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Well we’re here. The flight in first class was uneventful but comfortable nonetheless. Lots of bubbly was flowing, the food was delicious, and I was able to sleep a little bit in the fully reclining chairs.

I wish I could fly first class all the time.

But since I can’t, I shall report that I enjoyed it immensely. Once we landed at Heathrow the customary 30 minute walk to immigration was in order. I’m still trying to understand how many zip codes Heathrow spans. You can never walk just ten feet. It’s always a stroll of a few miles to get from point A to point B, or in our case, down the stairs of the plane outside, up a winding staircase, and through a human rat maze miles long to immigration.

I can’t imagine how it would have been had I been disabled in any way.

Finally at the immigration desk, a nice gentleman asked me the reason for my visit

“Business. Computer work at UBS.”

Stamp-stamp-stamp on my passport and I was in the U.K. We got our bags, queued for ages at the ATM (you don’t stand in line in the U.K., you queue) and with a hundred quid (not pounds but quid because I’m trying to blend in) in hand we set off for the Heathrow Express train to Paddington to get us to the center of London in less than thirty minutes.

Once at Paddington we…oh wait. I keep saying we. I must explain.

On this particular trip, my co-worker Karin joined me. She’s responsible for the project we’re out here to run. Technically she works for me, but she has governance over the main thing we’re doing while here. I know that sounds all cloak-and-dagger, but I can’t really talk about what we’re doing.

Anyway, we switched to the Circle line tube (not the subway, the tube) and made our way to Monument, then to Club Quarters on Gracechurch, a delightful business hotel that I enjoy. It’s not fancy, with absolutely no frills whatsoever, but it’s comfortable, the showers are blindingly hot and powerful, and the beds are comfy. Plus my room has a cool view of some great buildings.

After the removal of the I’ve-been-in-these-clothes-for-ages outfit, a hot shower, and some new pants (that means underwear here, not trousers, which is the term we yanks use for pants), and I was happy as a clam. We set out onto the streets to explore the area.

I’ve been here before during the end of 1999 for Y2K. I stayed at exactly the same hotel, but this time the scenery has changed. Not so much that I’m not finding familiar things, but there are many more shops open for food and such in the financial district, or “The City, East End”.

How confusing is this… The City of London is a part of London. It’s not the whole thing. It’s pretty much part of the central part of London, which many people designate as “In Zone One”, a reference to the tube system. The tube is vastly different from it’s NYC or Chicago counterparts. Depending on how far you travel, you can pay different fares. The zones are concentric circles starting from the center of London and moving outward. Zone six is the furthest.

We spied the office and doubled back to head to the river to London bridge. No, London bridge is not the fancy one you see in all the pictures. It’s a plain bridge. Nothing about it is fancy. Tower bridge, however, is the fancy one with the gigantic blue towers and upper walkways. You can see Tower bridge when you look west from London bridge.

We crossed the bridge and decided to take the river walk to Tower bridge. It was simply alive with people of all shapes and colors, and tourists from all over. I heard so many languages as we walked that it finally dawned on me that yes, we were in Europe. Duh. Somehow I almost forgot.

After walking over to Tower bridge and then across it, we saw The Tower of London. I feel the need to use capital letters because of how impressive and frightening the place is. There are about a hundred thousand stories about The Tower (see, caps) but it’s construction began in something like 1063.

That would be over NINE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. And parts of the main tower still stand today.

As we approached The Tower it began to rain heavily. We stood under the awning of a small pastry shop until it cleared a bit, then headed to get our tickets and guidebooks. And off we went.

The main reason I wanted to visit The Tower was to see The Crown Jewels (I feel the need for caps when speaking about them as well). Of course, seeing such old architecture and grandeur was more than impressive, but it was really The Crown Jewels that were the high point.

Never before have I been so close to such valuable items. No photos were allowed in The Vault (it needs it) but the things we saw were beyond beautiful. One of the coronation gowns was coated in gold threading with such exquisite handiwork that I almost passed out. Not because of it’s beauty, but because I gasped and held my breath while looking at it.

I forgot to breathe. That’s how beautiful it was.

After that, you hop on a moving walkway as you slip quietly past The Crowns, The Scepters, and The Most Beautiful Jewel Encrusted Things. They were magnificent, but quietly I kept whispering to myself “breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out”.

We left The Tower after that to meet my friend Tim for a beer and some delicious food at a place called Canteen in Spitalfields Market. I had a pint of lager, ate lamb stew, enjoyed brilliant conversation (brilliant, very British) and returned to my room to slip into my food coma.

That was just day one.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 and is filed under blogpost, london. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.