It was bloody cold in London. Not to mention snowy. No colder or snowier than Copenhagen, but the Brits, on their island out in the warm ocean, aren’t used to such weather. Schools were closed, trains weren’t running, and the newscasters were blathering about how it was the coldest winter since 1911 when the ponies froze standing in their harnesses, etc. Jonetta and Louis flew over Tuesday; I was supposed to follow on Wednesday but my flight was cancelled. I rebooked and they cancelled that one as well. On my fourth try, I finally got out on Thursday afternoon.
We purchased a mountain bike for Louis in London; they will be shipping it here. This has been a key discussion topic in the house since November and I’m not sure what we’ll have to talk about now that it’s settled. It’s a vacuum that Louis will certainly fill with proposals for subsequent purchases.
We stayed in north central London, near Marble Arch and Oxford Street. I think your second trip to a major city can be much more interesting than your first—you can dispense with the big postcard sites like Big Ben or Notre Dame, but then of course you have to start thinking a bit more about where you want to go and what you want to do.
Despite the cold, we walked all over. Friday we took the tube to Liverpool Station and then meandered back west over the course of several hours. Outside Liverpool station you’re in Bishopsgate (where the celebrated Mr. K / performs his feat on Saturday), on the border of the major Pakistani neighborhood around Brick Lane, which is an actual street:
This neighborhood also goes by the name Whitechapel (or at least it did), and it’s where Jack the Ripper prowled 125 years ago. Some of his victims used to quench their thirst at the Ten Bells pub:
Moving westward we had a nice English lunch—fish & chips for Louis and bangers and mash for the adults at the The Pulpit on Worship Street. Having warmed ourselves we proceeded to Bunhill Burial Grounds where William Blake and Daniel Defoe are keeping company:
Across the way John Bunyan is napping under a clean white blanket:
London is a theme park for English majors, music lovers, and history buffs; within a single block of streets you can find places associated with Wat Tyler, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Paul McCartney.
By accident we stumbled upon the 12th century St Bartholomew-the-Great church. This is a building that is hidden away almost invisible in a maze of side streets. We could not tell if we were coming in the front way or the back way. Once inside, though, we found a wonderfully ornate old gothic church:
On Saturday we spent part of the morning in St. John’s Wood which is where Abbey Road is—in case you could not recognize the initial picture. Here’s another shot showing where the studio (the smaller white building on the left) is in relation to the crossing.
Behind the white building is a larger hulking box of a building, which is where the actual recording happened. The soundtrack of my life.
Sunday we had a few hours before our flight so we took the tube up to Camden Town. Forgot the camera, so no pictures. But you can google it. An amazing circus of hippie shops alongside a canal with locks. Hundreds and hundreds of shops selling t-shirts and other junk. Louis got a wallet and a Radiohead t-shirt. We found a pretty good Indian place for lunch. Then it was back to Copenhagen.
Speaking of Copenhagen, here are Jocelyn, Jonetta and Louis at La Glace just before New Year. La Glace is Copenhagen’s elegant old Konditorei (cake shop). Jocelyn is demonstrating the correct way to hold a tea cup:
And to conclude, a couple of bonus shots of Copenhagen in winter.
