On our way to our next apartment in Edinburgh, Scotland, we flew to London and spent five days there as tourists. We had never been to London so it was an adventure to explore this beautiful city. Our hotel was in the borough of Islington, to the north of central London and not far from the Kings Cross Railway Station of Harry Potter fame. Islington is a trendy neighborhood with lots of good restaurants, which we enjoyed. Coincidentally, it is also home to a yarn store that Carrie wanted to visit. Our midwinter visit to London was like springtime, with sunny days and high temperatures around 60F. The locals were out in the parks enjoying the weather. One day toward the end of our visit registered the highest wintertime temperature ever recorded in the UK, 20.6C in Wales. The record was broken the very next day!
On our first day in London we were a little bit tired and jet lagged so we opted for an easy day and a boat cruise down the Thames to Greenwich. It was a warm and sunny day so we sat on the top deck and enjoyed seeing the sights of London from the river. Lunch was street food from a Thai food vendor in the Greenwich Market.
On another day we took a bus tour of London. Our stay was brief and London is huge so a bus tour allowed us to sample many parts of the city in a single day. London is indeed a spectacular city.
We spent a day at the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, about a 30 minute train ride outside of London. Originally a royal palace garden, Kew has been a public botanical garden for almost two centuries. It has beautiful landscaping and several large conservatories (greenhouses) that house exotic plants that would not be able to survive the harsh English climate. The gardens are a short walk from the train station through the village of Kew, and along the way we passed a small bakery selling their baked goods at an open air stall. We couldn’t resist a couple of English meat pies so we bought them and had them for our lunch as we were enjoying the gardens.
We spent one day in Westminster, near the Parliament buildings. We especially enjoyed a tour of the Churchill War Rooms, an underground bunker beneath one of the government buildings that was used for six years during the German bombing of London during WWII. The bunker had everything needed to run the government, including office space, a map room for charting the course of the war, and eating and sleeping accommodations. There is also a small museum dedicated to the life of Winston Churchill. After lunch we toured Westminster Abbey, which houses the graves of many famous British figures. Stephen Hawking, who died in 2018, is buried next to Isaac Newton. Hawking’s most famed equation describing the black hole is inscribed on his gravestone. Westminster Abbey is often crowded with tourists but we were fortunate to be there on a decidedly uncrowded day. It was a midwinter weekday, plus there was a taxi strike demonstration in the adjacent Parliament Square so the tour buses could not get near.
On our final day in London we visited the Tower of London, almost a thousand years old. It was the center of old London. During its history it has served as a royal residence, the Royal Mint, the London Zoo, a prison, and the site of many famous executions. It also houses the Crown Jewels, which are very impressive. Beefeaters in full costume provide entertaining tours of the tower grounds. Legend holds that ravens provide good luck to the tower, and a small group of ravens lives on site, with one wing clipped to allow them to fly only short distances to perch. The ravens seem accustomed to people and will perch close by. They have a distinctive guttural call.
