Codehouse, my new employer, threw their Christmas party in London this year, despite the fact that Copenhagen is the headquarters. They flew us over on Friday afternoon and we had a nice dinner. Most people went back on Saturday, but Lisbeth and I opted to stay for the weekend.
On Saturday morning, a few of us that weren’t incredibly hung-over went to the Borough Market – a market that has apparently been around for 20 centuries, but “only” 250 years at its current location. It’s an amazing market, and there were enough samples thatwe didn’t need breakfast.
But not everything was appetizing. I had some cheese that tasted exactly how Iimagine a sheep’s brainwouldtaste, for example. And, although I love seafood and even sushi, the seafood at the market seemed… too fresh. Notice all the blood oozing from the shark.
After Borough Market, the vast majority of people left to catch a flight back to Copenhagen, and we saw as much of London as we could. It’s a huge city. Just look at the tube map (the subway, or “underground”) to get a sense of the size. (In contrast, the subway map of Copenhagen is pretty much two lines.)
The subway system is amazing. The stations are marvels unto themselves, with their narrow, twisting passages. Some of the platforms are so far underground that you have to take an elevator to avoid hundreds of stairs. The less deep platforms are accessed via long escalators.
It wouldn’t be good to be a claustrophobic in the London underground. The passages, the trains, and the tubes themselves are all smaller than I thought they would be. And they are often packed full of people. I didn’t mind any of that, but being packed in that tightly gives pick-pockets a chance to do their work. I found out thehard waybetween Camden Market and Covent Gardens.
Above ground there are plenty of cars and plenty of double-decker busses — so much so that it’s strange when you see a single-decker. There are a lot of cabs too, which isn’t weird, but the cabs themselves are… I don’t know… very British.
One of the first places we went on our own was to Camden Market. It’s sort of an “alternative” place (which means, among other things, weird haircuts and lots of body piercings). It’s a bit outside of the city center,and that gives it a different feel. It’s very cool, but in a very different way than Borough Market. Whereas the Borough is all about food, Camden has shop after shop with clothes, jewelry, crafts, and tattoo places.
We went from Camden Market with its dreadlocks and painted skin, to Covent Garden, where we’d had dinner the night before. Covent Garden is really nice, in a very clean and touristy way. As a result, these are the only two pictures I think are worth sharing.
Then wewalkedback to ourhotel in Oxford Circusvia Soho and Piccadilly Circus.These areas further demonstrated the diversity of London. Compared to London, each neighborhood in Copenhagen is the same.
Regent Street, which connects Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, has a lot of shopping. We came back the next day and did a little shopping, but overall we didn’t shop very much.
On Sunday we did some of the more touristy things, like see Buckingham Palace. We’d read that it isn’t much to look at from the outside, and that’s true, I suppose. It’s not what I think of when I think of a “palace”, but it isimpressive.
A short walk later and we wereat Westminster Abbey (where Prince Charles and Lady Di were married.)
But in terms of “wow”, the Parliament Building is amazing. I now know that thisis where Big Ben is, but that’s not the most interesting thing about the building. It would bean amazing building without towers, but the tower that is opposite Big Ben is what caught my attention. It’s pretty fantastic.It’s the only on the left of the first picture below, and on the right in the second image.
From the Parliament building we could see the London “Eye” and more of touristy London. But we were tired and hungry. We opted out of Big Ben, sat down in a restaurant, and had fish and chips.
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