English Funsights

  

England is an interesting place with many interesting and humorous things to see. We loved all the street names especially those that were a little unusual. Pubs usually had signs outside to catch your interest. It's not often that you get invited to a 'slaughter festival'. Roundabouts would be more popular in Canada if we put an inviting pub in the middle of it (parking might be an issue). This is not where the Knights of the Roundtable met. Stopping in for a 'tipple' sounds interesting. Why? We couldn't figure out who would want to cross this bridge. You don't see many of these signs in Manitoba. Spelling is soooo important. Somebody has strong feelings about speeders.

London had funny sights as well. When we arrived in East Finchley, we didn't expect to be greeted with flowers and a new car. There are many funny T-shirts out there with an element of truth (the second one anyway).  You can buy anything at the Buckingham gift shop including your own Corgi. You never know when you'll run into a celebrity here (Judi Dench was at her movie premiere in Leicester Square). This nose was thought to be Duke Wellington's for years since there are a million Wellington things in the city but an artist confessed recently to posting these all over the city as a protest against all of the security cameras (keep your nose out of my business). At least Matthew was warned about petting the horse. Wearing your patriotism can go a little far. It's not often you are told not to feed pigeons and not ride on lions.

And now for two sad sights. London has security everywhere for good reasons. Downing Street isn't the only place where it is so obvious. All the squares and parks and tourist sights have heavily armed patrols. I was even stopped once outside a Metro and questioned about my camera. Bag checks are common and you get very used to pulling out your wallet and phone, etc. We found ourselves not even seeing the security patrols anymore as they have become a regular part of the scenery. And finally, the saddest part of our time in London for me was not being able to get tickets for the Pink Floyd exhibition. Maybe I'll catch it when it comes through Winnipeg in ten years.

London Calling (We're Back!)

Traveling through the UK has been wonderful but at times stressful because we are constantly moving from home to home. When we arrived in London, we were happy to be back in a familiar place. Five years ago we stayed in an Airbnb in East Finchley with our friendly hosts Roger and Agri. It felt good to be walking up the street to their 1878 Blenheim Lodge and know it would be our home for a whole week.

We spent our time in London revisiting some familiar places like museums (British, Natural History, and Science), markets (Camden and Covent Garden), and cathedrals (Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's). The Evensong Services were particularly memorable and we were able to sit in the choir loft again at St. Paul's which was an added perk.

We enjoyed our pub suppers in our two favourite 'locals' The Churchill Arms and The Old White Lion.

We decided to do more wandering this time and took some walks through neighbourhoods such as Notting Hill and Belgravia to see how the other half (one per cent) live. We looked into some realtors' windows and couldn't believe how many extra zeroes there were in the prices in the rental ads. (I guess we're staying in Winkler.)

Kensington Gardens was another pleasant walk with Kensington Palace and all the Lady Diana tributes, the Lady Diana Fountain, the Albert Memorial, and the Royal Albert Hall. There are so many parks here to walk through and relax in. English people, we have noticed, love to walk whether it is in the countryside, the parks, or city neighbourhoods. That might explain why there are no obese people here despite all the beer and bread.

Since the Queen wouldn't see us when we were at Balmoral in Scotland, we decided to take in the Buckingham Palace Tour while she was gone. It was breathtakingly beautiful and actually quite educational as well. It was interesting to find that it isn't nearly as big as many other European palaces and the Queen prefers to live elsewhere as much as possible especially at Windsor Castle. She uses the palace mostly for business and hosting.

We had not decided to take in any shows while we were in London but with all the enticing posters everywhere and the availability of discounted tickets, we decided to splurge a little. We found lower priced tickets for Matilda on the morning of the show and really loved the music,  choreography, and sets. So we tried to get The Lion King tickets and ended up enjoying the most incredible musical production we had ever seen. It really made our time in London even more special.

A free walking tour, visits to some incredible stores (Fortnum and Mason, Harrods), wandering through Piccadilly, Leicester, and Trafalgar Squares, and the Royal Art Conservatory rounded out our time in London.

One of the best things about London was being able to zip very quickly from one corner to the other thanks to their wonderful subway system (The Tube).It saved us lots of walking time although we still prefered to walk whenever possible just to get a little feel for how life is for ordinary Londoners.

It's hard not to fall in love with London with all the colourful pubs on almost every corner and more sights to see than almost anywhere else. We especially enjoyed feeling like we were living in the city, taking the Metro, buying groceries, walking through neighbourhoods, and taking the time to sit in a park. It was hard to leave Roger and Agri's but we felt like we had been able to take a little break in our travels enjoying one of the world's most fascinating cities.