London Calling

I haven’t been on a proper sightseeing trip to London since I was such a young boy that I would have qualified as Matty’s older brother. So the prospect of taking our Polish visitors Jolka and Mirek around all the famous landmarks filled me with a real sense of excitement. Jolka and Mirek our Polish friends had arrived 2 days earlier for their first ever week on holiday in the UK. They were looking for a week of sight seeing, good food and hot summer weather. I was confident I could deliver on two out of three.

If it sounds as if exciting is overdoing it a bit, bear in mind that this was a Thursday in July, and the alternative was doing HR stuff at work: so I was very excited.

Even the news on the radio couldn’t dampen my spirits. Along with all the usual stuff about the credit crunch, falling property prices and Gordon finding new things to tax (breathing, being called Brodie) was an item on the cost of visiting the top 9 sights in major tourist cities like Paris, Milan, New York, London et al. London had come top. The cost of visiting these top attractions for a family of four had come in at a wallet bursting amount equivalent to the GDP of Guatemala. Apparently several unwitting foreign visitors had doubled there country’s national debt on a weekend break to the capital. I kept my spirits up with the thought that as we were on a whirlwind visit we would not have to go in anywhere, saving valuable cash to spend on cocktails later. To my knowledge no one had thought of charging for looking at the outside of buildings yet, but you never know.

People have often asked me whether I prefer London or Paris. The problem with this question is I have lived in Paris but only visited London – if living in Paris can be called a problem. London benefits in this comparison from only ever been seen at its best: high days and holidays, weekends eating steaks with the boys and the halcyon weekend soirees when Ula and I had first met in 2003. I have always liked London and while I am not saying its better than Paris, I have always been tempted to live here for a couple of years to make a proper comparison.

Anyway back to the trip. As you will have gathered I am not over familiar with my native capital city. Despite being from 50 miles outside Warsaw, Ula is the expert, having lived in Notting Hill from 2001 -04. Warsaw, London, Paris, Ula is the cosmopolitan one; apart from my Paris sojourn I have always been out in the sticks somewhere. It was logical that she took over navigating us around once we had arrived at Euston and she suggested we use her encyclopaedic knowledge of London bus routes to see the sights. Sadly 4 years is a long time and things did not start well as we took 23 buses to reach Oxford Street. We decided to walk from here to our first destination, Buckingham Palace and here Ula redeemed herself by threading a great line through Green Park to arrive at the gates of the royal residence. As we had seen it before we left Mirek and Jolka to take photos and wandered back into Green Park in search of nourishment. Having stumbled on a coffee and hot dog van (joy) we repaired to a bench to enjoy the fine summer weather (it had momentarily stopped raining). Here we found that we became London’s 10th attraction. Little flaxen haired Matty trotting along in his bright yellow raincoat (Paris collection) was a magnet for the scores of Japanese tourists walking up towards Piccadilly. Matty put on his very best adorable child routine and the cameras flashed. I was just toying with the idea of setting up a board and charging when Jolka and Mirek returned, leaving the Japanese parties behind we strolled towards Westminster.

I have seen some special buildings in my time, Milan Cathedral, Notre Dame, the Black and White House in Hereford, but we often forget how special some of London’s architecture is when we can leave it alone for 5 minutes. The Houses of Parliament up close didn’t just take our visitors breath away, it took mine as well. It is absolutely majestic; huge and imposing but with a detail and delicacy of design that was stunning and quite beyond anything we seem capable of today. Some nearby buildings clearly designed to fit in with Westminster demonstrated this admirably. Why in a century of such huge strides in physics, technology, biology and yoghurt varieties have we seemingly forgotten how to design buildings?? It’s like when you put something in the garage and forget where. We have put our ability to design buildings somewhere, and need to find it again.

Gosh that’s a heavy thought for a day trip, so back on tour. Having circled Westminster we came to Westminster Abbey famous throughout the world as the place where Princess Diana got married and oh yes also where all the kings and queens of England are buried if you are interested in that kind of detail.

This was the one attraction I wanted to visit, a motivation that lasted right up to the moment that I got to the door. Notre Dame is free to enter, so is St Peters and numerous other historic buildings. Westminster Abbey is £12, and that’s just to get in. For the four of us it would have been nearly £50. For that price I would have wanted to be shown around by the Arch bishop of Canterbury and have lunch and photos with the entire royal family. I decided to give it a miss and just pay more attention next time it was on the TV for a state occasion.

Next we went to Trafalgar square to see Nelson and the pigeons and then took time out in a traditional English food place (TGI Fridays) so Ula and Matty could have a break and Daddy could sample the cocktail menu and eat Matty’s chips. Our friends meanwhile went to Piccadilly. On their return we went and visited Wren’s masterpiece St Paul’s (free to enter) and finished off a marathon day with the Tower of London and London Bridge.

Finally we had all had our fill; we headed home and reflected on the day. I like London. I like the atmosphere of the place, the energy of the West End, the bustle of Oxford Street and Piccadilly, the range and variety of food and culture on every street. It is vibrant and alive. Paris by comparison is a more beautiful city than London. But sometimes it feels like a monument to a bygone age when it was at the centre of things. London, flawed though it maybe, feels like the centre of things now.