At the beginning of this year Delta was advertising a fantastic deal on flights to London using skymiles. Since we have friends who live in London, and the flight was basically free (except for taxes), we booked a trip! We've both been to London before, David in high school and Paul
last year, but it's such a huge and important city that we had barely scratched the surface of all of the things to see and do. So unlike most of our vacations where we don't stay in one place for too long, this was a great opportunity to explore a city in-depth, and have a long visit with friends.
After a red-eye flight, we met up with Janice and started the first day with food at Camden Locks market and a stroll along the canal to Primrose Hill.
Our next stop was our first ever Premier League game! We saw Arsenal defeat Norwich in Emirates Stadium. We had a great time, thanks in part to some rowdy hooligans in the rows behind us. They were consistently excited about the possibility of getting more beer, and sang songs about procuring said beer. See, in the stadium you can't bring alcohol to your seats - you can only buy and drink it on the the concourse. We learned this the hard way as we had to chug some crappy Carlsbergs so we could get back to our seats. That aside, it was an awesome experience to see a Premiere League game, and we can add it to our European soccer list along with the Atlético Madrid game we saw in 2010.
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| Wearing our new Arsenal scarves! |
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| The stadium was cool. It's only a decade old. |
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| We had a few craft brews after the Arsenal win. |
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| We bought the most British foods we could find at the grocery store. Yellow is the healthiest color of food! |
After a busy first day, we hit the ground running again on our second day. We took the train to Canary Wharf, a business center just east of the city center. London transit is comprehensive, but it can take a while to get around. It's very multi-modal: during our week in the city we took the subway (tube), the overground (kind of like frequent commuter rail), the
DLR (light rail), buses, the
river bus, and Uber. Everything is frequent and convenient, but it can get quite expensive. Buses are often the best option in terms of price and convenience, but it can take a while to cross the city in traffic.
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| The transit map is a bit intimidating. So many lines! Google maps worked really well for planning trips. |
The Canary Wharf area is the center of commerce in London, with gleaming office skyscrapers towering above the Thames. One Canada Square, a 770ft tall skyscraper built in 1991, was the first big skyscraper in the UK and established Canary Wharf as a jobs center. London (and Europe for that matter) didn't really have many skyscrapers prior to the 1990s. Now the area is full of buildings, and it's actually reminiscent of some US cities' downtown, with a lot of office buildings and not much residential or retail. That said, there are taller buildings in Atlanta, so as Americans, we're drawn more towards the older historic buildings, which Europe has in abundance, rather than the new skylines which don't really compare to large American or Asian cities.
From here we walked through the Greenwich foot tunnel under the river to visit the museums on the south bank. The tunnel is over 100 years old, and is a unique way to cross the river. Greenwich has a great collection of museums and sites perched on a grassy hill. The Royal Observatory, Maritime Museum, Royal Naval College, and Prime Meridian are all located in this area. We took in the sights and exhibits at the Royal Observatory, snapped a tourist picture standing on the Prime Meridian, and took a nice stroll along the river.
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| Canary Wharf is full of modern office buildings. |
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| The pedestrian tunnel under the Thames River. |
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| Looking back at Canary Wharf across the river, through the twin domes of the Royal Naval College. |
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| David standing on the site where the Prime Meridian was first established in 1851 to aid ship navigation. |
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| The view from Greenwich hill was very popular on this sunny spring Sunday. |
Our final stop for the day was Crystal Palace Park, on the south side of the city. It's a bit out of the way and the park itself is nothing special except for one thing - dinosaurs! These statues represent people's first idea of what dinosaurs looked like based on fossils and information available in the late 19th century. They really don't match the modern understanding of dinosaur biology, which makes them all the more fun. Most of them just looked like large iguanas or turtle-rat monsters!
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| LOOKOUT! A lizard...err...dinosaur! |
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| Peter got some great local beers after we left the park. |
The following morning was a bank holiday in the UK. We arranged a tour of a famous Victorian cemetery called
Highgate Cemetery. This cemetery was on the northern outskirts of town and was very popular with upper middle class and wealthy Victorians. On our guided tour of the west cemetery, we learned a lot about the style and pomp associated with funerals in London in the 1800s. During World War II the cemetery fell into disrepair and only recently was starting to be repaired. Decades of neglect gave the cemetery a very overgrown, melancholic air that added to its charm. This tour was actually one of the highlights of the entire trip and is a must do when in London! Make sure you book ahead for the tour of the west cemetery.
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| Full English breakfast en route to Highgate, |
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| Tombstone being reclaimed by the earth. |
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| Most of the cemetery was overgrown which gave an eerie yet beautiful impression. |
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| The Egyptian Mausoleum. This themed area was meant for the rich and famous, but was actually pretty unpopular in Victorian times. |
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| Coming through the main alley in the Egyptian Mausoleum. |
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| More of the Egyptian Mausoleum. This tree was massive, and surrounded by a ring of sunken tombs. |
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| Douglas Adams's tombstone in the east cemetery - David's a fan of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. |
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| Highgate has lots of nice paths and is a great spot for a stroll, especially in spring. |
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| People have left lots of personal touches throughout the east cemetery. |
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| Lots of the east cemetery looked like this, with close plots overgrown by the encroaching forest. |
After learning about 19th century English customs for the afternoon, we made our way toward the city center to get drinks and dinner in 21st century London. We went up to the top of one of the taller buildings in the city, affectionately called the "Walkie Talkie" to take in the view. The upper floor atrium in this building is beautiful and the cocktails were very good. We wrapped up the day by visiting a trendy restaurant called Duck and Waffle in another skyscraper nearby.
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| The observation deck and sky gardens. |
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| London has some interesting buildings - here is the cheese grater and the gherkin. |
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| The view from the observation deck. |
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| So pretty! And tasty! |
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| The bar at Duck and Waffle. |
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| The namesake Duck and Waffle dish. |
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| Sunset over central London at the Duck and Waffle. |
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| There's always time to be goofy! Especially after you're stuffed full of good food! |
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| All the running around can really wear you out! |
With a week in London, there was a lot to see and do... stay tuned for post number two!
