jinjang

We arrived in London on July 10. We checked in to our hotel in Grosvenor Square near the American Embassy, an eye sore with “tank traps” all around the building. Shame in such a peaceful place! What kind of embassy is so uninviting and unfriendly! We were in a zombie state with lack of sleep over 18 hours. To disguise our drowsy looks, we dressed smartly and followed the local crowds to a restaurant hidden from main streets. Everyone was dressed in white and grey in accordance with the white table cloth. If we were more awake, we would have noticed that we were in a wrong restaurant way too fashionable for our tastes. Londoners do dress up! You could see the blue sky with patches of white clouds through the crack between buildings and cool breeze touched our faces gently in our dreamy state. They offered two or three course meals for 10 or 15 pounds for lunch. We observed later offering a two or three course meal for fixed sum of money is a common thing in England. The smoked mackerel in avocado sauce and salmon with charcoaled pear were excellent but rather scanty for a hungry man next to me.

We walked out of our neighborhood through Upper Grosvenor Street and wandered into the Hyde Park. People were walking, roller-skating, rowing in the Serpentine, or lying on the grass. Our attempt to quickly get over the jet lag failed at the sight of people on the grass at the edge of Hyde Park not far from Hyde Park Corner and we collapsed on the lawn to nap for an hour. When we opened our eyes, we saw the trees standing high with their thick foliage swaying with the gentle wind. What are those wonderful trees? I learned they are Plane trees when I visited Magdalen College in Oxford which has a majestic 208 year old Plane tree between Deer Park and the New Building.

We checked our map at the Hyde Park Corner and conversed over Wellington Arch. Wellington is all over the city well suitably paralleling with Napoleon in Paris. We walked on Constitution Hill to reach and admire the front of Buckingham Palace. My enochlophobic partner urged me on to St. James’s Park, our favorite park in London. We knew willow trees, but weeping beech trees were odd sights for us to observe and to make a note on. Their branches fall to the ground forming a cave. I can imagine children love to go in and out of those caves, exits to another world. There were free lawn chairs all over the park for anyone to rest, to read, or to gather chatting. Indeed, it was Friday and a group of people nearby were enjoying each other’s company. They were talking, laughing, and drinking. We wondered if they knew how lucky they were to be able to enjoy outdoors in July. Small or large parks are at every corner of London. Plenty of greenery in pleasant weather seems to make people content and relaxed in their surroundings.

We breathed the afternoon air of St. James’s Park for an hour and walked toward to Trafalgar Square along the Mall. The National Gallery remained open until 9 pm that day and I spotted the original of JBI’s avatar, Titian’s ‘A Man with a Quilted Sleeve’, though I preferred ‘Portrait of a Young Man’ next to it by the same painter. My favorite painting in the gallery is ‘The Boulevard Montmartre at Night’ by Camille Pissarro.

We ate our late dinner at Covent Garden, a Turkish and Tunisian mix of food. We trudged along Oxford Street back to our hotel… finally to sleep. This was only our first day of London. Imagine how many things we did in the following three days! We spent more than half a day at Westminster Abbey and walked around Houses of Parliament, walked along Victoria Embankment to reach and visit St. Paul Cathedral. We spent almost all day to visit Tower of London and we crossed all the bridges either on foot or by bus. Our favorite place was British Museum which we glimpsed at briefly and we reserved it for a next longer visit to London. We did feel like wearing one of those T-shirts that says, “I love London.” London is by far the best city I have visited.

Oxford is a whole new chapter for me to write about… in a longer blog. The Bodleian Library is the most impressive place along with Radcliffe Camera.