Walking London

So we finally made our way into London. I have to admit that my first impressions were not great, well of the train and entering London anyway. It was our first attempt at using the rail to get anywhere and so we had no expectations of what to expect, and honestly, it wasn't fantastic. In defense to public transit here, it was Saturday morning of a long weekend so perhaps the massive amounts of travelers should not have come as as large of a surprise as it did. We spent much of the fifty minute journey standing as apparently reserving seats is the only way to guarantee you will get to sit. Not someone to be that bothered by crowds I probably could have looked past this particular problem but there were a few others. It was a proper warm day which made the press of hundreds of people less than comfortable but when combined with the fact that it is not illegal to have and consume open alcohol in public, including on the train, the smells and conversation left much to be desired. Things looked up as many passengers vacated the train before London and I was able to sit and stare at the passing countryside and marvel at just how many little towns would pop up between Swindon and London. Again I was a little disappointed as we got our first views of this world famous city. You pass some really rundown and unappealing buildings but even more disheartening was the graffiti. I've got to be honest I expect that a city so focused on art and culture would produce some much more talented graffiti artists. Here is a whole section of the city, the first travelers see as they come into London, where very few people would even complain about the paint and this is who you let represent the talent available, shameful. This is a call out to the graffiti artist of London, take some pride, show us what you are capable of.

Getting off the train at Paddington station was just a bit overwhelming as it became blatantly obvious that we actually had no idea where we were or how to get where we wanted to go. This lead to some unnecessary meandering through the first neighborhood we ran into. For those of you familiar with "Notting Hill" the movie we actually saw many of those private gardens that only residents are allowed in, and from what we could see it was really rude of them not share. This area also seemed like it was likely a very affluent section of London, the architecture was cry worthy, it was so beautiful and the purchase prices sob worthy. We emerged from our wandering at the gates of Hyde Park, which is much larger than you would ever imagine and a little wilder than most Canadian parks. There are several parks in the city and they kind of run into each other so it gives the feeling of just enormous green space running all the way through London. We spent most of our park time in Hyde park, partially because of its size and partially because we were still very lost. It was beautiful and green and full of fun finds that sneak up on you.

Toward the end of our time in Hyde Park we met this very friendly squirrel who not only let us take his photo more than once but actually attempted to eat right out of Leandra's hand. He was disappointed as we foolishly did not think to pack a snack for brave animals. After realizing we were not offering snacks he ran away without looking back so he was somewhat of a fair weather friend.

It doesn't take you long to find amazing arch ways and impressive historical structures once you leave the shelter of the park and we ran into some almost as soon as we did. I am certain that all these fixtures have impressive names and interesting histories but too be honest I didn't really learn any of them but they were very fun to look at and did give that strong "I am not in Kansas" feeling to our wandering.

The second arch here, the ones with the horses on top, was some gift given to one of the kings as a token of respect, but what made it cool to us was that you could go up to the top of it and take pictures from right under the metal topper. We were able to see some quite breathtaking views of the city and gauge a bit better where we were in relation to other sites we may have wanted to visit. Obviously, since we were there anyway we thought we should pop in visit the Queen. I knew that she would be anxious to meet us so we marched ourselves right over to Buckingham Palace.

I would of course want my castle to be a little larger than this one, but for a winter home I suppose its not too shabby. I am told that if the flag is all the way up the Queen is in fact home, we were detoured from finding out ourselves unfortunately. Her royal guard simply never leave and are very observant sadly.

In actuality these photos were taken by pushing my camera through the bars of an enormous fence that made the royal guards and the proper police force, which were also on hand, more than a little unnecessary. It was a little sad too think that the poor women can't look out her own window for fear of the crowd waiting to catch a glimpse of here. Says the women with her camera pointed right at said windows, but you know what I mean.

