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.