London

I'm sitting at home after my "london experience". Marinda is at dance class, Herman is off to the soccer field with Tristan, so the house is quiet. I just finished looking at the pictures we made in London (which are not great, so you won't see many of them here!) and I've been thinking about how I feel about my time in London.

I had hoped I would be stunned and amazed. I wasn't. Was it due to the fact that we were rushed and harried before we good and well got there? Perhaps. Perhaps it was also due to the fact that we hadn't gone into great detail in the planning. Maybe it had to do with the weather, which was not aweful (no rain, thank goodness!) but not great either. I'm not sure. But whatever way I look at it, I was not terribly impressed.


So what did we see? We saw the Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben. We saw Westminister Abbey, inside and out. We saw Buckingham Palace. And we walked for miles and miles, crisscrossed through Soho, and stopped by in a couple of bookshops. Sat by the Thames munching english baked goods, had dinner in an italian restaurant in the middle of the Chinese Quarter. Rode in the metro, admired the cabs, enjoyed the buses and peeked into shop windows. Felt our feet ache from pounding the pavement, were surprised at how polite people were, were given a Krispy Kreme doughnut for free at the airport, and were utterly exhausted by the time we finally got back home.

Westminister Abbey was impressive, actually. But somehow I didn't quite get the feel for all the history that is encompassed in that one building. Because really, talk about history!! It's all in there. Factually I got a lot of information, but it didn't grab me by the guts as historical places will sometimes do to me. Maybe that was because it was utterly jampacked with tourists. I could almost walk over peoples heads (as the dutch say).
Maybe we should have gone for the prepackaged tourist deal and had all kinds of history dished out to us in ready made portions. There's a certain ease to that! You don't have to spend time thinking about which metro to take, or which bus goes where..... maybe next time?


The flight was an experience in itself. My friend hadn't flown in 30 years, so I had to explain some of the rituals of travel to her. I was a bundle of nerves myself, until we got into the air. I can get airsick sometimes, and I have a strong dislike of turbulence. But the trips were good. We sat in different seats, got a good look at the dutch countryside and seaside. Went through clouds, saw the sunset, had some turbulence and saw Holland by night. About as complete a journey as we could wish for!



So, how would I sum up this trip? As a pretty unique experience. And one that has actually made me pretty happy about where I live now. Lots of history to be seen here! Maybe next time I would be happier going to someplace smaller like Stratford-upon-Avon. Someplace that is not quite as huge. Maybe I need to go see London with someone who comes from London, to get a much better feel for the place. Maybe, just maybe, I'm not as adventerous as I like to think I am, and I should just stay at home and enjoy what I have!!