The day before we left London the 'Orange Maniac' arrived. Trump's visit was arranged to ensure he was well protected from the realities of London life, staying first in Regent Park's fortress America - Winfield House, the US Ambassador's London residence, then on to a state banquet safely esconced in Windsor Castle. Its medieval walls may have insulated the orange one from the world outside but it did provide a giant screen for Led By Donkeys to project an enormous image of Trump with his best buddy Jeffrey Epstein.
The protesters were arrested and charged with malicious communication, an irony given the world's foremost malicious communicator was safely ensconced inside feasting with King Charles. Sadiq Khan, London's Mayor was not invited to the banquet. The on-line spat between the orange maniac and the mayor of London goes back a decade. It's complicated, Chatgpt kindly reduced the long running feud to a one page pdf.
It's a clash of opposites, big/small, white/brown, monoculture/diversity, authoritarianism/democracy, irrationality/reason. Trump's ire, fuelled by white supremacist fantasies and Islamaphobic ramblings asserted at the UN that Sadiq Khan was a 'terrible terrible mayor planning to introduce Sharia law into the capital.
Spend a few days in London and it soon becomes clear just how deranged Trumps ramblings are, the place is a miracle of diversity, a multi-ethnic city that functions well, people generally are helpful and friendly. The place isn't the most beautiful city by any means, it's a hotchpotch of characterful neighborhoods, some stylish, others a bit scruffy and 'over used' looking.
We spent two days in Greenwich and one in Hackney Wick and around Stratford. We are familiar with both places, the former because our youngest, Laura, went to university there, the latter because our Sarah, our middle daughter and her partner Rob have lived in the 'Hackney bubble' for some years. This time however our experience of both places was somewhat different, as well as the adults we also joined by the newest members of the family.
Nico (aged five months)
and Jesse (aged two weeks) when we met with Matthew and Krystina in her apartment in Greenwich.
We ate out at lunchtime in both places. What was impressive was the warm welcome we received everywhere. People fussed over the babies, the staff in the cafés went out of their way to accommodate us all and people generally were chatty and friendly.
In Hackney we had lunch out at The Breakfast Club. It's a place we've been to before down by the canal which specialises in all day American style breakfasts. It's quite spacious and informal so easy to accommodate Nico's pram next to our table, though most of the time he was awake and had fun being the centre of attention.
We had two shots at having lunch out with Matthew, Krystina and Jesse. We were aiming to go to a place in Greenwich centre that specialised in traditional London fare - bangers and mash. We didn't make it on the first day because it became increasingly squally - instead we headed to a cafe nearby that specialises in eastern Mediterranean dishes. Having just been fed Jesse slept through the whole thing.
On our second visit to Greenwich the weather was better, we managed to make it as far as the sausage and mash place.
I can understand Matthew and Krystina's enthusiasm for the place, the sausages were exceptional and the mash positively unctuous. British food can be great, but sadly it's the exception rather than the rule.
We finished off with a coffee from a food stall in Greenwich market.
To outsiders the idea of living in London seems overwhelming. What we've learned from all three of our children who have lived in the city at one time or another is that Londoners don't really live in London, they inhabit a neighbourhood within one of its boroughs.
Greenwich feels like a separate town, with pleasing Eighteenth century architecture, one of the most important scientific sites in the world - the Observetory - and a tangle of older streets by the river with a distinctly nautical vibe, dominated by the Cutty Sark, truly a 'tall ship'.
I can see how living in Greenwich feels like living in a town rather than a city. It's not quite the same in Hackney Wick, it's more of a hip neighbourhood with a bohemian edge, like an area in Brooklyn maybe.
We walked there from Stratford through East Village, a chequerboard of mid-rise apartment blocks that now surround Queen Elizabeth Park, the site of the London Olympics.
The area has a continental feel, we've seen similar urban redevelopments in other European cities - Copenhagen and Pamplona for example.
Unless you were a born and bred Londoner I think it would be difficult to call the city 'home', but as an incomer I can see how you might become attached to a particular neighbourhood. Maybe what best encapsulates this is the Kink's ' 'Waterloo Sunset', the 'dirty old city's' archetypal anthem.
We stayed in the Caravan and Motorhome Club's London site situated in Abbey Wood in southeast London
It's a pleasant wooded site, peaceful, apart from the dawn chorus provided by the place's large colony of parakeets. We used the place some years ago when Laura was living in Plumstead, easy enough to get to, just a couple of stops from Abbey wood Station. Visiting Sarah and Rob in Hackney back then was trickier, involving line hopping on the underground. Now it's much easier as Abbey Wood is most easterly station on the Elizabeth Line, both Greenwich and Hackney are easily accessible.
People on the tube were nice too, readily offering us seats when it was standing room only. Sometimes they were chatty and always affable. In truth generally speaking, in shops, cafés and supermarkets London felt more more open and welcoming than our home town, it surprised us.
It's in the shires and former industrial towns that support for right wing extremism is burgeoning. Online it's easy to think that it's the norm, but some places are not 'left behind'. It's better to be surrounded by younger people because they have energy and hope. Despite the best efforts of Tommy Robinson, Elon Musk and the Orange Maniac, our four days in London felt uplifting - not because of the place but because its young, diverse population welcomed us.
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