London Calling
Trip dates: January 10, 2017 - January 18, 2017
Believe it or not, I’d never been to the UK before! Lishan had visited London with her parents and we'd both been to other parts of Europe, but I've just never had the chance to stop in London. After wrapping up our time there, I really enjoyed the city. Everyone was dressed super nice, so I’d probably not fit in there long term, but it was a nice break to be somewhere more familiar with no problems being understood and just to be in the same place for a week.
We took the tube a lot, since we stayed at an Airbnb that was a few stops away from central London. I was pretty surprised at how clean and straight forward the tube was compared to say, NYC’s metro. It was easy to understand where to go, signs were accurate (generally), and we didn’t really get lost at all. Trains also came very frequently, moreso than even Japan, so unless traveling at peak times, there was generally very little wait and trains weren’t too crowded.
Our Airbnb was weird (for us, as we normally do the whole place) in that it was a flat inside of someone’s house, so we had to walk in through the main door and up a staircase through their place, but then had a whole floor to ourselves. It worked out well as a base and the location gave us more local flavor. The local neighborhood felt like my neighborhood in Chicago by Lakeview/Uptown, a little more ‘gritty’ I suppose but full of normal, diverse people who live there.
Of course, given it’s January in London, it was really cold and it rained a bunch, though luckily we didn’t get snow. A continued major departure from Asia but we’re just going to have to get used to it. Here are some of the highlights from our time there!
We visited Westminster Abbey, where unfortunately you can’t take any pictures inside. It was pretty impressive inside, especially seeing the commemorations for famous historical figures like Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and previous Kings and Queens. Very different yet similar in its sense of serenity and spirituality to some of the other religious places we visited in Asia.
We also spent an afternoon at the Tower of London, which is a historic castle/tower that houses the crown jewels (no pictures), was where Anne Boleyn was beheaded, and included a bunch of other historical artifacts.
We spent time walking around Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, primarily to get some exercise after our long travel ordeal from the previous few days. We visited the Peter Pan statue, Princess Diana’s memorial fountain, and tried to find Speaker’s Corner but no one was speaking (it’s really just a corner of grass and wasn’t really marked out in the winter).
Prior to arriving in London, I had wanted to do a football match (soccer to you American readers heh) to compare with our previous visit to a Seattle Sounders game. Our tour bus driver from our Stonehenge/Bath visit (see Lishan’s post) was a Millwall fan, which is a very southie/blue collar team. He mentioned there was a match against their rivals Charlton (they’re only 6miles apart!), so we went to check it out! For a smaller league, League One (that's two leagues below Premier League), the game was still pretty intense and the Millwall fan section was louder than the rest of the stadium combined. The fans also have a reputation for rowdiness, so there were police roaming the streets before and after in riot gear and horses which was an experience to be around. The match ended scoreless (just our luck) but it was still exciting to watch and we’re glad we braved the cold to see it. Lishan, in particular, was especially amused by the Millwall fans’ rowdy songs and might have been converted into a fan herself.
We also went to the Churchill War Rooms, which is a museum built in the Cabinet War Rooms facility that was built underground during WW2 to coordinate the British government and war activities. It also contained a lot of details on Churchill’s life, which we’d never really known before.
We attempted to view the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace with all its pomp and tradition, but the day we went, it was rainy (surprise surprise) so instead we witnessed a quick change without all of the bands, horses, and pizzazz.
We wanted to experience a tea service while in London, so we also learned that there’s a difference with afternoon tea and high tea. Turns out afternoon tea is more of a meal with sandwiches and sweets while high tea is another meal usually later in the day and with savory foods. We ended up doing afternoon tea at Bea’s of Bloomsbury by St. Paul’s church. It was nice because they gave us more tea when asked (a lot of places seem to only give you the one pot per person, which is only 2 cups of tea), and there was a ton of food. We weren’t that hungry as we’d had a late lunch, but we managed to stuff our faces in the name of the Queen. It’s only proper.
We visited the Shakespeare Globe Theater and saw the exhibits and theater there. It was pretty cool to see the historical details and the way they reconstructed the Globe. It was funny to learn it was an American actor/director (Sam Wanamaker) who kicked off the process a half century ago because when he was visiting London and wanted to see more about Shakespeare, there was only a plaque on the original spot of the Globe to commemorate the literary icon. We also watched a play at the indoor playhouse next to the theater; it was a very intimate and old school production - it’s candle lit, with more traditional wood seats (thankfully with cushions), and everyone sits pretty close to the stage. It was very different from any other show we’ve seen and was a really nice experience. We felt so cultured afterwards.
Being Harry Potter fans, we saw two HP-related places (but we didn’t bother with the studio tour). We went to King’s Cross station to see platform 9 and 3/4, where there’s a long line just to take a picture pretending to push the luggage cart through the wall. We also went to Lacock, which was the location for Godric’s Hollow and Harry’s house in the first movie. It’s a super traditional/old town that is being kept that way for historical reasons. At night, it is SUPER dark and misty/foggy, aka creepy, so naturally we hung out in the graveyard and took some pictures.
Our last night, we did a walking Jack the Ripper tour in the East End. It was interesting seeing a part of town we hadn’t been through (East End, Brick Lane, Liverpool Station) and our guide was pretty theatrical and entertaining. He used a projector to show snapshots of what the area used to look like in the past while describing the different murders associated with Jack, including some pretty gruesome mortuary shots. Sorry, no pictures since it was dark!
The only downside was that it was a big group, so it was just harder to get into it. It was good for getting us in the mood to play another game of Letters from Whitechapel though, but unfortunately, not enough room in our packs for the game.
Here are some other sight-seeing pics that didn’t get specific call outs.
Of course, then there’s the food we ate! We tried to eat more traditional British fare, including Indian food. It was a better scene than what I was led to believe from others’ experiences, in that it wasn’t all just fish and chips and Indian food. However, quality sometimes was a bit hit or miss, especially at smaller places. The fancy Indian place we went to (Gymkhana) was really, really good, but also really expensive. The fish for fish and chips was a lot better than what we normally have in the US, though the Nosh food truck in Seattle prepared me well for the fish here. Nosh’s mushy peas are also better than what we got here!
Since we were in an airbnb, we also wanted to cook a meal or two to save money and for some ‘normalcy’. We ended up making pizza on naan bread (a common ChenMou staple at home) with some salad, which turned out quite tasty thank you very much.
