London Archives - Wandering North

United Kingdom Zimbabwe-Zambia 2023

London Layover: Notting Hill

At the end of my trip to Zimbabwe and Zambia, I flew home to Vancouver from Lusaka via London. I had about an 8-hour layover and, as is my preference, there was no way I was going to spend that time at the airport.

I’ve written a lot of posts about my layovers in London. I’ve even gone into the city with as little as a 5-hour layover and it’s always been worth my time. I’ll say what I’ve said before, which is to make the most of a layover in London a few things are really helpful: if you’re a carry-on luggage person like I am, quickly stash your bag at the left luggage office at the airport. I always take the Heathrow Express into London – with a short layover, there’s no time to be messing around with any other form of transportation. I pre-buy my tickets for the Heathrow Express so I don’t have to stop and buy them on arrival; I just have the ticket on my phone and scan it and get right onto the train.

I usually have some kind of an idea about what I want to do. Sometimes I just go and smoke cigars on Saint James Street, other times I’ll pick a specific museum, or an area that I want wander around in. This time, I decided to visit Notting Hill. Upon arrival at Paddington Station, I took the tube to Notting Hill Gate. (I could have walked, but I didn’t have an abundance of time.)

I don’t think I had been to Notting Hill since I lived in London many years ago (and well before that movie was out). It was a delightful place to spend some time walking around. I was there too early to enjoy the market, but I walked the streets and enjoyed the colourful buildings and stopped and had several coffees, which were necessary after my red eye flight from Lusaka. London is truly one of my favourite places in the world and I will never miss an opportunity to visit it. It was a perfect end to my trip.

Belarus/Dubai trip 2023 Europe United Kingdom

My Perfect London Layover

The Layover

I was flying home to Vancouver from Minsk via Dubai and I had an 11 hour layover in London. I had 8 hour layover in London on the way to Minsk and it was great (it had been Coronation Day). In fact, every long layover I’ve had in London is great, but somehow this managed to top them all. Every time I have a layover in London I try to pick a new area that I want to visit; a place that seems lovely to wander for a few hours (of course sometimes I just make my way over to Saint James Street and hole up in a cigar lounge). This time, it was a Sunday morning and I decided head to East London.

Breakfast in Hoxton

I started by taking the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station and then switching to the Tube where I made my way over to Old Street station in Hoxton with a plan to walk to Shoreditch. I hadn’t been over that part of east London and many many years, not since I lived in London, but I heard that it was kind of the cool neighborhood to check out so I thought I would.

The neighborhood was great. Most things were closed (it was early) but it already felt cool. The buildings were old, the parks were nice, there was there was public art of the mural and sculpture variety, and I was impressed.

quiet morning street art

I was more impressed when I found a restaurant that was open. The Breakfast Club. I would definitely go back. It was exactly what I wanted. Great music, comfy booths, vegan options, and mugfuls of strong, black coffee. I think the people in there thought I was crazy because I kept telling them how excited I was to find them open and with vegan breakfast.

The Breakfast Club

My stomach full of coffee and tofu, I carried on walking towards the Columbia Road flower market. On the way I stopped for an espresso.

more coffee!

Flower Market

I had never even heard of the Columbia Road flower market. I just started Googling things to do on a Sunday morning in London and I discovered it and it’s now one of the loveliest things that I’ve ever found to do on a Sunday morning. It’s just a stretch of street where every Sunday flower merchants come out to sell their flowers.

It sounds like something that might just be made-up for Instagram, but there are legitimately people there buying plants and flowers and then carting them away. Flower merchants are calling out in delightful accents the price and variety of their flowers. It is so charming – even better, many people there have cute dogs with them, and that’s great.

“The flower that smiles to-day, to-morrow dies…“

The thing that made it extra lovely is that while one side of the street is all flower merchants, the other side of the street are delightful shops painted in pretty colours and it reminded me a little bit of Victoria street in Edinburgh (except without the slope). There are antique shops, coffee shops, trinket shops, bakeries, a tea room, and a perfumer… it’s so charming. I browsed in all the shops, bought myself a little bit of perfume, ate a tiny treat, and carried on my way. It was absolutely perfect.

charming shopfronts

Spitalfields

From there I walked down to Spitalfields to the Old Spitalfields Market – like I hadn’t had enough to eat already, but I wanted it as a destination. It was a grand walk. The skies were blue it was warming up. I browsed around the Spitalfields market, a place I don’t know if I’d ever been to before.