We continued our journey by heading through more of London towards Trafalgar Square where all the embassies from other countries are held, including Canada's. I want to preface this next bit by telling you that up until this point we really hadn't felt we dealt with any crowds, not even at the castle really, considering that it was a long weekend here this was a pleasant surprise. However the closer to the square we got the more the crush of the crowd daunted us. As we approached we could here cheering, chanting and singing and were bombarded with a sea of gold and black. Clearly something was happening and we had missed the memo! Well it was the finals of a major football season and was being held in London, those not lucky enough to a have proper tickets had congregated in the square for what looked to us to be a full blown party in celebration of this tournament. We pushed through the mass of revelers and I was able to capture this one shot before being pushed out of the way.

This doesn't really do it justice but you can see that whoever the gold and black team were they were clearly the favorite. Right behind where I am standing to get this picture is the National Gallery, which houses thousands of paintings by the masters and is free to the public. The hour and half we spent wandering its halls did not get us through even a quarter of its galleries and we still felt each room was rushed through. Considering the amount of people viewing the art that day there still was a somewhat reverent silence in most the art viewing rooms. Even the young children, including my own, were in awe of the works we were being given the privilege to view. Highlights for me were probably Monet, Van Gough, Michelangelo and Cezanne, although most of them were more than noteworthy.

By now we had been walking for many hours and we needed to make our way back to the train and head home, which was a long way from where we stood. The path home led through some of the theater district and Piccadilly circle, and the shopping section of this great city. We walked by what I called London's time square and we felt how many people this place could really hold but couldn't help but feel impressed by the buildings.   

It would have been impossible to get you pictures of these streets without having at least some strangers in them but I did my best to get you an unobstructed shot of the store front lined avenue. Our last stop before getting back on the train was a quaint little Italian restaurant right up the street from the station. It had the best bruschetta I had ever eaten and I highly recommend eating there if you get the chance.

 

It was a huge amount of walking and we dealt with some crushing crowds but all of us at different points of the day agreed that we would love to live in London, so I imagine we will continue to find things that we need to explore there.

We are still trying to get everything set up and stocked here at home which of course means that many things have not yet been purchased. Yesterday the kids and I walked to the grocery store so that I could pick up a few of the things I might need to do some baking. I have mentioned how much smaller the fridge and cupboard space is in our new house to anything I may previously been used to, this means far more frequent trips to pick up groceries. I tend to plan for about four days of meals and buy the groceries for these only and my fridge will be full and my pantry nearly so. This lead to some concern about how I would get baking supplies in the already tight space. Non the less the kids had a hankering for some rice krispie squares so away we went to the local Asda (which as far as I can tell is actually walmart but everything is branded Asda). I needn't have worried too much as it turns out as I am obviously not the only resident of this country to face these space problems. Bulk seems to be a foreign concept here, I know they have a costco somewhere, I think an hour or so away, but in the local grocery stores no such luck.

The cake box gives you a little perspective, this box is probably slightly larger than a cake box sold in Canada. This was literally the largest vanilla bottle, flour bag and chocolate chips I could find, in a Walmart. It will be nearly impossible to over indulge while over here as I will only be able to bake six cookies at a time! In fact if you look closer at the cupcake box you may note, despite its larger than Canada size it in fact contains mix for exactly six cupcakes.

Even if I steal more of these than everyone else that would mean a total of like three cupcakes. I will never be able to have a binge fest on home baked goodies. I suppose that the upside is I shouldn't gain any weight either, maybe I'll loose a couple of pounds even, especially when combined with the fact that I still won't drive and have to walk everywhere. Also I bought a pancake mix as we wanted some with fresh cut strawberries and whipped cream for supper and I mixed it up and realized pretty quickly that when they say pancakes they mean crepes. Oddly enough the pancake batter would also make popovers, same batter just cooked differently. Seeing this I added cinnamon  and vanilla and they actually turned out really yummy. So instead of our idea of pancakes we rolled them up with strawberries and cream and drizzled maple syrup over them. The kids devoured them.  We bought British grown strawberries and they had to be the most beautiful, red and yummy bunch of strawberries I have ever enjoyed. In fact despite the smaller size most of there food items are sold in, or actually probably because of it, the produce I have eaten here has been some of the freshest and best I have had.

