"A Living Museum" a London Travel Page by rexvaughan

London is so full of so many different things - it is surprisingly diverse. It has a population that includes many nationalities and cultures and seems, for the most part, very comfortable with its diversity. It also, of course, has great historic landmarks and treasures while also being a very vibrant and enjoyable city. Propably the most famous landmark is Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. My wife was substituting in a kindergarten class recently and one little boy had just returned from England. When she asked him if he saw any sights in London, he replied, "Oh yes! I saw the Tower of London and Big Bob!" Even the very young find it exciting.
We have been fortunate enough to have visited London a half dozen times in the last 30 years and each visit has been memorable in different ways. The first two trips were with our local highschool band when our children were students. They were both exciting "new adventure" kinds of trips as they were our first visits to any part of Europe. Then in 1994 we visited a friend living just north of London for a few days. A most memorable was in 1998 when we visited with my wife's 91 year old mother. It was her first venture to Europe (we took her to London and Paris) and her insights and new experiences were truly delightful and made it a trip for all of us to remember. For more about the trip with her, see my Travelogue 'To London to see theQueen...'.) It was great, and sometimes humorous to see things through her eyes. The photo shows the ancient Tower of London with the ultra modern Swiss Re building in the background.

In 2002 my wife and I went in January which makes for a different
experience all together. When we decided to do a January trip, I decided I needed a sensible hat so ordered a very nice Donegal tweed to ward off the cold and rain. I was very proud of my new hat until our English friend remarked that it made me look like Inspector Clouseau! The weather in January was cool, but not bitter. We found it a great time to go as there were no lines of tourists everywhere and we could just walk right in to most popular sights.
In September of 2007 we had a great time meeting some fellow VTers for drinks and dinner and then also had dinner with some other friends we had met a year ago at an English program in Spain - both delightful evenings. (See my travelogues on these two evenings below) We also explored some new (for us) territory this time and were amazed as we cruised down the Thames to Greenwich where we saw the Thames Barrier as well as the amazing development along the old docklands. Canary Wharf is now a huge and booming financial center and the river is lined with very expensive housing - some converted warehouses but a lot of new buildings as well. The architecture is quite varied - some quite beautiful, some a bit bizarre but all on the pricey side.

This year, 2008, was the anniversary of our 50 years of marriage so we took our whole family to London (see my travelogue 'Trip of a Lifetime'. It was great to see and experience things through their eyes and gave us a whole new appreciation of London and travel in general. One of the neat things was how quickly our 8 year old grandson figured out the tube system. By the second day he was asking which line we were taking and suggesting alternate routes with fewer stops than the one I had chosen.