Well there were not exactly two thousand photos – only one thousand, nine hundred and thirty – taken with my new camera on my trip to the UK in 2010.
It was my first trip to visit my son who had moved to London and I was infatuated with the city. For starters, I love cities – any cities. I get a special kind of vibe from being around a lot of people and surrounded by buildings. And as a photographer, I am often inspired by the shapes of things around me. You can see why I got carried away – given such shapely wonders as St. Paul’s Cathedral, London City Hall or 30 St. Mary Axe – the building that I thought was famously called the “pickle” but is actually known as “The Gherkin” (I was close; I had the concept – if not the detail – again).
Markets, markets, markets
Add in all those cool telephone boxes and pub signs on almost every corner, can you blame me for averaging about 200 shots per day.
And then there were the markets, and more markets. On my first day, I landed in Spitalfields Market – described on the Internet as a “lively market for clothing, jewellery, home items, art and gourmet products.”
Ten years later, I can still remember the delicious smells when I walked into one of the tea shops. I left with a gift for my future daughter-in-law who I was meeting for the first time. On a visual level, I remember the array of fashion items – new and vintage. And the market itself offered many shapes to attract my attention.
A few days later, my son took me to Borough Market – one of the oldest food markets in London – where both the visual and olfactory senses were aroused. Before we did the weekly food shop, we stopped for a coffee at his favourite coffee shop – where the aroma woke me up before the cappuccino did.
When the meat, cheese, and bread were all packed in our carry-bags, we stopped for a pitcher of Pimm’s. The romance of drinking my first Pimm’s while sitting on a curb outside the market hooked me. Not only did I drink many more of these refreshing drinks while in London, but I now keep a bottle in my regular stock at home. Every summer, I relive the memories of that beautiful July day.
And there were many more markets to excite my senses, like: Horse Tunnel, Camden Market, and Inverness Street.
Music and theatre
And while the sights and aromas were the highlight of this London trip in 2010 – the “sounds” were not left out of the picture. One of my favourite days was watching the City of London Music Festival while I snapped my daily dose of pictures in the neighbourhood. I did stop long enough to bask in the sun to hear the Canadian guitarist Jesse Cook perform. Now whenever I play his CD at home now, I imagine I am in London sitting in the square at Guildhall Yard.
There was much more music to be enjoyed on this visit. We took a picnic and enjoyed the outdoor music festival in Canary Wharf as well.
I also had the pleasure of hearing my friend Jacqui perform with the Sydney Philharmonic Choir at Westminster Abbey. If you’ve ever seen the movie or listened to the soundtrack of “Happy Feet”, then you’ve also heard Jacqui, because the choir did the back-up vocals for several songs. But there is nothing quite as exciting as seeing a friend from the other side of the world perform for you in a big city like London. Well, okay, so she didn’t come there just to perform for me. But it was still a delight to see her, nonetheless.
It was equally thrilling to see a live performance at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. While I have attended many theatre productions of Shakespeare and dozens of other playwrights around the world, I have never sat on the floor for any performance before this one. The authenticity added to the experience. So this might go down in my books as the “best” play that I have ever seen.
When I travel, I always try to find local music or theatre to enjoy. It makes the trip more memorable.
A small taste of London
Taste was not to be excluded from the sensual London experience. I always travel on a tight budget, and this one was no exception. I sponged breakfasts off my son. I often made myself a lunch which I would eat as a picnic in some famous London spot like Hyde Park or Hampstead Heath. Or I would grab some grub at food truck, market, or a local pub, especially if it was located in some unusual place like a tunnel under a bridge.
Dinners were often at home where I was testing my son’s ability to cook. It made me feel like a successful mother when he would serve me something exotic like a tagine. I didn’t even know he could pronounce it, let alone make it from scratch. However his cooking skill came more from the influence of his favourite local chef than it did from his dear old mom. It turned out that my son lived in Islington, the neighbourhood of the famous Ottolenghi Restaurant. Not only did he have a copy of “Ottolenghi Plenty”, Yotam’s first cookbook, but he also took me for dinner to the local spot to show me why he fell in love with the simple delicacies, many of which were also available for take-home after a busy day of work.
It turned out that Islington was full of options for lunch or dinner. There were more than Ottolenghi that had Mediterranean influences. I still remember sitting on authentic Turkish cushions at The Gallipoli while catching up on news of Australia with my friend Jacqui. Like every large city, London has many interesting restaurants, more than you can count. So, my recommendation for finding the best ones is to ask a local where they go in their own neighbourhood.
To find the best restaurants in an area – ask the locals.
As for pubs, there are close to two thousand large ones (1,855 in 2018) and almost as many small ones (1,690). So if my goal was to revisit London and do a pub crawl, I could potentially come home with close to two thousand photos on one subject. But capturing them all would be a daunting task.
When I travel, my greatest pleasure is in having a “sensational” experience. My memories from the summer of 2010 are filled with sounds, sights, aromas and tastes of London.
How many photos do you usually take on a trip?
Travels with Judi B... 
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