I’m falling behind in reporting on our trip to London and a bit beyond and to Paris. I’ve been so busy gardening and watering that by the end of each incredibly warm day I’m too tired and hot to think, plus we’ve had problems with our internet connection (now solved). If you are a new reader and wish to read the earlier posts about our recent trip, just click on the theme Travel on the side bar or here.

Our first trip outside London was to our son-in-law’s hometown of Birmingham. We took the train with our daughter’s family on a Saturday morning, the first of several train trips on this vacation. We found the train services excellent in the UK and it’s so much more relaxing than trying to drive the roads on the wrong side! Even though I had a book along and family to chat with, I frequently fell into a kind of meditative state gazing out the window, enjoying glimpses through trees of a green and pastoral English countryside, speckled occasionally with sheep, cows or horses.

In Birmingham we met J’s family, including a new family member, his sister’s adorable four month old boy, our granddaughters’ first cousin. Except for the baby of course, we’ve met them in the past on their visits to Vancouver. Now it was wonderful to see them again and to be shown around their city. Walking around the centre, fascinated by the old architecture, sometimes mixed with the new, we covered several very large and attractive squares and broad car-free pedestrian-only walkways. (This reminded us how much we’ve loved this in other European cities, and I wish Vancouver and other Canadian cities would do this.) We were pleasantly surprised how spacious and clean everything felt after busy London, even though there were still lots of people around. We did pass through a couple of malls that were pretty much the same as those in North America, places that I’m not too fond of.

An exciting surprise for me was to meet Antony Gormley’s Iron: Man (colloquially referred to as The Iron Man), a statue in Victoria Square (top right photo), the first time I’ve seen one of his sculptures! Second surprise was to see the canals, so lovely with their boats! Apparently Birmingham has more canal mileage than any other city in the world.

I also learned that the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has a very large collection of pre-Raphaelite art, which we had hoped to see on Sunday morning. However we neglected to note that it does not open until 12:30 pm on Sundays, when we went in for lunch…and then had to catch the train back to London. Too short a visit, but delightful! Next time I’d love to see more of the heritage buildings and the city parks and the art, of course, as J’s parents are so knowledgeable about their city! Too many photos to share, but here are just a few of our favourites.

Enough relaxing around Muswell Hill! Later that day, our son-in-law announced that we are all going into central London to the Apple store then dinner to his favourite restaurant in his favourite part of the city.

That was our introduction to London’s public transit. We first took one of those ubiquitous red double-decker buses to the nearest tube station. London’s underground is VERY deep which meant many flights of stairs and escalators to navigate. Unfortunately for me and my bad knees, this station’s very long down escalator was out of order (and remained so for the rest of our stay so we ended up always bussing to the next metro station on the line.) We also had the youngest granddaughter in a stroller which had to be frequently lifted and carried by two people. It was not the place for people with mobility issues! Not being used to the underground (Vancouver’s Skytrain has only a short section underground in the downtown area) we felt quite overwhelmed by the great rush of people all elbowing their way past and pushing into and out of the tube. Canadians are definitely more polite! It’s fast, efficient but not the most pleasant way to commute, we felt, even after doing it for over two weeks. We liked the bus much better.

When we emerged from the underground into daylight at Oxford Circus, we were totally stunned by what we saw! Immense streets and palace-like buildings with huge crowds – it was rush hour after all. While the men went into the Apple store to pick up something we girls briefly browsed through some of the very upscale fashion shops on Regent Street, I think it was. Then we all strolled along several grand streets and areas with well-known names like Piccadilly Circus, Bloomsbury, Carnaby Street, Soho, Leicester Square…. my head didn’t know which way to turn! All somewhat of a blur but very impressive! Even the dinner in a Spanish tapas restaurant in the Soho area was amazing. The entertainment district at twilight with its big theatres, neon lights and lively crowds was a memorable finale to our introduction to big city London on our first full day there.

After a long overseas flight, it’s wonderful to have family welcome us into their home and let us gradually acclimate to the new surroundings. As I mentioned before, our middle daughter, British son-in-law and their two little girls are presently living in London. They are renting a terraced flat, as I think it’s called, in the north London suburb of Muswell Hill. It’s a very old and interesting area on a hill with narrow sloping winding streets, some of which have a great view over central London. On a clear day higher up this street, we could see the tops of the highrises of Canary Wharf. It’s a very high density but pleasant neighbourhood popular with young families, close to many shops nearby. The area is not as posh as some think, for it is showing it’s age and the wear and tear by the dense population, many of whom are renters.

Like so many areas of London, Muswell Hill consists of large old homes full of interesting architectural details in the doors, trims and chimney pots, but which decades ago have been converted into flats. This one is a narrow three level unit with a small garden at the back. We were very surprised at how many cars, small ones certainly, were parked on both sides of the street pointing in both directions (something that’s illegal here in Vancouver) while barely leaving enough room for a single lane of traffic. Yet most of them are rarely driven except on weekends while the owners used the excellent bus and tube service for commuting. Sidewalks are uneven and narrow, with small trees planted on them and front yard shrubbery hanging over. It’s all quaint, pretty and historic, so different from our wide open modern suburban sprawl in North America!

It was great to spend the first day relaxing with the family and getting to know the neighbourhood and to go to nearby Highgate Park, so freshly green and serene compared to the busy streets. The girls rode bike and scooter around, including in the very nice children’s playground area. Interesting for me was to see a sign noting an area that was the site of very ancient burial mounds (below).

Another interesting observation: because there are few side yards for access to the back gardens, there were renovators and gardeners in some houses actually hauling mud THROUGH the houses to the front, sometimes via elaborate board walks through windows! One day our daughter had bags of manure delivered, which husband and son-in-law had to carry through the house to the back garden!

(By the way, I should mention two things regarding this series of posts about our trip. First, with some hesitation, I’ve made a new category called “Travel” into which to group these, the hesitation because I have older posts on some of our travels which have been shorter and closer to home but I feel it’s confusing and too laborious to go back and incorporate them into this new category. Secondly, many if not most of the photos I’m going to display have been taken by my husband, I was lazy.)

May 29th: Added the link for Highgate Park or Wood above – interesting – I keep learning more about the places we’ve been to!