I couldn't help it, I had to take a picture, look how pretty they are, and not one bad one in the whole lot.

Some Random Thoughts

Everything is smaller scale here it seems, not surprising I suppose considering that all of the UK would fit into Canada many times and with a population about twice as large. This means some adjustments for a person born and raised in the great expanses of the Canadian prairies. The roads being narrower, the homes being more spatially aware, and the cars being more compact. After a while this can seem quite normal however there are some things that I just can't get used to. I can't seem to get on board with never having an empty laundry basket because my washer will only fit about three pairs of pants into it at a time. Truthfully that is a bit of an exaggeration but I am constantly running the washer in an effort to have clean clothes, dry towels and fresh bedding. Part of the problem is, I have come to learn, they don't really like dryers here. They hang their clothes to dry and are a bit surprised when you express a desire to have a faster laundry method. Do you have any idea how long a load of jeans, or towels take to dry hanging in your kitchen? I'll tell you, sometimes days. Which means I prepare meals, clean counters, sweep, and eat all with my drying rack as a constant companion. I am only half joking when I warn the kids to call before bringing friends by so I have time to hide their underwear. Oddly enough as the washer is in the kitchen, and all the other rooms are carpeted or too small, this is actually the most logical place to hang my laundry.

I have made comments in this post and my previous one about the roads and driving on them, which is a little terrifying it's true, but I feel I need to say something nice. As we have been here longer and I have become a slightly more calm passenger I have learned to appreciate the beauty of the roads. You often travel down winding tree lined streets that would simply take your breath away. Admittedly the speed the limits are far too fast and so the scenery flies by you a little too quickly but what you can see is stunning.

I didn't take this picture I borrowed it from someone else brave enough to stop on one of these roads to get a proper picture but it is a pretty good depiction of the kind of things you would see around the area I live in.

I spent much of this week exploring my neighborhood and have discovered many walking paths and some shopping destinations and imagine that I will find more as the days get warmer and longer. We spent Saturday at Legoland with the kids and so didn't see much of the countryside, but did get to see much of it miniaturized and made of lego. I thought that the lego creations were fairly impressive but the rides left much to be desired. It was no Disneyland!  The kids had fun though and took millions of pictures, of which I have none, so I suppose it was worth the trip. Next weekend is a long weekend here so that will give the whole family three days together so perhaps we will will discover new vistas and I will have so much more to say next time.

There were many things that I anticipated about making a move to England but was taken aback by how foreign everything feels. When you look around everything looks slightly unfamiliar, the houses are not built exactly same, car companies build modified frames, you get a yellow light before the red and the green, everyone has an accent, and the cars are on the wrong side of the street. I have reminded myself many times in this first week that if I was here on vacation it would all be exciting and humorous, but knowing that I have to adjust to all these differences, find my way around, and drive, has made them all just a little bit overwhelming. Despite this, I have had moments of real enthusiasm about the adventure we are embarking on.

This first week has been riddled with frustration and exhaustion as we try to adapt to the time change and get our life set up here. When we landed in London I was already tired and honestly probably crabby as I had not slept on the flight over, and waiting nearly an hour for our rental car did not help. Then we faced our  first time driving on the wrong side of the road where I felt both the oncoming traffic and the shoulder were far to close to me.  Arriving in Swindon did little to alleviate my concern as the roads got even more narrow and traffic circles appeared in front of us every fifty feet. Within minutes I was moaning that I would never be able to drive anywhere. Getting into the flat and dropping off the luggage at least left me feeling like we had a home base, albeit one without bedding, pots, towels, tv, food, or chocolate to make it feel more homey. With nothing else to be done, this meant an expensive trip to the local Walmart, which is luckily right down the road.

The next day dawned bright and sunny and so therefore full of promise and so off to church we all went. As we entered the building we were met with ' I know that my redeemer lives' pouring out of the chapel, and I knew that no matter what else might be different that at least some things would be the same. Following our meeting we made our way to the bishops house to join them in their Sunday dinner. We had hours of lovely conversation that taught us many of things we didn't know about the area and cleared up many of our questions, some we didn't even know we had. 