I had an excellent coffee, and I really enjoyed the public art that they had there – the cute elephant statues (Our Herd of Hope) and the sculpture of Rabbitwoman and Dogman riding a motorbike with side car whilst drinking coffee (telling the tale of “two opposites coming together to become best friends and soul mates”).

Elephants, rabbit, and dog, oh my!

Walking south I found myself wandering through a blocks’ long thrift market.

Bypassing The Tower

I walked towards the Tower of London, not because I wanted to go to the Tower of London; it just seemed like a destination. The closer I got to the Tower of London, the livelier things got: the crowds of tourists picked up, church bells were ringing, more shops were open.

I got glimpses of the London skyline along the way. It was perfect. I wound my way past the tourists queuing up for the Tower of London and headed for London Bridge.

Borough Market & The Tate

Tower Bridge, the Thames, and the Shard

Crossing London Bridge, I got some lovely views and once on the other side, I was just steps from Borough Market (London’s best food market, dating back hundreds of years).

Approaching Borough Market

I walked through Borough Market, unfortunately at this point, having eaten the tofu and a couple of treats from the Columbia Street flower market, I couldn’t possibly eat any more, but I did get a lovely fresh carrot and ginger juice and another espresso and walked around the market, just ogling all of the treats. (Note to self: I must make a plan to come back when I am hungry.)

Exiting Borough Market, I then found myself near the Tate Modern gallery.

While some of the special exhibits are paid, to walk into the Tate and look at the regular collections is free, so I did that. I walked around, looked at some art (splendid), and then I left. I realized that I really ought to be moving on because I had a lunch date.

Lunch & Leaving London

I have a friend who lives in London, someone that I met in 2009 in the Ecuadorian rainforest and, while we sort of keep in touch, we haven’t really seen each other in years, so we made plans to have lunch. We met near Paddington Station, in Little Venice where we had an excellent lunch at a Lebanese restaurant and swapped travel stories.

Seriously, was this the perfect day? Throw a cigar and a visit to the theatre and I think it might have been. It’s amazing what you can do in a layover. I can’t believe some people just stay at the airport.

I flew back to Vancouver, and this concluded my trip to Minsk, which parenthetically also included two days in London and two days in Dubai. It was just an excellent trip maybe the best that I had in 2023 to date.

I would have a short hiatus from travel of a couple of months to enjoy the summer in Vancouver, and then I would be off to Brazil.

Belarus/Dubai trip 2023 Europe United Kingdom

Layover in London: Coronation Day

It was May 2023 and I was on my way to Belarus. Getting to Belarus from Vancouver necessitated flying through London. I was happy to do that – I’m always happy to fly through London—and this was my third time this year. I realized as I was planning the trip that I was going to be in London on May the 6th, which was Coronation Day for Prince, now King Charles; and I knew that it would make for a fascinating layover.

I landed at Heathrow at 2pm and took the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station and from there I walked. My layover wasn’t that long, and I was nervous about getting into trouble with traffic and crowds. I kept reading about the Tube stations being closed or limited due to the number of people that were expected to flood into London to see the coronation procession and concert. Tens of thousands of people were expected to crowd into central London for the festivities. By the time I arrived, the actual coronation ceremony and procession were over, but people were everywhere. Some had camped out for a week or more just to catch a glimpse of the new King. I was happy just to be in the city and walk around and take in the atmosphere.

