London!

Mrs Firehouse has requested that I say something about the first two days of our stay in London – apparently I’m not keeping up with my blogging duties, or something something. My excuse is that we’ve been so busy doing as much as we can, I haven’t actually had time to write anything (I’m writing this from the Eurostar to Paris, so surely there’s some validation of my supposed tardiness, this is the only free time we’ve had so far!)

So, welcome to London, welcome to Heathrow, and for me, welcome back to a country I haven’t been to for almost 25 years. This is the country where I entered the world, no doubt kicking, screaming and generally making a nuisance of myself (not much has changed some would argue), so it’s a homecoming of sorts (more of that in another blog). Once we navigated the various airport controls (yet again infinitely more efficient than Sydney, but still not as good as Hong Kong), we became very good friends with the London Underground system, all bags in tow. After dropping off our bags (over an hour later) at the Sri Lankan High Commission near Hyde Park, we commenced our (re)introduction to London – it’s Chath’s first time in Europe, and effectively my first time in London, since I can’t really claim to remember much!

So, in our first tour of London, we saw a number of war memorials, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Clarendon House, the changing of the guard, a number of parks, Trafalgar Square, lots of tourists (half of them from Australia, it was almost like being at home!) and Big Ben. And probably more stuff too, which I won’t be able to remember until I review the photos that are sitting on a number of memory cards. After hunting down a recommended fish and chips shop (Golden Hind, somewhere near the Bond Street underground station off Oxford St), some shopping and ice-cream before dinner. Bearing in mind that we were doing all of this following our 13-hour flight from Hong Kong, I think we did pretty well to last as well as did, although I must admit I did crash on the way home from dinner with Hari and Ruvi, who were quite strong advocates of packing up and moving to London. If only it was that easy…

Day two saw us taking in the Tower of London, and a quick look (from the outside) of St Paul’s cathedral. Both places were absolutely spectacular, and the time we spent there didn’t do either venue its justice. The thing that you notice with London (Rome also springs to mind) is that the entire city is littered with magnificent buildings, sculptures and monuments, like the entire city is a slightly disorganized museum. I must say, it really adds to the pomp and atmosphere of central London, in the tourist areas at least, and I can definitely understand the lure of packing up and relocating. I’m sure it’s a different story in winter though…

The second half of the day saw us at a West End musical – The Lion King! The Lion King is probably my all-time favourite Disney movie, and I was always sad that I never got to see the musical when it was on in Sydney. To see it in London however, at a theatre where it had been playing for close to 10 years – a truly amazing experience, and a great memory to take away from London. What’s mind-boggling (as a Sydneysider at least) is the number of theatres and different musicals on offer in the West End – Sydney might have one, maybe two different musicals playing at any one time, whereas London will have one or two on the same street, year after year after year. Then you turn the corner and see two more theatres with hit musicals playing... then you walk down the street to yet more theatres... the culture of the place is amazing. I do wonder though how often the average Londoner would go to the theatre – as a tourist it’s easy to appreciate this, but as a local it could just be part of the furniture, which would be a shame indeed if this was the case.

The initial impression from all of this touring was that four days could only ever give us a mere glimpse of everything London has to offer, let alone the rest of England. The next time we’re I’d love to rent out an apartment for a month, and explore the city and country proper – but reality will probably get in the way of that particular dream...

Oh, almost forgot – dinner that night was at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant, Fifteen – but I’ll let Chath tell you more about that J