London Calling

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London, England, UK.  I love it.   Always expensive, yet always exciting and fun.  Usually my travels are last minute thoughts but this trip was months in the making.   When AFI first posted their European tour dates I gave it small thought. I do enough damage with shows here in the States. Then an online friend indicated that she might travel the great distance from South Africa to see them.  It would be her second time, once again in London.  “I’m in! Buy a show ticket for me”, I wrote. Let the plotting begin. 

One month before, my friend (AR) became ill.   Up until the last moment she was not sure if she could travel. With plane ticket and hotel already booked, she waited for the doctor’s approval.   I too waited.  She had my show ticket!  In the mean time, I was panicking because I did not have the right week off!  I had official vacation the week BEFORE the concert.  This took some finagling on my part, seeking out an upper lever manager to ask for a change.  I was granted the correct time off and made my own plans.

We arrived at Heathrow about 7am.  Train to Paddington and a very short walk to our hotel.  Dropped the bags, added a layer of  warmer clothing and headed off.  First stop Abbey Road. It’s a busy road and you have to time your “walk” between cars and busses lumbering by.  There is actually a site (I suppose there is a site for everything these days) so you can watch people as they Beatle-ify themselves.  No one took his shoes off though à la McCartney.  The weather was rather brisk.   

Some of the underground trains were not operating due to maintenance so we hopped buses.  Slower, with all the holiday traffic and pedestrians, but definitely better for people watching.  On top of the crowded double-decker bus we listened to the other tourists and locals on their phones. Had me wondering if there were any Brits in Britain this weekend. On the crowded upper deck of the bus we heard not a word of English.  French, German, Arabic, several Eastern European languages. Most of the places we ate, the workers had strong accents.  Our breakfast and late night coffee café workers were Croatian.

When in Rome, or London, we try to eat in local places.  If you wanted to pub crawl, there seems to be a certain order to do it.  Or so it seems. The Cock, The Bung Hole, and Dirty Dick. Probably in that order.

London is where you can still find people walking the streets, not just at shows, in full punk regalia. Parts pierced that even made me look twice.  Perfect ’hawks.  Clothing accentuated with metal and rips. I felt right at home in my comfy SWAT boots.

What to see…Wellcome Collection.  A free destination for the incurably curious.  This was so interesting we spent over three hours wandering and reading.

Identity: Eight rooms, nine lives. What influences or determines our sense of who we are? What makes one person distinct from another? How does science inform human identity? This major exhibition explored the tension between the way we view ourselves and how others see us. Twins, phrenology and brain imaging, gender and sexuality, 

race and prejudice, and acting and improvisation

Then a short trip to Brixton to scope out the venue. It’s in a rather “ethnically diverse” area but had a nice center of town calm spot to sit.  Markets galore. Spitalfields/Brick Lane. Old fruit and veg market and several very interesting shops.

Brief stop at the Bristish Museum where we learned a little bit of American History of the indigenous peoples of North America.  Funny…our last trip here we saw the Early Virginia Settlers collection. 

The Tate Museum is always a stop.  We have seen “The Crack”, Olafur Eliasson's spectacular Weather Project,and this time, Miroslaw Balka's black box

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article6873401.ece

Then we headed to the wharf area, not Camden, but the OLD section.  But there is no OLD section any more.  Just tall buildings and shopping malls.   The sun was setting and the wind picked up.  Quiet and peaceful strolling, but too late for the little museums there.  I finally connected with my AR and made plans for the next day.

Turns out AR’s hotel is a 2 minute walk from ours.   Man and I find her in the lobby and exchange gifts and new-friend hugs. Then, off to the S&M café.  The man had found this eatery on his last business trip.  The web site was slick and I expected a kitchy place.  Not so.  I was just another hole-in-the-wall eatery, but the food was very good and the staff friendly.  Sadly they were already out of Potatoes in Jacket.

We took a brief rest at the hotel and changed into appropriate BLACK clothing.  LOL  AR and I headed off to Brixton and the man went to see Hair.  The line system was very strange.  Usually we are told to “hug the wall”. This venue had us doubling, then tripling up.  There was no DF line but an O2 phone line.  Didn’t matter for us as we had Upper Level tickets and headed to the front row while most of the crowd scurried for the rail. The show was incredible, as always.  The acoustics great, but NO CROWD SURFING. Well shucks, three goes MY fun.  The show was extra fantastic when they did Days of the Phoenix and one of my faves, File 13.  Of course I bought more T shirts.  It’s only money, right? :-\ We couldn’t hang around as AR’s leg was acting up and the trains stopped running at midnight.  So the two Cinderellas headed back to hotel land to say good night and goodbye.

 

Our last day took us to Kensington Palace – a palace for everyone. Well, not everyone as we agreed that £18 was too steep. So we enjoyed the grounds. Then we headed out to Teddington, near Hampton Court.  The man’s coworker and his wife invited us to visit.  We had a great lunch, caught up with our lives, and then headed out for a bike ride.  Mind you, it’s been near 15 years since I rode this much!  The weather was chilly and drizzly.  I borrowed a windbreaker and bravely set out.  Through the park, along the Thames. I admit I was a bit slow as the day wore on, but I hung in there.  We biked into town, browsed the bookstore, and then had yummy Indian.  

Five nights is longer than I usually stay.  Had to buy another package of Wispa bars as we depleted the first package in the evenings.  Missed a few of my planned tourist stops with holiday closings and location logistics. There’s always a next time for London.

Cheers.