I had a serious case of the Mondays and chose to get the heck out of America this last August. I started my trip 7th August 2009 and launched a global adventure.

First day -7 August

Getting to Gatwick
Gatwick airport is one of those names when you go through the airport you feel the bronze of international travel flow right over you. The Union Jack flags flying really brought it home that I was in London! I had heard of all the special thngs the London airport had going on from various articles from food service to vendors to shops to security.
You get used to seeing little crown on things and coats of arms. This was the real deal, London airport at the height of the international terrorist era. Or maybe the drama was coming from the them song to Spooks I played on my Ipod as I waited for my baggage. Everybody had their take on the necessities bag, from Chanel to plastic to brown paper wrapper. Travel 20 years earlier had been about one quarter the time.
I was bracing for incredible cold, perhaps a Dickensian cold snap. The weather was an issue. I had found a Londoner’s idea of a “hot day” was a growing process of communication. But the weather was sort of mild cold, like San Francisco or Portland on a cold day. I was fussing with an extra scarf and gloves the whole time. It was like home, except when it wasn’t.

Going inside the cab, hotel, bathroom, shop, restaurant it was warm and you shuffled off your coat and things.Then if you went outside, you huddle in a summery breeze unless it was night time or early morn.The muggy midday was not to be trusted, it would chill while we went into a store and we’d come out huddling our arms together. People got good at finding the cold spots in the air conditioning, I saw.

We flew into the Gatwick airport and after some longish lines after a surprisingly short customs inspection and bags examination folderol stayed at the Best Western Gatwick Moat House. Maybe Gatwick had a moat once. I wondered if other people wished they had more time to browse the airport shops.
We fell into our hotel, a nice boxy place that looked purpose built to house jet lagging travelers midway to London. British room service seemed more glamorous than plain American. We had some fun translating British cooking terms. Eating with a British newspaper to casually browse through was exciting. We had fish and chips, maybe not the best the locals had ever had but manna from heaven after the airline food and grabbed airport snacks. We really wanted to have something to drink but after the long airplane ride we decided it would be too dehydrating.

Skipping the hotel bar due to drowsiness, but a little disappointed because which it would have been lively fun. As it was a late flight we just fell into bed between grabbing the drapes and staring into the night at the London skyline. I didn’t even want to unpack because I wanted to remember everything from the room and I’ve forgotten stuff in drawers in the past. The morning dash comes fast and losing cellphones or wallets is never fun. Our next hotel is right in the center of all the major London districts so we can fan out every day in a new direction. Must sleep.

Day 2 -8 August
Transferred after breakfast to the Soho area near St.Giles Hotel. Will never learn who St. Giles was or what he did to make him a Saint. Perhaps he decorated some famous King’s palace. Stayed the next 6 nights here, great amenities but as always hard to hang around a hotel when LONDON is on the other side of the door. If it snowed in we would have had a great time but most days we barely saw the place. Except the next to last day we crashed, exhausted.
The first morning I wanted to get to Buckingham Palace because I had heard too many traveler stories about how the one day they planned to go it rained out or crowds were miserable. It was everything it looked like on TV, but you absolutely got a sense of being there, instead of seeing it from the air. London is so big just hitting three big spots a day is an ambitious goal.

The concourse leading up to the Palace looked impressive from the ground, and you just wished something big like Prince William’s wedding was going on and people would scream themselves crazy. We thought we might take a bus trip guided after a few days but we wanted to wander around a little. Also, some of the areas a bit wider out we wanted to cover as time got shorter through the week. But getting our bearings wth a cup of tea became our daily custom. When in Rome…
You do not get a feel from news or television how the layout of London is. The Thames divides sort of a closed interlocking fists set of two towns, mostly North Bank attractions are popular. The buildings like the Arcade shopping and the Wilton Crescent and Belgravia and the Mall are much smaller than the layout of Los Angeles, for example. Streets are very small in places.

You can see how people walk the city as once you know how the spoke wheels fan out it really is a straight ovoid. Kensington area not far off, but we couldn’t afford those hotels anyway. Shopping made me remember my budget, alas. Tea at the Ritz was equivalent roughly to the Chunnel fee, we passed on it. The Thames was a weird River, boats on it but no beach relationship like every other city I’ve ever been in with water. Like Portland it had a big “feel” to it. Just looking at buildings and architecture made us snap pictures until out camera batteries were dead.

