’t realize that until after ordering.

The morning was cool, seeing Big Ben, parliament, and the London Eye. They’re all within 5 minutes of each other. There’s also a COVID memorial in that area. This section of London is major tourist traps too, with the aquarium, London Dungeons, and something called Shrek’s Adventure right there. All of these listed sites are part of a London attraction pass you can buy. We decided to skip that. We double backed to Westminster Abbey, which was pricey as well, before making our way through St. James’s Park.

The funniest part of the day definitely was the changing off the guard. We had both agreed that we didn’t really care about it, and didn’t put it on our itinerary. But we had made our way though St. James Park, and decided to rest for a bit at a bench as the area around Buckingham Palace was starting to get crowded. We noticed some closed off streets and police, but didn’t think much of it. A marching band drum was heard, so we got up and wandered over to see what was going on, and 50 or so black hats are walking down the road, and we finally realized what we were witnessing. Oh well. A local complained to us about how British tour guides are telling people that the British military hunt bears in Canada for the hats still, as if he was offended on our behalf.

We ended up getting lost on our way to Hyde Park, with Kensington Palace as our long term goal. Trying to avoid the Buckingham crowds, we ended up walking south of the palace gardens, alongside a brick wall. We ended up within the embassies, with the Turkish one heavily guarded by two body armored dudes with massive guns. Flats in the area go for 42,000,000£. We got out of the area, and made it to Hyde park pretty quick. It felt like we didn’t belong with all of the diplomats.

It took maybe an hour to walk across Hyde Park, and by the end of it, we kinda wanted to leave. It’s a nice park, with a lake, massive trees, and monuments everywhere, but it got repetitive after a while. It didn’t help we kept going the wrong direction. Kensington palace was slightly underwhelming at the end of it all, as it felt like we went on this massive adventure for what ended up being a massive closed brick house.

We went for lunch at a restaurant called Dishoom, and ordered a Black Dahl, Chicken Biryani, and another grilled chicken. Unfortunately for us, the grilled chicken was essentially the chicken used in the Biryani, so we misplayed our order. The dahl had a really nice depth of flavor, and wasn’t too acidic. The mango lassi was very nice as well. I understand why London has a reputation for Indian Food.

We then made our way to the Natural History Museum. We blasted through the animals and dinosaurs, before really settling in in the newer geological sections. Cam really enjoyed the volcanoes and earthquakes exhibit, while Graham really liked the rocks and minerals.

The V&A museum was the final stop of the day. You can perch upon balconies on the second floor and look below at all of the massive ancient architecture. We mostly explored the ironworking, glass and ceramic areas, trotting through various paintings and tapestries throughout. The whole thing may have been more worthwhile if we weren’t bench-hopping throughout the exhibits.

Day 3 was quite the lesson in pacing. We both apparently have what we are calling “golden retriever energy,” travelling, where we see or experience a new thing, and then get that rush of adrenaline and dopamine excitement all over again. It’s causing our days to go quick, but be fully packed with everything. Travelling is a skill, and we are slowly learning how to do it best for us.

Day 4: Cam had a cooking Class so Graham went off to do his own adventure. Cam slept in that morning and Graham went to find breakfast again which was very nice. We packed up and headed to to The Cord which is the Cordon Bleu’s restaurant in London where my cooking class is. We were there early and the lovely staff let us keep our giant backpacks in a closet while we toured around before my class began. The we walked around and stopped by St. Paul’s Cathedral and some tourist shops. Graham really wants a sweater that says “Mind the Gap” because that’s what the intercom says on the tube.

I will write about the cooking class in the next post but Graham will continue share what he did for the rest of the day.

My (Graham’s) adventure started at the Modern Tate. There were a lot of lovely colors, and an interesting movie? (short film? I guess) of a dude painting another dude light blue (Blue Abstraction by Naufus Ramirez-Figueora). But there’s not too much that’s free to see, so I left pretty quick. The Millennium Bridge taken to get there has some interesting views of the city.

I made my way to Soho and Canary street in search of a steak and ale pie after. Canary street is very busy, lots of restaurants and fashion shops, and I accidentally ended up in a small enclosed three story restaurant plaza. Amazingly, no pie. We soldiered on. I made it to a corner pub that was “famous for pie’s,” (I’m forgetting the name though), and had a delicious pie. The grilled vegetables it came with, some onion, carrot, kale I think and peas, were very good too.

I ended up in Picadilly Circus around 2:00, and a young man named Harry Marshall was just finishing his busking set for a captivated crowd of 100 or so. I sat on the fountain and watched him finish Chasing Cars, before packing up his stuff and disappearing behind a gaggle of middle schoolers, never to be seen again. Watching the crowd there was eventful. There were two heavily tattood 30’s men beside me reciting bible verses and their personal meanings. Tourists posed for photos in front of the advertising screens, some more flashy than others. And thousands of Londoner’s walked by it all, seemingly too busy or oblivious to smell the roses. But more likely, they got used to the sights of Picadilly.

It was the same story down the road at Leicester Square, except this time I caught the whole show. Giodara_ had the set, and for the first four songs, I was the only one standing and watching. A squad of middle school boys, all in the same hoodie reading “London Sports Trip 2023,” were harassing the pigeons, by feeding them bread and then squirting them with water. Many onlookers were walking by while filming Gio, adding to the London dichotomy of business and serenity. Eventually, the female half of the London Sports Trip 2023 became the biggest fans of Gio, and stayed to watch until the end of his performance.

The third and final musical act was in Trafalger Square, with a intense bardic metal duo playing via a looper pedal, The Vanabond. This act got cut short though, as I got a text that if I went to the cooking class early, I could eat the leftovers.

Overall London is an intense city. The modern world has somewhat seamlessly fit into ancient buildings, with old facades boasting new M&M store interiors. There is no middle ground in London, you are hustling on the subway, or casually strolling the boardwalk opposite parliament. Pathways intermingle buildings, wrapping around or through them, and the movement around the city is very easy. The touristy aspects seem tightly knit into two areas (Parliament, Tower of London), leaving the rest of the city exploration a little more real.

That’s it I think for London. We’re off to the mainland now!