Hello Friends and Family!! As you can tell by the title, I just spent some quality time in London for the weekend. First impression of London is WOW. There is an endless amount of places to visit and events to attend. Three days is not enough time to take it all in. The best way to describe this city is a whole bunch of cities put together. There are several neighborhoods scattered across the city, but each neighborhood feels like its own town.
Something I found really interesting about the city itself is the mixture of modern, Victorian and Medieval buildings. This is mostly due to the city having to go through several reconstructions. There was the great fire in 17th century and the bombings of World War II. Each layer of its history is shown through the structures that are still standing. You can also tell what was on each street base on the street name. For instead, Bread Street would have sold bread back in the day and Thistle Street would have sold thistles and so on. Also, as you walk around, there are plaques with what use to be in the exact place you are standing.
Our group went to several places in London: National Art Gallery, British Museum, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral. I could go on forever about each individual place, but I would like to focus on the British Museum. Walking through the different exhibits, it makes me question whether our society is heading into a less unique future. This question came up when I first walked into the Ancient Egyptian and Roman exhibits and saw their art. The amount of detail on each piece of artifact is outstanding. There wasn’t a single pattern repeated. Every single stroke of their paint brush resulted in something different. Today, if I would go into several stores, I would see similar designs. Everything is mass produced. There are strong pros in that, such as efficiency, but that leads to lack in uniqueness and creativity. I don’t often see unique designs anymore. The intricate patterns on pottery and tombs strongly hints at the artistic abilities of the Ancient Egyptians and Romans.
I went to visit two religious buildings: Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral. The environment in both public spaces were completely different. There this question that I would like you all to ponder on for a moment: Does tourism result in making a sacred place less sacred? —- Come up with any thoughts? Here’s my take on it. When I was in the Abbey, I did not feel likes I was in a place of worship. It didn’t feel sacred to me at all…Instead, I felt like I was walking through an exhibit in a museum. There was plaques everywhere explaining what everything was and everyone was using the audio self-tour on their phones. What I explained sounds exactly like a museum. That takes degrades the place in a way. Other the other hand, St. Paul’s Cathedral was the complete opposite. There was no photography past a certain point as a sign of respect. We attended a service and I was mistaken for a tourist, so initial, she individual restricted my access into the area (after explanation, I was allowed in). People who came to the cathedral were all followers of God. The environment was peaceful and holy. This is a place for religious sessions to take place, not the Abbey. There wasn’t any plaques and people weren’t walking around aimlessly. So to answer my own question, I think it all depends on how the public space chooses to be open to tourist. It is important to share the public space with others, but we shouldn’t do it in a way that takes away from the place.
Okay… Enough about London. I could really go on forever. Today is Sunday, so that means tomorrow is my first day of classes! I am super excited to get started with this new school year. A few highlight of my day tomorrow: Tennis practice, History (World History after 1945), Developmental Psychology, Netball social for Psychology club.
Check back in a few days to see how classes and tennis is going! 🙂
Nottingham Adventures 