London, England

I’ve visited London several times after a family member moved there. My first visit was challenging, but I told myself that getting around London would be a breeze if I could learn the New York City subway system. That turned out to be true.

Observation: Some stations do not have escalators, and others have difficult-to-find lifts. When coming in from Heathrow, plan for these issues, as hauling two large suitcases fully loaded up four flights of stairs is more than inconvenient and a health hazard. The suitcases were necessary for the family move, but on this trip, there were no helpful twenty-somethings to haul them up the stairs for me as there were in NYC.

London is very walkable, especially with Google Maps or pre-planning using Maps.me or something similar. I like to map out my cities, flagging every place I want to experience, then either download that Google map or use another app to make a logical plan. I have several new apps that I will experiment with this year.

We spent one day doing obligatory sightseeing (Buckingham Palace above), but after that, I spent a lot of time on trains trying to find the correct addresses for clinics that were giving COVID tests. Shopping was similar to the U.S., except for a grocery and home goods shopping trip. While the home goods experience was average, the grocery stores were almost shocking in how little fresh or healthy food there was.

We ate in restaurants and tried cuisines in varied neighborhoods, but all were much below par in the taste department. Do not ask me about the Turkish food at a restaurant in Whitechapel. Just don’t. Where do they source their food?

On a trip to Edinburgh, we realized how different London looked from the countryside around it and how different it was from Scotland. A lot of the difference was the lack of light. Even on sunny days, I felt like the city was shrouded in a haze. I kept looking for the bright, sparkling days I was used to from Turkey or the States, but there weren’t any.

As usual, I was fascinated by the buildings more than the people. These are street scenes from Lewisham and near Whitechapel.

The best meal on our most recent trip was fish and chips from The Fish House at Notting Hill, a takeaway restaurant. Then we walked around Kensington (and I got lost) before going to Churchill Arms (look at the photos in this link of all the flowers), a famous pub that was claustrophobic but a very cool place. We ended up at The Kensington Wine Rooms and enjoyed a great glass of wine and a few snacks.

This is only a small sample of London. I got caught up in enjoying the family I was with and did not take photos. Next time, I’ll play tourist and provide lots of photos, and you can decide if it is worthwhile to visit. I think the answer is “yes,” even if it’s over a short weekend.