Barcelona (part 1)...

“Let’s catch the train to Barcelona,” I said. “It will be fun,” I said.

I love train travel because a) you see so much more than in a plane, b) it’s not as stressful as driving, and c) train stations are usually centrally located so you arrive close to where you want to be.

It was a good decision for the most part, but changing trains in Paris was a bit stressful, since you have to travel across the city and change stations as well as trains. That would have been ok (I’d allowed time for it), but our train out of London left late (the reason given over the loud speaker was that the carriages hadn’t arrived from the depot. What? Why not? Did someone sleep in?).

We made it to our connection (just) but honestly it was trickier than it should have been for such a well-travelled route. Even getting from the underground to the over ground train was confusing so it was such a relief to be on the correct train for Barcelona.

We arrived around dusk, settled into our airbnb, and went for a walk. Barcelona really is as beautiful as I imagined it would be. It’s a city that seems to take great pride in its history and architecture. By some good fortune it turned out to be the feast of St Joan, which was an amazing night to turn up in the city. (In Catalunya they celebrate the Summer Solstice, also known as the feast of St Joan, with a public holiday and a wonderful party atmosphere, bonfires in the streets and fireworks everywhere.) Kids in the local park were having so much fun lighting fireworks (that would never be allowed in safety-conscious Australia) and the whole place was alive with late evening fun. It was such a good introduction to the city.

London - touristy things...

The British Museum: 

Just wow. I love the British Museum. It’s so big and there’s so much to see that it’s easy to get tired and overwhelmed, there is just so much to take in. One of the reasons I would love to live in London is so I could go to the museums and galleries all the time and spread the experience out. It’s impossible to see everything or even enjoy everything in a short amount of time. So we rushed through, trying to get the flavour of the place.

There’s a new building in the middle of the museum, (well, new to me, I think it was built in 2000) – excellent architecture. It’s called the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court (not the most imaginative name) and it’s made the Museum’s inner courtyard into a large covered public square. It is a two-acre space enclosed by a glass roof with the famous Reading Room at its centre.

Tate Modern:
There was some wonderful work here. I’m more a Renaissance person when it comes to art, and often Contemporary Art leaves me cold with it’s obscure, often difficult, self-referential navel gazing. But when it’s good, it’s very good. I did find the temporary exhibition much more interesting than the general collection though.

The National Gallery:
The best, best place to go in London. It has some of my all time favourite works. I also spent quite a bit of time photographing gilt frames which I think will become a new obsession of mine. This is a truly wonderful place.

Afternoon Tea at the Ritz:
A super touristy thing to do, I know. It was fun though. There was far more food than we could eat – I don’t know how other people do it. I’ve read that there are better places to go in London for afternoon tea, but I’d never been to the Ritz, so that’s where we went. To be fair to the whole of the UK though, everywhere we went served excellent tea and scones (I tried them absolutely everywhere we stopped for a snack). Maybe it’s one of those cultural things, where the local standard is so high, there is just no place for terrible tea and scones, a bit like being in Rome (where there is no decent tea at all) but the coffee and the pastries are fabulous practically anywhere.

London - A Houseboat on Regent Canal...

I love London. I was born in England (in Cambridge) and my family moved to Australia when I was seven. Since then I’ve been back to England a few times, and on two of those occasions I’ve been back to live for a few month in London. I love it. I think it’s partly a trace-memory of childhood, the low skies (even when they’re sunny), the smell of train stations, and damp leaves … it’s hard to describe what it is, because it’s not anything in particular, but I do feel at home there. Luke on the other hand had been to London once as a teenager and didn’t like it, so I was on a mission to convince him that London is a fantastic place.

Fortunately, we had a great time. You know how, if you get the wrong set of circumstances even a fabulous place can feel awful, well we were lucky that we got a great set of circumstances so it was easy to see how impressive London is.

Firstly we stayed on a canal boat on Regent Canal near Islington. What an interesting place to stay, quirky, quiet, but walking distance to Kings Cross Station. Regent Canal is beautiful. I got the feeling these canals were a bit dilapidated and a bit of a wasteland, but now they are thriving and interesting, but remarkably quiet considering this is the middle of a huge, bustling city. There are lots of people walking and cycling the canal paths, or just sitting and enjoying the views, there are waterside bars, restaurants and music. There’s even a canal boat that’s been turned into a book shop. Our canal boat was right at the end of the tow path, so it was very quiet and private – but just minutes to interesting things.

Then the weather was beautiful the entire time we were there. Hot even. We took the tube, and busses. We walked to a local supermarket for supplies (I’m interested in how different supermarkets are around the world – I think supermarkets and hardware stores are a really good way to get a feel for living in a city). Almost everywhere we walked in London there was some historical ‘thing’ just around the corner (not just the famous bits I mean, but ordinary local houses or churches or re-used gasworks turned into housing.) It’s a fascinating place. And sometimes it is the famous things, blue plaques on so many buildings, or finding yourself walking through a square or street you’ve read about in books or seen on the telly. It’s a great place, and of course it has some of the best art and science museums anywhere. But that’s another post.