I know a lot of people were very excited about the coronation and many people were very irritated by it because of their dislike of the royal family. I guess I fall somewhere in between. Growing up, my punk sensibilities made me dislike the monarchy (and I know there are a lot of reasons to be against the institution), but as an adult I appreciate that they are a continuation of the history of England and the lineage of monarchs. I think it’s fascinating to be in London on a day when a new king is being crowned. Just like it would have been fascinating to be in London on any of the days when any of the former monarchs were crowned, and someday someone will look back at the history books (or whatever may replace books) at this day, many hundreds of years ago, when King Charles was crowned, and i just thought it would be interesting to be in the city to see a bit of that.

I walked from Paddington Station over to Mayfair, where I read that there would be a garden party. There was a garden party, however it had rained that day, so the festivities were perhaps a bit dampened. Nevertheless, people were out, a band was playing, flowers were strung up, a lot gin and tonics were being consumed, and people were dancing and singing sloppily in the gardens. It kind of felt like someone’s wedding.

I wandered there and then carried on walking towards central London. The closer I got to the centre, the more police I saw and the bigger the crowds got.

It was delightful to see all the flags strung up and all the coronation emblems on everything – even Prince Charles masks being sold in the shops (although why one would want a Prince Charles mask is beyond me). I even saw one man who was dressed head to toe in a Union Jack suit, which I thought was fabulous, but I couldn’t get a picture.

I just walked around, taking in the atmosphere. Most places were either closed or were very busy. I walked over to Saint James’s St. which is one of my favourite streets in London because it has three cigar stores / lounges on it, but they were all closed, however on this particular day, I discovered that there is a fourth cigar place just a half a block off of Saint James’s St. called C. Gars. And it was open! The rain was pouring at this point, and I was soaked. Honestly, I looked like trash. I was wearing my leather jacket with the big spikes on it and my combat boots, and I was soaking wet. I went into the store, and they greeted me, not with the snobbishness that some cigar lounges do, but with a friendly smiling face and they welcomed me in. I bought a cigar, and I sat down in a group of men smoking cigars and chatting about the day. A welcoming group. It was delightful. All the people were living in London, although a few of them were from somewhere else (Spain, the US, and India). It was very interesting to hear the perspectives on the day, and even though you some of them had some misgivings about the monarchy, they still felt very proud and patriotic of all the celebrations of the day.

It was just a perfect afternoon. I stayed until the store closed and then I made my way back to the airport. It was just an 8-hour layover, but I certainly experienced something that I never have experienced before and probably won’t have the opportunity to again.

And with that, I was on to my next stop en route to Belarus. But first, I would have a day in Dubai.

Europe Oslo weekend 2023 United Kingdom

London Layover: Easter Sunday Edition

It was Easter Sunday in London and I landed at Heathrow from Oslo, en route back to Vancouver. This was the end of my weekend trip to Oslo. I had an eight-hour layover in London, which meant, of course, that I would be going into the city, just as I had two days prior, during an even shorter layover (wherein I visited “Little Venice”).

Again, I had only a very small, under-seat sized backpack, so I just zipped through the airport, without having to faff about with luggage storage, and to the Heathrow Express. Once at Paddington Station, I took the Tube to Piccadilly and walked around from there.

I found myself gravitating towards the West End. I walked past Squares Trafalgar and Leicester. (I always feel the need to explain that even though I know many people hate Leicester Square [a position I find quite reasonable], I have a fondness for it, because that is where I worked when I lived in London, so many years ago.)

The thing that struck me on that Easter morning was that everything was so empty. Sure, it was a bit early, but cafés and some shops were open, but the streets and squares were empty. Perhaps people were at home with family or sleeping in, but I felt like I had London to myself – in a wonderful way; not in a “28 Days Later” way.

I walked down St. Martin’s Lane and had coffee and a bite to eat on New Row, which is normally jam packed with tourists and walkers, but now was serene.

I walked over to Covert Garden, which was a bit busier, but not the throngs that I would normally see on a sunny, beautiful day.

Covent Garden. The last time I was here it was a sea of people

I did have a plan for this layover; it wasn’t all aimless wandering and espressos. I was to visit Sir John Soane’s Museum, so that was my next stop (on foot). Sir John Soane’s Museum (which I shall now simply refer to as “The Museum”) is in Holborn, near Covent Garden, just on the side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields. It is a museum set in the former residence of and displaying the collections of English architect Sir John Soane, who lived from 1753 to 1857. (It is actually two residences, side by side at Lincoln’s Inn Fields.)

