London
Early December 2018
Christmas was fast approaching, and Amy and I were soon to leave on our three week trip across Europe. The first leg of our trip was London – for Amy at least. I still had work to do in Glasgow, so this was only a weekend trip for me. Hosted by our friends Zivian and Tahlia, we caught the Virgin Pendolino train down to London Euston. It was our first time in London for many years. Having just shown Zivian and Tahlia around Glasgow a few weeks earlier, it was now their turn to show us about – they did a wonderful job.
Although London can feel rather informal and almost too hustle and bustle at times, it was nonetheless great to be back in such a thriving metropolis, if only for a weekend.
I can’t help but be somewhat awestruck by London each time I’m there. Although it’s enormous and has too many suburbs, streets, and famous sights to even attempt to name; London just works. It’s clean, gorgeous, filled with monumental architecture, well-catered to tourists and residents alike, and has an excellent transport system that gets you wherever you could possibly want to go. History seems to sit on every corner and in every square, circus, and cross. Half the city is named after important historical figures and events – if you scratch the surface on almost anything you are rewarded with interesting stories.
As an aside, I never tire of seeing Australian place names in the UK. Go around and seriously consider where the names of half of our cities, states, towns, and suburbs come from. Darwin (Charles), New South Wales (Literally) or Victoria (the Queen), Albany (the Duke of), Richmond (Richmond Hill, London) - these names aren’t coincidence and are a constant reminder of our colonial past and not-so-distant relationship to Britain.
Back to our first evening…
After a few beers in Bermondsey, we set out to the only thing on our Friday to-do list: the London Winter Wonderland.
Set within the sprawling and beautiful Hyde Park, the Winter Wonderland is a large, garish, and dazzling Christmas spectacle. Basically, it’s a Christmas carnival. Although not as authentic as the markets in Europe, it is nonetheless great fun – eat too much, spend too much, drink too much – then, if you have the courage, go on a ride or two. We met Tahlia there and spent a lovely evening together, wandering about drinking mulled wine, perusing the markets, and eating way too many fried things.
The following day, we started our morning by walking through Bermondsey to the Maltby Street Market, before heading to nearby Chapter 72 for a very well made coffee, prior to finally ending up at the Camden Markets which is something we seem to end up doing each time we are here.
If you’ve not been, I’d highly recommend spending a few hours at the bustling Camden Markets. It’s a truly dizzying mix of bric-a-brac, fashion, boutiques, food, and a thousand other things. From souvenirs to your next outfit, you can probably find it here.
Ostensibly here for lunch, we first went to Camden Lock and had a delicious mix of Indonesian rendang, Lebanese haloumi, and Venezuelan arepas. We then spent an hour or so perusing the stalls. Amy left with several new dresses – basically a Camden tradition at this point. I also bought myself a British flat cap, which I’ve wanted for some time - I seem to have finally completed my transformation to an old, grumpy man.
We then returned to London and headed to Thames’ Christmas markets, briefly stopping at the Burough Market beforehand. Wandering along the Thames and past the HMS Belfast, we gawked at more stalls, listened to a busker sing opera, ate hot Belgian chocolate brownies, and enjoyed the Christmas cheer - until the weather began to sour in typical British fashion. The sky managed to stay clear enough for a brief view of Tower Bridge on our way home.
Later than evening in Shoreditch, our night began at TraTra, an upmarket restaurant where we made the most of a delicious bottomless charcuterie and happy hour cocktails. We then snuck in another cocktail at the nearby Bull in a China Shop, as well as some complimentary onigiri prior to heading to London Shuffle to play shuffleboard, before heading to Pizza East for supper later that evening.
Now hear me out for a second – shuffleboard is brilliant fun.
Having only heard about it as the punchline of a Florida cruise gag, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Gameplay is somewhat similar to lawn bowls; you want to place your ball (or "biscuit" in this case) as close to a target, while knocking your opponents away. The main difference with shuffleboard being that you use a cue and a puck-like object to play, and your targets are painted on the floor. With beers and ciders in hand, we spent a frantic hour trying to reach the 100 points required to win. Falling short due to time, Ziv and I ended up winning on the last frame with a fabled 17 point play.
The next day, we spent a brief morning in Shad Thames, and had breakfast at Gunpowder, a funky modern Indian restaurant – think of spiced eggs, curried baked beans, etc.
Unfortunately, that was all the time we had left and weparted ways – soon to see each other again in Europe before the years end. Amy made her way to Gatwick International Airport to head to onwards to Germany and I returned to Euston Station to return to Glasgow.
Having caught the train down, The return leg by train was quite exhausting, fortunately, I bought Super Smash Brothers Ultimate on my way to the station, so I found a way to cope.
JC
“The City is a world within itself. Centred in the heart of the metropolis, with its innumerable capacities for commercial pursuits, it presents at first sight, to a stranger, a most mysterious and unfathomable labyrinth of lanes and alleys, streets and courts, of lanes thronged with bustling multitude whose various occupations, though uniting in one grand whole, seem to have no direct association with each other.”
D. Morrier Evans
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