London Calling

I've just spent 9 days in the UK. I went over for work, but stayed a few extra days to explore the city. I'm sure I only touched the surface, but here are a few thoughts.

We truly are countries separated by a common language. The accent at times was strange enough for me that if the person spoke fast enough, I had trouble understanding them. Of course I really don't have an ear for languages anyway, which didn't help. Some of the differences:

Lift for elevator.
Crisps for potato chips.
Toilet or loo instead of rest room.
The ground floor of a building is either ground or zero. What would be our second floor is 1. The basement is -1.
Chips for french fries.

The food was generally good. Peas, usually cold are served with a lot of meals. Pubs are everywhere, and they all serve fish and chips. Usually it's listed at the top of the menu and the all proclaim they have the best. The rooms are generally small, and they pack far more people in then would be allowed in the US. It's was common when the pub was packed to see people outside standing with their drinks.

August is crowded. It's vacation or "holiday" time in Europe and the city was packed. Everywhere I turned, I heard another language. It become somewhat of a game for me to guess where the person was from. Usually I failed.

Since they drive on the other side of the road from what the US does, being a pedestrian can be a challenge. Luckily in the city they have signs reminding people which way to look for traffic.

Interspersed throughout the city are older buildings. Primarily churches, but there are others as well. Some incredible older architecture that has been kept and reused over the years. Some of the buildings had a history going back to the 1600's or older. An amazing counterpoint to our penchant to tear down anything over 20 years old.

I took a lot of photos, though I think they will primarily be the typical tourist type shots. Being my first time in the city, I tried to take it all in. I failed miserably, but it was fun trying. I'll start posting photos when I've got them finished.

Comments

So where are some images?

Popular Posts