Old Meets New and the World
~London, UK
I overslept. As per usual. And, despite the daylight hours lasting well past 9PM, by the time I left the house, there were only a couple of hours left to “see the sights”.
Seeking to do it all on foot, I set out from the base in Bethnam and was instantly greeted by a gem:
It’s too bad, but there was no time to stop and try some. Should keep moving. The first thing that appeared to me here, coming in yesterday, actually, was the names. In London (and England as a whole) there are some great ones: Picadilly. Blackfriar. Barbican. Cockfosters. There’s tons more. Pronounce them with British accents in your head.
New meeting Old is a constantly, visually present theme. This is one of the things appreciated about living in New York, I’m sure most cities have it to some degree, but the grade goes much deeper here. London is a very old city, but peppered with so many symbols of all eras back to now, for over a millennium.
The streets were busy in most places, sometimes packed–people eating, drinking, and generally milling about–with quite a few quiet corners that would kind of just appear. I walked to the Thames River and zigzagged across it a few times, from London Tower Bridge to Westminster. There were dozens of languages spoken and written the whole way, too. Russian. Chinese. Punjabi. French. Lots of them tourists. However, plenty of locals as well.
And Americans.
What else can I say for now ? My “day” was short. But anyone who has been here before could probably tell you something similar. And more. There’s a reason this city’s character is so widely-well-known. It feels impacting. In a good way.
I took the tube home. Goodnight !
Etphonehome 