So, it turns out writing about Rome three weeks after you have been there is not as successful as I thought it would be. It seems that unless I have just been there, I cant turn on the feeling a place gives me and turn it into a productive and entertaining blog. All I manage to do is bore myself and give up. So, as a result, I am afraid Rome is out of the question (not that there isn't enough reading material on Rome out in the internet sphere. Give it a google).
Onwards and upwards, or in this case onwards and across the puddle, I headed off last week to the suburbs of Birmingham England to take in the sights and sounds with a local friend. We spent two days exploring a bit of the local area, and a further one day in London getting the feel for the place, navigating the madness of the underground, and dodging the rain showers.
Firstly, London. This is the only city left on my 'have to do before I die' cities in Europe (I still have New York and Tokyo to go outside Europe) so needless to say I was excited! The city is teaming with character from its lovely red phone boxes and buses to the endless stream of black taxis and cobbled streets. Its squares are lively and bustling with people from every race, religion and age, and even the odd celebrity can be spotted. We took in the sights of Westminster, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Tower Bridge and the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (quite the pallavar to be doing every day!).
Its a lovely city to walk around, but unfortunately we didnt have the weather on our side and got pretty soaked by the time we had reached Tower Bridge. We arrived there looking to do the tour of the Tower of London only to find that tours finish in the winter at 2:30 and it was then 3:00. Slightly deflated, we took in the sight of the bridge and wandered across to the other side where the cold got the better of us and we headed for a little London watering hole. After a lovely pint of local cider in a very local London bar free of any tourist element, we headed back towards our train. I must say, having been in Asian cities, I am used to hustle and bustle, but the London underground is in a league of its own. The sight of hundreds, even thousands of people making their way with their briefcases down the incredibly steep flights of stairs to the tunnels below is slightly disturbing I have to say. Its not the mass movement that's scary, its the sight of all those people doing their very best to avoid acknowledging the existence of the person standing beside them. They stick their heads in their books, ipads, phones, ipods, and even stare into space to avoid looking at the person beside them. Coming from a city where you acknowledge the person beside you on the train with a smile or even strike up a conversation, I found the whole thing to be disturbingly yet fascinatingly cold. People who pass each other every day of the week and take the same journey and probably have so much in common know nothing about each other, not even each other's faces.
After London, the Birmingham suburb of Bromsgrove seemed so quaint and community based. I was really taken in by it. It has everything you need, and we found some lovely local towns and villages nearby that had such a friendly atmosphere and were genuinely beautiful. We spent a half day in Worcester looking at the cathedral which houses the tomb of Prince Arthur and King John of England, along with some amazing architecture and quiet little corridors and gardens. We also wandered around the town looking around the shops and stopping for coffee in the local library, which was huge and incredibly impressive.
The following day we headed off to the famous Stratford upon Avon which is the birthplace of William Shakespeare. We visited his birth place which is still a really well preserved and large house, and went on to see the place of Shakespeare's house where he lived with his family and it's gardens, and also Hall's Croft, which was his daughter's house when she married. All were very luxurious for their time and were interesting and well preserved and presented.
In the evening, we treated ourselves to a little entertainment, and went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to see Wendy and Peter Pan. Thinking it was simply another recreation of the disney movie, we were excited but didn't expect much. Personally, I was blown away by it. It was so well written, and the scenes so well choreographed and laid out. It was a really moving show with a really fantastic interpetation of how children cope with difficult life experiences. We were both blubbering messes at the end. Well worth going to see.
Another great trip and another part of the world experienced.
Slan.
