London, It’s Been So Long

I’d have to dig through my last passport to figure out exactly when I was last in London. All I can say is that it was too long ago, and I’ve missed this city a lot.

My nephew and I walked a lot. I should have brought Hokas or something. I forgot how hard the sidewalks and cobblestone streets are on feet. But I soldiered on, because I wanted to see as much as I could and let my nephew experience the magic of the city.

Yeah, the London Eye is a bit cheesy, but the views are amazing! Our hotel was just a few blocks from Westminster Abbey, so very easy to get around and I could almost see it in this photo, I swear.

One of the most fun thing we did was take an Uber Boat down the Thames to Canary Wharf for dinner, then back up the river at sunset. Honestly, we saw “Uber Boat” and joked about it being like Uber the car service. Turns out it was exactly that; you buy a ticket through the Uber app, stand in line, and get on the boat going where you’re going, like a taxi service on the water. It was actually pretty cool and we saw a lot of London that way.

We did time at the British Museum, packed on a Saturday, of course, but we managed to see the Elgin Marbles and my favorite, the Rosetta Stone, now encased by plexiglass to protect it from admirers. The first time I came to London, about a billion years ago, the Rosetta Stone was just sitting out on the floor like all the other things, and people didn’t really pay it much attention. I went back for a second look because I couldn’t believe THE Rosetta Stone was just sitting in the aisle of a room in a museum. I grew up with stories of it, it was legendary to me. Still is.

We took one of those hop-on, hop-off busses in the afternoon one day, but honestly, I’d go for the shorter route around town. We did see Hyde Park, where this artist was selling their wares, and Harrods and more, but we ended up going through some very boring stuff with lots of traffic and that wasn’t so exciting. But we did see a lot of city life, neighborhoods and people going about their daily life, and I always enjoy that kind of people watching.

My nephew had three days in the city, but I only had two since my flight out of Boston was canceled. Two days, three days, neither was really enough, but we have places to go, so it will have to do till next time.

London opens to you like a novel itself… It is divided into chapters, the chapters into scenes, the scenes into sentences; it opens to you like a series of rooms, doors and passages.

Anna Quindlen