November in London

Following the stay the previous week in Paris, this week I had to travel (twice) to London, for business reasons. As the purpose of the trip was work, I did not take any picture so this post will remain pictureless, I am afraid.

My general impression about London is that there are more and more foreigners there. It seems now clear to me that London has become some kind of capital of the world and everybody important wants to be there. That explains the rise in the price of property and the abuses by some hotels (Doubletree by Hilton Westend is an example). On the other hand, I can confirm my preference for NH Harrington Halls (http://www.nh-hotels.com/nh/en/hotels/united-kingdom/london/nh-harrington-hall.html), a very nice hotel, with big rooms, situated in a wonderful area of London and with a nice price.

London also showed me the new style of life, where everybody is absent with earphones and does not care about what happens in metre in front of him but is in close contact with somebody thousands of kilometres away. While I was walking near Holborn, the man in front of me (5 metres) fell down and none of the two people close to him said a single word to him. I was the third one and the only one who asked him whether he was fine... Is this the world we are going to have? I really hope that not.

The underground is an example of the abuse in prices, but it is also an example of the new tendences. Everybody there was reading their tablet (iPads and similar), something which will be exported to the rest of Europe in the next two years. This time, I have not found the underground so crowded and it was quite reliable in terms of timelines, although it is remarkable the absolute lack of facilities for disabled persons.

Finally, I did not want to finish this post without a mention to British Airways. Whereas the flights on Tuesday and Wednesday went smoothly and with no delays, the flights on Thursday and Friday were both cancelled. In the first case, I could be easily rebooked and the inconveniences were not large, but on the second one I had to book a trip on Saturday morning and... go to Heathrow from London City Airport. Thus, I spend my Friday evening in the public transport of London, trying to reach Heathrow from the other corner of the city.

To sum up, as you can see, my November days in London have not been so easy as the November days in Paris...