An American friend had a free day in London. She decided to spend it on the top deck of a tourist bus. Sightseeing in this form doesn't appeal to her husband, but he was indisposed after eating something in Paris, so it was the perfect opportunity to fulfil a girlish ambition.
Alas, this happened on Sunday, when most of the City of London was closed for the Tour of Britain cycle race. There was a procession in Westminster and roadworks near Bank. The bus crept at a snail's pace through parts of the metropolis that this well-travelled woman had not seen before, but doesn't especially wish to see again.
* Subscribe to Country Life; Country Life Digital Edition
I had every sympathy, panting to her hotel an hour later than we were due to meet for cocktails. My son and I had returned from Ramsgate especially. Only the day before had we gone through the City, not spotting any notice of road closures.
So we too had rather more opportunity than we might have wished to admire the fretted top of the Shard, silhouetted against a peach-coloured sky; to gaze up at a gleaming, extruded flank of the Walkie-Talkie, which might have melted us in a heatwave; and to run our eyes along the sharp planes of the Cheesegrater. Not time entirely wasted, but couldn't somebody have warned us in advance?
* Follow Country Life magazine on Twitter
-
One by one: The lone wolves of the animal kingdomMankind may be tribal and sociable by nature, yet the ‘bliss of solitude’ — a state previously reserved for hermits — is the key to achieving inner peace, says Laura Parker
-
'If you think you need a television in your room, you are in the wrong place': Why sleeping under canvas makes for a complete safari experienceA tented safari will surprise even the most seasoned traveller, says Mark Hedges, and nowhere more so than in Botswana, where the rhythms of life seem supercharged.
