Chapter 7 - London

Some say London is the greatest city in the world! I am not sure I would give it quite that glowing a reference, but it certainly has a lot going for it. It’s missing an ocean and a harbour – and then I think it could be the great city in the world. There is an enormous amount of history (or herstory depending on your politics) there. The history of the city dating back to pre-Roman occupation. The Romans developed a square town called Londinium, which became the centre of the Roman Empire on the British Isles. There is little that remains of its ancient beginnings. However there is an amazing array of architecture, monuments, parks. Everything has history. It is a dense city, with officially 7.5 million people, although some guidebooks etc quote 12 million – the truth lies somewhere in between.

One the many things I love about London is the metro and train systems. It has a very well developed underground rail system – referred to as the ‘Tube’ because of the round tube shaped tunnels and trains that traverse them. The history of the Metro system is a book in itself (which I am sure someone else has already written) – I have certainly seen discovery channel documentaries on it.

I was staying with friend in Wimbledon, which is a lovely little area in South West London, SW19 is its postcode designation. As I understand it, London uses a ring postcode system so if you were in SW 1 – you would be in the South West corner of London central, SW2 – you would be a little further out …. SW19 – long fecking way away, LOL. Although I have to say it was pretty easy to get to, using trains and tubes. The trains are the above ground system – if you were wondering why I am using two different terms.

Wimbledon, as you will probably know is famous for Tennis… but the strange thing is – you would never even know that there was the most famous Tennis tournament in the world held there every year. I think I was expecting to see lots of tourist, lots of tacky tourist spots – get your balls here at the London Racket café… but alas I was sadly disappointed. It was a quaint little village on the outer edge of London.

It was great to spend time with Russell and Melissa (ex-Yum friends) and I was also able to catch up with another friend of mine, from Sydney who lives in London. I did a little site seeing – but not much, I spent a good deal of time planing out the next couple of months of my trip, working out how to get there, how to go here, booking flights etc. I had decided to make some changes to my travel plans and instead of heading to Northern Italy I am now headed to the Greek Islands – where I plan on spending the best part of a month. It also gives me the chance to spend some more time with Nirmalpal – whom I meet in San Francisco, as he will be ending a Mediterranean cruise in that part of the world.

Italy will have to wait for another trip, then I will head back to Amsterdam and have not yet decided between flying from Amsterdam to London –cheap and quick, or catching the Train from Amsterdam to London, about 6 hours total – a little more expensive, but an awesome train trip on the very fast train that links London to Paris and Brussels. I am leaning towards the train.

I did go out clubbing one night, went to a places called the Arches – which is built beneath the arches of an old railway line – very cool place, music was great and I did not get home till 5am. I was a little seedy the following day – ahhh youth, why haste thou forsaken me.

One of the things that amazes me is that this far north of the equator the sun does not set till 9:30 – 10pm. Same here in Madrid – so the days are glorious long. We get the benefit of daylight savings in Australia – but certainly in Sydney the sun is down at 8:30ish ….

The weather for the most part in London was great, mid-20’s during the day. So a nice Sydney winters day ;-)

I have now arrived in Madrid … I really love Madrid – but that will have to wait till the next instalment.

Peter