When I was younger, I thought that just by living life, “life” would quite literally take me places. But that’s not how any of this works. Not for an instant did I think that five decades into this, I wouldn’t have left the comfy confines of the good ol’ U.S. of A. But there I was, watching my personal odometer roll over to its 50th year with nary a step on foreign soil.
If you’re going to be pedantic, my border crossing lock-down isn’t entirely accurate. You could point to some childhood visits to our kindly neighbor to the north and my honeymoon to Jamaica (which at the time, didn’t even require that I have a passport to visit.) But are we really going to count Canada and one week at a Sandals resort as “international” travel?
Self perception is a strange thing. I honestly don’t think of myself as a non-traveler, but from someone else’s perspective, that’s exactly what I am. It isn’t for lack of wanderlust. Visiting new places energizes me, piques my curiosity, and jolts my creativity like nothing else. The reality is I just haven’t prioritized traveling in my life. I’d like to blame it on mortgage payments and the like, but I’ve bought lenses that are more expensive than five plane tickets, so that’s not a legitimate excuse.
So last month as I flew across the Atlantic with the rest of my family to visit my oldest son, (who was studying in London during his spring semester) I wasn’t entirely sure how to set my expectations. Who I picture myself to be (a healthy globetrotting mixture of James Bond and Indiana Jones) and the reality of who I actually am (more akin to a pensioner who’s never left their front porch after retirement) doesn’t leave me with a solid playbook of what was going to transpire on our trip. As it turns out, international traveling Brian is very similar to domestically traveling Brian. Comfortable with logistics, opposed to hard set schedules, and open to most things that come his way, especially, but not limited to, exotic sandwiches.
For my first experience traveling abroad, London was a nice starter kit. I spoke the language, could read the signs, and the city itself was lovely, if not entirely foreign-feeling. Of course, there’s plenty of unique qualities that set it apart, but overall London didn’t feel entirely dissimilar to some of the larger metro areas here on the east coast. Some of that familiarity probably has more to do with our limited amount of visit time and inability to dig deeper into the differences.
In our four days, we were only able to hit a lot of London’s “greatest hits,” (including a day trip to the White Cliffs of Dover) and didn’t really have the opportunity to explore more local culture. To be honest, English wasn’t even the most prevalent language I heard during our visit. We were surrounded by other tourists most of the time, and I heard a lot more German and French being spoken than the Queen’s tongue.
The sights we were able to fit in were amazing. My son made sure to let us know we experienced the four nicest weather days of the entire year during our stay. There was nary a drop of rain or even a hint of the infamous fog numerous movies and television shows conditioned me to expect. With clear skies as an advantage, we packed a lot into our time. We hit the British Museum, the sights at the edge of the Thames, a show at the West End, Camden Town, the National Gallery, and more than our fair share of public gardens.
The parts of the city I got to, while busy, were easy to enjoy. With the wide array of public transportation at your disposal, getting around was simple, and everywhere I looked was chock-a-block with photographic possibilities. London itself is sprawling but doesn’t have the claustrophobic feel the skyscraper-laden caverns of New York City can sometimes give off. Highlights for me were Borough Market and just exploring the city at large. The rest of the crew would put our day trip to see the White Cliffs of Dover at the top of their list. Some folks just aren’t city people. I get it.
Hopefully the gap between this and my next trip overseas will be shorter, but as a first foray into international travel, London served as a great primer. Ten out of ten, would recommend.
Oh right, this a photography blog. I did get to take some photos along the way. These are my 50 favorite shots from the trip.
Photo Gallery – LONDON Favourites
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