Yesterday 16k quad burning thigh destroying steps, so naturally there is no time to rest we gotta go see London again. Since the breakfast place we wanted to go with the kids doesn't open until later, Michelle and I woke up early. Just to get an extra walk in. London is a layered city, history built on top of history paved over by chain shops and the few independent bars. The city is always in motion, sure that place used to be where Jane Austen visited every summer for two years but now it's a kicky local spot for drag shows! People still need to make a living, bring their wares and food and experiences to the public. There is simply too much history on top of history to stop and notice it too much. It's a intergridlocked set of past, far past, present, far future all roiling ever forward. And that's not even the most confusing thing about the city. In Vancouver, you get a sense of the geography: the mountains, the water, the rolling hills always give you a sense of
As a nerd, and dad of a certain age I'm drawn to history. In Vancouver it can mostly be summed up as "this is first nations", or "this was related to logging/mining". That's pretty much it. In London of course, there hundreds and hundreds of years of Western civilization everywhere you look. Remnants of an age old foundry or shop or the vestiges of a garden that fed a monastary that was long since been outlawed. As a fan of plaques, as I've said before there are not nearly enough plaques in London. But then again, there would be no place to walk, or put up a wall, or a window if everything was plaqued up. It would a city of engraved history, for which about 1% of the entire tourist population would find endlessly enjoyable and the rest would find rather tiresome. A running joke between my son and I became something along the lines of "and this is where the founding of the banking system originated, anyways, now it's a shoe store". That'