Flowers and Walks
A belated thank you, by the way, to those who answered my auntie J's question on English pubs and flowers. It'd struck her that many pubs -- rather than cafés or restaurants -- had carefully maintained flowers hanging in baskets, etc. Considering that there aren't nearly as many florists in London as there are in the Netherlands, she thought that the pub owners must go to a lot of effort for this floral display and therefore wondered if there was a particular reason for it beyond making the pub look attractive (which there wasn't really, according to the combined wisdom of the commenters).
Auntie J and Uncle H were so enthusiastic about London that I became even more enthusiastic about living here. Despite the fact they'd visited three or four times before, they still had plenty of new things to see in the week they were here. It turned out they had the same book of walks we did, so one afternoon, we picked a route to walk around Southwark which started at Tower Hill and took us past random quiet spots as well as some touristy spots like Borough Markets. It's definitely worth going for walks in different parts of London -- it's not always pretty but it possesses much more variety than Paris. These particular walks take about an hour and a half, but it took us longer because the Dutch people needed their coffee. And I do mean "needed". I would as soon get between a Dutch person and their coffee as I would between a hippo in heat and their intended.
Auntie J and Uncle H were so enthusiastic about London that I became even more enthusiastic about living here. Despite the fact they'd visited three or four times before, they still had plenty of new things to see in the week they were here. It turned out they had the same book of walks we did, so one afternoon, we picked a route to walk around Southwark which started at Tower Hill and took us past random quiet spots as well as some touristy spots like Borough Markets. It's definitely worth going for walks in different parts of London -- it's not always pretty but it possesses much more variety than Paris. These particular walks take about an hour and a half, but it took us longer because the Dutch people needed their coffee. And I do mean "needed". I would as soon get between a Dutch person and their coffee as I would between a hippo in heat and their intended.