I have been to London three times, but always in a hurry, like someone who wants to gorge on a delicious delicacy before the waiter removes the plate. The first time was so many years ago that I don't even bother to do the math so as not to panic.. He then lived in Portsmouth, where I spent a few months fighting with the language, drinking beer and writing and receiving letters before the Internet burst into our lives, destroying all that epistolary wealth.. It was a day visit by train where I guess I wanted to see what everyone wants to see when they arrive in London for the first time. And I did, judging by some photos that I still have, although the only thing that left a mark in my memory was the ailing subway, the mix of cultures that was obvious (accustomed to a Spain that then was not a land of promise) and the statue erected in Waterloo Square at Robert F. Scott, the British explorer who left his life in the south pole race advanced by the Norwegian Amundsen. I imagine I was surprised by the British tenacity of exalting the epic over failure..
I visited London twice a few years ago., in an even more haphazard way, on separate stops going to and returning from Mozambique, where to be at the wedding of my friends Francesca and Javier. On that occasion I was accompanied by my wife, who didn't know the city, so both time trial routes (We couldn't afford to miss the plane.) They became a new succession of topics, the Piccadilly al London Bridge, de Westminster a Hyde Park y Buckingham Palace, pressed on the last occasion by the urgent search for toilets (without a penny in his pocket) where to relieve the bladder, anguish resolved in extremis thanks to the blessed public toilets in the basement of Trafalgar Square, Since then always in a special place in my memory. None of those days did it rain on me, which I suppose constitutes a noteworthy anniversary.
My first time in London, I had fingers on one hand to count how many times I had been on a plane.
At ten years old, my son Gonzalo traveled to London with his mother and godmother, who gave it to her for her first communion. Destiny chose him. The times had changed. My first time in London, in his early twenties, I had extra fingers on one hand to count the times I had been on a plane. At half age, He had made more than twenty flights and had already been to America, Africa and Asia Minor, and a few months later we would travel through the arctic circle. The impression, course, couldn't be the same.
What did London mean to my son?? «The royal guards, el Big Ben, el London Eye…». That tells me, although, Add, "I was certain that it wasn't just that".
The eyes of a child are not those of an adult, Already spoiled by overload of digital information and drowned in clichés
The eyes of a child are not those of an adult, Already spoiled by overload of digital information and drowned in clichés. What caught your attention about the city?? "First of all, its monuments, that stand grand and imposing before you, and it is even difficult to see its end at first sight. Addition, its endless streets and alleys, so imaginative and pleasing to look at that they could fill an entire story without any illustration..
But if there is a topic among topics, it is the climate.. London It is unfailingly associated with rain. My son, apparently, he was also lucky. «The weather was excellent. We were able to go outside and enjoy the city every day, except a rainy and cloudy one".
«What I liked the most was how well they treated us in accommodations and restaurants»
We continue with the evil labels that the devil often carries: The British are not exactly pleasant to deal with.. But, I remember that when I needed help on the street they were very kind to me, despite my shaky English. My son doesn't seem to have it any worse.. «What I liked the most was how well they treated us in accommodations and restaurants». He slept in a hotel and I have not spent a single night in the London capital, although a good option is to look for a hostel, for example through Expedia.
At ten years old, London parks left their mark, "with all that nature to enjoy", something that fills a father with satisfaction, like many others, defends the pedagogical value of nature, and the mountains in particular, as a school of life, on the path of naturalistic thought of the Free Institution of Education and its current heirs, with the geographer Eduardo Martinez de Pison the head.
At ten years old, London parks left their mark, "with all that nature to enjoy"
Gonzalo didn't like "the amount of noise from the luxury cars in the Chelsea neighborhood or the long lines at the London Eye.", which I did not get on due to my irremediable vertigo». And his attention was drawn to "the crowd waiting for the changing of the guard at the palacio de Buckingham, although it was worth seeing how the immobile royal guards came to life to be replaced..
The intra-travel history of a boy in London stops "in the souvenir shops that had many items on the street and yet no one came close to stealing them" and in the double-decker buses. «I was surprised that they keep the telephone booths, and some even decorated with wool», Add. And accustomed to the noisy symphony of Madrid traffic, the Londoner seemed like Nirvana itself. «I didn't hear many car beeps on the street, or at least they heard us, less in Chelsea with modern cars.
Gonzalo didn't like "the amount of noise from the luxury cars in the Chelsea neighborhood or the long lines at the London Eye."
I ask you now to suggest me a good plan for children in London. "For example, visit Hyde Park and lie in its free hammocks; approach Legoland and enjoy the wonders made with this construction material, where you can also take a portrait with souvenir Lego pieces. And if you are passionate about chocolate you have to visit the M factory.&M’s, with their long dispensing tubes with which they serve your order». And the whims of memory, again, its inextricable. «Next door we found some young people rapping and dancing. I was impressed by his risky movements on the head.".
Both experiences, In addition to being separated by a quarter of a century, They are at the opposite end of the spectrum because of the way they deal with the foreign language.: rather like someone who walks pushed by the executioner towards the vile club; now, with the naturalness paid in the bilingual school, in successful methods in teaching the language and in the daily struggle with a popular culture increasingly impregnated with Anglo-Saxon references. «It wasn't very difficult to communicate with people when they sent me to ask for peanuts in the hotel bar or when I had to ask about the toilets in a restaurant, because we had already practiced those questions in class».
Both experiences, In addition to being separated by a quarter of a century, They are at the opposite end of the spectrum due to the way they approach the language.
From the prestigious Museum of Natural Sciences, He was surprised that "as soon as you entered you found a gigantic dinosaur bone and escalators that led to a reproduction of the sun.". The verdict is also positive: «The visit is worth it. His mineral collection impressed me.".
