Back in London for a few days after leaving Spain to visit a
few friends in Surrey and Oxfordshire . London is a place where I’ve spent quite
a bit of time on multiple visits and have seen many of the important sights and
museums. It was where I first arrived in
Europe in 1985 to begin a three-week whirlwind coach tour on the continent. I
didn’t get back again until Christmas-New Year’s week in 2002-03 with my friend
John when we did most of the tourist highly in some serious turbo-tourism. I
was back for a week later in 2003 and then again a few times between 2004 and
2007 for both interviews for the travel gigs I did for a year, training when I
got one, and then as the starting point for two of my long overland truck
journeys with Dragoman.

Between all those visits to London, I feel as though I’ve
seen most of the sights and done most of the touristy things. So giving myself
a few days in town before heading out to the countryside, the attractions that
interested me during my time in London were either those I have already seen or
some a bit farther down the usual attractions lists for visitors. The British
Museum is one of London’s highlights as one of the greatest repositories of
artefacts from the ancient world. And the great thing about government-run museums
in London is that they’re free with just a suggested donation, supported
financially by lottery funds. While the
collections are second to none in the world, I have to admit I find the
displays to be a little old-fashioned and warehouse like compared to museums
like the Louvre and the Metropolitan whose exhibit space have undergone more
recent renovations . Compared to my first visit in 2002, though, the museum’s
courtyard has now been covered with glass domes which seems to somehow enlarge
it. I thought I’d come back this time
for the special exhibit on Roman Emperor Hadrian, one with much focus on the
cult of Antinous, Hadrian’s same-sex lover. I couldn’t help but wonder how the
world would be different if ancient history were altered slightly and the Antinous
cult rather than the Jesus cult became the dominant creed in the later Roman
era.

My significant new touristic conquest in London on this trip
was the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the daddy of them all for horticulturists
and other plant lovers. Set along the Thames River in the southwestern part of
London, Kew constitutes a UNESCO World Heritage site for its superior
contribution to the study of biological diversity of flora and display of three
centuries of garden design. It truly is the king of botanic gardens across the
world. And it’s a very pretty place too. I particularly liked Kew Palace, one
of the former royal palaces set in the gardens which I recognized from the
1990s movie “The Madness of King George”. I would probably have been even more
fascinated by it around 2000 when I got big time into gardening when I owned a
suburban house, but now it’s more pretty flowers and landscapes to look at than
developing ideas for my own little garden paradise.