To London

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Matt and I are going to London in June! We’ll be there for six days.

This is a really big deal for us for a few reasons.

I’ve been to London twice before, but it’s been more than 13 years since I last visited. I haven’t been overseas since.

As for Matt, he’s never been to Europe. Except for two trips to Montreal in the past couple of years, he’s never even been out of the United States. A big, big part of the excitement for me will be accompanying Matt on his first trip overseas.

Matt left all the planning to me because I have more travel experience. I was worried, but I am so proud of myself for planning this trip. I know, it really doesn’t take much skill to click on a mouse and type on a keyboard. But I had to get over some psychological barriers – committing to spending the money and choosing where to go.

I’ve written about my travel hang-ups before. Traveling is expensive (and Europe is particularly expensive for Americans these days), and a trip is only for a finite amount of time. But I love London. There are other places in Europe I’d like to see – places I’ve never been to before – but for some reason I feel a need to go back to London first. And I feel like London would be a great first overseas trip for Matt, especially since he’s an Anglophile. I think once we do this trip, we’ll be ready to visit other places.

So we’ll spend almost a week in London. We’ll probably take one or two day trips while we’re there, maybe to Stonehenge and/or someplace else. I’m so excited.

I’m also feeling anxious. I felt anxious as soon as I clicked on the final button and committed us to the trip. What if it’s not money well spent? What if we don’t have enough time? What if the hotel sucks? Should I have booked a trip somewhere else instead, somewhere completely new to both of us? But according to various online reviews, the hotel should be fine, and we’ll have plenty of time to do plenty of things, and I have money for a trip, and there are plenty of things I haven’t seen in London, I mean it’s LONDON, after all, and we can take a trip somewhere else next time.

Part of my anxiety, to be totally pessimistic and bizarre, arises from knowing that I’ll feel sad once we return. Rather than going on a great trip and feeling a big letdown upon returning home and having to go back to work, part of me wants to avoid that emotional rollercoaster in the first place. Why go away when, in the end, you’ll just have to come back? Better not to go at all than experience the sadness of a trip ending.

Weird, no? I think that’s really the key to my travel anxiety. But I’ve nipped it, and we’ve planned a trip, and it will be great.

I can’t wait.

8 thoughts on “To London”

  1. How fun – I am envious! London is wonderful Not as good as Paris mind you, but still a very wonderful city ;-). It is also a great first trip to Europe city.

    Have fun and a wonderful trip…

  2. Yeah, Europe is wicked expensive right now. (Thanks, Mr. Bush, for this great economy.) But sometimes you have to put worries about money aside and just consider that the spiritual, cultural and emotional value of traveling to an awesome place like London is not something you can put a price on. It costs what it costs. Just go and enjoy it.

    My favorite thing in London was the Tower (uber-cheesey, but nevertheless fascinating and fun). The Museum of the City of London was great; it traces the history all the way from prehistoric tribes (did you know the UK used to be attached to the Continent and that the Thames was a tributary of the Rhine?) through the Roman occupation to the modern day. With the middle ages and the renaissance and the Victorian period, you’re talking about some really fascinating stuff!

    Have a great trip! (Oh, also, English guys are just hot.)

  4. Congratulations! I loved London (granted I was only there for a week back in 1990) but it a great deal of fun. Of course, even then I was an English history nerd.

    The British Museum is a must. There’s not enough time in the world to see everything, but you should at least check out the highlights. One of the coolest things for me was seeing the Rosetta Stone.

    I hope you’ll also budget for some West End shows.

    I’m incredibly jealous of you (still!)

  5. My advice- if you get there and the hotel sucks, that is part of the adventure. Hotel rooms are meant for sleeping and storage, the rest of the time you will be out hanging with the Queen anyways.

  7. As a native (not central London, but close enough), I\’d have to recommend the London Eye, a show or two (there\’s always Avenue Q if you\’re feeling homesick), as well as the Tate Modern. If you\’re looking for something that\’s likely to be good to eat in a pinch, Pret a Manger and Pizza Express are great for sandwiches/salads/soup/etc. and pizza respectively.

    You might find the VisitBritain site somewhat useful, and as you\’re coming to London, I highly recommend you get yourselves a couple of Oyster cards before you go, as the VisitBritain site sells them at a nice discount. It\’s basically a pre-paid transport card that\’ll let you get on any bus, tube, tram and a number of trains by just tapping it against a reader.

    http://www.londoneye.co.uk/
    http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
    http://www.pret.com/
    http://www.pizzaexpress.co.uk/

    http://www.visitbritain.us/
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster_card
    http://www.visitbritaindirect.com/en-us/detail.aspx?ProductCode=T105

  8. Off-topic, but you might be interested: Falwell appears to have gotten 2,800-2,900 for a word count in his NYT obit. Any comparables come to mind? I’m sure Billy Graham will get a fair amount more, but I’m hard-pressed to think of who else to compare that to at the moment.

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