After the long and exhausting trip of the previous day I did not sleep in. While setting me up in the hotel the previous night the airline employee apologized for the fact that I would have to spend the day at the airport, as my flight to Cape Town would only leave in the evening. However, I was not just going to let myself be bored to death by hanging out at the airport the whole day. After all, there are worse places to be stuck than London. And despite the proximity to Antwerp/Belgium, I had never been to London yet.
So, determined not to be dispirited by the previous day’s events I got up early at 7h30 to wolf down a typical English fatty breakfast and went from the hotel to the airport to safely store my bags for the day. Next, I hopped on the London Underground, which took me to downtown London in slightly less than an hour. I tried to do some reading on the metro, but the short night quickly caught up to me and I had trouble keeping my eyes open. Anxiously I got startled awake every minute in fear of missing my stop. No such bad luck ensured, and after an uneventful metro ride I got off at Leicester Square. True to England form, when I exited the underground I got greeted by a light drizzle.
Not exactly Cape Town...
Because I did not feel like missing another flight I had to make sure I returned to the airport in time. So out of necessity I could only grace London with a cursory visit. Still at the hotel that morning I had downloaded an offline map of London, so I settled on a brisk walking pace to be able to see the most important landmarks. From Leicester Square I took off in the direction of Trafalgar Square, where I progressed towards Whitehall. While walking down Whitehall I noticed the cavalry trooper on guard in front of the Horse Guards, and was lucky enough to be right on time to see the changing of the guard by his colleagues.
Next, I progressed at a leisurely pace through St James’s Park, enjoying the pleasant late summer weather as the rain had stopped by then. When nearing the end of the park I could see a large crowd amassed in front of Buckingham Palace. It seemed that I was fortunate to arrive there a mere two minutes before the changing of the guards. I was able to find a decent spot on the sidewalk across from Buckingham Palace and snapped a few photos of the Guardsmen parading by. Judging by their outfit, these were members of the Scots Guards, as could be ascertained from the absence of a plume on their head, the button spacing in threes and their thistle collar badge. After the guards had passed onto the grounds of the Palace and the police opened up the road again, the first motor rider in the queue gave the onlookers a nice imitation of the royal wave while driving by. Cheeky geezer!
Changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.
From Buckingham Palace I went east towards the Palace of Westminster and Big Ben, probably the most famous landmarks of London, and also passed by Westminster Abbey. I was duly impressed by these extraordinary examples of Gothic architecture, and I was disappointed I only had a limited amount of time because they definitely warrant an extended visit. Unfortunately, I had to keep going and I took Westminster Bridge to cross the river Thames, where I took a left towards London Eye. After witnessing those majestic historical buildings a few minutes before, I was mostly unimpressed by this symbol of commercialism.
From London Eye onward I continued along the bank of the Thames through the South Bank district, where some world cultural activities were taking place. I crossed back across the Thames at Waterloo Bridge and passed by King’s College London (where my cell phone briefly connected with eduroam and starting buzzing because of all the unread emails that were coming in) and the Royal Courts of Justice on the way to St. Paul’s Cathedral, which was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. On the steps in front of the Cathedral I joined a score of office workers in having a small bite on the go while enjoying the sunshine.
From past glory to present glory I then took a brief walk through the City of London, but besides a lot of men in fancy suits, there was not that much to see. More interesting was the Monument to the Great Fire of London, another design by Sir Christopher Wren, and a nice token of that disastrous yet also transformative event in the history of London.
The last part of my London excursion took place at the Tower of London. Besides its historical importance, I had been looking forward to visiting the Tower of London since reading the Baroque Cycle trilogy by Neal Stephenson. Here, the Tower of London plays a large part in the third book, The System of the World, where Sir Isaac Newton holds the office of Warden of the Royal Mint and wages a war against the counterfeiting Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe. If this does not make all that much sense I invite you to read the books, they are really good (even despite the slightly lackluster ending in typical Stephenson style). It was also interesting to see a part of the London Wall, where I found it striking that the lower part that was constructed by the Romans seemed of sturdier quality than the upper part that was added on several hundreds of years later in the Middle Ages. I ended the afternoon with a brief walk across the iconic Tower Bridge before heading to the underground station to return to the airport.
Due to the time constraints I was only able to see the briefest of glimpses of London, and I did not have the opportunity to enter any of the monuments. Now that this blitz visit has wetted my appetite, a more thorough visit of London has moved up on my list of things to do. And if anything, walking around London for a day on the ‘wrong’ side of the road already prepared me a little bit to brave the South African traffic in the days to come.
Back at the airport I collected my luggage, went through the security (no baggage-related questions this time), and waited for my plane. This time no trouble ensured, and a few hours later I was boarding the plane to Cape Town. After the all too brief previous night and the exertions of the eventful day I was fast asleep before the plane had even taken off, not to open my eyes again before we were several thousands of kilometers southward and bearing down on Cape Town.