London

 

Forty years in one city. Wow. Amazing!

I love London. I realised it this evening when I was travelling home on a very crowded underground train filled with assorted sweaty bodies and people trying desperately to pretend that all these people in too close proximity were not there. Everyone reading papers, plugged into ipods and dozing.  I looked around me and suddenly felt affection for all these struggling workers coming home after a day in their shops and offices.  Everyone is rushing. Just get me out of here. Let me get home and then I'll breathe, but you know, I noticed that no one pushed or shoved, no one was angry and people were considerate enough to help a women with a pushchair up the stairs and to give up their seat to a sad looking little old woman (not me!). 

 

London is a great city. It has the some of best museums in the world and they're all free! It has great theatre, opera, and dance. In 2012 we will have the Olympics here. Fantastic.

Thinking more about it I decided to begin to list some of the places that I especially like:

Sir John Soane's House and Museum is a little gem of a place filled from top to bottom with things - architectural, archeological and 'tchotchkes' that the architect Sir John Soane collected in his lifetime.  The story goes that Soane and his son had a huge argument and Soane vowed not to leave him an inheritance, so he stocked his house with stuff, spent all his money on the architectural details of the house and then left it all to the nation. Way to go, John!

The V&A Museum is an enormous treasure house of fabulous things from clothing to musical instruments to fine art. It is just so big and varied that I'm certain that every time I go there I find somenthing new. It also has a spectacular collection of Japanese art and my favourite small ivory sculpture of an ancient fisherman and his basket of jumping fish.  It is one of the only pieces of art I have contemplated stealing!

Ravi Shankar vegetarian Indian restaurant on Drummond Street NW1 is the best place in London to get a cheap veggie Thali and really great dosas - at least as good as any I had in India and open on Christmas Day.

Cafe Vergnano on Charing Cross Road has great coffee and wonderful hot chocolate.  They also serve yummy cannoli.

Dim Sum in Chinatown - for authenticity you really can't beat the New World Restaurant where they bring round trolleys laden with loads of goodies - some more edible than others.

The National Portrait Gallery is near Chinatown and I love going there. Portraits are for me the most accessible form of art and I always enjoy spending time there.

London has the best second-hand shops I've ever come across. I am the second-hand queen and always find great stuff, either to wear, sell or use in the many charity shops dotted all over London. Every neighbourhood has charity shops and I love the thrill of the hunt in the many shops I discover.

Louis' Hungarian Patisserie in Hampstead has decadently delicious cream-filled pastries and it's near Hampstead Heath which is a perfect place to walk off the calories.

There are hundreds of wonderful places I keep finding and the nice thing about London is that public transport is so good that it's easy to get everywhere.  I have always loved cities and London is really mine. I may be a born New Yorker, but I haven't lived there for forty years.  I am a London by adoption and it's so alive and exciting. 

To be continued another day...