Got to London a week ago, and am in York tonight. Tomorrow I’m off to Manchester and then Wales for a few days before flying to Berlin on May 30… Having a great time, of course. The weather has been simply unbelievable. Brilliant, warm sunny weather, day after day, though a fierce storm is promised for this weekend.
Visiting London as a pure tourist for the first time (my 4th visit), with my parents for the first few days, joined on Tuesday by Francesca. At the outset of a six week journey that will encompass many countries, moods, activities, and people, it takes a bit to relax into the rhythm. It’s also a bit jarring to spend 24 hours a day with my parents after not having done so for many years. But we’re all finding our way (regrettably my mom is hobbled by a bad hip so she’s not as mobile as any of us expected her to be–but we’re working around it)…
London is a huge, sprawling place, so my experience was necessarily quite limited. I probably only heard English spoken by about half the people I overheard speaking (a great deal of Polish and Russian, among dozens of other languages). The whole place is either under construction or newly rebuilt, or so it seemed to my inexperienced eye. Here’s a photo from the Millennium Bridge towards “The City” which is decked out in cranes; the view was similar in every direction.
London is a very horizontal city, not so tall, and riding up in the over-rated Eye (a giant ferris wheel-like device that never stops turning at a very slow half hour pace) gave a view of construction in every direction. Here I am in it with Francesca a few hours after she got off the plane:
The visit to London started out with a trip to the Borough Market, a wonderful artisan market full of local cheeses, pastries, breads, chocolates, meats, mmmmm, so many good things!
Continue reading UK vacationing
