London 2026 Recap
Some musings from my time in London last week.
5:15 PM GMT. It’s 9:15 AM back home in Seattle.
I’m 35,000+ feet in the air, sitting next to my wife in my seat on the Airbus A330-900neo, operated by Virgin Atlantic. Premium select class (a subtle flex – shout out to my wife’s parents). The dull roar of the plane engine and quiet chatter fills the cabin. My wife flips through a book filled with crossword puzzles next to me. 4 hours until we land.
I sit here and ponder the last week. In fact, I’ve been pondering what to say about it the last few days. I’m new to this blogging thing so forgive me if this is a little rough around the edges.
Where to start? Well, let’s just say London is a world-class city for a reason. I’ll use the classic trope to describe it. The city is alive. Maybe that’s cringe or cliché to say, but don’t discredit me just yet. You’ll know what I’m talking about if you’ve been. Around every corner, there’s something happening. People filling the pubs, laughing with a pint of beer in hand. Well-dressed men in suits spilling out of the “tube” in a rush to get to work. Friends dancing to music under a gazebo in a park. All of this gives me a real sense of sonder: that weird feeling where everyone is living their own little lives, going about their days entirely separate from you. It’s fun to experience. It’s unspoken, but it feels like you’re a part of something – the same thing – the London machine that keeps on chugging. When everyone sits on the tube together, they’re all a piece of it. Different places to be, different goals, but the same nevertheless.
Perhaps this is what a city is meant to be. It may be my naïveté as a young world traveler, but I’ve yet to fully experience the same feeling elsewhere until now. My hometown of Seattle has had glimpses of it – for example, the throngs of people all cheering at the Seahawks Super Bowl victory parade or the Mariners winning in the playoffs. However, it’s not quite the same. London has a constant buzz to it. You always want to be somewhere, doing something. Judging by the attendance at the pubs during the after-work rush hour, I’m guessing locals might feel the same. Or maybe they just want to get drunk and forget about the workday. Who knows.
From day one, our schedule was packed. A museum here, a landmark there. Tours, fancy restaurants, old pubs, a boat ride. Get on the tube, get off the tube. We even made it out to the Cotswolds one day for a change of pace. It felt like we covered so much ground, but in reality it was a fraction of what London (and the UK as a whole) has to offer. As I sit here, part of me wishes I could turn the plane right back around towards London so we can continue exploring. It’s challenging to accurately describe the feeling you get when you walk around a corner and see Big Ben, or walk down the street with the Tower Bridge looming in the distance. To use the word everyone thinks of: yes, it’s surreal. It’s somewhat like the feeling I get back home every time I drive down I-5 or take a ferry and see the Seattle skyline. Damn. It never gets old. When every street has a building that’s older than your own country carved beautifully out of stone, you have to stop and marvel. And of course, take a picture.
You might think this is my first time here. Interestingly enough, it’s my second time in England – after I graduated college in 2018 I embarked on a 2 week excursion with my grandpa, where we saw relatives, his hometown, and London at the tail end of the trip. It was cool then. It’s still cool (dare I say cooler?) now. This trip was hyper-focused on the city of London itself, with the exception of our day trip to the Cotswolds (which I highly recommend). I’ll leave a link to my breakdown of all of our activities, restaurants, etc. at the end of this article in case you decide to take the plunge and buy a plane ticket across the world.
Trying my hand at being a photographer and a model at the same time
I come to a pause in my writing. Two and a half hours left until we touch down. Stewardesses come through to ask the passengers for drinks. I think of how to best sum up my feelings. Let’s just say this: my wife wants to spend a whole year in London, and part of me wants to say screw it, let’s do it. I mean think about it – a primarily English speaking country in Europe with endless activities and a base to explore the rest of Europe easily? Who wouldn’t want that? Then, the reality of logistics enter the picture and things start to get more dim. Also, let’s be clear on one thing. London is expensive. The exchange rate is not in our favor (or favour?) I will undoubtedly cringe looking at our credit card bill later this month. It’s the price you pay for the world-class experience I talked about before.
