London — Blog — The Towering Travelers

When our friend Bella got a new job in France, we decided (with a couple of other friends) to visit her for New Year’s. When we got a deal on flights to London, we decided to add a couple of days in London, since Jason knows a lot about England and loves their media but had never been.

It’s always interesting traveling over holidays, and we didn’t expect London to close down quite as much as it did for Christmas. Luckily we had a friend living in the city who had us over for a delicious dinner (thank you, Sam!), and we spent the next couple of days wandering around and enjoying some of the sights (and even a little sunshine). If you have a specific list of things you want to see and restaurants you want to visit, I wouldn’t recommend a Christmas trip, but if you just want to wander and have a generally weird experience (and see where the locals actually hang out then they’re not working), it’s not bad.

Classic telephone booths in an empty Smithfield Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Christmas scene at St. Paul’s Cathedral (photo/Jason Rafal)

A nice collection of architecture (photo/Jason Rafal)

The cathedral dome through the city at night (photo/Jason Rafal)

I wonder if you can monitor depression in London using this box (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Tate Modern, which we don’t love the architecture of (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Millennium Bridge, my personal favorite (photo/Jason Rafal)

A multi-layered tower with a very shiny clock (photo/Jason Rafal)

Black and white photo of a castle wall with a sunstar. — A sunstar at the Tower of London (photo/Jason Rafal)

A crowd of people walking across a bridge, under ornate castle architecture. — The locals were clustered around certain parts of the city, like London Bridge (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large, angular apartment building with a green reflection in the windows. — A weird pointy building with a cool reflection (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tall, ornate, and nearly empty market with a Christmas tree. — An empty Leadenhall Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Cannon Street tube station, completely empty. — It was pretty cool to see some of the places so empty (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up portrait of a snowman statue. — There were several of these snowmen around…smiling at us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A crowd of people walking toward the London Eye, bathed in golden hour light. — The London Eye was also very busy, with a pop-up market and lots of strolling (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking across the river at Big Ben and the castle. — Looking over at Westminster (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at the Big Ben clock tower. — The clocktower (photo/Jason Rafal)

A crowd of people walking down a street under red lanterns. — Chinatown in London (photo/Jason Rafal)

On the one day we were in London when attractions were open, we took the train out to Kew Gardens, since we always like to go to a nice garden. It didn’t disappoint. There are two old-school glass greenhouses and one very cool modern one, and lots of beautiful grounds in between. It would be an amazing place to spend a day during the summer when it’s a little warmer, and it could keep you occupied for hours.

A waterfall surrounded by palm trees and other plants in a large glass greenhouse. — An indoor waterfall at the amazing Palm House (photo/Jason Rafal)

An ornate orange flower. — A flower that looks like it was sculpted (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up a walkway alongside a row of plants with a plaque that says Africa. — Scenes from Africa (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking over the top of the tall plants hitting against the ceiling of the glass greenhouse. — We took the stairs up to the greenhouse catwalk, where we could look down onto the greenery below (photo/Jason Rafal)

The modern greenhouse was composed of many half levels, and it was a kind of maze to go through it. It was really fun to wander through, and there was always something new around every corner.

A hanging planter with long, white tendrils hanging down toward the floor. — This plant was amazing and completely unlike anything I’ve seen before (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down the tall stalks of a cactus. — Many spikes (photo/Jason Rafal)

A path winding through a glass greenhouse with plants everywhere. — An incredible assortment of plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tank with a lot of plants and a tiny orange shrimp. — A tiny shrimp in its tank habitat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole looking at a tree with an orange flower in the foreground. — This is a Brugmansia, and I love them (photo/Jason Rafal)

The other attraction we decided to visit was the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was even more enjoyable than I expected. It’s composed of everything that wouldn’t necessarily go into another collection; it’s a museum of chaos, and we loved it. We wandered around between rooms of jewelry, metalwork, statues, glasswork, paintings, and all sorts of other things.

An old globe that fades out in the northwest of the United States and Canada. — A globe that had not yet discovered the Pacific Northwest (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down into a room full of statues, including a statue of David, with art hanging on the walls. — A chaotic room - David, Greek goddesses, religious paintings…and a balcony? (photo/Jason Rafal)

A statue of a white and black dog stepping on a snake. — A dog that is very proud of itself (and maybe still in danger?) (photo/Jason Rafal)

A person under a large statue in a tall, dark, brick room. — A very moody room (photo/Jason Rafal)

After our days in London, we headed to Toulouse to see Bella in her new home. We met Ian and Kelly there for a few days of eating, drinking, walking, partying, and very little sleeping.

