Destination: Uncategorized

Spending a few days in London updating my guidebook, it was fun to reconnect with one of the greatest cities on earth. The many massive new buildings seem to have been given permits on the condition that they’d provide public spaces, especially if they might obstruct views of historic buildings. For example, the big and glassy New Change Building (just east of St. Paul’s) has a little park high above street level reached by a sleek elevator that offers a free and amazing view of the cathedral and the skyline.

London’s Tube, as the Underground is called (saying “subway” means a pedestrian underpass to a Brit), feels more efficient than ever. The Oyster Card is the standard pass — you buy it for a refundable £5 and put as much money on it as you like. You swipe in and swipe out and ride anywhere in town for about half the normal fare. If you forget to swipe, you’ll be charged for the longest ride possible — but you can never pay in a day more than the cost of a one-day pass (about $15). A feature I like is that you can swipe it at a ticket machine (shown here) and it tells you everywhere you’ve gone by bus and Tube with a full accounting and the resulting balance.

As a rising tide of affluence sweeps through London, I see a lot of pubs becoming victims of progress — torn down for new construction. It got me thinking that there are more pubs in poorer towns and neighborhoods than in wealthier ones for a reason. The venerable English pub filled (and still fills) a big need for the working class. For workers — historically with humble domestic quarters and no money for vacation — a beer on the corner was the closest they’d get to a comfortable living room, a place to entertain, and a vacation. As people get wealthier, the importance of the corner pub diminishes.

While updating my Rick Steves’ London guidebook this week, I was struck by the construction and the changing skyline. With my local guide, Gillian Chadwick, I marveled at the energy of new London, as it seems intent on building itself out of any economic recession. While most people don’t know the formal names of the most striking skyscrapers — or which companies inhabit them — everyone knows the nicknames…inspired by what they look like: the Cheese Grater, the Shard, and the Pickle…I mean the Gherkin.

Britain’s iconic red phone booths are still standing, but they are becoming less common. Locals, who have a nostalgic attraction to them, are finding other creative ways to keep them in use. Friends here report that phone booths are being turned into Wi-Fi hot spots, tiny lending libraries, coffee huts, and even defibrillator stations. People buy them on eBay and take them home to use as shower stalls and garden decorations. Prostitutes use them as a place to post their little ads. And some people actually use them to make telephone calls to other human beings. Have you heard of any other creative uses of the beloved red English phone booth?

For this bride and groom, a wedding photo with a red English phone box is a dream come true.

While prostitutes can’t openly solicit on the streets, they can post ads for their services — and phone booths are handy targets. This booth next to my hotel was full of ads each evening. Someone cleaned them off every morning, but the booth was full of ads again each evening.

For me, England wouldn’t be quite the same without its red phone booths.

One of my favorite moments in my travels is that little eddy between modules of a trip. For me, each two-month trip has segments. Today, the film crew is flying home from Germany, and I’m settling into Britain. Travel is so efficient these days. We woke up at 5:30 a.m. in Rothenburg, left at 6 a.m., drove 90 minutes at about 100 mph on the autobahn to the Frankfurt airport, turned our car in, checked in with plenty of time for breakfast, and flew at about 10:30 a.m. By 1 p.m. (having gained an hour) I was settled into my hotel room in London with a Tube pass and my pantry stocked. Check out my scene with this video clip.