1. There are no straight roads from A to B, and all streets have names, not numbers.
2. Scooters are everywhere!
3. Vegan and vegetarian food are considered normal!
4. Drinking (alcohol) in public is not unlawful, at least not when done responsibly. Link to Hyde Park rules ---> here.
Bumming in the park (feet shown to pay homage to Bob).
No kids where harmed in the making of this picnic!
5. We have not seen one pick-up truck since we left Canada, and people still get stuff transported. (Beware the white van man!)
6. Natives seem to drive small but expensive (mostly German) brands. Fiat shown in picture is squeezed in between a Volkswagen and a BMW.
7. Rent-a-Bike!
8. An abundance of history, historic buildings and even historic builders, as this ad on the wall shows.
9. Caged gardens. Are the natives afraid the green stuff will escape while they are not looking?
10. Talking business: It's a toilet, for heaven's sake! Not a washroom or a restroom!
11. Plumbers are weird! Or hotel guests permanently drunk? Whatever, below shown is the location of the bathroom tissue in our room. On a special note: It's a friggin' wall hanging WC.
12. The Union Jack can make a fashion statement.
13. Smart notes on the ground ("Look right" "Look left" "Look both ways") to keep the pedestrians, especially tourists from getting killed.
14. Jaywalking is mandatory! Nobody waits for the green man except for us bloody tourists.
15. The infamous London fog must be a myth! All we've ever seen is clear blue skies.
16. It is also a myth that British food sucks. It is delicious, and comes in all ethnical flavours you may think of.
17. We also believe that London must have taken a raincheck on the recession. New buildings and renovations everywhere, high end cars on the road, and restaurants buzzing with folks. The cost of living is not cheap either but we haven't seen one bum on the street (or maybe they are just too polite to show?).
18. Long story short: We love London!
These are my people! I raised myself on all things English, could not turn away. In Door County I knew only Germans and Swedes, so I hope now to find some nice English folk in my life and see if that changes me back...
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful day you had!
Not sure how many real Brits you would find in London though, we found that a lot of second language speakers were around but maybe that's because tourist season has begun.
DeleteCould London be a possible relocation for you guys? Looks lovely there. Love the toes!
ReplyDeleteDar, if Germany doesn't want us (work wise) we will definitely look into getting a job in one of the adjacent countries, and London would be high on our list. We liked it very much here.
DeleteSonja, the rental bikes are Montreal's contribution to London. They began life here as Bixis (a contraction of "bike" and "taxi") and are now fixtures here, in Toronto, Washington DC, and London. Thanks for posting that photo!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the trivia, David. Good on Montreal to get this on the go. It's brilliant and cheap.
DeleteGreat post you two. You had me chuckling with your observations.
ReplyDeleteOf course, now I want to go to London even more.
London is certainly worth a trip, and while in the area (I mean Europe...) please stop by our place as well (probably only an hour by plane away...)
DeleteAghast Sonja, you are making me want to travel! Loved those interesting observations, some of them made me realise how similar London is to Australia and actually gave me more of an idea of how Canada is too. Like the notes to pedestrians, we have those. We don't have contortionists toilet roll holders tho, that's interesting and would be amusing to use if you really are drunk :-D
ReplyDeleteI don't remember what word I originally used but it wasn't aghast ... Stupid phone.
DeleteYou had me irritated for a bit ;-)
DeleteInteresting observations. I've never been to London but you photos make me want to at least visit. It seems crowded or is that just the touristy places?
ReplyDeleteWell, London is pretty much as crowded as any big city, e.g. San Francisco. The pic just shows the buzz on flea market day, it is not THAT busy on London streets.
DeleteBob, you might be on to something. Maybe that's how they keep people away, alas most people didn't listen. London is quite densely populated.
ReplyDeleteIf it is timed you better get your business done quickly ;-)
I love this post. Well, being a Londoner, I would!
ReplyDeleteYou have captured the spirit and energy of London very well. I have to comment on each item….
1. Horses don’t need straight roads. Cars didn’t exist when London Streets were laid out.
2. Many more scooters now we have congestion charging in Central London. Cars pay, motorcycles don’t. I am happy about that.
3. You can get just about any sort of food in a wide variety of shops and restaurants.
4. Any city that bans drinking alcohol in public is a scared city. Long may London continue to show the way for freedom!
5. Pick-up trucks are, well, ridiculous really. Almost nobody owns them here. They are more a status symbol that a practicality and Londoners don’t buy into that. Well, not much.
6. Yep, we love our German cars. I have one – a Volkswagen.
7. The Boris Bikes (as they are known by Londoners) have proved to be hugely popular.
8. We love history even more than German cars.
9. I have never understood this either.
10. Hooray! Welcome to the land of plain speaking. I cannot understand why North Americans call a toilet a “bathroom”. That is just silly.
11. That is very funny. Made for Lilliputians, no doubt.
12. I am amazed at how many Union Jack designs I see around the world at the moment.
13. We Londoners use those words as well. There are many one-way streets, so traffic could come from either side, but I agree it is very useful for tourists.
14. We jaywalk sensibly, accepting that traffic has the right of way when we do not wait. I found that very confusing in North America, when in big cities, vehicles are expected to stop for people jaywalking.
15. The fog used to be caused by burning coal in houses. Smoke + Fog = Smog. It is no longer the problem it was since coal burning was banned.
16. A lot of British food is good. Like anyway, some is bad.
17. Recession? What recession?
18. And I am so glad that you do!
I love the fact you love my city!
Gary, that's hilarious. Thanks for the detailed feedback. I am glad we were on the right track. It certainly won't be our last visit in this beautiful city. I was ready to move in ;-) Hope to be able to meet you next time to learn more about the native lifestyle.
DeleteAnd Gary has a real English surname as we used to own that part of Europe across the English Channel!
DeleteLondoners are lucky. Our Driving Licences are used to keep the door locked until we are finished. Foreigners licences don't work, so tourists have to be quicker. That is one of the benefits of living here.
ReplyDelete