Now that we’ve been back to work for a week, I’ve a few thoughts:
It was a pleasant change from the previous trips a few years ago to London that consisted of making my way to the office for meetings or discussions and the like.
This time, entirely for personal reasons — to be a tourist.
So, you’d seen, of course, that I had posted a photo of the Strand (WC2), and a photo of part of the London skyline, and even a photo of The World’s End.
But now, a quick review of some other things. No photos, just thoughts:
- A narrowboat trip on the Lady A up the Union Canal from Little Venice (next to Paddington station) to Camden then back down again. Seemed intriguing to us because we were once full-time RV-dwellers and narrowboat-living is a thing in England and Wales.
- A walk from Little Venice, around Hyde Park, to Mayfair, St. James’s, Whitehall, and back to Strand.
- The Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Although, with the number of people, it was really a very clear view of guards marching in and out.
- Back up to Camden, but to see the markets on its High Street.
- The British Museum — and honestly, you need to give yourself far more than the two hours we did.
- A walk through Bloomsbury, Soho.
- A very early morning to catch a bus to King’s Cross Station. Yes, there is a Platform 9-3/4 tribute. No, we didn’t make the time to see it. We instead took the National Rail from King’s Cross up to York, 200 miles to the North primarily to see Shambles. While Shambles was our goal, we rapidly decided we’d like to visit York for much longer than we could on this trip. For the Harry Potter reference, Shambles was Rowling’s inspiration for Diagon Alley.
- Dick Turpin — I honestly thought it was a made-up comedy bit. Nope. He was a real highwayman, and wasn’t nearly as jovial as Noel Fielding makes him out to be.
- Clifford’s Tower. Read its history.
- York Castle Museum.
- Torture Dungeon. Okay, this was quite fun.
- We had an opera day in Soho — well, Piccadilly Circus, really: Phantom of the Opera on Haymarket then Moulin Rouge on Sherwood a few hours later.
- Tower of London and a brief history of London… from its founding in 43 AD to present day. Also its guards — but I’ve no idea whether they’re Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish, or Welsh Guards. I simply don’t know enough about them to form the question. But an observation: their uniforms and movements don’t seem to be to the same degree of precision as I was once accustomed to.
Now that I think back on it, we did, indeed, see a great many things. Far, far, more to see and experience along with more and longer trips are in order.