Lincoln’s Inn Fields

The Museum is free, but limited to about 90 visitors daily, so often there is a queue, but I got there early and waltzed in. Once inside, you understand why the visitors are limited. But for a couple of more spacious rooms, The Museum is a series of narrow corridors and every inch is covered in extraordinary antiquities. Paintings, sculpture, coins, tombs, weapons, instruments, frescoes, friezes, busts…everything you can imagine and things you could not. There is even an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus of Sarcophagus of Seti I, dating to the late 1200s BC. I tripped over the stairs next to it, making the loudest possible clatter, and spent the rest of the visit terrified I would break something.

*I can’t imagine dusting all these objects*

Images from The Museum, including a little mirror selfie

It is extraordinary. Like the home of a rich, cultured, hoarder.

I left there feeling ebullient. London is just amazing. It has almost all the things I want in a city: history, art, culture, multiculturalism, cigar lounges, excellent curries, expansive public transportation, green spaces…I felt so happy to have had two visits already this year (albeit short ones).

I walked around for a while longer, feeling happy, and then eventually I got back on the train to go to the airport. (I did pop by the usual cigar spots, but they were closed for the holiday.)

A wander in London

What an excellent weekend. I didn’t even mind that it was cut short by work. Two long layovers in London and 30 hours in Oslo? Sounds like a perfect weekend to me.

As I left, I knew I would be back in London again in a month as part of my forthcoming trip to Belarus.

Europe Oslo weekend 2023 United Kingdom

London Layover in Little Venice

A Swift Exit for a Quick Visit

It was Easter weekend and I had decided to go to Oslo from Vancouver for a long weekend. For reasons that I’ll explain in another post, that long weekend trip became much shorter than I had intended; but this post is about London, and one option for how to spend a layover of about 6 hours.

I love London layover. Heathrow is close enough to the city that even with a short layover (provided you’re efficient about getting through the airport) you can go into London and do something lovely. Usually, I won’t do that unless I have about an 8 hour layover, but on this occasion I had six and a half hours, but I was determined to do something. I just little research and discovered that without venturing too far from Paddington station I could visit a neighbourhood that I had previously ignored: Little Venice.

The key to getting through Heathrow successfully for a quick layover into London is being efficient and planning. I always sit as close to the front of the airplane as possible, without sitting in business class, so I can get off the plane quickly. I travel with carry-on luggage, So I don’t have to transfer any luggage through security. In this case, I was travelling with a very small under seat backpack so I didn’t even need to leave it at the left luggage office at the airport; I could just breeze through and get on the train. Once I’m in the airport, I never for any reason; I just power walk my way right through security (having a Canadian passport helps so I can use the machines instead of having to speak to the guards), and I splurge on the London Heathrow Express ticket (I pre-purchase it online), which is just a little bit faster than the regular train. From the time the plane touched down to the time that I arrived at Paddington station was less than an hour.

The Heathrow Express will take you right to Paddington station in about 15 minutes, and from there you can get the Tube from the Paddington underground station to anywhere. But this time, I thought rather than getting on the tube to go somewhere else, I would just explore the area around Paddington.

Little Venice

When I lived in London, I was unaware of the area around Paddington as being anything special, but it is now apparently called Little Venice due to the fact that there are two canals that converge there. It’s a small but pleasant neighbourhood; relatively affluent with the usual shops cafes and pubs to poke around in, but the real treat is wandering along the canals. There are some small statues and clever bridges and newer buildings; but the best thing are the waterways themselves and the boats on them you can rent a boat or go on a boat tour, and spend your afternoon sailing around the canals, (not something that I’d recommend for a very short layover), or you could just admire them as you sit and have coffee on the path alongside the water, or you can have a fabulous lunch at any one of the of the boats or barges that have been converted into charming restaurants including one that is entirely devoted to cheese. On a sunny day it is a perfect place to wander around.

