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London, England
Yeah your car wash and your airplanes and the highways, we’ve been here for too long, for too long
Somewhere between spending way too much time at the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion (yet rarely going inside to see the actual gallery for some reason) and the Royal Albert Hall (where investigations into how many holes it would take to fill are apparently still ongoing) stands the Albert Memorial, which is all about the Queen Victoria’s non king husband Albert. It’s a striking memorial, and one that, when I see it again for the first time, I always tell myself that I don’t need to take its picture since I’ve done so, so many times before. Then, once again, I change my mind.
I had an extra day in London that wasn’t part of Open House London or the London Design Festival or even Car Free Day, and I tried to use it visiting places I had not been in a while. The day was off and on rainy- although when it was on, it was pretty heavy- so I decided to focus on indoor activities. First up was the National Portrait Gallery on Trafalgar Square, a museum I have visited maybe once in the twelve or thirteen times I have been to the city. The museum and collection are certainly interesting enough, and the addition by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown is just as clever as you would expect it is, but the best part honestly is the view back to Trafalgar Square, with all of the fountains and statues and people you expect to see during such a welcome break from the rain.
Another great place to hide from the rain (and another, big five star site/sight that I had not been to in a while) is Westminster Abbey. The actual church part of the abbey is fascinating, not really because of its architecture but because of its history. It is where kings are crowned and a lot of them are buried, and throughout the church famous British subjects like Chaucer and Darwin and Stephen Hawking are buried, while even more like Shakespeare and Sir Francis Drake are memorialized but buried somewhere else. Unfortunately for the slideshow, photos inside the really interesting and historic parts of the Abbey are strictly prohibited, one of the few places left in this world where such rules still apply.
Once you leave those really interesting and historic parts of the Abbey, suddenly its ok to take all of the pictures you want to. And the rest of the complex- the cloisters and chapter house- are still certainly interesting and historic and worth your time.
One truth about all those really interesting and historic parts of Westminster Abbey that you can’t take pictures of is that, architecturally speaking, it’s a bit of a mess and not especially distinctive. No one (or, more accurately, almost no one) goes to all those really interesting and historic parts just to see the architecture. There it’s all about history and that’s certainly ok. However if you came to Westminster Abbey and really want to see architecture, all hope is not lost. In the back, off the cloisters, is the magnificent Chapter House, an (almost) 800 year old still perfect room, with a central column, a wonderfully designed and detailed ribbed ceiling and all of the stained glass windows you could ever hope for.
If I have been to London twelve or thirteen times (and I have), then it’s been eleven or twelve times since I’ve been here. This is the Tower of London, built back in the 11th Century when an 80 foot high building was still considered a tower, something that Renzo Piano’s 1,000 foot high Shard across the Thames probably thinks is now just a little outdated.
On my first whirlwind, last minute trip to London a long, long time ago, I had a whole list of things I just had to see and among that list was the Tower of London. Since then, I’ve found myself walking past the Tower many, many times, usually at the end of a Thames South Bank walk or on my way to the Shard or London City Hall. I would always think that it was probably time for a return visit yet always let some new and shiny distraction become a priority. Finally, all these year later, I returned for a visit.
So what can you see at the Tower? Well of course you can see the crown jewels (which apparently were returned after that Muppet heist movie), you can take a wonderful walk along the top of the ramparts, you can try to ignore the ravens screaming at you, you can scale the (inside) of the actual tower to see exhibits, you can look at where Anne Boleyn and her head last spent time together, you can watch the Tower Guards walk around and try not to be annoyed by the tourists, or, if you’re like me, you can do all of those things as you walk and re-walk the grounds trying to understand and appreciate all that happened inside those walls these past thousand years or so.
Having been to London now twelve or thirteen times, I can honestly say that travel to London has never been easier, especially due to recent changes and innovations. First off, United now offers day flights to London from Newark, meaning that instead of a time efficient but physically punishing night flight, you can waste a day in the air, arriving around 8 PM with more than enough time to settle, get a real night’s sleep and wake up the next day somewhat adjusted to the time. And at Heathrow now, instead of waiting forever at customs, US citizens can use the passport scan gates. What took an hour or two before now takes only a few minutes. Then, and this is a big one, there’s no problem getting around or paying for things since you can now pay for a lot of things with your phone. The London Underground takes Apple Pay- just tap in and tap out with it- no need to get an Oyster Card and no need to ever wait in line at a ticket machine. I made sure to visit a bank ATM machine when I landed so I would have some pounds in my pocket, but honestly I could have survived easily the entire trip with no cash and just my phone to see me through. After years of dealing with the frustration of incompatible US credit cards in Europe, life, finally, couldn’t be easier.
