On our home exchange, we have been staying at Bricket Wood near St Albans north of London. In real estate speak, we are “close to transport links”. There is a constant hum of traffic on the nearby M1 and M25 and, even with navigational aids, we’ve been known to turns and end up in a tangle of motorways and A-roads. Fortunately, there are good rail links too. There’s a regular shuttle train into Watford Junction and from there it is only 20 minutes into the heart of London.Before Christmas, we jumped on a train to see some more London sights. It was clear as we walked from our hotel to Trafalgar Square.
Gift Horse by Hans Haacke is the current Fourth Plinth Commission. Its skeletal body and electronic ribbon, displaying live the ticker of the London Stock Exchange, referencing the ravages of power, money and history. (I still prefer Hahn/Cock that was on display on our last visit in September 2014.)
The lions are as majestic as ever:
And Nelson surveys it all:Onwards to Westminister and Big Ben:
Westminister Bridge was packed with sightseers (and con artists playing the three shell game).
We considered the London Eye but the crowds were off-putting:
And so we continued to walk along the Thames to Shakespeare’s Globe, the throbbing Borough Markets and across the Millenium Bridge to St Paul’s Cathedral and the clocks of Fleet Street
As this is published, we are starting our long journey home. This will entail more than 30 hours in transit and crossing into the New Year en route. Thank you to everyone who has joined me in 2015. The internet somehow makes the world a smaller, friendlier place. Wishing you all a peaceful, happy and creative 2016.