*Little Venice boat and a group of ladies who brunch*

Beyond the canals

I think even had I had a shorter layover it would have been great to have come there and just walked along the canal and had a coffee and a bite to eat, but I ended up with more time than anticipated so I wandered around a little bit more over to Hyde Park and passed some of the beautiful Regency buildings and smaller parks. It was springtime and the flowers were blooming and the sun shining. I poked into a few of the mewses and tried not to annoy the people that lived there as I took a few pictures of their picturesque streets.

Some shots of a lovely spring day in London

Back to Heathrow

And that was that. I spent a couple of hours walking around, had a coffee and a falafel, and then I made my way back to Heathrow for my connecting flight to Oslo. Going back was equally quick and efficient. I could have stayed longer in London but I’m always a little bit anxious about getting back to the airport with more than enough time. After all, I wanted to enjoy some airport lounge time. It all felt very decadent. And from there I was on to Oslo for what would be the shortest international trip of my life.

Azerbaijan trip 2019 England United Kingdom

One Night in London

I ended my trip to Azerbaijan with a night In London. I lived in London for a bit after high school, but since then I have only visited for daytime layovers. I was thrilled to spend the night.

I stayed in Soho. I spent the afternoon wandering around past the parks, squares, and sights. It was so crowded. The Tube was a nightmare, the streets a sea of people walking slower than I would like, but I loved it. So familiar, historic, and exciting.

I went to James Fox’s for a cigar and then ate some street food, sitting on the steps on St Martins. I decided to see a show and spontaneously bought a ticket to Night of the Iguana starring Clive Owen in the West End.

How amazing that anything is available to satisfy any whim.

After the show I grabbed a falafel and walked around. The pubs and bars will spilling out on to the street with queues and smokers. Everything looked inviting, but I was exhausted, so I went to bed.

The next morning I got up super early for a walk before returning to the airport and home. It was kind of incredible. On that early Sunday morning the streets and squares were empty. There was no traffic. No tourists. No buskers. It was almost eerie, like everyone had been the victim of an apocalyptic event, but it was also peaceful.

It was just one night in London but it made me wish that I still lived there, or at least think that I should spend more time there than just a layover.

Azerbaijan trip 2019 England Europe United Kingdom

London Layover

I decided to go to Azerbaijan because I had about 10 days of holiday to use and I had loved a previous trip to neighbouring Georgia so much that I thought it was time I returned to the Caucasus.

There really is no quick way to Azerbaijan, so I flew from Vancouver to London, from London to Moscow, and Moscow to Baku. Mercifully, I had a nine hour layover in London. Any shorter and I would have been at the airport. So I went into London for the afternoon. I wanted to walk a different area from the past few times I was there, so I decided to walk the South Bank of the Thames.

I took the Heathrow Express to Paddington and then the tube to Westminster.

Big Ben’s tower was covered in scaffolding but I caught an over the shoulder look at the parliament buildings as I crossed the bridge. Turning onto the boardwalk, I suddenly thought I had made a terrible mistake. It was so crowded. Like shoulder-to-shoulder, shuffling along crowded. But I didn’t have a bunch of time, so I didn’t want to waste time changing gears and map consulting, so I pressed through. Fortunately it got better.

The worst of the crowds were at the beginning the walk, around the London Eye, Dungeon and Aquarium, then they thinned out. I can’t think of many things i would like to do less than go on the London Eye. Packed i to sealed glass pods with a bunch of sweaty strangers as you move slowly in a circle. My biggest gripe is the slow speed, followed by being sealed up in glass (in the heat), followed by the sweaty strangers. It occurred to me though that I would enjoy a ferris wheel if it was open at the top so you could have a breeze, and there were tables with seating for two in each, then you could order cocktails from your phone and pick then up at the bottom as you circled by. Cigar friendly, of course. This is a great idea. Get on it, someone.

Anyway, once the crowds lessened, it was a perfect walk. There were buskers, a skate park, a book market, street art, and wonderful views.

I got a burrito from a food truck and just strolled along.

I didn’t have time to visit any of the attractions, but just the fact that on one short walk I walked past all the stuff on the street that I did, but could have just popped in to see world class art at the Tate or visited Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, is amazing.

