Sunday afternoon

I was still jet lagged this morning and pulled myself out of bed in time to meet my coworker, Mike Walker for a walk to the East End of London. I wanted to take Mike back to Brick Lane for a taste of salt beef bagels that I had eaten the last time I was here.

On the way to Spitalfields, we walked by this tower. This tower doesn’t appear from the outside to be religious in nature - or at least it lacks crosses and any religious description. The city has sprung up around it and a large police station is on the right. This is a strange site in London with tall buildings and a jarring mix of old and new. In my (limited) experience, London city planners have tried to make the old and new mix more harmoniously.

Many of the entrances to the old city are marked by dragons. This one is up on the northeast side, near Liverpool Station.

All streets and alleys have addresses in London. Last time when I was with Doug, we walked down Catherine Wheel Alley. Why? Because Doug thought it would be cool to see what was there. It doesn’t look very inviting, but I convinced Mike that it would be a good experience. The alley curves to the left and then opens into a bigger passage where cars can park. On Sundays, vendors set up temporary shops and thousands of Londoners come to see what is on sale.

This is an example of why one would walk down an alley. Far away from everything, deep away from the streets and above a locked door is this beautiful tile chicken. Such beauty is not unique in London, but each alley, street and crevice has it’s own secret beauties for those who want to explore.

After eating our bagel, we headed over to the London City museum. This section of wall is part of the original Roman wall built around 600 AD. The sections we see here are actually walls built on the ruins of those walls, built hundreds of years later.

The City of London museum was really good and I noted something of interest that made me feel very lucky to be working here. When you enter the museum, there is a large exhibit about the great fire that took place in 1666. In the exhibit is a map of the city at that time. While some of the streets survive today (like Pudding Lane, site of the fire’s origin), the street-scape has changed. This is not something I would have noticed without living and working here. I have enjoyed getting to know some people and feel the energy of the city firsthand. Seeing the map and recognizing change gave me a satisfied feeling that I have learned some things about London.