London Day 1 - Afternoon Wanders

 After the British Museum we truly embraced the role of Tourist and walked over to the London Eye.   It’s about a half-hour ride, although it didn’t feel that long.  It was a minor challenge to figure out where to purchase tickets lol. But we did find them and were good to go.   Got through the line and there were about 15 of us in the cab - more people than seats but certainly everyone had lots of space, and this isn’t the kind of thing that you need, or even necessarily want, a seat for.   A sunny day with perfect weather, it gave us great views around the city and of the Thames.  Have to admit the Uber boat made me laugh — I learned later they’re essentially commuter boats.

Around we go :)

After hopping off the eye we went exploring - just walking wherever looked interesting.  Multiple roads were closed, making it super convenient to be a pedestrian ;).  

Empty roads

In not this order at all, we wandered through the calvary yard, up to the palace (right down the street since it was closed), to Trinity square, through a park that I have no idea what it was, but it was lovely, past the “Canada Monument”.

Things I've seen a million times, but never in person

I was impressed by how much green space there was everywhere, and how much it was being used.  Not as a tourist attraction, just by people hanging out enjoying the summer.  

Randomness on our wanders that made me smile

For dinner we tested out a pub - we’d been told to try the Sunday Roast…. Alas, it was sold out.   Still though, great day overall.  Lots of walking and saw way more than I’d expected.  Fun to just wander around and see what we see with no real plan.

Disappointed Chris

Some random extra photos with random unrelated thoughts from our time so far (that still hold after the end of the trip!):

Green space.  So much greenery and so many trees.  I love it.

Green spaces are communal and appear to be well used by locals and tourists.  My guess is if very few people have yards, shared parks become more precious.   Along the same lines - way more trees and green spaces than I was expecting.  Those who know me will be aware how much that means.

Just liked this.

Along with green spaces, are far more cyclists than I’d expected.  And for some reason while I could figure out which way the cars would come from I never really remembered to look for cyclists.  This didn’t always go well ;)

View from the Eye

So I knew in my head there wasn’t much in the way of AC here, but I didn’t realize how much I’m conditioned to that expect it 🤷‍♀️.   Like when it’s hot and I get in a cab, I expect it to be cool in the car.  It was not.  Any time.  Despite all of the cars having the option.  Not an issue but just surprised me.  Similarly subway, museums, most of the pubs we tried, etc - all toasty.  Had to reset the baseline a bit.  Although our room now has extremely good AC so sleep was not an issue.   That being said, 30 deg in UK is not as hot as 30 deg at home.  Less humidity or something - idk what exactly but the issue is more that without having ubiquitous AC, there was no easy escape from it.  So we were very glad for our hotel room when we got home from our adventures.   The eye, fortunately, DID have AC as otherwise riding around in a glass bubble in the sun for half an hour would've been less than enjoyable.

Not sure who she is, but reasonably certain I don't want to make her angry.

The buildings are pretty but the sameness of the row houses would get to me.  Conversely, I love that the roads are not a grid - they go off on weird angles, are made of a variety of surfaces, and occasionally randomly stop.  Gives it a lot more character.

Dragon paws

Subway is fast and efficient and goes everywhere for cheap.   Most lines are not air conditioned.  Some of them branch off at different points and you have to make sure you pick the right one.  Often the stops on the printed map are reverse of the train’s direction of travel.

Some, but not all, restaurants and pubs work like they did when I was in Australia - they seat you, but then you go up to the bar or counter to order, then they bring food out when it’s ready.   Tipping isn’t really a thing here which is lovely.

?????

It makes me laugh to put this blurb between these two pictures.  People dress better in general here than at home - even though I am the opposite of fashion conscious 😂 I did appreciate it.  Obv not everybody - there are people who are always well put together at home and there are slobs here (maybe tourists ;-P) but, in general, people as a whole seemed better dressed.

Empty roads were creepy and awesome simultaneously