this trip's overview Gran Canaria portion First Day Back Man-made Finery Queen's Life Guard Covent Garden Markets London's Transport Museum I Marks & Spencers Natural History Museum Science Museum High Street Kensington Bus Karma I The Strand Simpsons-in-the-Strand Tower of London Science Museum II Worst Food Ever Where the shops are Neal's Yard Dairy Seven Dials Bus Karma II returning home
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2003 London: all manner of man-made finery
Friday 31 January 2003
Rose and Lila are already outside while Isaac and I are getting our backpack, pram, and last-minute needs ready to be dragged down the stairs.
I'd chatted with Rose earlier - much earlier, the kids got up long before the crack of dawn - about whether we ought to cut and run (and deal with sick kids back home in San Francisco). She said no; she figured we could recover and still have a passable time. Of course, she was hiding under the covers, wan, while she said this, but I took her at her word.
Just outside the door we saw a London Black Cab covered with snow. This winter thing does have its moments (although most of them include remembering why we now live in California :-).
On our way towards Picadilly Circus we come across some of the architecture which makes my London. The clock. The figures above. The white-and-brown constructions.
Here's a close-up of the same building, showing a weather vane with a golden ship and the nearby chimneys. I love this stuff. It often seems that San Francisco is just too new of a city; if I could figure out a way of working in London, or Rome, or some other older part of the world.
A little further on we see some of the signage which I so enjoy. Granted, not all of them date back to the 1400s (or earlier), but they're still beautiful.
This is the snow-covered back of Francis, Duke of York. Rumor had it that he had ten thousand men. He marched them up to the top of the hill and marched them down again... (too many childrens rhymes). Not often does one see snow-covered anything in London. The last time, before last month, when we were stranded here, was twelve years ago, we're told.
Crossing Trafalgar Square we spy the changing of the Queen's Life Guard.
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