I got a map of London and gave a copy to my travel companion so we would know how far we were from each other if we got lost. We’d got temporary cellphones from some Euro carrier with German plastic cases to make sure we didn’t lose telephoning, for some reason our home mobile phones worked some places good and other places got no bars at all. Doing the satelllite continent switchover is easier for some wireless carriers than others. The cocnept of the cloakroom was very amusing. We neglected to bring any ‘cloaks”.

I was looking at a lot of the shopping and it seems a lot of stuff I never heard of is shown in stores. A lot of it is hard weather gear, some of it beautiful but I could only wear a few times a year like furry hats or suede coats. I liked Bond street but too little of it is anything I could really use. Walking around we saw a lot of terrace houses, many of which are really apartments. Selfridges I spent too much and never looked back.

We took it easy later that afternoon, stopping by the Cutty Sark and hitting it while the line was really small on a slightly rainy day. I liked the people watching around end of day in the tube stations, you saw a lot of what people were wearing. Multiethnic to be sure. The City men wear their sharp suits but the women are so conservative dressing it was a little depressing. The tube stations are very worn looking although cleaned up. I could see on some bus routes some gritty areas across the Thames were definitely not for tourists.

Day 3, 9 August

Got our top-up on the Oyster cards for Tubing and set off. We realized stuffing the Tate Museum and the Albert Museum and all the galleries needed a half day minimum each. We found ourselves looking for parks and fountains to relax and hang out. Regent Street, Oxford Street and Carnaby Street were fun people watching if out of our price range for actual shopping. Camden Town markets felt a lot more like Los Angeles, and Portobello Road felt like the Village. Piccadilly Circus had good deals on theatre tickets but we didn’t really fancy anything playing. Tower of London and the Gherkin building tired us out almost in one whole day.

Went to the Knightsbridge shops today. I was looking for special stuff that people would ask” Oh where did you get that?” and of course I would tell them Oh here.. etc. Except when you come from Southern California and Beverly Hills shopping, it takes a lot to impress. I was tired because jet lag always hits me late. I did something I always do every time I travel, although it sounds really pedestrian. I see a movie. It might seem strange, but it makes me relax and I get a theater experience of how a different culture. I knew I was in London when I saw the little Daimler taxis running around.
The mammoth theaters next to the London Eye (Jubilee Gardens) had a ton of movies to choose from, and I wanted something that would engross me and relax me so I didn’t feel so anxious trying to hit every tourist spot in London on a 20 minute timer. Waterloo Station is great for people watching. Great atmosphere. The Imperial War Museum and the Old Vic is close by if you are stretching your legs. I alway wondered what Vauxhall was, now I know. The Saatchi Gallery lines and Aquarium lines meant booking in advance.
The London film audiences had quite an appetite of Tom Cruise, but their laughter and cynical remarks form the audience show that he is not quite as international a star as some might suppose. I noticed the food snack amenities were much smallers portions than their American counterparts. The West End of London is famous for edgy drama productions, and I wanted to see a show but not a lot of what was on looked good. The West end would have to wait. But the Lambeth buildings and Festival pier to the North and the big showpiece buildings like the Royal Festival hall and National gallery are priceless to see.

I expected a travellers glaze over the London Tower, since time has eroded any atmosphere, yet too many Masterpiece Theatre Elizabethan dramas had me sort of peering around. In electric light with the chatter of tourists and Nikes swooshing through the carpeted exhibit, it’s wasn’t that scary. But unlike Disneyland, real people had been imprisoned here in times when Miranda rights and Warnings didn’t exist. Signs like New Admiralty and Jewel Tower were fun to snap.
The Tower was a place I kept waiting to get the Disney “set’ feel but it seemed too real. If the tour guide keeps quiet and accompanying group hold their tongues, enough atmosphere seeps out of the stone that makes you want to find a cellphone fast. The red booths seemed quaint but in a downpour you understand why they are there. Trafalgar square seemed less campy when you are really there.the Royal Horticultural Society is a must for gardeners.
I checked out something amazing, the British Film Institute had a Mediatheque on Tour program titled ‘The Big Smoke: Films from a Lost London 1896-1945.

Made over 100 years ago, this incredible footage shows great film snippets shot around old time London. Big Ben is visible from all sides at once, London is that flat in these old films. Old scenes and the National Gallery of the old days make fine historic counter points. But many iconic buildings were not yet built during these films. Nevertheless they remind one that the modern topography is not permanent.

