Our first impression of London was the enormous "ques" to enter with a passport. I think we had to wait for at least one hour. After we got into our cab, the next surprising thing was the landscape around Heathrow airport. There were farms with sheep and horses all around. It reminded me of the Olympic extravaganza opening ceremony. Our hotel was nice, but the room was pretty small. We arrived on the first days of Wimbledon. I really wanted to go to the matches one day, but they were charging $900- 1500 pounds per ticket. (did you know that the British didn't like Andy Murray for many years? I had no idea until our cab driver told us the back story)
Our hotel was right across from Hyde Park. We walked to visit Kensington Palace and learned all about Queen Victoria. The history of London was all around. We were there in the middle of the work week and we rode the "tube". It was clean and safe. We saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace, Westminster Abbey, Parliament and we took a Thames river cruise and saw the Tower of London and the Tower bridge.
We had a lovely time. You have to be so impressed with all the architecture and the lovely sound of British voices. The sites are all really well-maintained. You have to think that there is nothing close to this in America. That is true, but when you really think about it you realize that British culture has at least a milena jump on ours. Also- in order to have elaborate buildings, bridges and castles you have to have lived in a time where there was a small aristocracy and a large number of poor people that had no choice but to work for practically nothing. Times have changed and we can admire the beautiful remains of a feudal society while appreciating our freedoms in America.
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