Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London! A city trip with my daughter. Always something special to do something together with my daughter or my son. I am blessed and lucky to have a loving, warm, sincere, true relationship with both of them. This is about Q-time with Andrea and with me.
She just finished her study. She holds 2 bachelors and a master which is quite remarkable because as of the beginning of her study she was diagnosed with Multiple Scleroses. When knowing this it’s obvious she had continuously serious fights to do during her studies. Today thus, it’s time to recover and see what London has to offer with her dad.
It is beautiful to see the old churches, buildings, palaces and landmarks. They do tell a story. I am amazed by the old architecture! It shows aristocracy. Although I see enough historical landmarks in London it is not really recognizable to me. I consider myself of having a moderate knowledge of the history of England and of this city.
So expecting that when seeing al these beautiful places my mind would say, yes I know this!! it didn’t happen.
Where in New York and San Francisco I experienced a celebration of recognition, London didn’t do much so. Wondering why it can be that London with her rich history, doesn’t tickle my imagination. I love history, it is needed to see the direction forward.
Perhaps it’s because of too much history that London stopped making new history. Held back by tradition she stopped growing despite the effort of building new landmarks like the Shard or eye of London.
It is too warm to walk around. Although we both like the sun the weather is to no benefit to Andrea. It tires her down, So we took a hop on / hop off bus for 2 days and did the Thames by boat. We went to see Harrods where you can spend a lot of money. Walked thru Hyde park where a kind of peace was to be found. I felt some kind of lady Di peace.
Last week I was walking the Glens Antrim & Giant Causeway in Ireland, where space and quietness felt like being at a classical music concert, so different it was in London. It felt as if I was at a huge music festival. All kinds of sounds and music together. Didn’t no where to listen to or what to listen for.
The people, crowd, cars, busses, traffic jams, as it is not organized, no arrangement. However in all this chaotic mix of sounds, voices and people we heard this voice.
When I travel I always hope to meet people. I am not really into cultural legacies but I am so into people who live it. We met Marcelle next to a few waste containers in front of a former church now named the Spire house, she asked us where she could find the entrance of it. We took a few steps and I showed here that there were apartments build and no longer served as a church.
As we stood there we the three of us started talking about where we all come from. She lives in Florida. She participated in 10 in 10 a one day challenge and with that supported the MS society in England. She didn’t know anyone with MS but she felt so inspired to do this walk. After letting her know that she just met someone with MS, being Andrea, our talking just got more intense.
As Marcelle was sharing pictures of her effort of doing 10 peaks in 10 hours Andrea shared her effort of doing arenaMoveS which is walking the stairs at a sports arena in Amsterdam.
When Andrea called it a night, Marcelle and I went for a beer and had a really great evening. These are one of those beautiful moments live has in store for me. It is about sharing live and inspiration.
The mixture of sounds and music of London has tuned in to one specific sound. A sound of easy listening. London as is, perhaps gave me less than other cities but it did gave me beautiful warm memories. I thought about the songs about London. I wonder why I can only remember ” the streets of London” which is actually a sad song. But the streets of London is not only filled with sadness, inspiration can be found there as well.