Early in December I took a trip to London. London was actually the first place I ever visited outside of the United States- about 20 years ago. (The subject of which will be a future blog.) I have been through twice since then but since those were business trips there had not been enough time to simply walk around and explore the city. Consequently getting back to London on my own, with no other obligations, has been on my list of things to do for a long time. Over the years I had, from time to time, thought about taking a long weekend and just going but something always got in the way. Finally, this December, I had a good reason to go and the time to do it so I made my plans. I wanted to attend an event happening the second week of December and decided to stay for several days and finally take the opportunity to walk around and explore the city. I was not too thrilled about it being December, and hence, most likely cold and rainy, but on a positive note I figured the city would be decorated for Christmas and not too crowded. Since I was using frequent flyer miles I decided to splurge and stay in the city center where I could easily walk to the different areas of the city.
London is a great city for walking and terrible for driving and all for the same reasons. The city, which has been around for centuries, has grown organically over time with no thought of planning regarding efficiency of transportation or movement. In addition the streets are narrow and change names frequently. So it is great for exploring because you never quite know what you will find around the next corner or even where you are. After walking around all week I had great sympathy for the taxis and drivers. It is definitely a pedestrian city and in some areas, like Leicester square, for example, the pedestrians take over and cars don’t stand a chance.
I was thrilled to be walking down streets that I had read about in books, both fiction and non-fiction. Picadilly Circus, Oxford Street, Fleet Street, Whitehall, Bond Street, Hyde Park, Regents Park, Newgate, Trafalger Square all whether famous or infamous are part of London’s great history. Branching off of these well known thoroughfares were small, narrow side streets also worth exploring, just to see what is there. I think I walked about 10 miles everyday, just meandering about. WIth museums, shopping, churches, and history oozing from the buildings surrounding me I was never bored. Even though it was December and not prime tourist season for London there were still a lot of languages to be heard on the street. It was crowded but not overwhelming and I reminded myself not to come in July and August when they do get a large influx of tourists. The people watching was great.
View of the Tower Bridge from the dome of St. Pauls
It was Saturday, the day before I was heading home, that I ran into Santa Claus. I had spent the afternoon at Westminster Abbey. Even though I visited on my first trip, 20 years ago, I wanted to see it again not in the least due to the fact now I with the entrance ticket came an iPod with an audio tour. When I had visited before nothing like that was available and I simply ambled around without learning much. (St. Paul’s has one as well and it was definitely worth the price of admission since you also have access to the balconies exterior on the dome balconies from where beautiful vistas of London can be seen.) I spent all afternoon at the Abbey and ended up staying for evensong. When I finally exited it was already dusk I headed up through Whitehall towards Trafalgar square with Soho and a potential show my destination. Even though it was late on a Saturday afternoon the government dominated area of Whitehall was busy. I passed 10 Downing street, where a political protest across the street had the police out in force and then past the Horse Guards where I had just missed the changing of the guard and then came upon a pub.
In front of the pub were about 15 guys drinking and from the looks of it they had been there for a while. This in and of itself on a Saturday was probably not unusual but what stood out is that they were all dressed as Santa Claus. I stared at them as I walked by trying to imagine what that might mean but was only able to come up with “frat party” or “bachelor party” as a probable explanation. Bemused and amused I continued on my way, reached Trafalgar and took a right heading for Leicester Square and the heart of the theater district. I had only gone about two blocks out of Trafalgar when I saw ahead of me three people, two guys and a girl, also dressed as Santa. That killed my theory of frat party or bachelor party. As I continued toward Leicester I observed more and more small groups of people walking around as Santa, sometimes with a reindeer or two thrown into the mix. Clearly there was something going on here. Being hungry, I ducked into a restaurant and let the mystery wait. It was fully dark when I emerged and in the time it took me to have dinner the population density of Santa’s had increased dramatically. They were everywhere, in groups from two to ten, with a myriad of interpretations of Santa’s costume, seemingly walking around randomly. I headed back towards the square itself and saw two Santa’s just hanging round on the side of the street. I decided to find out what was going on and approached one of them.
Santas taking a break for fast food even in London
“I am sorry to bother you”, I apologized, “but I have been seeing Santas all over the place today and I was wondering what was going on.”
He grinned at me and answered, “There are about 750 or so of us down here in the city center spreading good cheer.”
“Well”, I replied, “I certainly saw a bunch of cheerful Santas earlier at a pub!”. He grinned again and I thanked him for the information. I had part of my answer- it was clearly some kind of coordinated event but really did not know much beyond that. Could this be my first experience with a flash mob?
I turned a corner and ended up in one of those narrow, quaint streets that are all over London with small shops, cool architecture and pubs lining each side of what merely looks like a paved brick alley. I passed another pub with it’s own collection of Santas out front. This time there were about 30 or 40 of them. They seemed to be having a good time. I decided to forgo a show and instead search for a bookstore I had read about. I slowly worked my way to where I thought the bookstore was, still passing Santas roaming the streets. I stopped at a corner to check my map and heard the sound of singing. Curious I followed it around the corner only to come right up against a crowd of about 100 Santas, standing in front of yet another pub, all of them singing and dancing to “YMCA” by the Village People, which was blaring out of the open doors and windows of the pub. I tried to get a picture of the doing the “Y” but without luck. This ended up being a theme for the evening – round a corner, run into a pub with a large group of Santas singing hit tunes.
Santas grooving out to "YMCA"
As I was walking around I overheard snippets of conversation (at least those where Engish was the language) and the Santas were the big topic. I happened to overhear something about “Santacon” and that this was something that happened in New York City too. I now had more of a story to go on When I got back to my hotel later that night I looked up “Santacon” and found the following website: http://santacon.info/
Santacon turns out to be a semi-organized event occurring in 229 cities around the world. Bookmark the website so next December wherever you are around the world you can keep an eye out for Santa coming to a city near you (or be one yourself…).
It was a fun end to my trip to London and just goes to show that sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time to have an adventure unfold right in front of you!