Monday was a bank holiday as so we were unable to get many of the list items done as so many places were closed and we used this sunny day to walk around the neighborhood, get more shopping done and generally get our bearings. Our community is relatively new and has large cobbled side walks, wide enough for the whole family to walk in a row on. We also have a great place for chips that as you get close to, wafts the smell of vinegar that hangs in the area delightfully and draws you in almost without you knowing it has. We also have a little grocery store and a hair salon so I may never actually need to leave here and will never have to drive here! As we walked around it was hard not to notice how green and lush everything was. Parks and gardens jump out from the red buildings with such contrast that it almost takes your breath away. I have to say, considering we rented sight unseen, we have lucked out with how lovely our small neighborhood really is.

The next few days were a blur of one frustration and struggle after another as we attempted to get the kids registered in school, set up my mobile, get a bank account, sign up for internet and get utilities to the flat. Every morning started with the commitment to work really hard in the morning and then spend the afternoon playing, and ended with us crawling back home somewhere around dinner with nothing to show for it. Obviously I have never moved to a new country before but I never would have expected how tedious trying to get these mundane tasks done would be for us. We were told we didn't have correct documentation or that we has to fill out paperwork or that we were in the wrong place. We were asked questions about things we would never know the answer to given how new to the country we were, as so it went for days. Always we were met with friendly people who I truly believe wanted to help us but were not always exactly sure how. One such person was Louis at HSBC, he was so pleasant and so desired to be helpful but I think was somewhat stumped by our situation. However it was his determination and our combined two hours that finally got us a bank account that hopefully by next weekend we will be able to use. We got to know quite a bit about one another in our time together, I learned that Louis would be a great guy to have on your team in a quiz game as he was full of funny trivia. One such is that the expression "Daylight Robbery" comes from a tax implemented here in early England. Apparently in order to determine how much property tax to charge land owners the would base it on the amount of windows they had, so these unfortunate home owners started to brick their windows up to  save on tax. It actually helped the time go much quicker than it might have so, thank you Louis. Finally by the end of the day on Thursday we were able to feel like most of the pressing needs were as accomplished as we could get them and we were free to plan some activities.

Slower to start on Friday than we may have hoped but determined to get out and enjoy the rain we started our adventuring by hitting a pub for lunch. I know what you are thinking, no the kids were with us and not at home. It felt odd to us also but pubs here are family restaurants and so all are welcome. They section off the pubs into areas children are allowed and areas they are not, so just behind the wall from us were the serious lunchtime drinkers. Even knowing all this I couldn't help feeling a little like, "You have a baby.....in a bar." however the food was good and the atmosphere was inviting.  After we left the bar we headed to Stonehenge to tour the ruins. You get a radio looking device to carry around and they give you tidbits of information about the stones and how they were constructed and moved. The stones themselves are roped off with a large walking path that takes you all the way around the outside of the circle. We walked the loop twice once listening to our radio guide and once without. I found there mass and structure both impressive and awe inspiring. However as Randy pointed out to the kids, perhaps what made it most exciting was we were walking in place that was talked and written about all over the world. A bucket list kind of item to do.

The rest of Friday and all of Saturday were spent driving to and viewing other historical sights around our area, well within a couple of hours of us. We visited Old Sarum castle, Nunny Castle, Whitehorse, and Farleigh Hungerford Castle. Most castle sights are very much in ruin and it takes a great deal of imagination to see them as the impressive structures they must have been. I think that the kids thought that they would see castles like the ones depicted in movies and were a little deflated with the reality of what is left to view of these once great buildings. I however was moved to see the crumbling walls that were constructed so many hundreds of years ago. It is hard not to feel connected to the owners and users of the dilapidated stone homes as you walk over the fallen walls.  I was struck with how uncomfortable they must have been to live in and how cold and uninviting it must have been to be a guest in the drafty halls and bed chambers.  There are many more of these landmarks to visit and I look forward to comparing the differences and learning more about the history of this new country I find myself in.