London… forever…

London… every teacher of English dreams to visit it at least once in their lifetime! I had been dreaming about it for more than 25 years when, eventually, in December 2010, my dream came true!

After an adventurous flight to London – which was supposed to take me there in five hours and, lucky me, finally got me to London City airport some 15 hours later, my daughter bought me an Oyster Buss Pass for a week and we hopped on the DLR, direction home. Several minutes and stops later we changed it, took the underground and got off at Westminster. Dragging the suitcases, we headed towards one of the exits my daughter had chosen. I was craving for a cigarette so when I finally saw a flight of stairs, a brick wall and day light in front of me, I rushed up the stairs and stopped, looking for my cigarettes in my pockets and announcing Alexandra that I intended to smoke then and there. “Mum,” she said, “I don’t think we’re out yet, we’re risking a fine if you smoke here. Let’s take this other flight of stairs and then we’re out and you can smoke all you want.” Completely disappointed, I grabbed the suitcase again while rolling up my eyes and then… WOOOOW! There it stood, towering above me, leaving me breathless and suddenly filling my eyes with tears: Big Ben!

Big Ben, the Clock Tower

I don’t remember how long it took me to get to the surface, just to lose my breath again… London Eye, Queen Boadicea (or Boudica) and Westminster Bridge in front of me and Westminster Palace, a.k.a. The Houses of Parliament behind me.

London Eye and Queen Boadicea

The next stop on our way home was a few hundred meters on, after going along the railings surrounding the Houses of Parliament and crossing the street just in front of Sir Winston Churchill’s statue… another breathtaking view:

St. Margaret’s Church and Westminster Abbey

I suddenly felt I envied every person passing by these marvels every day…

The left-side traffic, the Look Right marks at every crossing, the red double deckers,  the black taxis, the buildings with the same facade on one side of the street, matching those across the street… and then

Trafalgar Square and Lord Nelson's Column

and

The National Gallery and I

The Royal Opera House and its fragile Ballerina Resting…

Ballerina Resting, just opposite The Royal Opera House

I simply loved the Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square, surrounded by banners which read: Yes! I am a gift! And so are you! and the bus station ad announcing Christ’s birth!

Bus station ad

We spent Christmas day walking – no means of transport work that day. We covered a distance of 8-10 miles in about 7 hours: Buckingham Palace Road, Victoria Station, Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Park, The Mall, Admiralty Arch, Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross Station, Victoria Embankment, The Houses of Parliament, Millbank, Grosvenor Road and back to Pimlico.

Buckingham Palace Gate

On the 26th, we happened to enter St. Paul’s Cathedral just when an hour-long service was beginning so we attended it… Divine! The acoustics of the cathedral made the Saint Margaret Choir sound simply divine! Late one night we got to see…

Tower Bridge and The Tower of London

For 8 days I just kept losing my breath and wiping the tears rolling down my cheeks whenever I found myself in front of yet another of these wonderful places I had been teaching about for 25 years without ever seeing them live… It was all sooo overwhelming!

London is nothing one can imagine, no matter how many pictures of it one sees, no matter how many cyber-walks one takes with Google maps and its street-view feature, no matter how well the description is written, no matter how many years one has been teaching about it, thinking they know what they’re talking about. London is one city worth visiting at least once in a lifetime!

Stables Market - Camden Town

 

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