Walking my way through London
Travel notes & sketches from London & Bath, England
I’m back from a very inspiring visit to London! My husband and I stayed in the city for seven nights and also managed to squeeze in a day trip to Bath. This is my second time in London and the first for my husband who is a huge Premier League football fan, so we were duly excited for this trip.
London is by all means a Big City much like New York, so I couldn’t help but compare the two at every turn. At first glance the cities seem similar with the crowds of commuters and tourists, accessible public transit, and endless options of new restaurants, shops, and neighborhoods to explore.
The feeling of FOMO is predominant in NYC especially in one’s early years of living here. I could feel the same creeping feeling in the frantic way I was zipping around in Soho early on in our trip, making it a point to visit all the bookmarked shops on my Google Maps. I had the niggling thought: if I am zipping around trying to see everything, when will I have time to draw? And if I don’t draw, am I even here?
It takes time to unwind during time off, to remember that a vacation does not require checking off every item on a list or dutifully recording everything as if it were homework. It’s perfectly good to let a sight remain a memory or to pass on a new experience in lieu of lingering in a current one. As the days passed I noticed the softer textures of London as we marveled at its quiet streets (relative to NYC) and plentiful green spaces. I delighted in taking my time enjoying cream teas and opening up my sketchbook to play and take notes rather than to create finished pieces.
Below are some things I brought back from London and Bath (both physical objects and drawings in my sketchbook). I’ve peppered in a bunch of recommendations so do bookmark this post if you plan on visiting England in the future!