London is also surprisingly…clean? It requires a full-blown manhunt just to find a garbage can, yet there’s no loose trash on the sidewalks. Yes, they have their homeless and crime (as any city does), but there’s no tent cities on the side of the road. No empty storefronts or boarded-up buildings. Data supports this too - the London commercial vacancy rate sits at only 7.5%. I think west coast American cities should take note of this. I’m not an expert on how to solve the problem, but we can and should do better. End rant. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
When you think of England, you probably don’t picture the finest cuisine in the world. Beans, toast, sausage, some kind of vegetables, potatoes (often in mashed form – they really love their mashed food over there). Regardless, I don’t think we experienced one bad restaurant. Which is, I know, surprising. Maybe we just didn’t eat British food all that much. London and the surrounding area has quite the selection and I would encourage everyone to try different places. Yes of course, try a few pubs, but there are also incredible breakfast spots, Italian restaurants, steakhouses – you name it. In fact, I had the best fish and chips I’ve ever eaten out in Burton on the Water. The restaurants also don’t play around with their interior decoration. Every place has its own unique vibe, and some of them are straight up gorgeous. They invest in aesthetics, and it shows. Eat at a dimly lit, old timey pub from the 1500s. Then follow it up with a hip, modern bar in the evening. I don’t think I’ll ever top the experience of Apollo’s Muse. If you don’t believe me, just Google some pictures of the inside.
If you’re still with me, I’ll touch on a few other important anecdotes. Let’s talk about the tube. Man, let me just say – when public transportation is done right, it’s really good. It’s unfortunate that the grip of the automobile shaped our American cities in the way it did. I like the solitude of driving my own car as much as the next guy, but there’s something special about hopping on and off a train that gets you anywhere in the city and requires waiting no more than single-digit minutes to get on. Sure, it’s noisy, sometimes overcrowded and humid, but the convenience factor outweighs most of that. I don’t have to drive around looking for a parking spot for 15 minutes or pay $30 for a lot with spots so tiny I can barely open my door without giving the car next to me a thousand dollars in paint damage. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but you get the point.
Did I mention the history? Obviously, London is full of it. It always blows my mind how much longer these places have been around than anything in America. Museums are abundant – the National Gallery, the Churchill War Rooms, the Imperial War Museum, to name a few. The Tower of London is an especially unique standout. For goodness sake, there are pubs still around from the 16th century. Explain to me how this is possible.
Of course, nothing is perfect. London has its flaws, just like any other city. Londoners aren’t always the most friendly people. The sheer size of the crowds can be overwhelming at times. The cost of living is insane (and I’m from Seattle so that’s saying something). The weather can also be straight up bipolar. One day we experienced bright sun, a downpour of rain, and a hail storm all within the span of 15 minutes. The Brits might call this weather absolutely MENTAL. The UK as a whole has also continued to crack down on free speech expressions online that we take for granted in the United States. However, that’s a discussion for another time. Yet, despite these flaws, London has my heart. The last week, I experienced what the 2010s Tumblr girls like to call [wanderlust](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanderlust. I want to see more. Go to the River Thames at night and stare at the skyline, and you’ll know what I mean. London is alive.
The stewardesses make their way down the aisle again, this time with afternoon tea: a scone, sandwich, pastries, and of course, black tea. They sure hand out a lot of food and drink up here. It seems like only an hour ago they gave us all ice cream bars. I can’t say I’m complaining. As the flight nears its end, I slowly come to the grips with the fact that I’ll be back in my own house again soon, doing mundane activities like cooking, cleaning, and going to work. Ugh. The familiarity of home and friends will be a welcome respite though. I can’t wait to recount my travels 10 times minimum to all those that ask. For now, I have the vivid memories of London circling my head.
If you made it this far, see my article recounting all of our activities here:
One Week in London: Our Full Itinerary of Museums, Food, Pubs & Day Trips
For more photos: @trevor_farthing
Thanks for reading.
-T