My first trip to London so the intention is to walk everywhere, using £8 london walks tours, and explore the city before the sporty (Sox, Wimbledon) portion of the london adventure begins.
Tuesday arrived after a reasonable Norwegian Air flight to Gatwick and took train into Battersea area, walking over to my airbnb in chelsea. After an unintended powernap, walked through brompton cemetary to the tube for Embankment
station (near Trafalgar square). Took the "somewhere else" tour along Thames and through the southbank area with Steve. Saw old vic and national theatres, a cool 8th floor semi-public balcony overlooking the city, learned that cabbies are allowed to relieve themselves on the wheels of their cabs, and dickensian era 2 up 2 down houses. Afterwards, hit the imperial war museum (free!), and walked back by parliament and 10 downing. Tube back to chelsea for guiness, fish and chips at local pub. Stayed awake till 9pm....14 miles walking - too scared to bike in narrow bike lanes on wrong side of the road.
Wednesday. The brits are funny - always apologizing, adding S's to words like math, and dropping them from sports. But they have been around a long time, and have much to show for it. Two tours today - one of Jewish London and the other of the British museum. Then saw "come from away" - the Canadian story of Gander, Newfoundland after September 11. Very poignant for me as it talks about how loss somehow made all these people better.
Jews have been here on and off since the 11th century, the time of william the conqueror, and then were expelled in 1290 as they were owed money by the king. They resettled London in the1600s, establishing the bevis marks shul (oldest in UK, home of moses montefiore) in 1701. And it is unchanged (ark, bimah, benches, most candelabras) inside, except for electric lights, and plumbing I'd imagine. These jews moved out of city in the mid 19th century, and then jewish immigrants settled in poorer east end around same time as lower east side of nyc. They lived in poverty and terrible pollution (ie London fog) where half of kids under 5 died and lifespan was 27. There were 150 shuls in the area, but only 3 are left. Ended tour with salt beef reuben - alas from hipster old spatfields market as all the old delis are gone.
The British museum is 250 years old and is filled with relics, like the Rosetta stone, huge asyyrian panels, pharaonic statues, greek friezes (half the parthenon contents are here) and roman temples "borrowed" from ancient civilizations around the world in the 1800s. Think they may want them back?
Also saw the Gherkin building, the tower of London, and the mostly defunct petticoat lane (now middlesex st). 11 miles.
Thursday. At my airbnb host recommendation, started out the day taking the double decker bus into the city, seeing many parks in chelsea - but its slow in traffic so hopped off and onto the very reliable tube. So nice to have a working, extensive subway system! Walked by St Paul's (skipped seeing the inside for £20) and did a walk of the squate mile instead-. Learned about roman times, the great fire of 1666 (and the rebuilding, with the same street pattern), st dunstan's "church" (ruined in 1941, now a garden), Lloyd's and its "Brazil'-esque building, leadenhall market dating to roman times, the site of London's first coffeehouse in 1652, the royal exchange/bank of England site, and the guildhall (oldest building in city, and site of roman amphitheater),
Picked up cheap last minute ticket for starry messenger, with Matthew Broderick, then did quick walkthrough of national portrait gallery, before taking nap in st james park. When you have a lot to do, always take the nap first! Walked around Buckingham palace (can't go in) and found the maple leaf pub, which had decent smoked meat poutine, for dinner before the show. 12 miles. Still aftaid to bike.
Todays funny thing about UK - Pub names are either 2 random nouns, or some noun/adjective combo: walrus & carpenter, George & Vulture, silk & grain, ship & shovel, old shade, silver cross, red fox.
Friday. As someone who usually spends about 45 minutes in a museum, London's all free model works well for me. Went to the Victoria & Albert museum and was impressed by the "cast chamber' and courtyard, then the (crowded!) Natural history museum - and was done in under 90 minutes with both. Including a coffee. Then rented a santander bike and explored hyde park. In the afternoon did a music tour - in an area of about a block around Denmark st/former saville theatre. 50 years of rock was created - bowie, clapton, led zeppelin, stones, beatles, the who, sex pistols, etc...got another park nap and ended day with pub tour in knightsbridge area, which was mostly a tour of expensive key-parks and mews in the area. 17 miles.
Saturday. Moved to ridgemount hotel in seven dials to begin 2nd half of london exploration. Met up with mark in park at Gordon square, and walked down to thames and around blackfriars/waterloo bridge area. After mediocre sandwich for lunch, took the tube to Olympic park for sox-yankees. Mark did a run in the park (temp near 90) then watched yankees jump on top of sox 6-0 in top of 1st. Not to be outdone, sox came back - after an hour, and 1 inning it was 6-6. final score 17-13 yankees 5 hours later (we made it 3 hours). More like cricket, than baseball. One fenway flashback here - troughs on the mens room. 16 miles.
Sunday. The "village" of hampstead may be geographically in London but is a world away. Did a tour with david of this hiilly, incredibly green (btw london, with its many parks, is one of the greeneset cities in the world) town with grand old homes and cool alleys & passages. Definite highlight is the heath, with its ponds and views. Ate too much 'sunday roast' then headed to greenwich to see the royal observatory, home of the prime meridian and historical telescopes, and clocks developed to solve greatest problem of 18th century- determining longitude to enable navigation. An amazing story solved by an amateur clockmaker, outsmarting astronomers, scientists and others looking for a solution in the orbits of the moon and stars. Overall pretty cool, as I've wanted to visit here since i was around 12. Also visited national maritime museum, learning about British empires global dominance at sea. And the issues it caused- namely wars and slavery. Finished the day watching a comedy show aboard the Cutty Sark, historic ship in Greenwich. 10 miles.
Monday at Wimbledon. Day started at 6am, so we could get in the queue to get into Wimbledon. The process to get in was, in summary, "orderly". Took the tube and got in the first line around 7.15am where we were handed numbered queue cards (#6935). Decent coffee was on site and after 2 hours we moved to a second line across the field. 2 hours later, we were moving through security and into the grounds. Nobody pushed, dodged the line or was at all impolite. Got super close to 5 different matches, including seeing #4 seeded Kevin Anderson, and some Canadians (on canada day!). The formality of the line judges, umbrella holders and the ballgirls (scooping up and giving out balls) was so British. Tennis quality was great - game is mostly won, or at least setup, on the serve. Ate strawberries and cream. 10 miles.
