So as I’ve previously mentioned I visited London recently (and the airline shenanigans were lovely). There were many interesting places to go; in fact there were too many. If ever there were a place that could have nearly anything you’d want reasonably nearby and getting to it was very convenient but you’d not have enough time available to take in even a fraction of what it has to offer then that place would probably be London. There are some places where, even if you spent the entire day there, you still wouldn’t be able to see it all unless you literally ran through.
While overall there doesn’t seem to be much of a difference in daily life from the US (and I didn’t expect there to be) there are some notable variances. For example, Greater London area is extremely diverse. I regularly encountered shops and restaurants run by a wide range of peoples from Italian, French, Indian, and even Japanese. I’m sure there were more that I didn’t even happen to notice. The great thing about this being that they all carried very different products and foods and there was always something very different very close by. I only wish I’d had more time (and money) to try more of it.
Another difference was transportation. I’ve lived in large metropolitan areas before and even though public transportation is available people generally own and drive their own cars. In London, at least, it’s a little different. Though many people do still have their own cars it’s not as prevalent as it is here in the US. Most people seem to walk or take busses to wherever they need to go; given that everything you could need is usually nearby, it isn’t much of a hassle to do so.
Every now and then I had still wondered about it myself (since I do have several friends in the UK), unsure why everyone simply didn’t have and use their cars. The main reason, it seems to me, is that space is a very limited resource. What I’m saying is that, even if you had a car you would still need a place to park it while at your own home. That usually means along the sidewalk as only the wealthy seemed to have driveways. On top of that, I do not recall seeing a single parking lot for a storefront that you were not required to pay a parking ticket to use. I’m not talking about parking meters or parking garages, I’m talking about going to a normal everyday parking lot in front of any normal store and needing to pay for parking your car there. This, to me, coupled with fuel and other costs makes owning and using a car considerably expensive.
Now, in any large city it’s fairly normal to be limited on space but it extends beyond actual London itself and largely into the surrounding areas. The reason for all of this and also why most any store you could need would be conveniently close was still unknown to me. That is, the sheer cramped nature of it all. Even outside of the city, houses are all crowded together and usually built as a single unit with connecting walls. The streets are also very narrow by US standards and most roads that I saw were comparable to what we would call a ‘country road.’ In short it’s very many houses and buildings crammed together as closely as it seems sane to do. This leaves very little space for much else. I really was sort of amazed that the bus drivers were able to safely navigate these kinds of conditions and roads. Sometimes the distance between two passing vehicles is mere inches. I’ve heard many stories about Europeans coming to the US and being shocked by the sheer open space of everything or by how straight the roads are; I suppose I was surprised over the opposite.
Once you visit London proper, the best method of travel is the London Underground (which is also my favourite). It is essentially a series of railways that run underneath the various sections of the city. It does seem to be the fastest way to go wherever you want, however, if you’re unlucky you may find yourself with a defective travel card and will have to manually (by the staff) go through every gate.
The underground is how I traveled to places such as the British Museum and RAF Museum. Though, when the underground line I was riding to get to the RAF Museum came above ground I was somewhat taken aback. It sounds nothing short of silly for a system called ‘London Underground’ to be above the ground. Regardless of this odd turn of events I spent an entire day at the RAF Museum and still did not have the time to appreciate half of what they had and there were some sections I missed out on altogether. While I was there I attempted to take as many pictures as possible of all the rare and unique planes but unfortunately my camera did die a while before I would have liked and a good number of pictures didn’t come out so well. This was even truer with the British Museum; however I did arrive there rather late so I wasn’t able to spend very long there.
It really was great to see so many magnificent planes all well kept and all in one place. Before my visit to RAFM London I had only seen mostly American aircraft. So a lot of what they had on display were firsts for me. This included such things as Avro Vulcan, Focke-Wulf 190, and de Havilland Mosquito among many others. One of the things that really impressed me about the RAF Museum is that they have a full history (as much as it can be in some cases) for most planes available on their website.
I could go on about a great many more things but this isn’t entirely on the subject of my chronicle to begin with. I thought more that it was interesting rather than relevant. Either way it’s back to work for me. I’ve included download links below to some of the pictures I took while on my trip. The RAF Museum is a separate file while the British Museum and everything else is the other. Oh and as usual I can provide a high resolution (larger and better quality) copy of any image; just ask.
 |
 |
<3
ReplyDelete