London, part 1

     We spent four days in London this past weekend, taking a bus there on Friday morning and back Monday night. We saw probably 8 of the 10 consensus must-see places. London is a great, varied, lively city, full of commerce, tourism, history, and chock full of high and pop culture, often on the same block. We were surprised by the number of tourists, mostly Europeans and Brits, here now at the end of January. The stretch from the Palace of Westminster (the houses of Parliament and Big Ben) to the London Eye across the Waterloo bridge was packed every time we ended up in that area. The picture below is a little deceiving with the mostly empty sidewalk on the Waterloo bridge—we were all on the other side of the street, with many taking this same picture.

 

     In that part of town is also the single greatest spot for us in London:  Westminster Abbey

            

http://www.westminster-abbey.org/

 No other place can capture so much history of Britain—its kings and queens, poets and writers, explorers and scientists, musicians and artists, and so on. What a treasure. In one corner is the grave of Elizabeth I, buried with Mary, her sister and rival, in another is a statue of Shakespeare, looking every bit the greatest man of letters—I'm showing my interest in the late Tudor era, but one could fine similar examples throughout the centuries in various corners and chapels. We took the audio tour, with Jeremy Irons speaking ever so elegantly about Britain’s regal heritage. It took almost two hours and one sign of just how rich the place is that great monuments for people like Isaac Newton or Captain Cook aren’t even mentioned. And it’s not all just statues and plaques. The building is magnificent inside and out, though you can’t take pictures of the inside.

     Down the street is the Churchill museum and the government WWII underground offices; this might have been the most surprising experience for us. We hadn’t really expected much, but found it hugely informative and entertaining—Churchill’s famed appetite for good food, alcohol, and cigars, for example--and quite moving.  These people worked long hours for long years in tight quarters with the understanding that a direct bomb hit would bury them. We are looking forward to seeing Churchill’s boyhood home, Blenheim Palace, which is near here and opens back up in March.

 

     Just a little farther down the street were the Horseguards across from St. James Park.  We didn’t stay for the actual changing of the guard but did see them parade past after finishing their tour. It was a sign of the power of British traditions that downtown traffic was stopped for probably ten minutes while this group of horses and riders left the scene.

     Buckingham Palace is at the other end of the Park. We didn’t stay for that change of guards either. The crowd was substantial, and one must arrive long before to get a clear line of sight. We were told that on a good summer’s day, there can be 15,000 people waiting to see the spectacle. No offense intended, but we’ll spend our time elsewhere; once again so much to see and do.

     The juxtaposition of old and new that we saw some in Bath and a little (very little) in Oxford, is seemingly everywhere in London. From the London Eye, the skyline is full of cranes as well as historic spires and new skyscrapers. The bulk (yes) of the big new buildings are on the south side of the Thames or east toward where the recent Olympics were held, but also in the “City” near St Paul’s and the Tower of London. Locals have given the most prominent structures nicknames like Gherkin, Cheesegrater, Prawn, Walkie-Talkie, and Shard (of glass, which became the official name of that building). Almost every view from inside the Tower of London has a impressive building of glass in the background.

     Despite the soaring structures in the neighborhood, the Tower of London remains an impressive place. We were too late for last year’s red poppy installation honoring the dead of The Great War; what a sight it must have been.

 

     Even today, the moat and the outside walls are impressive, and one can quickly imagine an earlier time when this was an impregnable fortress. Inside, we joined a tour by a Yeoman Warder (no longer, and never should have been, called a Beefeater according to our guide Steve).  Informative and entertaining, but much of the attention was on beheadings, with Anne Boleyn, inevitably it seems, taking center stage. We also learned Rudolf Hess, the deputy Fuhrer to Hitler, was also a prisoner here in 1941. It was a cold Sunday morning and since we are likely to be back with friends and family, we didn’t tour everything, but we did see the crown jewels. So many precious gems and gold that it is almost numbing, but only almost. We didn’t see a number of rooms or places that we remember from past tours—the princes’ rooms, Elizabeth’s rooms, and so on. Maybe next time, but we felt that maybe the Tower has had to adapt to the crowds the place now attracts.

     London isn’t all historic buildings and skyscrapers.  We spent some time on Saturday at the Portobello Market along with many other visitors.  We just got a few blocks and shops in before we had to turn back for other events. This is a place that is going to take some time. We knew we were on foreign soil when jerseys for sale were not LeBron or Brady but Rooney and Ronaldo.

  

 

     And on Sunday we experienced Brick Lane markets, along with a mob of young Londoners. Vintage galore and vinyl records everywhere (suddenly those boxes in our basement don’t seem quite such a waste of space). We went up and back past all the food stalls trying to decide what to choose. Others in the crowd seemed to be able to stop at each one. But the best image was the line out the door of Cereal Killer Café, which is run by identical twins from Belfast and offers over 100 cereals—line up for your chance to eat cereal!?

     The museums, and galleries, and theatres will have to wait for another entry. This one is getting a little out of hand. But as a nod to the richness of the visual culture all around us, I’ll leave you with one last picture, on the side of a building, taken while on our Jack the Ripper walk: