London Town
“Yes, London. You know: fish, chips, cup 'o tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary fucking Poppins... LONDON.”
Avi, Snatch (2000)
Before departing for my 12-day Contiki tour of Europe I spent 6 days in the UK. Two and a half of those were in Oxford, but first there was the English capital city… The last time I was in England was back in 1992, and given how young I was then (10) and how much I had forgotten, you could say that this trip was my first “real” trip to the UK.
I arrived at Heathrow on Wednesday, 17 September having had a very pleasant flight on SAA. For some inexplicable reason, there were a lot of empty seats on the plane (the South Africa-Britain flight is notorious for being fully packed) and for the first time in my travels I actually had the privilege of the 2 side seats to myself. I can’t say I was especially comfortable trying to curl up foetal-style on them – my feet were frequently knocked by people walking up and down the aisles – but I enjoyed the luxury of spreading out.
I enjoyed it even more so at supper time when I had a whole second tray to use for my meal debris. Airlines must employ some very bright industrial designers whose sole job is to work out how to fit all those little pre-packaged containers onto one A4 size tray.
Anyway, as a relative travel noob I also enjoyed having a personal entertainment system for the first time (instead of having to share one of those little drop-down screens with half the plane). I was really spoilt for choice movie-wise on the flight and that helped pass the 11 hours during the lengthy patches I just couldn’t doze off.
Anyway, my experience with SAA was leagues above the functional, but clearly no-frills service I received when I flew on Olympic Airlines to and from Greece last year. Real quality.
Having travelled alone from Durban (the bf was arriving only on Saturday morning) I was very grateful to have my cousin meeting me at Heathrow. He had even arranged an Oyster travel card for me.
For those of you who don’t know, as a tourist in London planning to use public transport to get around (i.e. the Underground or buses), you should either invest in day travel cards (£6 for Zones 1-2) which allow for unlimited travel over a 24-hour period, or a rechargeable Oyster card, which gives you reduced fares each time you use it – and also caps at around £6 daily.
These are the 2 most cost effective ways to get around because London transport, much like anything in the city, is not cheap. Unless you’re making 1 single journey don’t even look at buying single tickets – they’re a rip-off £4 each. Oh, and be sure to travel during cheaper off-peak times: that’s anytime outside 8:00-9:30am and 4:00-6:30pm on weekdays.
Anyway, after dropping my bags off at my cousins’ place in south London, I decided I’d do something physically undemanding in my sleep deprived state, and check out the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square – a fantastic spot for people watching.
At this point I have to say that I love London’s weirdness. You can’t go a single day without seeing something hilariously unusual. On my first day in the city there was someone dressed up as a giant furry peanut (presumably to promote a brand of peanut butter), a man dangling upside down from a crane at Trafalgar Square, and a group of people in tree costumes protesting a building project.
By the way, late September is a great time to visit the UK as the high season tourist crowds have tapered off, while the weather, although sometimes wet, is actually comfortably warm. As strange as this sounds, next to Italy, England proved to have the best weather and the most sunshine the entire time I was overseas.
Anyway, my first day in London was the day of the Para-Olympic closing ceremony and a big screen had been set up under Nelson’s Column to broadcast the event (London is, of course, the host of the 2012 Summer Games). This did of course mean that the famous lion statues were cordoned off, and I had to wait until returning from the Contiki tour to get some pictures of them.
For Art lovers (and former Art students like myself), the National Gallery is definitely worth checking out. The gallery’s pre-20th Century highlights include a Da Vinci charcoal sketch of Mary and the infant Jesus, famous landscapes by the great English artists Constable and Turner, a Rembrandt self-portrait, a couple of works in the Pointillism style, and even a handful of Van Goughs, including one of the many Sunflower paintings.
As an added bonus, like many of the big museums in London, the National Gallery doesn’t have an entry fee. It’s completely free. If you’re a penny-watching tourist it’s very useful to know... particularly if you’re in the area of these museums and need a restroom. Again, the facilities are free to use.
On the same day as I checked out the National Gallery, I also visited the National Portrait Gallery right next door. With a focus on English history as opposed to artistic styles, the Portrait Gallery is a more interesting and accessible choice for the casual viewer. I received a real thrill seeing the original portraits of the Tudor royal family, as well as William Shakespeare, the Brontes, John Donne and Jane Austen – there I was getting up close with the real images I’d seen so many times before as tiny little thumbnail pics in my high school and college textbooks.
Central London is surprisingly small, and several times I found myself walking between the sights above ground as opposed to catching the Tube (mostly in the name of money saving). After my mind was completely numbed by the galleries, I decided to head down to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament which I could see in the distance from Trafalgar Square. In the process I walked past the newly opened Horse Guard museum and grounds, the British Prime Minister’s residence on 10 Downing Street (heavily barricaded and patrolled by policemen wielding assault rifles) and Westminster Cathedral with a statute of Nelson Mandela nearby. Once you’re standing on the bridge by Big Ben – a fantastic photo spot – you’re just across the Thames from the London Eye “big wheel” and the Aquarium.
One other thing I learnt on my first day in London – there are monuments to everyone and everything!
On my second day in London I met some old online friends at the Docklands Museum in the impressive glass and chrome business district of Canary Wharf. Far off the tourist beaten track, the excellent Docklands Museum is refreshingly crowd-free and focuses on London’s evolution as a harbour town, England’s all-important involvement in the tea and sugar trade (including whole sub-sections on Caribbean piracy and the slave trade), WWII as well as the East End’s transformation in the 20th Century.
Although we explored the entire museum we were there chiefly for the limited-time-only Jack the Ripper Exhibition, which closes on 2 November. This highly authentic and atmospheric exhibition is about more than just the infamous murders.
Original (or replica) documentation on each of the bloody killings is interspersed by assorted Victorian era memorabilia – including an original photo of the Elephant Man, and Jack’s red scrawled “letters” to the newspapers – as well as a lengthy exploration of the horrific conditions in the Whitechapel area when the Ripper was active. If you’ve ever wanted to know what someone looks like in the advanced stages of syphilis, well, you’ll find that image here.
The exhibition culminates in a large room with the list of suspects proposed over the past 100 years (including last year’s credible South African theory), as well as grisly death photos of the prostitute victims, and a display case highlighting Jack the Ripper’s impact on popular culture.
When we were visiting the museum a Jack the Ripper lunch special was running at the restaurant next door, the 1802. Stylish 21st Century spins were put on classic Victorian dishes such as green pea soup, fish pie and pork chops. Although I missed Wimbledon by months, I made sure to get myself some strawberries and cream. Sweet and delicious.
I must say at this point that I was well and truly treated by family and friends in the UK when it came to meals. To put things in perspective, forgetting drinks, your average sit-down meal seems to range from around £6-£9, which is a major burden when you’re working with the South African exchange rate. Still, I’m pleased to report that I managed to pass my entire holiday without having to resort to McDonalds or Burger King once. Subway’s Sub of the Day £2 special was used several times though, but I like to think that’s a relatively healthy meal option.
After the Docklands Museum we headed across town to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Unfortunately a matinee performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (sold out months in advance!) was already underway so we couldn’t have the guided tour of the historic theatre that’s included with your entry fee. In this situation visitors are given the option to visit the remains of the nearby Rose theatre (used during the same historical period as the Globe), but there’s not much to see except for some old foundations protected under water.
We thought it better to spend time instead in the Globe’s museum before it closed for the day. Ideal for anyone with an interest in the history of theatre, the Globe details the intricacies of Elizabethan era productions. One of the most interesting things I learnt while at the museum is that the new Globe theatre has largely been constructed using traditional Elizabethan methods. And many of the theatrical productions staged here over the past 10 years have strove for authenticity to the point where costumes are made by hand from scratch.
Anyway, speaking of amusing London weirdness again, this was easily the strangest piece of merchandise I found during my trip: A William Shakespeare action figure. And it was displayed next to a shelf of fluffy toy Plague Rats. I kid you not.
By Friday I was well and truly museum-ed out, preferring instead to do some general sight-seeing and indulge in the lazy tourism of guided walks. I devoted Friday morning to The Tower of London, and while it is one of the most expensive attractions to visit in the city (entry is £16.50), it definitely is one of the best. In fact I’d go so far as to say that if you are in London and have time to actually “do” something other than general sightseeing, the Tower of London should top your list. It’s something uniquely “London”, with such a rich, fascinating history attached.
Plus you get to see Henry VIII’s unbelievably bulky suit of plate armour, complete with an oversize codpiece.
Anyway, I made sure to wait for one of the guided tours (included in your entry fee) that depart every 30 minutes from the entrance. For one thing it’s great to have history brought to life by genuine uniformed yeomen – ex-military men with impeccable long service records – and for another it’s only with the guided tour that you’ll gain access to the Tower’s centuries’ old chapel. In my case, our yeoman guide was the raven master, the man who cares for the 8 or so ravens that live on the castle grounds (and whose wings are clipped to prevent them flying away and causing – according to legend – England to fall).
Technically you could be kept busy all day at the Tower of London. Apart from the seeing the room where the boy princes were murdered, and the memorial at the site of Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey’s beheading, there’s also the impressive armoury kept in the White Tower, as well as the chance to get up close to the Crown Jewels (you cruise past them on a conveyer belt). I’ll admit in the case of the latter I couldn’t quite get my head around the value of what I was seeing – with the exception of a Union Jack ring made entirely our of rubies, diamonds and sapphires. And watching the queen’s coronation on the big screens did actually spark a certain pride in my heritage.
I would have spent more time at the Tower of London but today was my single chance to go on a famous London Walk. There are dozens of these typically 2 hour walks, on every theme imaginable. I chose a Charles Dickens tour, and despite thinking attendance would be quite low for something so seemingly specialist, there were easily 20+ people crowding around Jean, our period-dressed guide, when I emerged at the meeting spot outside Temple tube station.
A friend who came with us, and did the Jack the Ripper Walking Tour, had a similar experience to mine so I’m pretty sure the majority of the London Walks follow a similar structure. Basically what you need to know is that “walking tour” actually means “standing and listening tour”. Although you obviously walk between spots, most of your tour will be spent hopping from foot to foot while listening to your crazily well-informed guide.
And as the Walks pamphlet and website promise, you will be led off the usual tourist beaten track into backstreets and areas you wouldn’t normally find on your own. In the case of this specific Dickens tour, with its heavy biographical focus, you’re taken through the old legal district and finish off at the plaque and bust that marks where the famous author lived out the last few years of his life.
After the walking tour I rounded off the first portion of my London sightseeing (there were still 2 extra days once I finished my Contiki tour) by heading down to Buckingham Palace. In the process I ended up strolling through the surprisingly small Green Park, which was dotted with office workers splayed out on deck chairs in the sunshine. Unfortunately the sun was in a lousy position for my Palace photos although I did get a few pics of my favourite subject - lion statues! I also had the strange experience of being passed by a stretch hummer filled with little girls yelling "Hello peasants!" at anyone they saw.
Anyway, I ended the day by walking up to a very busy Piccadilly Circus, and then carried on to the trendy Covent Garden area, where I got my first taste of Forbidden Planet. Mmmmm...
Seriously, I had a fantastic time in London. After the overwhelming graffiti of Athens, I actually found London to be a surprisingly clean city. The only time you realise how much big city grime you’re being exposed to is when you blow your nose after a day of Tube riding. Then its time to brace yourself for black mucus!
----------------------------------
Phew, I’m sure this has probably been as much of a slog to read as it has been to write. However, you’ll be pleased to know that my time in London was the longest period I spent in a single location, so the travel posts that follow this one will take the form of much shorter, much more digestible chunks.
Avi, Snatch (2000)
Before departing for my 12-day Contiki tour of Europe I spent 6 days in the UK. Two and a half of those were in Oxford, but first there was the English capital city… The last time I was in England was back in 1992, and given how young I was then (10) and how much I had forgotten, you could say that this trip was my first “real” trip to the UK.
I arrived at Heathrow on Wednesday, 17 September having had a very pleasant flight on SAA. For some inexplicable reason, there were a lot of empty seats on the plane (the South Africa-Britain flight is notorious for being fully packed) and for the first time in my travels I actually had the privilege of the 2 side seats to myself. I can’t say I was especially comfortable trying to curl up foetal-style on them – my feet were frequently knocked by people walking up and down the aisles – but I enjoyed the luxury of spreading out.
I enjoyed it even more so at supper time when I had a whole second tray to use for my meal debris. Airlines must employ some very bright industrial designers whose sole job is to work out how to fit all those little pre-packaged containers onto one A4 size tray.
Anyway, as a relative travel noob I also enjoyed having a personal entertainment system for the first time (instead of having to share one of those little drop-down screens with half the plane). I was really spoilt for choice movie-wise on the flight and that helped pass the 11 hours during the lengthy patches I just couldn’t doze off.
Anyway, my experience with SAA was leagues above the functional, but clearly no-frills service I received when I flew on Olympic Airlines to and from Greece last year. Real quality.
Having travelled alone from Durban (the bf was arriving only on Saturday morning) I was very grateful to have my cousin meeting me at Heathrow. He had even arranged an Oyster travel card for me.
For those of you who don’t know, as a tourist in London planning to use public transport to get around (i.e. the Underground or buses), you should either invest in day travel cards (£6 for Zones 1-2) which allow for unlimited travel over a 24-hour period, or a rechargeable Oyster card, which gives you reduced fares each time you use it – and also caps at around £6 daily.
These are the 2 most cost effective ways to get around because London transport, much like anything in the city, is not cheap. Unless you’re making 1 single journey don’t even look at buying single tickets – they’re a rip-off £4 each. Oh, and be sure to travel during cheaper off-peak times: that’s anytime outside 8:00-9:30am and 4:00-6:30pm on weekdays.
Anyway, after dropping my bags off at my cousins’ place in south London, I decided I’d do something physically undemanding in my sleep deprived state, and check out the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square – a fantastic spot for people watching.
At this point I have to say that I love London’s weirdness. You can’t go a single day without seeing something hilariously unusual. On my first day in the city there was someone dressed up as a giant furry peanut (presumably to promote a brand of peanut butter), a man dangling upside down from a crane at Trafalgar Square, and a group of people in tree costumes protesting a building project.
By the way, late September is a great time to visit the UK as the high season tourist crowds have tapered off, while the weather, although sometimes wet, is actually comfortably warm. As strange as this sounds, next to Italy, England proved to have the best weather and the most sunshine the entire time I was overseas.
Anyway, my first day in London was the day of the Para-Olympic closing ceremony and a big screen had been set up under Nelson’s Column to broadcast the event (London is, of course, the host of the 2012 Summer Games). This did of course mean that the famous lion statues were cordoned off, and I had to wait until returning from the Contiki tour to get some pictures of them.
For Art lovers (and former Art students like myself), the National Gallery is definitely worth checking out. The gallery’s pre-20th Century highlights include a Da Vinci charcoal sketch of Mary and the infant Jesus, famous landscapes by the great English artists Constable and Turner, a Rembrandt self-portrait, a couple of works in the Pointillism style, and even a handful of Van Goughs, including one of the many Sunflower paintings.
As an added bonus, like many of the big museums in London, the National Gallery doesn’t have an entry fee. It’s completely free. If you’re a penny-watching tourist it’s very useful to know... particularly if you’re in the area of these museums and need a restroom. Again, the facilities are free to use.
On the same day as I checked out the National Gallery, I also visited the National Portrait Gallery right next door. With a focus on English history as opposed to artistic styles, the Portrait Gallery is a more interesting and accessible choice for the casual viewer. I received a real thrill seeing the original portraits of the Tudor royal family, as well as William Shakespeare, the Brontes, John Donne and Jane Austen – there I was getting up close with the real images I’d seen so many times before as tiny little thumbnail pics in my high school and college textbooks.
Central London is surprisingly small, and several times I found myself walking between the sights above ground as opposed to catching the Tube (mostly in the name of money saving). After my mind was completely numbed by the galleries, I decided to head down to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament which I could see in the distance from Trafalgar Square. In the process I walked past the newly opened Horse Guard museum and grounds, the British Prime Minister’s residence on 10 Downing Street (heavily barricaded and patrolled by policemen wielding assault rifles) and Westminster Cathedral with a statute of Nelson Mandela nearby. Once you’re standing on the bridge by Big Ben – a fantastic photo spot – you’re just across the Thames from the London Eye “big wheel” and the Aquarium.
One other thing I learnt on my first day in London – there are monuments to everyone and everything!
On my second day in London I met some old online friends at the Docklands Museum in the impressive glass and chrome business district of Canary Wharf. Far off the tourist beaten track, the excellent Docklands Museum is refreshingly crowd-free and focuses on London’s evolution as a harbour town, England’s all-important involvement in the tea and sugar trade (including whole sub-sections on Caribbean piracy and the slave trade), WWII as well as the East End’s transformation in the 20th Century.
Although we explored the entire museum we were there chiefly for the limited-time-only Jack the Ripper Exhibition, which closes on 2 November. This highly authentic and atmospheric exhibition is about more than just the infamous murders.
Original (or replica) documentation on each of the bloody killings is interspersed by assorted Victorian era memorabilia – including an original photo of the Elephant Man, and Jack’s red scrawled “letters” to the newspapers – as well as a lengthy exploration of the horrific conditions in the Whitechapel area when the Ripper was active. If you’ve ever wanted to know what someone looks like in the advanced stages of syphilis, well, you’ll find that image here.
The exhibition culminates in a large room with the list of suspects proposed over the past 100 years (including last year’s credible South African theory), as well as grisly death photos of the prostitute victims, and a display case highlighting Jack the Ripper’s impact on popular culture.
When we were visiting the museum a Jack the Ripper lunch special was running at the restaurant next door, the 1802. Stylish 21st Century spins were put on classic Victorian dishes such as green pea soup, fish pie and pork chops. Although I missed Wimbledon by months, I made sure to get myself some strawberries and cream. Sweet and delicious.
I must say at this point that I was well and truly treated by family and friends in the UK when it came to meals. To put things in perspective, forgetting drinks, your average sit-down meal seems to range from around £6-£9, which is a major burden when you’re working with the South African exchange rate. Still, I’m pleased to report that I managed to pass my entire holiday without having to resort to McDonalds or Burger King once. Subway’s Sub of the Day £2 special was used several times though, but I like to think that’s a relatively healthy meal option.
After the Docklands Museum we headed across town to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Unfortunately a matinee performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (sold out months in advance!) was already underway so we couldn’t have the guided tour of the historic theatre that’s included with your entry fee. In this situation visitors are given the option to visit the remains of the nearby Rose theatre (used during the same historical period as the Globe), but there’s not much to see except for some old foundations protected under water.
We thought it better to spend time instead in the Globe’s museum before it closed for the day. Ideal for anyone with an interest in the history of theatre, the Globe details the intricacies of Elizabethan era productions. One of the most interesting things I learnt while at the museum is that the new Globe theatre has largely been constructed using traditional Elizabethan methods. And many of the theatrical productions staged here over the past 10 years have strove for authenticity to the point where costumes are made by hand from scratch.
