Since we never left London, I can’t really comment about England as a whole. London was much more than I expected … however, coming from Ireland and Scotland, we weren’t really told a whole lot about England that would have given us much hope.
Being the frugal fellow that I am, I’d have to say that one of my lasting memories of London was just how expensive everything was. The first thing that we did was buy a pair of subway tickets … 3 pounds, or close to $6 USD just to go a few stops down the line. Nothing was cheap. Fortunately one of Michele’s best friends lives in London, and gave us a free place to stay and she and James (III) were more than hospitable hosts. Fortunately, memories of them taking care of us will supercede the high cost of everything else there. (No, I’m not sucking up … but in case I’m in London again soon, this can’t hurt, can it?)
London is also packed full of famous sites … lots of old buildings, a big famous church where Chuck and Di got married … London Bridge which is very unimpressive … the Tower Bridge which I always had confused for the London Bridge … Buckingham Palace and the funny hat guards … crazy black cabs, red double-decker buses and red phone booths. It’s all very impressive. The English managed to fill loads of museums by plundering civilizations around the world … we only had a peek into one, but you could spend days or weeks seeing them all. 3 or 4 days in London really wasn’t enough, but we did what we could.
It’s a shame that the English team lost to Portugal while we were there, but, it did allow us a chance to see how the tabloids get into the excitement of it all … blame, excuses, accusations, the whole bit.
Like Ireland and Scotland, our visit to London was well worthwhile, just a little too short. A good teaser for next time I guess.
