Day 3: London: Impressions of Our First Great City
We left our guest house near the airport (at Horley) early and headed into London. We had to meet with Aunt Cindy at her flat in Old Marlybone Road, in the heart of town.
We had easily found Horley station the day before, and trundled our cases over with no problem. Trains run frequently, especially during the morning rush, and at around 7 a.m., it's full on rush time. The train was full and no chance of fitting a bike - things only ease up by 9:30. However the empty cases were no problem.
Horely Starion, the kickoff point for our train to London
Thanks for storing our cases, Aunt Cindy! Unless one uses the Bike Friday suitcases with the trailer kit, it is always necessary to find a place to stash them.
We were now free to absorb London, and OMIGOD, the impact is instant and fabulous. Clearly, London is the first "Great City" we have been in. Vancouver, Montreal, Seattle, Washington DC, Houston, Los Angeles, Mexico City, etc. - we have been around a bit in North America. But none of these can really compare. Here, in phrases, are some things we felt and observed. This may well have been the most stimulating day of our lives. (I am of course excluding our wedding night, but then again that was night, not day!).
The first thing that struck us was the vast number and overwhelming presence of huge, ornately carved, stone buildings. This is not a matter of a neat government or bank building here and there, this is everything, everywhere, gorgeous. (From other blogs we know we will find this throughout Europe, but that does not lessen the impact in this, our first experience of it).
Here is a selection of the type of thing we are talking about. These are not the houses of parliament, or cathedrals, or suchlike (which we show later), these are just ... everywhere:
The next thing to strike us was the traffic. Busses, cars, and cabs seemed to zoom everywhere. They were joined by lots and lots of people, walking everywhere. To say the scene was "active" would be a major understatement. But this was not the kind of squalid, frantic, dirty rush of say New York City. And this was not the deadly, soulless separation of cars and pedestrians in elevated freeways of say Houston. This was more of a noisy, colourful, parade. With narrow streets, no broad boulevards, ad well constructed cross walks, it was something that heightened your alertness (yes, of necessity) but was strangely OK.
On the other hand, biking did not seem to be really on, certainly not for us. We would not have lasted long. There were a fair number of cyclists, but their speed and skill was far beyond what we would be able to muster.
There are lots of folding bikes in use around the city (mostly Bromptons), but the wild traffic melee does not make biking a recommended activity in town (we say).
All this was happening amid names and places that are so familiar to those in the English speaking world. From Baker Street to Cheapside to Fleet Street, Whitehall, Picadilly, and on an on, it was like walking into a book (actually a whole library). Maybe the British can be reviled for their empire building, but they did it, and now their iconic places, institutions, and ideas are ours too.
What next? Tourists. Throngs of tourists.
Throngs of tourists were everywhere in central London. They did not spoil or despoil the sites, but rather added to the fun.
And of course the tourists were thickest around the iconic sights. These of course are oftenin the category of large ornate buildings, but these are the super special ones, known world wide. Here are some of our snaps. Maybe you will see and angle or something here that you have not already seen in guidebooks or on TV.
The London Eye, observation gondolas. This was meant to be temporary but has become a permanent London attraction.
The lions at the base of Nelson's statue in Trafalgar Square must be the most photographed in the world. You have to be quick to get off a shot without a tourist posing in front.
The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square has free admission. Shockingly, the public can approach multi million dollar (or generally priceless) works of art to within one foot. Clearly, British are too polite to ever harm anything like that.
The rooms in the National Gallery are large, with high ceilings. It's a wonderful place. Standing within inches of famous works by Money, Van Gogh, Renoir, and so many others gave us goosebumps.
Guards at the entrance to Downing Street, where the Prime Minister lives, at number 10. Like all London police we interacted with, these were friendly, polite and non-threatening. Photos? Sure, no problem. Others at other sensitive spots were conversational - seemed mostly like friendly uncles. Of course, we were totally non-threatening tourists in knee shorts and shopping bags!
After all this we must be getting a bit hungry. From fast food to pub food to pastry shops, we found it all to be of exceptionally high quality. It's high quality comfort food. Most of it rather simple, but subtly super. Maybe in France or so we will find how truly advanced food can be, but what what we have seen here beats most stuff anywhere in North America.
Makings of tea at the National Gallery. As in so many other places in London, the cash register is hidden somewhere at the back and you have to work a bit to have them take your money. British are too polite to just walk out, apparently. Or to put it another way, it seems that trusting people produces trustworthiness (or the other way around?) but it's great, and so different from the U.S.
These pastries at the National Gallery were subtley unique and extremely good. They rival anything we have tried anywhere and make us wonder why people are often down on British food.
Much good food is found, true to the stereotype, in pubs. And there are pubs here that are ancient, with elaborate woodwork, heavy beams, and decorative fronts. They are well attended.
One of our chores, as we walked along busy Oxford street was to arrange 3G and cell service. We walked in to a shop and explained our plan - cycle in 7 countries, tether our netbook to the cell phone, have one phone each, etc. Over an hour later we still did not fully understand what was possible and what not, but we walked out with a pile of stuff. It's a whole story by itself. Maybe soon I will put it into a Crazyguy article. Maybe soon I will actually understand it myself!
Chi at the Orange/T-Mobile shop in Oxford Street was super patient as we struggled with the subtle difference between how cell service is offered in the UK vs. in North America
Perhaps only die hards are still reading this entry. One die hard topic is cycling maps. From home we bought a pile from Stanfords, and had quite an email dialog with them over what was available and how much it would cost to ship them. So we wanted to drop in on our Stanfords friends. We sought out the shop in Longacre Street near Covent Garden. The shop is not huge, but its big enough. Big enough to have a selection that is huge. I would like cyclists to understand how good this resource is. So here are seven shots to give an idea.
These are almost exactly the same rental bikes as are found in Montreal. Clearly the systems share the same problems. This station has no vacant slots, so arriving cyclists are skunked.
