The London Eye

No, we didn't go on the London Eye. Mr. M. has height issues, and I was able to get my views of London from a number of more historical vantage points. A friend took her family on it and shared her pictures--it looked like fun, except...

I have my photos rotating through my laptop as wallpaper, and this morning this picture of the Horse Guards parade grounds was cycling through. A lovely, historic-looking building--with the London Eye curving between two of the roof lines.

Ahem. I don't mean to offend anyone, but am I the only one who thinks the Eye gives the London skyline a bit of a carnival feel?

I have to admit I'm a born and bred Washingtonian--that is, a Washington, D.C. native. We take our skyline very seriously. Buildings in the city can't exceed a certain height. (According to a recent article in The Washington Post, the limit is 130 feet.) There are arguments about this. I understand that it may be more cost effective and efficient to build vertically. The same Post article said that a 30-story tower is going up in Rosslyn, just across the Potomac in Virginia. But I'm very happy with the height ban. I like the horizontal feel of D.C. I like the way it looks--at least the Mall and government buildings. (Another confession--when I was around 13, my girl scout troop visited New York City, and I found all the tall buildings a tad scary.)

Not far from the house I grew up in, a religious group built a very large building. I have no problems with that religion and I actually think the building is quite attractive. What I don't care for is its effect on the skyline. If you've ever driven the Capital Beltway in Maryland, you probably know which building I'm thinking of. When you see it rising out of the trees, you might wonder if you'd detoured to Disneyland.

I have similar feelings about the London Eye.

Security

No, not airport security--walking around security. Keeping your stuff secure and out of pickpockets' hands.

I think I may have gone overboard with this. I got talking to a clerk in a travel shop, and he persuaded me it would be a good idea to take precautions. I bought a waist wallet and a special purse. I even convinced Mr. M to get a man bag. That was a bit of a hard sell, but I told him to think of it as a camera bag--and he did carry his camera in it.

Did we need this stuff? Not sure. I did pick up a brochure at St. Paul's that warned about pickpockets, but I didn't feel any more at risk in London than I do in D.C. or New York. I didn't bother with the waist wallet, but I was happy to have the purse. It wasn't at all stylish, but it gave me piece of mind. It had a handy exterior pocket for my Oyster card and was big enough to hold pretty much everything I needed--camera, scarf, gloves, sunglasses, and most of the research books I bought.

And now that we have this stuff...I guess that means we need to take more trips, eh?

Pictures

I think all our pictures from the trip are now up on my Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sally-MacKenzie/144131384814?ref=ts

I've gone through and added commentary to most of them, so if you're interested--or just desperately looking for a way to kill time--go on over and enjoy!

A London puzzle

I understand that people drive on the left side of the road in England, but I couldn't figure out which side they walked on. When on a sidewalk, should I bear to the left or the right to avoid oncoming pedestrians?

I thought I should go left, but in the Underground, the automated announcement tells everyone to stand to the right on the escalators so that people walking up or down can pass on the left, just like on our Metro. (Though folks seem better trained in London--maybe there are more announcements. In D.C. people--and yes, we like to blame the tourists--all too often stand two abreast and clog things up.) Sometimes in navigating our way between Underground lines or between the Underground and a train station, signs told us to keep left--but other times they told us to keep right.

On the flight over, the Scotsman sitting next to me said he'd rented a car to tour some of the D.C. suburbs and was very nervous driving on the wrong side of the road. LOL. I hadn't focused on the fact that it would be just as disorienting for someone from Great Britain to get used to our cars and driving pattern as it is for us to adjust to theirs.

And Mr. M and I decided early on that there was no way we were renting a car. Obviously some people can manage it, but we were pretty certain we weren't two of them. We found crossing the street challenge enough.

Too funny

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this sign--Mr. M. actually volunteered to pose with it.

Who are these elderly people? I'm quite sure neither of my parents--my mom died at 88 years of age; my dad at 95--would have considered themselves "elderly."

Politeness

This sign cracked me up. (Not all such notices were so polite.)

On one of our many walks across parkland in London--I think it was St. James's Park--a fellow on a bicycle was pedaling in a part of the park where bikes weren't allowed. (Many parks seemed to restrict bikes to designated lanes toward the perimeter of the parkland.) An official was passing in a small truck and called out to the fellow, something along these lines:

Official--You can't ride here, you know. You have to go to cycle over there [gesturing toward the edge of the park].

Cyclist--Oh, sorry. [He proceeds to head to the bike lanes.]

All right, I've totally forgotten exactly how it was--but it sounded so politely British. No yelling, no cursing, no defiance. No rude hand gestures. Mr. M. and I just couldn't picture this kind of restrained exchange happening in the States.

When I asked Mr. M which park this happened in, he thought I was referring to a different cycling drama. Another time when we were traversing Regent's Park, a man who I think was rather older than we are was riding his bike whilst (British word!) berating a young girl (at a guess a teen or early 20 something) also on a bike for not riding responsibly. (As an aside, I don't believe either of them was wearing a helmet, but that's a different issue.) He was apparently neither a relation nor acquaintance, but merely an older member of society who felt it his duty to instruct the young. I take it she'd almost run over a small dog. He was speaking sternly as he pedaled, but not yelling, and while I doubt she was an eager recipient of his message, she seemed to be taking it with relative politeness. At least we didn't hear any cursing or abuse.

Or maybe it's just that anything said with a British accent sounds polite to my American ears.

Getting around

I won't say we chose the most economical options for moving around London and nearby points, but I don't think we went crazy and it sure was easy to get from place to place. We bought everything before we left the States, so we just had to haul out the right pass when it was time to use it. Here's a summary of what we did.

1. Getting to the hotel from the airport. We flew into Heathrow early Sunday morning. While it would have been possible, I think, to get from the airport to our hotel using only the Underground, I thought it best not to choose that route. My main concern was we weren't familiar with the Tube. The D.C. metro is pretty easy to navigate with luggage--though it's not much fun trying to squeeze into a rush hour train with a big suitcase. (I'm pretty sure I've rolled over at least one person's toes in my lifetime.) But Metro has escalators and "roll on" trains--no steps to lift the luggage over. When I've traveled to Boston, I've been able to navigate the "T's" stairs and steps because I'm usually up for only a weekend and have a small suitcase. But there was no way I was going to be able to carry my London suitcase plus messenger bag computer case plus purse anywhere. So we took Heathrow Express--bought the round trip (or, as they say in Britain, return) ticket from BritRail before we left home. The Express runs every fifteen minutes from the airport to Paddington Station. At the station, we grabbed a cab to the hotel. I'd never been in a London cab--you pull your luggage in with you--no trunks.

2. Getting from the hotel into London. The Underground, or Tube, is a dream--or was when we were there. We used an Oyster card--never did figure out why it was called that--which worked just like a Metro SmartTrip card. Unlike with Metro, though, we never had to wait more than about four minutes for a train.

3. Getting out of London for our day trips. We got a four day BritRail pass that let us hop on any train we wanted. I think we could probably have done this more cheaply. For example, it looked like the Oyster card worked out to at least one of our destinations. But I was looking for easy, and this was it.

4. Getting around London. We used the Tube some, but we walked most of the time. Fortunately, we've both been going to the gym regularly, because I don't think we could have done all the walking we did--I'm sure we walked miles and miles--without being in shape. My main concern was getting squashed by a car, bike, or bus. At some corners, the powers that be have helpfully printed in the pavement "look left" with an arrow, since I suspect I'm not the only directionally challenged individual or "look right." I also sought out crossings that had a "walk/don't walk" sign. That green walking man was my friend. But at lots of crossings, I just prayed and tried to stay with the natives.