London, Part 1

[kenjari]

The flight over was smooth and relatively comfortable. I didn't get a lot of sleep, but both Matthew and I were much less exhausted and jet-lagged than when we arrived for our honeymoon last year. Thus, we were much more functional, which allowed us to actually go out and do stuff during the day.
After dropping our luggage at our hotel in Paddington, we walked over to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, which are just a couple of blocks away. Hyde Park is huge, and Kensington Gardens is connected to it, making the whole thing the largest urban park I have ever seen. We spent a couple of hours walking through it. It was the perfect way to spend our first morning in London. It was lovely and relaxing in our tired, slightly jet-lagged state, and we got to see some cool stuff.
The park istelf is beautiful: tree-lined walkways, lovely meadows and open spaces, and the Serpentine Lake in the middle. We saw the charming statue of Peter Pan, and walked by the Italian Gardens (really a series of pretty fountains).
The highlight of the park was seeing the Albert Memorial. I first became acquainted with teh memorial through reading To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. The book describes it with affectionate humor as a Victorian monstrosity. Adn it is, indeed, well, excessive. It's a very large, 19th century neo-gothic belvedere complete with a spire. It has mosaics in Pre-Raphaelite style and lots of statuary (including gargoyles at the base of the spire). All of this is for the benefit of a large statue of Prince Albert sitting underneath the belvedere and completely covered in gold leaf. I actually don't think it's all that unattractive, just very excessive.
Then we ambled up to the other end of the park to see the Marble Arch. The weather was quite good for walking, if a little chilly. There were plenty of other folks out walking (many with dogs), and even several groups out riding horses.
We walked to Piccadilly next. London is beautiful city. So many of the buildings are old. Just ordinary buildings, too. There is gorgeous 18th and 19th century architecture everywhere you look. Even the oldest American cities don't look like this. This is the thing about Europe that I have the hardest time conveying to people who have never been: it looks and feels completely different. The sense of history and the past being present and with you is much more constant and pervasive.
The point of going to Piccadilly was to shop at Fortnum & Mason. We bought a large bag of treats to bring back - jams, teas, cookies, etc. And we got some chocolates to eat during our stay.
Matthew and I finished up our day by walking back to our hotel, but by a different route. We found ourselves walking through what was obviously one of the Middle Eastern sections of London. I don't think you would ever see that much Arabic script anywhere in America these days.
Oddly enough, our hotel is pretty close to the one we stayed in during our honeymoon. So we had dinner at the same Italian restaurant we went to then. The food is quite good.
For further amusement, yesterday (Nov. 5) was Guy Fawkes day. There are still fireworks going on here and there.
After getting back from Piccadilly, Matthew and I decided to spend the remainder of the day resting. If we try to do too much on the first day, when we're already tired from travelling, we won't feel well enough to get the most out of the rest of our time here. Hard as it is to resist the temptation.
We're already having a wonderful time. This is the best birthday present I have ever received.