London is a world by itself. We daily discover in it more new countries, and surprising singularities, than in all the universe besides. – Thomas Brown
It's strange how time passes. What seemed like a distant possibility a few months ago now seems like a distant dream. After two and a half weeks away, we arrived back on Vancouver Island in the wee hours last Sunday morning. I adapted surprisingly well to the time change and am back at work and the regular day-to-day stuff.
Sigh. Sometimes things happen way too fast.
I normally keep up with my posts while I am traveling but I found this trip to be quite mentally taxing. It was fun and it was nice to be away, but my brain just did a lot of processing the whole time. That's what coming out of a pandemic looks like for me... constant brain action.
We were away for eighteen days, which is a very long trip for us. It's very hard to think of how to share all of that without being long and repetitive. After all, this is not our first trip to the UK, nor will it be our last for some time. And the thing about the UK is that while things are always changing, some things are just the same as they were as when we lived there twenty years ago. There is something quite gratifying about that. But this post is about London and will be very photo-heavy. Stay with me... most of it is worth looking at.
We arrived in London in the morning of March 10th, tired but grateful to be able to check-in early to our hotel. We stayed in Farringdon this time, which was a pretty good spot for accessing the centre as well as for visiting some of our favourite spots. We were quite close to St. John's Gate which was the headquarters of the Order of St. John, which eventually became what is now known as St. John's Ambulance:
We did a lot of wandering around in the area and found ourselves walking through Smithfield Market:
And then down to St. Paul's Cathedral:
Then across the Millenium Bridge:
And into the sights, sounds and smells of Borough Market:
We also had time to visit Greenwich, which is where the hubby used to live. We walked through Greenwich Park and past the Maritime Museum buildings:
Visited the Cutty Sark:
And eventually found ourselves at Ruby's of London for a sandwich and a piece of cake:
There were a couple of places I'd never been before that I really wanted to visit. One was the Wellcome Museum, which is dedicated to health and specifically mental health:
And has one of the nicest reading rooms I've ever seen:
We spent a drizzly day at Coal Drops Yard, which is a series of old mill and granary buildings which have been converted into trendy boutiques and cafes:
And also visited Hampstead Heath:
And we also stopped by Buckingham Palace to say hello:
I was very interested in trying to find L. Cornelissen, an art shop close to the British Museum. I was interested in finding a particular paintbrush, but even more interested in visiting a shop that has been open since 1855:
It was a veritable treasure trove of colour and pigments and brushes and chalks and inks:
And I loved looking at the floors and thinking of how many artists and students trod the boards:
But where I really, really wanted to go was Liberty London, a department store in a Tudor-style building on Regent Street:
Liberty London is all about fashion starting from the textiles onward. You can find everything from clothes to housewares to drapery to rugs... it even has a habedashery! I absolutely loved going up to the top floor and looking down at all of the treasures in store:
I was most excited to visit the fabric department:
And I blew a small fortune on some absolutely beautiful goodies. I bought a few panels of their Tana Lawn Cotton:
As well as some of their smaller packs of cotton to play with:
But what was most exciting was a visit to Arthur's Cafe for their high tea:
In all, we spent six days in London, which is the longest we've spent there in a long time. I never tire of looking around at the old and the new next to each other. History surrounds you everywhere you look:
So... that was London. It was a whirlwind, but I'm glad we were able to get there. Next post will be about Oxford and Belfast! Thanks for stopping by!
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