What strikes me immediately about London is how young everyone is. To begin with, this is exciting. The places buzzes.
People are mostly in a hurry. They are constantly talking (except on the Tube, of course) and much of the talk is loud and frantic.
The art gallery caters to an older, rather genteel population. Retired, educated couples are furthering their education. But it is a weekday afternoon, and although the school holidays have started, perhaps Tate Britain is not the first choice of entertainment for families on a fine summer’s day.
I relish the freedom of traversing the city on my Oyster card. I let myself soak up the youth, diversity and dynamism of the population, and feel enriched by it. By the end of the day I am physically tired, and mentally over-stimulated. One day in London is about enough for me! Now I’m ready to return to the provinces.
I was in London yesterday. It was a very warm, muggy sort of day. Crowds everywhere and mostly young! I met a friend in the sedateness of a cafe in the V & A which was nice. But afterwards, and having hopped on and off a series of buses on my way to Charing Cross, the heat and the crowds became a trifle intolerable! I made my way over Hungerford Bridge – at least there the air was cool – to meet Ron on the South Bank. So many crowds it was hard to link up on our mobile phones because of so much noise everywhere! Decided not to try and push our way into the already overcrowded restaurants (something to do with the comemmoration of the Festival of Britain in 1951) so made our way to Waterloo Station where we went to see one of our favourite childhood shows “The Railway Children”. It was good but we were almost blown away by draughts of air conditioning coming from some blow hole behind us!
Will wait awhile before heading for London again . . .
By: Thelma on Saturday, 30 July 2011
at 11:04 am