London, Jun 3-7, 2024
Călin / 11 June 2024
Anca and I spent last week in London – the original one, in England! When we looked closer, we were surprised to realize that this is the first time we visit London beside passing through the Heathrow Airport! It was not quite “let’s go to London!”, since I had a bit of work to do there, and it took some convincing for Anca to join, but in the end, the ease to get there from Romania won.
Cluj-Napoca to London is almost a bus ride; the flight is less than 3 hours and there are at least three flights a day. Mainly low cost airlines, like Ryanair and Wizzair, so no frills, people packed tight in the plane, but for such a short flight, it was not a problem. They fly to airports outside London, Luton and Stansted, however, the train connections to the city make it really easy. We flew into Luton on a morning flight and we arrived at St. Pancras train station before 8:30am.
As is our custom, when we get to a new place, we walk it all over. London is very walkable – there are sidewalks on all the streets, crosswalks everywhere and they include signage to look for cars in the other direction. That wasn’t a problem for us, as in New Zealand we’ve been driving on the left side of the road, but there are plenty of tourists in town who need the reminder. Parks abound and in a bustling city, they are surprisingly quiet. One of the main charms for me have been the little alleys in the old part of town, such as these ones in Camden and Middle Temple.
I spent the first day walking from St. Pancras to the Thames river, to the Parliament and Westminster along the river, and then through Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, and Soho, back to the train station to get to my meetings. Below are some of the highlights.
In front of Buckingham Palace is Queen Victoria’s statue, and the road to the palace and it’s surroundings are a testament to the British Empire: proudly flying the Union Jack, as well as flags of most of the imperial colonies.
A long history comes with a lot of wars; there are plenty of monuments to honor heroes, generals, and soldiers. Nelson in Trafalgar Square, Wellington pretty much everywhere, including inside St. Paul’s Cathedral, however, I particularly liked the one celebrating the women of the World War II.
Even with all the glory and riches of the empire, there are some spots where the homeless attempt to have a life.
We stayed at the Megaro (the quirky painted building), next to King’s Cross which is now a modern and bustling corner, with lots of restaurants, live music, and young people hanging around. The Regents Canal is particularly charming.
One other afternoon we walked to St. Paul’s and climbed up to the Golden Gallery (above the dome) – definitely worth getting up the stairs not just as exercise, the views from above stunning.
We walked across the river on the Millenium Bridge to explore the Southern bank of the Thames.
The river walk is a walk through history: from the replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, to Southwark Cathedral, to the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.
The Southwark cathedral is the oldest gothic church in London, a convent was established here in 606 AD. It claims Gower, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Massinger, Fletcher, Alleyn, Jonson, Harvard, Bishop Andrewes, and Dickens among its patrons.
It can’t be London without pubs and markets. Pubs are everywhere and they are busy; the working populace, men and women alike, descend on the pubs for a pint after work. When the weather is good (as it was for our entire trip) they spill on the street and talk, talk, talk, the more pints, the louder the talk. Auckland has a pale replica, nowhere close to the fun the Londoners have. Lots of people eat out (the food is excellent!), and spend time with company. You hear all the languages on Earth, some that I was not able to recognize. It is truly a cosmopolitan and dynamic city. Large swaths do get much quieter at night, after 10pm.
I really liked the combination of old and new – everywhere you see a mixture of historical and modern buildings. I thought they integrate very nicely, and the following set of pictures tries to capture some of that sentiment. Just images until the end of this post!
We barely scratched the surface even though every day by the evening we were quite tired. We’ll be back for sure!