United Kingdom – London

Is there another city more unmistakable than London?  The double-decker buses, the phone booths, the Underground signs, the bridges, the buildings–everywhere you go you are surrounded by iconic imagery.  London is certainly a city with an identity and it is amazing how much one recognizes without having previously spent much time here.

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My first few days there I had the good fortune to have Daniel in town, as he was in the U.K. for work that week and took a train to London for the weekend.  He also hooked us up with a swank room at the Hilton London Tower Bridge.  I flew in from Amsterdam on Friday afternoon on Easy Jet and took a train from Gatwick to London Bridge station.

Friday night, Daniel and I met two college-era friends at a Pakistani restaurant and then went to a Nile Rodgers / Chic concert at The Forum in Kentish Town.  Nile has a full quiver of shimmering guitar riffs and played through an impressive catalog of his own disco-era hits and songs he produced and played guitar on for others such as Diana Ross, Madonna, and David Bowie.  His new song with Daft Punk was not in the set, but was the first song played over the house PA after the band left the stage.

Saturday was a fairly epic London day.  We stopped by the Borough Market and picked up some berries, baguettes, cheese, a meat stick, and mushroom pate to go with the half-bottle of wine gifted by the hotel.  Daniel also made a highly successful acquisition of a “2-pound” oyster, which might accurately describe its weight as well as its price.

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We then set up at the mall leading to Buckingham Palace to watch the annual “Trooping the Colour” parade in honor of the Queen’s birthday, featuring the Queen herself flanked by Dukes and Duchesses.  Afterward, we had a picnic in St. James’s Park–a very English sort of picnic involving rain coats and umbrellas at intervals.

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Following this, we walked through Westminster and as the rain became more persistent, dropped into the Red Lion pub.  After a pint there we walked along the Thames, eventually settling at the Craft Beer Company pub in Clerkenwell where I had probably the best-tasting beer of my life, a barrel-aged BORIS Imperial Stout.  That night we had a late Vietnamese dinner and then hung out at a unique and bar with plush decor and a no-pretense house party vibe called The Bridge in Shoreditch.

After a relaxing Sunday I relocated to my London residence, an Air B’n’B rented room in the Hackney neighborhood.  It’s in a comfortable, bohemian flat overflowing with charming clutter and esoteric books that I share with a digital archeologist (?) and a fine arts graduate student.  I feel like it’s missing a moody cat named after an under-rated philosopher.

This week I have visited several London landmarks–St. Paul’s Cathedral, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, the Tate Modern Museum, and the Churchill War Rooms.  At St. Paul’s, I had a very nice guided tour and then climbed the stairs to the top of the dome for great views of London from all sides.  Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens are huge public parks where you can always find space for yourself despite the hundreds of people around you.  The Tate Modern had a great collection of paintings by modern masters, as well as the requisite ‘what the hell was that?’ installations and video pieces.  The War Rooms–set in the secret underground offices from which Winston Churchill and his staff conducted the British military during World War II–gave a detailed account of the PM’s life and of war-time life in London.  Having visited a museum in Berlin that presented the German perspective on the war, it was cool to then see one authored from the British perspective.

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London is an awesome city–so much history and so much going on.  In between rain showers, it is even quite beautiful.  I am excited to have another full week here; plenty of time to take photos with local celebrities like the ones below.  Note, this was our second attempt to capture the classic phone booth shot.  The first was derailed when the appointed booth was discovered to have been the unfortunate setting for a prankster’s deuce-dialing.

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The remaining events of the week can be expressed in 17 syllables each.

Haikus in English from London

1.
Ale and Sriracha
To blame for my sleeplessness
‘Worth it’ I decide

2.
Kingsland Highland Road
…suddenly Shoreditch High Street?
Again, map unfolds

3.
To check the forecast
Is a waste of precious time
Bring an umbrella

4.
The last train had left
Dejected, I wandered out
In search of a bus

5.
Defeated and drenched
I cross the cafe threshold
Gloating, the rain stops

6.
A second knocking
On the door; most unwelcome
While in the bathroom

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