Nicole and Belly holding hands on a train. — Reunited and holding hands on the train (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our first day in Toulouse, we actually went to Carcassonne, a medieval town and fortress a short train ride away. Its name has a fantastic potential origin story in which Charlemagne was besieging the city for years, and when food and water were running out, Dame Carcas took the last wheat and fed it to the last pig, and then threw the pig over the wall at Charlemagne. Seeing that the city still had enough food to waste both wheat and pigs, he lifted the siege, and the city was free. Dame Carcas was clearly a master of game theory and deserves to have a city named after her.

A street and lightly colored buildings with the castle in the background. — Looking up at the Cité de Carcassonne from the bridge (photo/Jason Rafal)

A stone wall with turrets with green grass on the ground and a town in the distance. — The outer wall and a good example of the choice to replace the traditionally terra cotta roofs with slate, a decision Jason hates (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of the castle towers from under a bridge. — Looking up from the drawbridge (photo/Jason Rafal)

A window display of pillows printed with cats in medieval dress. — An intensely dedicated window display (photo/Jason Rafal)

A castle wall across from old buildings with a lightly cloudy sky and sunstar in the background. — Inside the city walls (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking down at children passing through a door in a stone wall with the town in the background. — From atop the castle walls (photo/Jason Rafal)

View from above a stone wall with regular towers, with a town in the background. — The cars in the yards in the medieval driveways were a bit odd (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view down a walking street with old buildings on either side and holiday lights hanging over the street. — Walking through the lower town of Carcassonne (photo/Jason Rafal)

Over the next few days, we explored Toulouse, which is lovely. It’s known as the Pink City because of the brick color used in much of its architecture, which contrasts beautifully with the sky. It’s also the center of the aerospace industry in Europe. The city is transected by rivers and canals, so there’s always some lovely water nearby to walk along.

People shopping for fruit at an open-air market on the street. — One of the street markets (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunny street with people cleaning up from the market. — The aftermath of the street market (photo/Jason Rafal)

A Japanese garden with a building, carefully shaped bushes, and a red bridge. — The Japanese Garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

Black and white photo of a street with a small car and ivy-covered building through a tunnel. — A photo from our trip, or from a moody noir film (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of people on the street watching a firetruck lift two people up to the side of a building. — While shopping we walked by…something happening with one of the buildings (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Toulouse capitol building, lit up by late afternoon light, with a stall selling baskets in the foreground. — A market and the capitol building (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunset view over a river with old buildings, a dome, and a bridge. — A gorgeous sunset from the river (photo/Jason Rafal)

The inside of a church with lots of colored stone and stained glass. — The inside of the Couvent des Jacobins, which was quite beautiful (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking up from under an arch in a church, with colorful stonework and stained glass. — During the French Revolution, this stone was white washed over, and it’s now partially restored (photo/Jason Rafal)

Bella and Ian sitting in a pew and looking toward the front of a church. — Bella and Ian in Saint Stephen's Cathedral (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also went inside the capitol building, where Bella had heard good things about the art. There was an incredible amount of painting on the walls and ceiling, and lots of statues as well.

Painting of a person with a coral-colored full length body suit and cape sitting with pen to paper and staring into space. — A very moody person (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down an ornate room with colorful paintings on either side. — The happy, pastoral wedding room (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking through a long, ornate room with statues on either side and detailed paintings on the ceiling. — A long room of art (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at a ceiling painted with a scene of a woman in a chariot pulled by lions being pursued by a dark army. — Some of the amazing ceiling (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down a mostly empty street with closed shops on either side. — Quiet mornings in Toulouse (photo/Jason Rafal)

A pink building with an art piece of a model train driving off the roof. — Train crash art? (photo/Jason Rafal)

A rounded tower with blue sky behind it, flanked by walls. — More lovely pink architecture (photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a whirlwind trip, and it was so nice to see friends and explore new places. I’m sure we’ll be back to both London and Toulouse, and next time we’ll probably see some more tourists there.