I flew into London Thursday morning and of course had to go through border control and customs. It was so weird getting grilled at the border control after 2 months of travelling around by train, where it's unusual to even have a passport checked let alone be questioned. It's ridiculous how differently you're treated. The border guard asked me where I'd been in Europe. Then he cut me off before Frankfurt.
Going from Brussels to Geneva meant having to use another currency for the first time since May because the Swiss aren't on the Euro; they still use the Swiss Franc (Switzerland isn't part of the EU at all). Then going to London meant changing currencies again, this time to the pound. On the one hand, it's made me realize what a joy it was to have gone so long on one currency. But whatever serious reasons these few countries have for not adopting the Euro, it's a big pain for tourists. I was going to skip Switzerland entirely when I realized they weren't on the Euro (also I'd heard Switzerland is beautiful and boring) until I decided to see TLL. And then Sweden has another freakin' currency, which I didn't know before I started looking for lodging there.
What a treat that everything in London is in English!: street signs, metro announcements, museum explanations, words on packaging and menus. I really appreciate it now.
Thursday night I ate dinner at this place Yo! Sushi where the food is on a conveyer belt and you pick up what you want to eat as it passes. photo at http://www.flickr.com/photos/annefreiermuth/2615483249/ The plates the sushi sit on have different colors and each color corresponds to a price. It's a cute concept but crazy expensive, because even the lowest price plate color was £1.50 which would buy e.g., 2 pieces of tuna maki. Also, it occured me that the plates weren't chilled, which seemed ill-suited to raw fish.
When I was in Paris, Cedric asked me what was Californian food. I said, "Uh, smoothies?" Sure enough, I ate lunch Friday at "California Fresh," which specialized in smoothies, plus sandwiches, salads, soups.
My cough from the head cold that started in Amsterdam refused to go away; I purchased expectorant syrup for a "chesty cough" at the wonderful Boots, which is like a Sephora + Longs Drugs and they are everywhere in London.
I visited the London Whole Foods where I had my first burrito, freshly made to order, in nearly 2 months. It tasted super good.
Saturday, I went to the Victoria & Albert Museum. Most museums I've been to so far displayed paintings, sculpture, prints, etc. The V&A displays those types of pieces, but also displays items to illustrate topics such as architecture, fashion, iron works, glass, British history, various other Asian and European histories, etc. It was a fascinating and novel way to explore the world.
Sunday, I walked from Westminster Bridge to Trafalgar Square and stopped at the Churchill Museum/WWII war rooms, the actual below-ground rooms where Churchill & Co. planned the British/Allies war defense. I think the thing that surprised me the most about the Churchill Museum was how much time he spend on battlefields as a young man, as a soldier and/or war correspondent. There were that many wars going on. It's pretty amazing how far the world has progressed in favoring diplomatic solutions over armed conflict in 100 years.
I headed to Paddington Station, which was a few blocks from my hotel, to buy my train ticket to Edinburgh. The need to visit was vaguely exciting because I had and loved a Paddington Bear as a child and wanted to see his namesake ... It looked like a train station. (Coincidentally, on the train to Edinburgh, there was a young family seated near me and the dad started to read his 3 YO daughter the Paddington Bear story just before we arrived. The little girl and I were sad that he had to stop reading so we could get off the train.)
Monday was another big museum day: British Museum in the morning, then the British Library and Tate Modern. It was interesting to spend an hour at the British Library looking at old texts (Magna Carta, pre-Gutenberg bibles and korans from when paper or parchment was precious) and documents (back of envelope used to pen Beatles' lyrics, music manuscripts) in a digital age when there are millions of websites and people increasingly recording creations with computers, not paper. Sure people still write notes on the backs on envelopes but probably iPhones more often. And now people can write long-winded blogs about traveling but the Magna Carta was squished and abbreviated to fit on very expensive pieces of parchment.
Most of the museums in London are free, although they request you make a small donation. The ones that aren't free are crazy expensive in relative terms for an American, e.g., £12 for the Churchill Museum and £11 to go in Westminster Abbey. It was a big deal when MOMA started charging $20 for admission, but with the £1=$2, that doesn't seem so bad.
London photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/annefreiermuth/sets/72157606054019475/detail/
