Hola from Dublin!

[gement]

Many many more tourist sights seen, streets wandered, accents listened to. Fed ducks in Regence Park, minded the Gap regularly, took the train and ferry up to Ireland, now in Dublin, land of Guinness and Joyce. Seriously, every other building has at least one of those words on it.

Watched The Aristocrats in a cineplex in London. If you like astounding crudity, it's the movie for you! (No violence, no nudity, unspeakable obscenity, in a documentary of a dirty joke filmed by Penn Jillette.)

Have to make my way back down through England again, and Bill keeps asking me where I want to go and see. I am spending one day looking at a castle near Holyhead, and then I have several days to get from there to London. I prefer walking city streets and seeing neat people in their natural habitats to tourist traps. Suggestions?

Comments

[morinon.livejournal.com]

Hyde park on a Sunday. I've done that. It's good.

Otherwise, try an above-ground following of Neverwhere.

[memegarden.livejournal.com]

When I was little I lived in the Paddington neighborhood of London. There's a park there with a small zoo, called Clissold Park. It's nice. They have parrots and mynahs and deer and guinea pigs and things. Lots of moms and small children. They used to have a mynah bird that would say "Public Library!" I remember a bobby not believing me when I told him, and then it proving me correct (I was three).

[hesperide.livejournal.com]

When I visited London a few years ago, I found I enjoyed walking through Covent Garden one weekend... the street performers were a blast. They've turned it into something mall-ish somewhere post WWII, which was wierd. There were lots of people, but I didn't have to interact with them, and it was sort of like being an invisible observer, so I played that mental game with myself. I had fun mentally changing the clothing to something more medieval, and then more Victorian, and played hide-n-seek through the crowds with an imaginary playmate until B & Isilani found the store they were looking for. I think the original Lush store is there too, if you need an herbal niceness break.

The other *places* I enjoyed a lot in London were Westminister Abbey, The Tower of London, British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, National Portrait Gallery, St. Martin in the Fields, and that wierd little Chinese bun shop off Leicester Square...

The non-places were more interesting in lots of ways, if you like just wandering neighbourhoods, randomly poking your head into shops that look interesting. I had an fabulous asparagus omelette in a Greek restaurant in Hackney while killing time waiting for a panto play at the theater there...

See you soon. I hope you make lots of wonderful memories!

[hotpoint.livejournal.com]

If you want to gradually make your way through England from the tip of North Wales to London, and you want to go places you can walk and look at people, there are a number of cities to choose from.

Top on that list, for me, would be Oxford. Yes, there are tourists, but it's a real place where people live and work and go to college. (And they even build the MINI automobile there.) And it's terrific and pretty and historic and walkable. (And the only of the places I'm mentioning in this comment that I've been.)

You have two general paths for getting there by surface. One's to head due east to Liverpool and Manchester, then south via Birmingham. All of them are moderately large industrial-based cities experiencing some rejuvenation, all with nooks and crannies to see. (Liverpool would also have Beatles pilgrimage stops, but that probably has no appeal at all.) Another place you can try and hit is Bletchley Park outside Milton Keynes, on the way from Birmingham to London, which is where they hid the codebreakers and machines during WWII; they have a museum there now.

The other is to head south across Wales, as the schedules permit, to Cardiff and Bristol and Bath. Caernarvon would be on the way, which is reputed to be one of the most impressive castles in Wales. Cardiff and Bristol are also in the a bit under a million people range and grew around industry. Bath is a tourist attraction, but the Roman baths are supposed to be to die for, and they have a museum of costume that's second to none.

Have a terrific time returning to London and a great remainder of your trip!

[gement.livejournal.com]

Wow, you're good!

We're hunkered down in Caernarvon right now (that's the castle mentioned), and we're looking at doing Shrewsbury followed by Oxford. I was still hmming a little about whether Oxford was the actual last stop, but you've clinched it.

[hotpoint.livejournal.com]

Neat! I hadn't thought of Shrewsbury, but it sounds quite pleasant!

In Oxford we stayed at a tiny B&B named St. Michael's Guest House (listing says "26 St Michael's Street, Oxford, OX1 2EB. Mrs Hoskins. Tel: 01865 242101.") with 6 or 8 guest rooms and a breakfast room. It was fun to be staying right in town; the old part of the city is very dense, with narrow crooked streets that are delightful for walking down when returning to the B&B from a late dinner.

I remember a pleasant coffee shop hiding in a second-floor attic of the Covered Market (Georgina's?), the many bookstores on Broad Street, and the sign in the Eagle and Child tavern noting that it's where C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and friends used to gather and talk about writing every week. I'd recommend the view from the tower of University Church.

Hope you keep having a blast!