Day 4, 10 August
I was intimidated by the idea of going to the some of the London nightclubs because I had an idea they were much more exclusive than the American typical bar. I can see why a city like London (and New York) needs clubs, since so many pub crawlers and underage drinkers cruise around, finding a place to mingle with adults who are non footballers is tough. Something that looked like a club was really a restaurant, and vice versa.We ate at Mildred’s in Piccadilly a vegetarian place.
The first few clubs of yelling boisteronians is fun, but it palls. Young people want a good time but can’t afford it, those who can realy want a quiet evening looking on. The most emotional are the ones who get snuck in, then want to lose themselves in dance and drink but aren’t very good at either. A lot of the more fun clubs were either too far off for tubing safely at night (we thought) or for singles. A lot of the food like sausages and mash or fish and chips we passed on.

I don’t find London cuisine too tempting and we sampled fruit and energy drinks and bottled water to keep going and not get rum tummies. I saw a lot of sweets for sale but nothing I couldn’t get online. Some of the restaurants we liked form television were not convenient to where we found ourseleves some days. Found a great wine shop Cork and Bottle. I could have wrecked my credit cards in there.
We saw people that must have been celebrities but we didn’t know who they were. We asked people but didn’t recognise the names or the television shows they were from. The City of London Square Mile was good for ancient vibrations of antique London but little for casual travelers to do, especially at night. Set meals was a new concept.

I noticed to have a good time in London (or Greater London) you needed to find a place you’d like to live in and go there. The Notting Hill street markets and Portobello Road were famous but very like areas in Southern California I didn’t want to live. Also, the places most relaxed and least crowded for touristing were those not reachable bus or Tube, hence their calm vibes and quiet streets. Camden seemed like a place that could eat up weeks of a vacation between the Museum and the British Library.

I liked Brent and Barnet, areas which probably elicited a “Huh” from people but we liked them the same. Wembley and sports were local when we felt like it. The RF Museum and the Jewish Museum were absorbing and not as crowded as the London central tourist traps. Bexleyheath shopping I liked very much, and we marveled at what a gift travel in the little neighborhoods outside central London could be. We started planning mornings outside of central London and through afternoons, then returning to London for night time ambling and ad hoc dining.
London is too expensive for dining for all but the very well-gilded traveler for value. Brent Cross Shopping Mall kept us busy shopping and browsing.We did like to get dressed up and bar hop a little. We found a place called Baltic by accident in Blackfriars Road. Great food. A great place to take people you know. Awkward for tourists waiting around to meet people. we especially went to the Long bar at the Sanderson but felt embarrassed to be taking pictures, very glamorous crowd. We found our favorite bar the next to last night, the Player at Broadwick Street. Members only after 11 pm but like L.A. nightclubs more relaxed admission before then.

Most nights we tried eating early to keep walking and then turn in. We noticed a lot of people came out for dinner but ate a lot of fish and salads, not a lot of real steaks and desserts. English cuisine, the River Cafe, Nigella Lawson and Gordon Ramsay notwithstanding, just wasn’t as fun as a cute Indian restaurant or Golden Arches had cheap. Munching fries by the Thames as the Eye rolled upward was just as fun as a sit-down dinner costing a heap. Bars were more affordable and we didn’t sleep in so much.
I liked finding Brent and getting around the parks, spotting Gladstone Park and Queen’s Park and Roundwood parks. Fryent Park we had never heard of and the Welsh Harp was obviously a secret getaway park for locals. Just reading about London and figuring out what you wanted to do needed a nice park and green belt. The smog was an unpleasant surprise and the cost of a taxi almost exhausted our daily budget. If it overlaps buses or trains, don’t bother with a taxi unless you have theater tickets.
We determined to keep a tube map on each of us. The confusion between which wards and borough names were part of London or not swam in our minds. Asking some people where you were got them really annoyed, they’d point to a sign you hadn’t seen marking the area. Some days we just wanted to be the only tourists walking along. Some days we were just that grateful to find a tea place and regroup. We had planned to do the Paris Tunnel Link if we got fed up or disappointed with London, but by the last few days somehow just didn’t want to go for it.
And I couldn’t hear the entertaining London accents with blaring music. Some of the more fun “clubs” were really just hangouts where a lot of people talking about music hung out. But walking around the city at night is fun because the bright lights of the main streets and cake frosting building architecture looked romantic and very picture-ready. But few real “British” types are wandering around London, it is a daytrip town, We met a lot of foreign people touristing just like us. You begin to see how the “country” appellation seem a favorable one in Britain. Traffic was really stopgapped often, we noticed we kept pace with some cars walking block to block.
Day shopping became a battle of Tubing to places we didn’t know much about and then sort of looking for overground trains for train rides we could enjoy. We ended up in someplace called Barnet which had a Jewish Museum and some gold shops. There were a lot of theaters but barely anyplace to eat. We continued our scheme of finding only trips halfway that took us back to a central Tube station we knew like Charing Cross, Blackfriars, or the like. Once you know your way home from a Tube station getting further out is more accessible. Some people were confused by the Olympics buildings and kept looking for what things were going on there.
We learned to swing round places like Harrods and other shops on the way home so we wouldn’t be trying to handle large parcels and sightsee. The Covent Garden atmosphere was nice but Soho seemed a bit too grubby for me. I saw a lot of places I wanted to check back online and shop for stuff, I wondered if buying when the conversion rate was lower would save on shipping as I would have to declare customs on everything we dragged back to the hotel. It’s said one in five Londoners are not English speaking, you could hear that, although people are not as rudely vocal as New York or Los Angeles.

