Never tired of London

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life. Samuel Johnson

Why do I always forget how much I love London? Whenever I’m there, I swear I’ll be coming right back. And then I don’t. For years.

It helps that the weather gods have finally smiled on us. I don’t want to be a fair-weather traveler, but it does make a huge difference. Alas, York and Glasgow, we hardly knew ye. We did a little happy dance as we dropped our bag of woolens and raincoats back off at a thrift store, in shorts no less!

It also helps that we had a superb apartment, with engaging, warm, and hospitable hosts. This is my favorite sort of airbnb, the kind where you’re lodged in someone’s home. This one was a nicely kitted out studio apartment on the 3rd and top floor, in a quiet neighborhood. It was as far a cry away as you can get from what much of airbnb has become: a corporate Ikea box, with all of the indifference that implies.

A storm rolled in our first night there. Tucked up under the eaves, with the sound of rain on the roof, I told Mark, “See! I do like rain! And I can still be delighted! ” No doubt he was relieved by the news. As was I, frankly.

We only got to spend half of our allotted London time in those ducky digs. And while our second place is more serviceable than hospitable, moving to a new neighborhood has made me feel like we are in a whole new town. We might as well be, London is vast! It’s freaking fifteen times larger than Paris.

We’re spending our days doing what we do best: wandering, eating, getting lost, finding things to delight in.

Henry Moore sculpture in Kensington Gardens

In our new neck of the woods, St Bartholomew, the Great! Does that mean there is a St Bartholomew the Lesser? Built in the 12th century, it survived the great fire.

The baptismal font, with its floating wizard’s hat.

Complete with gruesome Damien Hirst sculpture of St Bart and his skin.

Sir John Soane’s museum is the completely intact house of a committed maximalist. Sir John collected books and antiquities from ancient Egypt and Rome. Every inch had something to look at. Oh, the horror vacuii ! We snaked around the house’s narrow corridors with all the other gawkers. It just about gave me hives. I vowed to get rid of something when I got home.

Then it was time to get out of the city a bit. Kew Gardens, I hadn’t been there for 40 years. It must have been the first botanical garden I’d ever visited.

There was this very cool, out of focus looking sculpture with ambient sounds that are supposed to represent bee communication.