I waled to the London Bridge, catching glimpses of St. Paul’s, the Shard, the millennium bridge, and the Tower of London on the way.

I walked to A nearby Tube station and went to Green Park, where I popped in to the excellent tobacconist James J. Fox and enjoyed a Montecristo Linea 1935 in their upstairs lounge.

Leaving there, I strolled a bit more before returning to the airport, with plenty of time.

It was a perfectly pleasant afternoon and nicely broke up the long flights to Baku.

England Europe Scotland United Kingdom

An Afternoon in London, Or ‘How Solo Travel Has Made Me A Bit Of A Jerk’

Scotland wasn’t on my travel list. It looked lovely, but these days I crave destinations that are more far-flung and a little dangerous maybe. I can’t stand it when I tell people where I am going and they have their own suggestions. “Oh you must go to this restaurant.” Et cetera. Scotland was one of those destinations. Plus, as of writing, it isn’t an independent country, so I don’t even get the satisfaction of going to a new country. Not that that is the reason I travel, but I do like lists.

So when I said to my mother, “Would you like to take another international trip with me?” and she said “Scotland” I was fine with it, but not excited. I stifled the urge to say something like, “What about Algeria? Or Bangladesh?” Instead I got to planning.

Scotland actually has a lot of charming places, green walks, and oodles of castles. It is historic and picturesque. Choosing the right places for a 9 day trip was tough. In the end we didn’t want to spend too much time traveling all over the country, so I just picked a few destinations: a day’s layover in London, a few days in Edinburgh, a day or two in Wigtown, to Stirling, and a day trip to Glasgow.

My mum and I hadn’t traveled together since we went to Peru about 4 years prior and I hadn’t traveled with anyone since. I’m not going to lie: traveling with someone is more difficult for me than traveling solo. There are discussions. Constant discussions. Discussions about where and when to eat, where to walk, when to stop, which train to take, et cetera. Mercifully, my mother pretty much defers to what I want to do, but out of the need to be (or to appear to be) considerate, there are discussions that must be had.

The first of those discussions happened when we had our layover in London. I’ve been to London. I lived there. But Luba (my mother) had not, so I was excited to show her around the places I used to work and hang out.

I planned a walk around some of the main sights. We got a bit into the walk, though St. James Park, past Buckingham Palace, down the Mall, through Trafalgar Square, to Covent Garden and Soho, and there were plans for more, but we ran out of steam. She hadn’t slept on the plane (a red eye flight from Vancouver) and, while I had, I was tired and cranky. Then it started to rain.

Weirdly happy to see these phone box sex adverts are still a thing.
I remember them from the 90s – back when people still used pay phones

We went to a cute little patisserie in Soho, unable to agree where to go next. If I were alone, I would have kept walking, ceaselessly, until it was time to go to the airport, but Luba wasn’t up for that. Neither of us wanted to go back to the airport early, and the rain didn’t want us to sit in a park or on a patio. Day one and we were on the verge of a quarrel. This does not happen when you travel alone.

But then the perfect solution struck me. What is my solace and comfort? My favorite way to pass a quiet and contemplative time? Cigars. I said, “Well, we could walk over to St. James Street and go to the Dunhill cigar lounge. I could smoke and you could read.” Success! We were both happy. As we walked there the clouds parted. I had an extraordinary limited edition Bolivar and Luba read her book.

Both restored, we went for a bit of a circuitous stroll before going back to the airport.

In the end, we didn’t stick to my plan and cover all of the ground in London that I would have had I been alone, but I got to show my mother a bit of London and we ended up having a nice afternoon.

Solo travel has taught me a lot: how to be strong and self-reliant, how to be content with my own company, how to meet people, and how to constantly step out of my comfort zone. But solo travel has also made me a bit selfish, resistant to compromise, and bossy. I want to do what I want to do. I’m not proud of those things, but I am pleased that I can set them aside (more or less) to still enjoy traveling with my mum.

We went back to the airport and took a short and sleepy flight to Edinburgh.

Tag: London