London!

We arrived in London on July 20th.  This was our first trip to England (other than stops at Heathrow to change planes), and we were both really looking forward to it.  The weather was chilly and wet - very similar to the weather back home in Kirkland. 


We caught a cab at the St. Pancras train station and headed off to pick up the keys to the apartment we would be renting for our short stay.  While David was checking in at the office and getting our keys, Anna had a chance to chat with theTaxi driver.  Maybe "quizzed" is a better choice of words than "chat."  She found that our driver had been driving a cab in London for over 20 years.  And, yes, there is an arduous and lengthy path to actually getting a license to drive a cab in London.  (LOTS of study and memorization of locations, routes, etc.  and plenty of written and oral exams.  The process actually takes years to complete.) 


Then it was off to our apartment.  We settled in and went out to explore our neighborhood.  We immediately noticed two things that seemed a bit odd:  everyone drove on the wrong side of the street (yes, we knew about this, but it's a bit disconcerting anyway) and all the signs were in English - imagine that!  It took a bit of adjusting after living in France for a year.



Main entrance to the British Museum.

 Our apartment was in a great location - just a stone’s throw from London City University and the British Museum, We spent a good deal of time in the British Museum and, yet, have much more we want to see. (They threw us out so they could close for the day.) What an amazing place! We both agreed that Ira Gershwin got it wrong (in "A Foggy Day in London Town"); we can't imagine the British Museum losing its charm!


We found a place called the College Arms not  too far away and got a light dinner.  Although we didn't really expect people to dress as fashionably as they do in France, we did notice some of the women in the place looked like they had raided their grandmother's closet.  We noticed a man in an RAF uniform, and David commented on how much the uniform looked like a WWII uniform.  Surely, they must have updated their uniforms in the last 65 years!  Then we found that the reason it looked like a WWII uniform was because it WAS a WWII uniform!  Later, we saw lots of people on the street in costume – mostly WWII vintage.  All this was for a private party at a local park - complete  with vintage recordings, a dance floor, food booths, and people in costume.  We never found out whose party or what it was about – but  it was definitely impressive.

Here's one of the plaques.



We continued walking around neighborhood and reading the historic plaques on several of the Row Houses in the area.  Lots of interesting history here!  We browsed a sidewalk display at a used book store in the neighborhood and David found A Shorter Boswell for just 1£.  The book was published May 1925 and last reprinted October 1932.   Anna is a great Dr Johnson fan (more on that later) was especially pleased with David's purchase.  (Any of you who had read Boswell’s Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson will appreciate the fact that this book has only 195 extracts from the original book and is only 256 pages long.)  A great find!!!!!

More on our London visit to come...