Last Stop: London

An author once said," London is still a jigsaw freshly tipped out the box. You have a few brightly colored pieces (the London Eye, the Globe, London Bridge, St. Paul’s, Buckingham Palace) and the rest is just pieces of sky. You’ve no idea how anything fits together, and you have to go searching for a corner to get yourself started." And I couldn't agree less. Like many others, I arrived in London, expecting a cultural spectacle, only to meet a modern city, looking and smelling much like any other. I expected to be swept into the past, down cobbled alleyways worn smooth by the passage of Celtic tribes, William the Conqueror, and Henry the Eighth (and his wives), only to find myself pacing down the streets, pass mysteriously abandoned London Underground station, a few parlimentary building, and one medieval theatre. This is the brick wall of disillusionment that stops many people from seeing past the wearying modernity.Historic London is there, but it’s hidden in full view under everything you know already. It takes a while to learn the shape of the city, the spatial relationships that tell its stories so thrillingly, but we will just get there somehow. To me, that's the beauty of this beautiful and rich city. To start with the corners, the sides, and eventually the picture itself.