I’ve never felt as if I had a great grasp on London. By all rights, it should be one of my preferred travel destinations: relatively quick flights (I’ve done JFK-LHR faster than JFK-SFO a few times), nicely melded architectural mix, legendary culinary scene, bustling metropolis, etc. It never grabbed me, and I would have said that I hadn’t seen much of the city.
Upon reflecting, I noted on my most recent visit that I had in fact seen most of the major sights (at least the ones I wanted to - not much of a palace person) and could navigate both the streets and tube reasonably well. Freeing yourself from the burdens of tourist to-dos is the best way to enjoy urban tourism. Eat. Drink. Dance. Experience.
In that vein, I set aside time on the last day for a walk through Hyde Park - people watching and playing with my new camera in one of the legendary urban green spaces is of course one of the easiest ways to decompress before a longer flight.
There is a joy in the dying gasps of color of Mid-Autumn, the fight of the last few shining red-gold leaves clinging to spindly tree branches, the pop of a late-in-season flower against a bleak gray sky.
