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Published: June 22nd 2008
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I love to visit my home-country whenever possible, and so we decided to make a 4 day stop-over in London before we began our marathon trek overland from Europe back to China. Being from the north of England, a trip to London is quite exciting for me, and this time was no exception - particularly because we got to see my family and old friends again. Luckily for us, the weather was glorious during our stay in London, with brilliant sunshine and clear blue skies everyday. Perhaps we got the only four days of summer, but it was perfect for spending lazy afternoons in various beer gardens as it turned out...
We were both quite excited at the prospect of some time in England and other parts of Europe after our 6 months in different parts of Asia. We have really enjoyed our China experiences so far, but we were definitely looking forward to an easier and more familiar way of life for a few weeks.
British Summertime
With England, and in particular London, I'm not sure if it's a case of 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' for me...but it seems that each time I visit the
capital city, I love it more and more. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it's hard to find a nicer place than Central London on a beautiful summer day - at least where cities are concerned anyway.
This visit was less about sight-seeing and more about catching up with people, so our time there consisted of plenty of relaxing, chatting, and eating. We hadn't realised how used to Chinese life we had become until we landed in London. It is a huge and busy city, with people dashing in all directions, particularly in the tube. But it both amused and delighted us to see how polite many Londoners were - apologising if they bumped into you, and drivers politely waiting to allow people to cross the road. Of course, this is perhaps a slightly rose-tinted view of life on English streets, but it did make a pleasant change from the pushing and shoving that occurs daily in China. We also found that we revelled in the small everyday things whilst in England.....the fact that we had a choice of TV channels, the fact that we could easily wander into any eatery and converse normally
with the staff, and best of all (for me anyway), the fact that I could read magazines and newspapers again.
We spent many a happy hour near the famous Tower Bridge on the Thames River - an area which seems to have developed rapidly over recent years. There are plenty of trendy bars and restaurants dotted along the waterfront and cosy cafes on the narrow side streets. We also spent a lazy afternoon with old friends in a beer garden near Angel, and another one in a lovely old pub overlooking Hammersmith bridge. But it wasn't just about the relaxation, we did make a couple of stops on the tourist trail.
Pale People, Expensive Ice-Cream and Headless Statues
I decided to introduce Toby to the extravagance that is the Harrod's department store - albeit briefly. We marvelled at the vastly expensive items on display, and had a glance at the shrine to the late Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed that sits facing an enormous Egyptian statue; before we decided to indulge in an extremely over-priced gelato sundae in Harrod's food court. Devine as it may have been, it was gone in approximately 3 minutes, and perhaps wasn't
quite worth the 32 Australian dollars that we paid for it! Still, when in Knightsbridge....
Our other stops on the tourist route included a brief stroll through Kensington Gardens - which were very green and picturesque in the sunshine...and filled with half-naked, incandescantly white people topping up their tans. We also dropped by Leicester Square and Covent Garden, before making our way to the British Museum.
I had never been here before, due to my tolerance for museums being generally very low. However, I was very impressed by the museum building itself - particularly the Great Court which serves as the foyer or entrance into the building. The domed roof is stunning, but also perfectly in keeping with the tone of the place.
I felt there was just too much to see in a single visit to the museum. It seemed to have endless rooms filled with ancient artifacts - which was all very interesting initially. We ended up spending the majority of our time in the Eqyptian and Ancient Greece sections of the museum, the latter of which houses the Parthenon Galleries - a collection of freizes and statues taken from the acropolis in Greece and
Off with their heads!
Statues from the Ancient Greece section transported back to England. It seems that the Greek government would now like the statues returned to where they came from.... but I don't think the Brits are too keen to oblige.
Most of the Greek statues seemed to be missing various body parts - namely their heads, or in some cases their arms - but I suppose this is to be expected given their age, the various conflicts over the years, and ancient tourists souveniering bits of the statues.
Some of the displays in the Egyptian section date back 4000 years or more, which seems unbelievable, when you consider the excellent condition they are still in.
However, my concentration began to wane after about 2 hours, so we retired to the comfort of a cafe across the street.
Our visit to London was action-packed and thoroughly enjoyable. It was fantastic to see my family again, and spend some quality time with them, and with my friends. A big "thank you" must go out to Alli and Bob, two of my oldest and dearest friends, who very kindly let us stay with them for the duration of the visit, and looked after us. Cheers guys! I really
hope we'll be able to visit the UK again in the not too distant future, but for now we have some back-packing to do.
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