🌎 LONDON – ENGLAND 🧡
From beautiful Paris we took the fast train to London. We passed immigration controls in France to enter the United Kingdom. The boy at customs was a little tough, as he expected us to speak British English, we are too lucky to master some of the language. Anyway, I think it was just a little acting, then we sealed it and headed inside towards the train.
It is truly a great experience to travel on this train, not only because of the comfort, since it is a very comfortable train in all aspects. But the experience itself of traveling at high speed is something that is practically not felt, you only notice it when you look out the window. The landscapes begin to change and we enter the tunnel that passes under the English Channel. This great work of human engineering that just thinking about it seems like an impossible work.
We arrive at the London San Pankras station, where the architecture surprises you at the entrance. We were fascinated, it surely appears in many movies because we felt like we were in one. Well Harry Potter is inspired by this station, in fact platform 9 3/4 is located there, it is a matter of looking for the long line of fans waiting to take a photo at the pass to the Howarts Express. Here we take the opportunity to buy and load the Oyster card, which is a card to pay for transportation in London.
We walked towards the hotel, it was a little far but not far enough to scare us. We saw the first black taxis (there are also silver and other colors), the classic red double-decker buses, the typical London houses and little by little we immersed ourselves in this city that makes you feel like a star and also because it is one of the most beautiful to visit.
We approached the station and were enjoying the London streets. We decided to eat something at a fast food place and from there we took the oyster ticket on a bus. If you go to London you have to live the experience of its means of transport, it is nothing out of this world but it is fun, especially the bus.
Our plan was to go to Garden Lodge venue which was once home to one of the greatest artists of our time, particularly for me the greatest of all time, Freddie Mercury. We walked through their neighborhood, a residential area of people with very high purchasing power, in the Kensington neighborhood and a very few minutes walk from the “Earls Court” metro stop, although we went by bus. When we reach the street and see the orange bricks that surround the house, we feel a strange feeling. I don't want to get mystical but we really feel that way. Especially knowing his history and that it was the last place that saw him on this plane. Currently that house was in the hands of his ex-partner, his great friend and love Mary Austin. The place was a kind of sanctuary for a long time. But the fans, in their unconditional love that sometimes does not measure its reach, wrote on the walls, left letters and other signs of affection. In addition to the fact that it was a constant memory for a woman who loved Freddie very much, it was surely also something painful to ask and prohibit the continued writing and leaving offerings, but at the same time it was something necessary to be able to continue with her life now far from the quirky and dynamic world of Mercury. Beyond that, I think that the respectful fan is welcome or at least nothing prohibits you from walking down that street in front of the house and taking a photo to remember that you passed by there. Since Freddie was not buried or at least it is not known where he could be, he himself did not want that type of ritual. In short, for those who like Queen and its history it is a place to go, in our experience the sensations were many, surely some type of energy still haunts these places.
From there we accidentally approached Holland Park, one of those beautiful green spaces that London offers, if you have any left, don't hesitate to visit it. Then we took another bus to central London. There we got off at the well-known Oxford street to explore the area and do some shopping.
Then we went out for a drink in the London night. Since we were staying in the Camden area, what better way to go than to go out there, I think we went to a place called the Camden Had, I say I think because we saw light and basically went in. After drinking some not cheap beers and dancing a little we went back to sleep around 3 am since the idea was to get up early.
Early and without a hangover, we had some mate with croissant for breakfast (yes we brought the mate) we went for a walk and toured Camden Town. We found a path that went next to the canal that passes through there, so we decided to get lost and explore it a little. It is very interesting since this canal crosses the entire city of London and you can find everything from people fishing or exercising to boats, especially in the Regent's Park area, which also passes through there and is not far away. After a short walk we continued touring Camden and visiting its stores. It was early but there were a world of people, the truth is it is a great place to get lost among its alternative shops and nooks and crannies.
Around noon and although we did not want to leave the Camden area, we headed underground towards Baker Street station. If it sounds familiar to you, it is because it is the street where Sherlock Holmes lived, who is a character created in 1885 by the Scottish writer Arthur Conan Doyle. Although it is fiction, you can find several references to this very particular detective and of course we visited the Sherlock museum at 221B Baker Street (in reality, it is between 237 and 241 Baker St) and the place where the latest BBC series Sherlock was filmed, which is on that well-known streaming platform. The interesting thing is that many people thought, and still think, that this detective was real. So since we are a bit nerdy we went to walk these streets that surely inspired the story and of course take some photos.
We didn't go in to tour the house since we had to pay and it seemed a bit expensive to us, plus there was already a big queue and since it was small it took longer, but you can go into the Souvenirs store and that's what we did. There are many books and objects related to the world of Sherlock. We ate something nearby and continued.
After the nerdy moment, we returned to the subway, but not before having something to eat and headed to an iconic place if there ever was one for any fan of music and The Beatles. That's right, we approached the famous Abbey Road studios and of course we took the classic photo crossing this street like the Liverpool Four did, whose photograph was immortalized in the Abbey Road Album of 1969.
It is easy to find the zebra crossing as there is always some fan or tourist taking a photo there. The area is quite beautiful and you can't help but feel a little magic when walking through it.
We took a bus to Hyde Park, where we decided to rest for a while and have a picnic to snack on. It should be noted that we had brought provisions. Something curious in this area is that on weekends there are usually some people standing on benches and carrying out different political debates, proclaiming their ideas and arguing in the right way, with those who come to debate. It is interesting since that was the way it was done before and apparently the tradition continues. The park is huge, different recitals have been held in it. You can also find a memorial to Princess Diana who died in a tragic accident in Paris.
From here we decided to walk to Buckingham Palace, where Queen Elizabeth II of England resides and where a large part of the Royal Collection is housed. After some photos with the guards (without waiting for the changing of the guard or anything like that), we continued on our way to Westminster, here is the Medieval Westminster Abbey where there are historical tombs such as that of Charles Darwin.
