Musings on London
As per usual, I didn’t really “realize” I was on my way until well after my mom and dad dropped us off at the airport. It probably wasn’t even until British passport control that it felt like I’d left home. And even that was really just because they intently scrutinized my Syrian visa before admitting me (sigh… and I thought I’d gotten past these sorts of hassles when I got a new passport sans Pakistan visa…)
Anyhow, now feeling well and truly “away” Sarah and I got a train, then a bus from Gatwick to the Clappham suburb of London where we found the appropriate house and were happily greeted by Sarah’s friend Sara (at least she doesn’t have an “h,” otherwise we’d be in for written, as well as verbal confusion.)
A busy Oxford Street at Friday Lunchtime. Nothing special really… shopping streets are shopping streets in almost any city in the world, but I just like this picture.
In an effort to A. cut down on the time it takes to write these entries and B. make it easier for you all to read them in a single sitting, I’m going to try and do my best to summarize each section of the trip, rather than report on every last little detail. A few of you may remember how well that worked last time (i.e. not at all) but I’ll try.
So, London highlights:
Museums. London’s museums are fabulous. Each one of them is amongst the best in the world of its type, they’re pretty much all free to the public and there are just so many of them. First on our list was the British Museum which was, as usual fabulous. I’ve gone to the BM every time I’ve been to London, and it’s interesting to observe the changes. The collection (or at least the portion of it on display) hasn’t changed too much since my first visit, perhaps 10 years ago, but just about everything else has. The outdoor courtyard has been re-conceived as a giant indoor atrium, with a beautiful translucent roof. The interpretive signs and displays have taken monstrous leaps forward. And perhaps most notably, the presentation and arrangement of the collection have improved immeasurably (I remember on my first visit wandering around, poking into various corners of the museum, and just sort of bumping into the Rosetta Stone or the Elgin Marbles in a little hallway or alcove. Today the galleries are a bit better organized, and the real highlights enjoy prominent positions.)
The torso of a large Egyptian gentleman looking down over the British Museum’s Egyptian sculpture gallery. (Now that I come to look at this photo, I realize there’s not really anything in it for scale. So I have to provide scale via text: The large gentleman’s torso is about my height.)
The Tate Modern was cool for a variety of reasons. While I do sometimes enjoy modern art, and the presentation at the Tate was good, I think my favourite part of it was the location (inside a big old coal fired powerplant, huge generator hall and gantry cranes still intact.) Also getting high marks on the coolness scale was the giant crack in the generator hall floor. The Tate commissions a new installation piece for the generator hall every couple of years, and this, by Doris Salcedo, is the latest. It was fun to walk along its length (avoiding the “Danger, tripping hazard signs all over the hall) ponder how they did it (my guess: Cutting with a water jet, then placing the wire mesh reinforcing, then shotcrete) and watch others doing the same.
A guy wondering how it was done
A close up of the crack in the Tate Modern Generator House floor
Perhaps the best of all was the Natural History museum. We only saw a fragment of the collection, but it was all fabulous (especially the Dinosaurs and the gems) and even if we’d seen none of it the building itself would have been worth the visit.
The main hall at the Natural History Museum. (Just below the bottom of this picture is a Diplodocus skeleton. Tough choice, but the pictures that showed it just didn’t show off the hall quite as well.)
The colour and detail in the brickwork were pretty, and the carvings found on every arch and column made it clear that the building had been custom built to house a natural history museum.
Details of the carvings in the Natural History Museum. I love how the decades of dust manage to make the monkey on the left look naturally fuzzy.
Over 200 coloured diamonds lit by UV light in the NHM’s “vault”
Beyond musing (It amuses me to use the verb “to muse” to mean “to visit a museum,” thus the title of this entry) our other main goals in London were visiting with Sarah’s friends and drinking British ales, which, conveniently could almost always take place concurrently. Big time saver that. We stayed at Sara’s place (in her landlord’s beautiful, African themed “presidential suite”) so got to spend lots of time with her (despite somehow contriving to never once see her flatmates) and also managed to meet up with Sarah’s friends Andy and Matt. In our four days there, I think I managed to try about four different stouts, four bitters and one ESB. Not a really top-flight effort, but certainly a decent sampling of what was on offer.
Three different kinds of stout, including one made with live oysters added to the brew kettle (no, all three glasses weren’t mine.)
Other London bits worthy of comment:
I really like the London Underground. It goes pretty much everywhere (at least everywhere I ever want to) and on some lines, literally 80% of stations are interchanges to other lines or National Rail stations. Compared to the TTC and its two big, super-high-volume shuttle type lines, it seems much more like an underground bus network than a subway.
Sarah at Oxford Circus underground station
I’d never been inside St. Paul’s Cathedral before, and would recommend it to anyone visiting the city. Especially if, as we happened to, you visit during one of the choral services. You scarcely need to take a tour or anything, just spending an hour or so sitting inside, enjoying the beautiful music and taking in the architecture are wonderful (though I imagine the view of the city from up on the dome would be great.)
St. Paul’s Cathedral while walking up from the river Thames
Londons parks are lovely too. Sarah and I had a lovely picnic of takeaway curry (had to try some of the local food ;)) in Green Park on our last day in the city. It was a bright, sunny day, there were daffodils blooming everywhere and it appeared as though (wild exaggeration:) half the city was taking a long lunch to join us there.
Everyone and his brother out having a late lunch in Green Park on a sunny(!) London afternoon
And, having mentioned our last day in London in the preceding paragraph, I think we’ve reached a convenient point at which to pause. Many thanks are due to Sara, her flatmates and their landlord for letting us stay with them and being such pleasant (in the case of Sara) or invisible (in the case of the others) hosts.
Up next: My university flatmates reunion weekend in Prague, Czech Republic.
Tags: Llew Bardecki, London, United Kingdom
