Celebration in London

It was the perfect Canada Day weekend. We met up with friends to revel in the summer heat and drink beer. We went to an outdoor concert. We drank beer. All that was missing was the barbecued hot dogs and the fireworks.

And somehow, we did it all in London: the cosmopolitan, bursting-at-the-seams British version, not my gentle-but-enthusiastic Ontario hometown, which for those of you who weren't aware, does in fact have a Thames River to back up the name.

We had arranged weeks before that Stefan and Laura, who you will remember from Cologne, and Stef's girlfriend Hawley (another ginger!) would come to London to meet us for the Mumford and Sons and Arcade Fire concert in Hyde Park.

I won't give a full a concert review here, but I will tell you that if you have the chance to see either group live, do it! Mumford and Sons mustered the same intensity they have on the album, and their new stuff sounds like it could be excellent. And the Arcade Fire... amazing. Old albums and new albums. Amazing. They played Power Out, my favourite from Funeral, right when Dan and I pushed through to the middle of the dancing, writhing crowd. So good!

We had a late start the next day, but Dan and I spent the day wandering the north bank of the Thames and Westminster, trying to get an idea of this giant city. It is positively overwhelming. We had a great day just looking at the buildings and the people.

We met up with the rest of the gang to check out the Canada Day celebration in Trafalgar Square - early in the day there was street hockey, and they had Timmies (!) and Molson Canadian and a sham poutine (mozzerella? Sigh). By the time we got there, they were down to Red Stripe. It is in a red and white can, granted, but it is also Jamaican.

Close enough for us.

Our final day, Dan and I toured around the City, the oldest section of London that now serves as the financial and business district: as we were there on a Saturday, it was deserted save for some tourists. We took a look at the London Museum for some info on the city's long history, and explored the quiet streets with their old churches and pubs and squares.

We arrived slightly too late to explore the Tower of London, so we decided to save it for our second run-through before the flight to Istanbul. Instead, we crossed the Tower Bridge and strolled along the South Bank.

We didn't do much traditional sightseeing, but London treated us well - and sitting with friends on beer-drenched grass at an outdoor concert soothed the pain of missing Bluesfest and cottages and the beautiful Ottawa summer.

Miss you all, friends, and thank you to Stef and Laura and Hawley for a great Canada Day weekend!

S.