Nothing new has been published on the blog the past couple of weeks as Mika and I were on holiday in England from the 10th-25th of September. We stayed in London with our friends Des and Keith. This was Mika’s first trip to the British Isles. I lived there as a boy from 1968-1970 and went back for a holiday on my own in 2005. We had a really good time taking in various historic sites such as the Tower of London, the Monument, Westminster Abbey, Hampton Court, Handel House, the British Museum, the Museum of Natural History and the British Library. I will add I was a little disappointed with how commercialized London has become. The sense of British identity I remembered from my boyhood and wanted to see again really seems watered down in London in the present. There is a plethora of shops and kiosks where cheesy trinkets are hawked to tourists and some of the historic sites, notably the Tower of London, have the feel of a theme park to them. The next time we visit England we will take in more of the sites maintained by the National Heritage Trust as I understand these better represent British identity.

Posted by Geoffrey