Day 5, 11 August

Downing Street was prudently barred and gated. The Criterion theater looked ornate for a mere movie venue. London street fashions could be extreme in places. I saw some very well dressed men in the certain areas of the City where business people meet. there were some very high priced restaurants we woudl never get a table at, and some fine fish and chip type places that must have been priced for tourists. We took some riverboats but kept ending up at the same places. We learned to take the Tube a little farther on and on, testing our foray luck and sometimes finding little out of the way non touristy blocks.
The trick is to start taking tube rides to places you haven’t been and then see what is around there. Marble Arch and Hyde Park seem touristy, you end up wanting a more “neighborhood” feel. But our hotel was close to Soho and the gay scene, some nights this was extremely evident. Don’t ask about locations by postal code, these are very hard to keep track of and can’t be precisely located. Walking on a street named High Holborn or Regent Street (or even Pall Mall) is more fun with an actual destination in mind. The hotel was fun, talking about American politics over breakfast in view of the Houses of Parliament was extremely enjoyable.
We learned the trick of getting onto buses running outlying from the Tube stations outbound from central London into Greater London. In some cases prices were a bit lower in these “neighborhoods”. We learned the trick of following children off from the private schools to see where they were having a snack. It was usually cheap and cozy and safe. This made interval respites possible for scouring guidebooks to see what attractions were nearby. People might sneer but chains are dependable versus question mark foreign capital restaurants we’ve never heard of.

Night 6.-12 August
This morning we were sore and tired, ordered room service and paradoxically hung around the hotel.lots to do we were sort of ambivalent about cocooning up in hotel versus wandering abut London. Bellboy told us about Heaven, a cool club but we were kind of walked out. Our club experiences were Pacha, which we dressed up too much for, and Turnmills, where we were very amused listening to some Greek tourists and German hiking students argue about Bush and discuss President Obama.
Exhausted after Piccadilly Circus, Madame Tussauds’ and Nelson’s monument. Our feet hurt and we were sick of dashing off at first light every morn. Time to relax a little. I went off by myself, wanting to take one particular train while my friend took a spa appointment. Green golf courses and middle class houses one way, across a bus line and then back into Central London the other way. The Olympics buildings and schemes were coming together. I was getting to know London just as I was leaving it….
Night 7 13 August
Airport takeoff scheduled late at night because we had thought about Chunneling to Paris and back. Instead we spent the whole day wandering around the National Gallery. The rooms just kept coming, and we had the luxury of giving the entire day to it. We thought about the Chunnel but a lazy Museum day was more appealing over mornign scones at the hotel. We even had lunch in Chinatown (which we thought hilarious in London) and went back to the museum as our first choice what to do with the last day.

We were glad we could relax and enjoy everything, with no pressure to beat a deadline or run for a bus. Fitzrovia and the British Museum could have used another day but that will have to be it for next time. Left walking through the airport with our eyes filled with history and art, priceless museum pieces and glorious exhibition stuff. Lots of Italians and their work in London. I wondered if we would see as much British painting in Italy!
We had about one hour until plane takeoff, spent the last of our money in the airport shops with anything British for gifts for back home. I was sort of depressed I wouldn’t have my staircase and pool at the St. Giles hotel in the morning. But beggars can’t be choosers. Glorious holiday and we would stay there again.

Jack and Gemma
Siesta Key
Sarasota
Florida