I just don’t get it!

First full day in London and I have no idea what today will bring.

In the lead up to a trip I save all the things I would be interested in eating, seeing or doing in my Google maps app. London is a sea of blue dots, so in the early hours of the morning when time zone changes dictate I should be sleeping but my body thinks I should be having a mid-afternoon resurgence, I started to plan out my day.

With some long days of walking coming up, I have tried to have a few days of walking instead of catching the tube, so first stop this morning was a one and a quarter hour walk to Beigel Bake for a salted beef, pickle and mustard bagel. Worth every step and bead of sweat, and a huge thanks to TikTok who highjacked my algorithm months ago and has shown me all the good places to eat in London.  

There was a line up at 9.15 when I got there but the wait paid off with the best melt in your mouth corned beef, creamy Dijon mustard and pickled gherkin. I did have to ask when they said “do you want mustard?” that I wasn’t going to get a burn the skin off the inside of your mouth English mustard. Thankfully I had a choice!

Next stop St Dunstan’s in the East, a beautiful church relic that was burned in the Great Fire in 1666, rebuilt by Christopher Wren after the fire and then sadly decimated in the Blitz during World War II. The ruins have been converted to a quiet garden in the midst of the bustling city and it was the perfect place to sit and eat my bagel, reflect on the last few days and watch the squirrels and bird scamper and flit amongst the trees and flowers. 

Next stop was the Tate Modern Gallery. Now fair warning, while I appreciate art, I just don’t get it. I enjoy looking at it but I don’t like having to think too much about it and I sure don’t want to read about each piece to work out what I’m looking at. So this was the wrong place for me to go, but with multiple London visits and never having gone, I thought it time.

I lasted 30 minutes. I have come to the conclusion that it’s just not me. Maybe the current exhibitions aren’t me, maybe it’s me. That’s ok. Just like those people who say they just don’t “do” music, I can say I just don’t “do” art!

However back on the other side of the Thames, as I’m searching for my next gem, I stumble past Somerset House and a free exhibit - Holy Pop. The exhibit explored the themes of fandom, memorialisation and obsession.  Now that I understood and I spent a pleasant hour wandering through the exhibit and realising that maybe I do “do” art but just certain types.

So reinvigorated I left Somerset House in search of my next “thing” - the last remaining Sewer Lamp in London. The lamp glows 24/7, fuelled purely by the biogas emitted from the sewer, a remnant of a long-forgotten time.

Final planned stop was the National Portrait Gallery. Now this is art I get and in this exhibit I revelled in seeing first-hand the paintings I had only seen in books and on television. A whole gallery of Tudor kings, queens and relevant dignitaries. I spent the better part of an hour playing “name the portrait” before reading the name on the plaque and am happy to report I was in the top percentile of my own little game.  But seriously for a kid who devoured Tudor history, this was an absolute pleasure activity and one I will add to my London traditions moving forward.

The rest of the portraits were also very interesting and as we moved into the 20th and 21st century became more contemporary and less about royalty and more about celebrity.

By this time it was mid afternoon and I was beginning to flag, so I took myself back to my apartment for a nap because I had theatre tickets that night and wanted to be fresh and awake for the show. Also, my feet were killing me after 13km of walking.

The nap was both a blessing and a curse - a great refresher but my body thought I was preparing for a long haul so I awoke groggy and feeling seedy again.

However we persevere! Off to the West End’s Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue to see Hadestown - a fabulously staged show with a wonderful score, engaging story and perfect staging.  Easily a front runner for one of my favourite shows and that opening number will have my toes tapping for a long time to come.

It’s been a long day.  With over 17km walking by the end of the day, I’m looking forward to some sleep before I take a train tomorrow to visit York, a town that has been on my bucket list for a long time.