I LOVE LONDON

I love London.  I really do.

To start with it was just a city that I visited a lot on my world odyssey, pretty much every 3 months as my flights passed through there when I was doing Africa and Europe.  It hit me my last couple of visits just what an amazing city London is and for some reason this trip just exemplified to me my feelings for London.  It could have something to do with knowing people here now and catching up with them may also have something to do with my feelings.   

So why do I LOVE London?

The 3 main points that are obvious to me are:

I have a lot of people I know here and I get to see them every time I come back.  Unfortunately I don’t have the time to see everyone-but I try and fit in as many people as I can and I LOVE being able to catch up with people from previous trips, talk about what other people are doing since the trip and to also reminisce.  I don’t/didn’t get a chance to do that very often with most tours running into another tour and not getting an opportunity to relive all the great experiences I had with a particular tour/country/group.  

Secondly-The Tube.  I love this piece of magnificent public transport that was constructed 150 years ago.  The ease of which the system works is sensational and the mass movement of people every day on The Tube is mind blowing.  Out of the 270 stations 70 of them are part of heritage listed buildings and it is like you are stepping back in time at some of the older stations that are located under this vibrant city.  Officially known as the London Underground, it is a metro system serving Greater London.  It consists of 270 stations and has 402km of track which 45%of that is underground making it the 4^th longest metro system in the world.  It incorporates the first underground railway in the world, which opened in 1863 and the first line to operate underground electric trains in 1890.  There are 426 escalators on the London Underground system and the longest, at 60m is at Angel and the shortest is at Stratford at 4.1m.  There are 164 lifts and the numbers keep increasing due to a programme to increase accessibility.  I could go on and on about The Tube.  I LOVE it, it is a splendid system and it is also a great place to people watch.  Everyone looks at everyone else, without looking at them directly and then the amount of people that look up at the Tube map that is inside every carriage is hilarious as you see people checking where they are at pretty much every stop, including myself.      

Thirdly-the historic and architectural brilliance of the city is mind blowing.  Some places you see are what you have read about in books, seen in the movies and for me are properties on Monopoly, a board game I used to play a lot as a kid.  Compared to the history of Australia which is only 200+ years old and not a patch on what London has to offer it really is in a class of its own just based on that.  Add into the equation the theatres, the Broadway shows, the pubs and their pub grub (especially bangers and mash) and the newer attractions including The Shard, O2, Olympic Village and the Emirates cable car, yes-London has a lot to offer.

Now people would be shocked to hear me say the weather in London.  But I’ve been so lucky with the weather every time I am here.  Okay I may have a few bad weather days over a 2 week period but all in all not even the dodgy weather can turn me off this city.  What else is there?  The consulates in London have always been helpful.  From Brazil, Rwanda, Mozambique, Senegal and finally Ghana-yes it is very multicultural and I like that also. 

So I think I really LOVE London.  I would probably vote myself an advocate for the city and I am happy to shout to the world the virtues of this incredible city.  So a small shout out to the people I caught up with this trip including and in no particular order:

Paul and Liz

My Hostees

Gary and Sue

Kate

And finally a MASSIVE  thanks to Justin (Paps) and Emma, who housed me for the 2 weeks that I was in the UK and to share in 2 weeks of their very first pregnancy.  At 5 months it was fun trying to come up with some crazily acceptable baby names which for my money I like Digby for a boy and Africa for a girl.  Cool huh, but I have a feeling that they just may not make the final list but I wish them both (three) all the best and next time I’m back there will be an Addleton junior!   

I LOVE London and I can’t wait to come back again in March next year.