Day 1: London, England; Cloud with Sun, muggy, 28°

A Little Taste Of London!

It’s been quite the amazing time this past day since leaving home. We almost missed our Vancouver flight because Air Canada had challenges getting a plane to our Island with 3 delays! They finally managed to get us to YVR, but it left us with a scramble to cross the airport to the International area where we boarded our plane in record time. Had there been security during our fast paced transit we would have missed the flight, but fortunately this wasn’t required. 

The flight went smoothly and after a couple of jet lag moments we arrived at our pub/hotel with rooms upstairs in time to have a cold beer on the house which nearly finished us! 

Our room acquired, there remained the matter of having the whole lock assembly replaced on our door as the key had broken off with the head still in the lock. We didn’t do it! A lock repair guy was quickly called, a super nice over worked fellow from Romania who told up about why his country’s language was based on Latin while all the surrounding countries were Slavic. It has to do with the Roman conquests, which given the name of the country shouldn’t surprise. I will admit that even in our jet lagged stupor Annemarie picked this up right away which was surprising given she was even more out of it than I was! In a matter of minutes he went from a gruff overworked locksmith to a father of two little girls with photos to show us. It was great fun to see the change. Door lock fixed we headed down to the pub for what turned out to be a quite brilliantly prepared huge plate of fish and chips.

After a long night of trying to find my way into this time zone, we were up fairly early and down for a good breakfast complete with tea served the British way, with milk on the side. Still not fully crisp it took me a while to figure out why my cup was only about two thirds full. By the time I’d finished that first cup it dawned on me that they had of course expected me to use the milk they have given me along side the hot water. No jet lag here, nope absolutely none. Once explained to the young woman behind the bar with a beautiful British accent, my second cup was appropriately filled and enjoyed. It’s the small things on a long journey, right?

Stomachs full we set off to get our business done. Train tickets for tomorrow morning ‘down’ to Farnham and then a data plan on our phones. As always the rest of the world puts Canada a little to shame on the latter item. 21G’s of data, unlimited phone calls and texting for a month was just £10 or CAD$16. We still have a lot of catching up to do! Come on CRTC, keep up! 

Our business done and a couple of tube rides later we began to do something that we’d not done during prior visits to London. You ask, was it to see some of the fabulous museums and galleries that litter London like ducks on a pond? Nope. Was it to experience many of the great pubs that London is famous for? Nope. Was it to see a brilliant stage play? Nope. None of these. Before leaving home my good friend Ariel told me that since my last visit to London in 1991 while returning from a travel to Egypt that we’d find many changes. So we decided that the best way to observe and to experience some of these changes was to simply walk a section of the city. After all it’s what we do! 

We both came to London wanting to walk the Thames River and so we did. Some 20 kms of it. And Ariel, you were so right. There has been significant changes. New tower complexes with some quite brilliant architecture, a new pedestrian bridge across the Thames, older historical structures cleaned of their industrial revolution filth. Many changes. 

But there’s still the stuff we all love too.











As we sat having an ice cold refreshment near the end of our walk on a bar built into an old Thames river boat we reflected on the day and on the changes we had seen to the London that we knew in 1975, 1981 and in 1991. I suggested that in some areas it was difficult to find the magic that change generates in cities. Yes we did find a few of those places we’d never walked before in behind Westminster Cathedral and the Parliament and no doubt there are many more like it. 

After all this was just a singe walk on a single day. We noticed the mass tourism that we’ve come to expect in areas around the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and Big Ben, but that’s ok. It’s happening in all big cities worldwide and I’ve come to accept it. 

Back to that ice cold pint of beer. 

As we looked downstream towards parliament and Westminster Bridge and talked about the changes we’d seen, we began to realize that London’s planners had in fact done a pretty good job. 

The new developments have been restricted to zones and really the character of the city to a large degree had been maintained. No doubt Londoners might have a different opinion, after all these observations aren’t from one who commutes or lives here. That said, the tube system is still amazing and cool to ride. If it was good enough for Churchill then it’s good enough for me🙂Having read a book or three about London’s history I’ve kind of decided that these changes are just an evolution of a city that has being going on for a couple of thousand years and will hopefully continue. 

By the way, it’s great to get everyone’s comments. If you send it anonymously please add your first name at the bottom of your post so I at least know who I’m responding to. We can’t all be anonymous! 

Tomorrow 5 years of dreaming and thinking about this walk finally becomes reality. Pretty excited or what?!