Maddy's Travels
London
September 2018
My friend Sarah is living in London. I commented on a picture on Facebook of her drinking a gin and tonic, so she invited me over to join her for one. I took a non-stop daytime flight, ran into a client of mine on the same flight (small world) and arrived around 7pm. Sarah met me at the airport and we took the “Underground” or “Tube” as it’s called to her “flat” (apartment to us) in Trafalgar Square. This seems like a good time to compare the British Tube and the Boston “T”. A slight delay on a train resulted in not less than three ultra polite apologies, “We’re very sorry for the delay, a passenger has been taken ill on the train ahead of us….we’ll keep you informed.” There you go Mayor Walsh of Boston - that’s how it should be done. The delay was only 5 minutes. The complication with transportation in London is walking across the street as the cars and buses are driving on the opposite side. I spent the weekdays on my own. If it weren’t for the little arrows on every crosswalk telling me to look to the right or look to the left, I would never have made it home in one piece.
My travelogue is more of a cultural exploration than a specific guide of what to see. In one week, I could barely scratch the surface. Sometimes the highlights are the small things, exploring a cheese shop, buying a sandwich from heaven and sitting in St. James Park with it on a beautiful day.
Like most cities, London has grown tremendously since my last trip there over 20 years ago. They have created all of these crazy shaped skyscrapers with nicknames such as the “Shard”, the “Walkie Talkie”, the “Gherkin”. I was told that they’ve been designed in such a way as to not block the view of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Effort is being made somewhat successfully to make the old and new buildings compatible.
The "Gherkin", and ....
Skyline, blending old and new
A day I truly loved was the boat ride up the Thames to Kew Gardens. I, by the way was born in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York. After about 45 minutes we had passed all the new and modern tall glass buildings and were back in time to a PBS period drama of stone and brick houses, and young people rowing on the Thames. The “Temperate House” at the gardens is the is the world’s largest glass house and is home to plants from all around the world’s temperate zones. We ate lunch at the “Orangerie”, country house of King George III and Queen Charlotte. I tried to follow along with the history of all the King Georges. In a nutshell, I think George III was king in 1776 and also the one who sings the song “You’ll Be Back” to the colonies in the musical Hamilton. George V was the father of the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth, the guy with the stutter played by Colin Firth in the movie “The King’s Speech”. We went to the Tower of London and saw the “Crown Jewels”. These are the actual crowns still worn by the monarchs today, some with diamonds and rubies as big as rocks. It turns out Sarah (who is from New Zealand) can trace her heritage back to William the Conquerer in 1066, whose armor was on display. King Henry VIII is the guy who had 6 wives. We saw 4 suits of his armor growing in size as he got fatter and fatter.
I adored the Victoria and Albert Museum so much. One exhibit was fashion history. The invention of spring steel made it possible to make cage crinolines underneath the skirts. If you’ve ever seen “The Nutcracker” at Christmas time, you’ll know what I’m talking about. One of the skirts in that ballet is so huge that the kids are hiding underneath it. Also super interesting to me were the “Cast Courts”, two giant galleries of life size, accurate recreations of large monuments, including Michelangelo’s “David”, created for historical preservation.
I shopped at the famous food court of Fortnum and Mason, bought a few tins of “biscuits” (cookies as we would say). I saw the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, went twice to the theatre, danced tango, and ate Indian Food in one of the dozens of Indian restaurants on Brick Lane. We stopped at a pub or two. The Brits have no rules whatsoever about when and where alcohol can be consumed. At the end of the work day, throngs are on the sidewalks outside the pubs with their beer. As I wandered the streets I heard dozens of languages and accents.
My seat mate on the flight home was an amiable Scotsman. He chatted up the Scottish flight attendant, who rewarded us with free MacCallum 25 year Reserve Scotch. A week is not much time. The list for next time is long.
