Today was interesting on two levels. First, we toured some really fascinating places around London but more importantly, Simon pinned down three places that he'd want to live in if he moved to London.
In the morning we watched the final (most recent) installment of the Up Series - 49 Up. To our relief, the characters have more or less resolved the difficulties in their lives and are all in a state of peace or happiness. We were especially happy to learn that Bruce is married with two kids, Neil is in politics and has a home, Nick is still the coolest science professor in Wisconsin, and Tony is making bank and summering (really more living) in Spain.
After our "Up" resolutions, we went to the Barbican District of London to see the newly remodeled Museum of London. The Barbican area was completely leveled by the Nazi Blitz during World War II and was then built up from scratch as a giant, self-contained planned community with really interesting architecture apartments. Everything looked like it could've fit in 1984 with the concrete levels and small, planned green courtyard. However, there are really cool skywalks and all of the residents added much needed color to the scene with beautiful, vivid flowers of many different colors. This was place #1 that I'd look into if I ever moved to London.
The museum itself is basically brand new - it's only been open for two weeks. The curator, an eccentric historian, graciously took us around about half of the museum and showed us the "Modern London" exhibits - 1660s-present. We then went through ourselves and explored the hundreds of interactive exhibits, thousands of artifacts and many visual displays. I especially liked the roaring 20s-30s exhibit since it tied right into "After the Dance" and also the World War II Air Raid exhibit. For that gallery, they had a dark, nondescript theater with pictures and the sounds of an Air Raid along with interviews with survivors.
After the museum, we discussed Boswell a bit more and then headed off to Westminster to board a ferry for Greenwich. We took the Thames Clipper and swiftly maneuvered down the Thames while passing beautiful London on our way to Greenwich.
As we neared Greenwich, I spied these apartments and resolved to live in that small brown section at the top if I ever moved to London. Once we reached Greenwich, about a 30 minute ferry ride with stops, we scouted out pubs to watch the world cup games in that night and then climbed up to the Greenwich observatory.
Being English nerds, we retraced the steps of poor Stevie from Conrad's Secret Agent, and some of us even recreated his tragic misstep and fall in the park. When we got to the observatory, we found the Prime Meridian and took some fantastic touristy photos so that we could be in two places at once.
When we got down, we went to the Trafalgar, got some dinner, and watched South Korea and Argentina move on to the next round.
Finally, we took the light rail back to Canary Wharf, the heart of the banking and business district, which is where I've decided is the third place I'd live if I were in London.
There's a really pretty courtyard in between the big skyscrapers that has the water come up right against it and has restaurants and pubs.
Check back soon! USA! USA! USA!
-Simon
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