London

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Okay, so have spent a bit of time in London, taking a break from travelling. I've also went to a couple of places for a few days. (See my other entries Canterbury & Whitstable, and Caernarfon & Llanberis/Snowdon, Wales)

I have to admit the weather is not the greatest, and I'm here in mid summer. They call a weekend when the temperatures in the high 20s a heatwave! About 50%!o(MISSING)f the time I have been here it has been grey and overcast and only moderately warm. (It was much nicer in Kent and in Wales.) When it is hot, it is horribly humid. The other bad stuff about London is that generally it is dirty, overcrowded, polluted, with a pretty bad transport system. However you have to look on the plus side. London is an amazing place, multicultural (the world in one city I read somewhere), heaps of history, and heaps of stuff to see and do.

I went mostly to the free places.

Greenwich. Royal Observatory (where they measure 0 degrees Longditude from). National Maritime Museum. Queens House. Really big parks/green area.

Thames Barrier, amazing engineering feat, which is supposed to help stop London flooding if a storm surge sends too much water up the Thames.

National Gallery. Four or five hundred years of European Art.

National Portrait Gallery. Great if you want to see pictures of the who's who's of English history.

British Museum. Treasures, plundered or collected, depending on your point of view, from all over the world.

Science Museum. Great hands on displays.

Victoria & Albert Museum. Supposed to be the largest art and design museum in the world. Not restricted to Western art and design.

Natural History Museum. Great dinosaur displays.

Tate Mondern. Mondern art gallery in an old power station on the banks of the Thames.

Imperial War Museum. Commerates Britain at War since 1914.

7 July Bombings

Where was I and what was I doing when this terrible thing happened? What did I see?

Well luckily I was not in London when the bombings happened. I had got up early in the morning, and got on a bus, to go to Victoria Station, and then I caught an overland train to Lewes, a town in East Sussex not too far from Brighton. I was doing some geneological research at a records office there so spent a good part of the day in a quiet room like a library reading transcripts of parish records of Christenings, Marriages, and Burials.

About 2 pm I headed back to Lewes train station but there were announcements on the loudspeakers that the trains were delayed due to severe security alerts in London, and that the London Underground and London Buses had suspended services. They said that the suggested that people not travel to London unless absolutely necessary. They did not say anything about bombings and the train turned up on time.

I remember seeing a police officer at Lewes Station, and on the train stations on the way back to London, there were also at least one police officer on the platforms.

Anyway after the waiting at stations along the way back to London, and changing trains twice got back to London Victoria after about 2 hours. (The journey in the morning from London to Lewes had taken about 1 hour.)

Victoria Station was open and there were people about, but the wierd thing was that all the shops were closed. I get outside the station to find the tube closed and heaps of people waiting for buses, many more than usual.

I decided not to wait for a bus there, but walked to a stop further away. Actually I walked from Victoria Station to Waterloo Bridge. It was really wierd, thousands of people on the streets, but very few cars, and most of the shops I walked passed were closed.

I walked passed new Scotland Yard, where there were armed police. Passed a couple of churches that had signs outside saying if you needed to talk to someone, or that if you were trying to ring someone but your cell phone was not working to come in. (Still did not realise how bad things were.)

Ended up walking past Buckingham Palace, and saw that the Union Jack was flying at half mast. Walked along the Mall to Trafalgar Square, and from there along the Strand to Waterloo Bridge, still heaps of people doing the same thing, walking, possibly having to walk home. More closed shops. Very little traffic. Police on streets.

Waited at a bus stop on Waterloo Bridge, and eventually a bus that was heading in the general direction of where I was staying came. It was a pretty crowded bus, but I eventually got to where I was staying.

Did not realise how bad things were until I saw the TV coverage.

Eventually managed to phone my sister at home to let her know that I was okay.

Have seen more coverage on the TV, and the amazing thing is the resilience of Londoners, not willing to let the bombings break their spirit. Really good speech by Ken Livingstone, mayor of London saying that terrorists would never defeat Londoners.

A few days after the bombings there was a commeration of 60 years since the victory in the Second World War, and the news said that there were hundreds of thousands of people in the Mall. The Queen was driven through passed the crowds in an open top car. The news papers said the crowds and the Queen was in a open top car showed that Londoners were not afraid.

There have also been the calls for unity, among the different ethnic and religious groups in London.

Unfortunately the effect of the bombings on the transport system has been pretty bad, with lines closed etc. It has to be said that the transport system was not the best in the first place. Hopefully it be all up and running by the time London hosts the Olympics in 2012.

In the aftermarth of the bombings, you become more aware of how security concious things are here. Rubbish bins seem few and far between, (to prevent bombers putting bombs in them), signs on buses and the tubes saying that always suspect an unattentened bag, treat it as guilty until proven innocent. Constant reminders in train stations, and bus stations, not to leave bags unattended. Bags being searched when you go to museums. Signs telling you to keep cell phones hidden to stop people stealing them from you. Signs in suburbs warning burglars that police are operating in the area. Signs in tourist areas, bus and train stations, warning tourists that theive and pick pockets are operating in the area. Signs on buses saying that they have CCTV. Signs on buses reminding people that knives are not for stabbing people. Bus driver saying over their PA system to report any unattended bags to him. Bus driver walking up and down the bus, while at a bus stop, looking for unattended bags. All a bit concerning to me, and got me thinking of heading home.

21 July Attempted Bombings

A few days before the attempted bombings I saw on the TV news a story about bomb sniffer dogs being used to check bags at one tube station. I think it was Westminster, I don't know if this was a publicity thing because there are heaps of tube stations, and I can't see how practical it would be to have it on all the stations. I also think I saw newspaper headlines saying that they were going to have random searches of passengers, but of course you don't know if this is true, it was in an English newspaper after all. Anyway none of this, along with more police on the streets, in train and bus stations etc. appeared to have helped with stopping the attempted bombings on 21 July.

Fortunately for me I was once again not in London, but it was quite surreal to be on a train coming back to London to hear the driver annnounce over a PA system that there had been unconfirmed reports of the bombings, and he said that the train may not continue onto the city. Went I got back to London, some of the tube stations were closed and there were a lot more people on the streets than normal and heaps of people waiting for busses. Ended up waiting a bit longer for a bus back to the place I was staying, and the bus journey was quite slow in it self.

After this last set of attempted bombings the police have shot and killed someone at he was running to get on a tube train. The police said straight after the shooting that the person was linked to the original bombing attempts (one of the newspapers had headlines along the lines of one bomber down three to go!), but now it turns out he was not linked to the attempted bombings. However the police say that he acted suspiciously by running from them to the tube train, also he was wearing a heavy coat in relatively warm weather ... of course it all remains to be seen where exactly the truth lies.

The whole situation seems to be quite surreal. I guess I come from a perspective of living in a country luckily enough not to be facing the same problems that the UK has. Anyway I am glad that I will be leaving London in a few days time. Going on a short trip to Prague, back in London for hopefully a few uneventful days, and then starting on the long flight to Australia.

Want to see more photos?

Have a look at my website here: http://www.firemanonasailingship.com/photos/

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Photos

Standing on Prime Meridian
0 degrees longditude.

African Art in British Musuem
Obviously there is heaps of stuff in the British Musuem, but I liked this from an African Gallery. Brass work made in Nigeria in the 16th Century.