Walking, walking, walking

I know, I’ve been slagging. Heck, London is beginning to feel like home. I walk around the neighboring areas like a local, hardly noticing things. Daryl and I now laugh at tourists who point at the weird giant sized things stuck on the buildings on the High Street of Camden Town. The first time I saw six enormous boots on the wall of a store I gave Daryl a baffled look. WTF is that? The building next to it has this humungous white rocking chair pinned to it. A whole row of buildings with bizarre wall objects – that just about sums up this part of London.
We have done a huge amount of walking in the last couple weeks. OMG my legs are pissed at what I’ve put them through. August has decided to behave like a proper summer month indulging us in a spate of glorious, sunny days. So, of course, you can’t waste them indoors in a flat. That would be sinful. We had to get out there and make the most of it. The first weekend of August had temps in the 30’s.
Sunday morning, Aug 5, the sun was strong by 6:00. After a lazy morning of sipping lattes and reading the paper we got out into the world. We decided to have lunch in Camden Town. All of London had the same idea and invaded the numerous food stalls serving up every cuisine the world has ever seen. So after fighting our way through crowds and checking out the menus, we decided on an Afro Caribbean meal. A round faced teenage girl with a Caribbean accent handed us an exotic bowl of vegetables in a thick, spicy sauce served over a savory rice. We had a fried plantain slice and a battered something or other with that. Sitting down to eat this meal turned into quite a game. All the tables set out beside the food stalls were taken. People bearing newly acquired food stood alongside these tables glaring at the folks sitting down. We joined the glarers. As soon as a table got free there was a race for it. Well, we eventually did manage to sit down and eat our lunch without breaking any bones.
After lunch we strolled along Regent’s Canal with no specific plan. Many people had the same idea. We walked past London Zoo – saw some wild boar and a canine we couldn’t identify. The canal seemed to end and we got onto the surface street to determine the next move. We weren’t far from Hyde Park so we hopped on a bus and got off at Speaker’s Corner. A few loonies were spewing religious dribble so we marched off in the opposite direction. We found some welcome shade and rested for a while.
Then the walking continued. Through Mayfair, Carnaby Street, a stop for tea and cake at a posh place (Quotidien), onto Covent Garden, Soho, dinner at Maoz (falafels), beer at a pub, and then as we made our way to the tube station we past a bar where two transvestites were singing Abba songs. They had on blond wigs, enormous false breasts, shiny dresses, and high heeled shoes. They were hilarious to look at and they sang beautifully. Exhausted from our long day we were thrilled to find that our bus happened to be within yards from us.
On Monday evening we went to the Proms like good citizens. We felt very cultured dressing up and going to the Royal Albert Hall. No, we didn’t do the £5 standing room tickets. Oh no, we paid for decent seats so that we could fully enjoy Beethoven’s Symphony #8, Renee Fleming singing Berg’s Seven Early Songs, and Schumann’s symphony No. 2. I always feel like a miracle is at work when I sit at the great concert venues of the world. My child self would never have guessed that I would some day be ‘high society’. It was all quite special and enjoyable.
We are getting good at finding atmospheric pubs for good English ale after tramps around parks and neighborhoods. Sitting at an outside table of a noisy pub on a balmy summer evening is one of life’s better pleasures. We discovered that Regent’s Park is a do-able jaunt from our flat. Such a fun park to stroll through, especially in the early evening. Every activity imaginable seems to happen here. Cricket, rugby, football, frisby, jogging. Then in the inner gardens which are beautifully designed with big fountains and colorful flowers, people sit on benches or have picnics, or just stroll around. A big lake in the park adds to its beauty. Paddleboats are popular, and there are lots of waterfowl.
Every day we find new places to explore. What a great city to get to know in the summer.
I walk around different parts of London and think about the great people who made this city their home. My heroes – the Bloomsbury Group - Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Bertrand Russell, Lytton Strachey, Duncan Grant. I think about their ‘at homes’ and the great intellectual discussions that took place right here in this city. Other great people who lived here – Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Max Engels, Oscar Wilde. This city has inspired such profound thinking. And I think even today it continues to be the home of so many accomplished, talented individuals. I might walk past them on Hampstead Heath or the bookstore or at Waitrose and not know it. They have chosen London as their base to express their creativity and profundity. What is it, I wonder, that makes this city such a magnet? It is, after all, a big city, saddled with all the problems intrinsic to such a place. As I continue to make this my home I’m sure I’ll find more insights and more pleasant little surprises.