After a lovely, short stay in Manchester, we hopped aboard the bus once more and headed into the home stretch of our ‘round the world adventure with a four night stop in jolly old England’s capital city – London.
I’ve never had any kind of strong inclination to visit London. Even having heard from many people that the city is really great, it’s not been on any travel list I put together. For a while now though, I’ve know it would probably be our last stop in Europe because it is one of the cheapest places to fly out of to America. It was a bonus that an old friend of mine, whom I haven’t seen in over a decade, lives in the city.
I like this image of a statue so I will place it here to break up the words.
Our first day there, we met him (Jesse) for Sunday roast, which is apparently something of a to do in London. We arrived at a pub in the early afternoon and proceeded to drink all day (as Englanders evidently do) and eat large plates of roasted beef and vegetables. We had a great time full of laughs and reminiscing, though, I’m really not too sure how they do it. Drink all day that is. Melissa and I were pretty snookered by the end of the day (really just the early evening). Jesse and his friend Nigel seemed to be going strong although they both had way more to drink than us. Our wimpy American livers just couldn’t handle it.
This was almost an illustration of us after Sunday roast. Almost.
We shuffled back to our Airbnb apartment and pretty much just crashed. Later that evening, we learned there was a large scale model of the London skyline that was burned in the middle of the Thames for the 350th anniversary of the Great London Fire. We were too tired (read: drunk) to head down to see it though. Oh well, next anniversary we will have to see it.
Our Airbnb was great. It was right up the road from an Overground stop and a bunch of cool restaurants and shops in the Shoreditch neighborhood. Our artist host was a very energetic guy and super nice and made us feel incredibly welcome. Not surprisingly, he said we looked out of it that night we got home.
A lovely English garden at our Airbnb.
He was also nice enough to allow us to borrow his Tate Modern membership card. This gained us free entry into the amazing Georgia O’Keeffe retrospective. I’ve seen some of her work here and there but never one this large. The breadth and depth of her life’s work was astonishing. From cityscapes to still lives to her popular flower work, I’ve never seen a collection of paintings so beautiful. She is every bit the artist that Picasso was, whom I would compare to her as a master of color and form.
The Tate Modern is a large place and we did not see everything. Next time.
The view I mention in the next paragraph.
We enjoyed a nice lunch and coffee on the upper floors of the museum with a view of the Thames and St. Paul’s Cathedral before venturing forth on our usual meandering walking tour. The London Eye, Parliament, Big Ben, the building that houses Shrek's Adventure, and several other tourist sites were on the path. Hopping on a riverboat, we floated downstream to see the London Bridge and Tower Bridge on our way to Greenwich. We also passed the stupidly named Motor Yacht A - a 370-foot long, $274 million, Russian owned super yacht moored next to the monument ship HMS Belfast. It looked like a boat.
I was excited to see the Cutty Sark until I realized that it is not a bottle of scotch whisky but a large, three-mast ship on land. Ah well, the Queen’s old house and Greenwich Park would have to do for our entertainment.
Should we go into St. Paul's? What?! $30 to walk around inside? Nah.
Seattle has one of these but its WAY smaller.
Look, kids, Big Ben. Parliament.
This is not a bottle of alcohol.
Some weird circus remnants in Greenwich.
The rest of our London time was filled with eating really tasty Indian food, devouring the best bowl of pho I’ve ever had, and shopping in the many, many vintage clothing stores for a dress for Melissa. I found myself a swanky jeff cap (which I needed because I left my Vietnam hat on the bus) and then I subsequently left that cap in a restaurant in Philly. That’s why I can’t have nice things. Melissa found a lovely dress though.
The other thing we did was take a lot of pictures of the cool graffiti that was prolific throughout our neighborhood. I give London high marks for the variety and skill of the pieces found around town. Take note Prague and Budapest!
Fun graffiti times.
The graffiti game on point here.
Our time in London was brief and I found myself wanting some more time there. It’s a city that deserves a thorough visit with a great many interesting sites to see. Alas, this was not to be. The motherland was calling and it was time to return home. Funny thing is, we’re not sure where “home” is quite yet. We do know that we must be in PA to vote.
Our travels aren’t quite over yet either. There are some friends and family to see all over the great American countryside. We also have yet to decide if we will be writing any more posts. I have a feeling we’re not quite done sharing our adventures. We also have some larger plans to be put into place when we return.
Until then, thanks for following us. I hope you all had as much fun reading as we did writing. Hopefully we will go to other there’s soon.
And this is in London also. Not sure what it is.