There is something about being in one of the world’s great cities that makes you sharper. So much is happening at once that you must pay attention. You cannot be a passive observer, but rather must live in every moment to survive and ultimately thrive.
That thought came to me on a recent walk in London, on one of (according to my Step Tracker phone app) 52,573 steps over the course of three days on my first but hopefully not last trip to this wonderful city.
I was there for the Minnesota Vikings’ game against the New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Oct. 6. But that was merely an important structure around the sort of trip I love to take.
London allowed me to move through a city the way I always imagine I will: often on foot, but seamlessly by train (Just tap your credit card or phone at all entry points. Brilliant!), almost always with a critical mass of people at all hours, in all neighborhoods, regardless of day.
It is a city that you are well served to move through instead of just from point to point. You see children in the park chasing after ravens, you learn to appreciate the narrow streets (always seven ways to get somewhere but seldom a clear-cut best way) and you feel the complexity of evolving neighborhoods where new money is moving in and old Londoners are moving out.
It is the difference between being a traveler and being a tourist. That is my goal, and to be fair it might not be yours. The good news is that London is big enough for all of us.
And my method is not to avoid all typical tourist things. Indeed, our group — two longtime friends and the 8-year-old son of one of them — had a wonderful time at the Tower of London (even if the guides do spend an inordinate amount of time talking about beheadings of the past 1,000 years). You get a sense of a place from its past as well as its present.
The Vikings game was certainly a tourist attraction, as was arguably the West Ham soccer (sorry, football) match we took in on the Saturday I arrived. To our group, the game was a novelty only to be seen in or around London. To the fans, it was closer to life-and-death — as evidenced by the unprintable words and hand gestures that flowed freely during a 4-1 West Ham victory over Ipswich.