Anyway, speaking of amusing London weirdness again, this was easily the strangest piece of merchandise I found during my trip: A William Shakespeare action figure. And it was displayed next to a shelf of fluffy toy Plague Rats. I kid you not.
By Friday I was well and truly museum-ed out, preferring instead to do some general sight-seeing and indulge in the lazy tourism of guided walks. I devoted Friday morning to The Tower of London, and while it is one of the most expensive attractions to visit in the city (entry is £16.50), it definitely is one of the best. In fact I’d go so far as to say that if you are in London and have time to actually “do” something other than general sightseeing, the Tower of London should top your list. It’s something uniquely “London”, with such a rich, fascinating history attached.
Plus you get to see Henry VIII’s unbelievably bulky suit of plate armour, complete with an oversize codpiece.
Anyway, I made sure to wait for one of the guided tours (included in your entry fee) that depart every 30 minutes from the entrance. For one thing it’s great to have history brought to life by genuine uniformed yeomen – ex-military men with impeccable long service records – and for another it’s only with the guided tour that you’ll gain access to the Tower’s centuries’ old chapel. In my case, our yeoman guide was the raven master, the man who cares for the 8 or so ravens that live on the castle grounds (and whose wings are clipped to prevent them flying away and causing – according to legend – England to fall).
Technically you could be kept busy all day at the Tower of London. Apart from the seeing the room where the boy princes were murdered, and the memorial at the site of Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey’s beheading, there’s also the impressive armoury kept in the White Tower, as well as the chance to get up close to the Crown Jewels (you cruise past them on a conveyer belt). I’ll admit in the case of the latter I couldn’t quite get my head around the value of what I was seeing – with the exception of a Union Jack ring made entirely our of rubies, diamonds and sapphires. And watching the queen’s coronation on the big screens did actually spark a certain pride in my heritage.
I would have spent more time at the Tower of London but today was my single chance to go on a famous London Walk. There are dozens of these typically 2 hour walks, on every theme imaginable. I chose a Charles Dickens tour, and despite thinking attendance would be quite low for something so seemingly specialist, there were easily 20+ people crowding around Jean, our period-dressed guide, when I emerged at the meeting spot outside Temple tube station.
A friend who came with us, and did the Jack the Ripper Walking Tour, had a similar experience to mine so I’m pretty sure the majority of the London Walks follow a similar structure. Basically what you need to know is that “walking tour” actually means “standing and listening tour”. Although you obviously walk between spots, most of your tour will be spent hopping from foot to foot while listening to your crazily well-informed guide.
And as the Walks pamphlet and website promise, you will be led off the usual tourist beaten track into backstreets and areas you wouldn’t normally find on your own. In the case of this specific Dickens tour, with its heavy biographical focus, you’re taken through the old legal district and finish off at the plaque and bust that marks where the famous author lived out the last few years of his life.
After the walking tour I rounded off the first portion of my London sightseeing (there were still 2 extra days once I finished my Contiki tour) by heading down to Buckingham Palace. In the process I ended up strolling through the surprisingly small Green Park, which was dotted with office workers splayed out on deck chairs in the sunshine. Unfortunately the sun was in a lousy position for my Palace photos although I did get a few pics of my favourite subject - lion statues! I also had the strange experience of being passed by a stretch hummer filled with little girls yelling "Hello peasants!" at anyone they saw.
Anyway, I ended the day by walking up to a very busy Piccadilly Circus, and then carried on to the trendy Covent Garden area, where I got my first taste of Forbidden Planet. Mmmmm...
Seriously, I had a fantastic time in London. After the overwhelming graffiti of Athens, I actually found London to be a surprisingly clean city. The only time you realise how much big city grime you’re being exposed to is when you blow your nose after a day of Tube riding. Then its time to brace yourself for black mucus!
----------------------------------
Phew, I’m sure this has probably been as much of a slog to read as it has been to write. However, you’ll be pleased to know that my time in London was the longest period I spent in a single location, so the travel posts that follow this one will take the form of much shorter, much more digestible chunks.
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