A tale of 3 cities - Day 6 in London

My last day in London was marked by lots of walking on both sides of the Thames with no particular destinations in mind. Officially though, I covered the Globe Theatre Exhibition and went on a tour of the Rose Theatre, went for a little while to the Imperial War Museum (very informative and awesome exhibits - wish I had spent more than the hour I did there) and walked along Oxford Street. Some photos I took that day:

Poignant exhibit in the Imperial War Museum

Street Performer on the South Bank of the Thames


Oxford Street (the date is Oct 1 only because my camera is on India time - the photo was taken on Sep 30)

I love London - especially its public architecture, its many interesting places-to-visit and its efficient public transport (atleast in the central parts of the city where I mostly remained). Yet, for some undescribable reason, I remember Tokyo more fondly. The strange announcements on the Tokyo Metro - the charming "Kayabacho, Kayabacho desu" being my most fond memory. The running monologues by people on the sales counters in shops even though they knew we couldn't understand them and the citizens who would go out of their way to help us (Londoners are quite helpful too) also contribute to these loving memories, I guess. London is a culturally more vibrant place, has a much richer and better preserved history, a wealth of English-language bookshops (Tokyo has many awesome bookshops too, but alas, most books are in Japanese) and a wider variety of restaurants. Yet, the mind likes what it likes :) Bombay is objectively much inferior in almost every respect to either of these cities, but in my head, there is no city in the world which compares favourably to my hometown. And the preference for Tokyo does not have much to do with the fact that I was there for 8 weeks whereas I have been in London for only 6 days - have been in Ahmedabad for over a year, but have little attachment to that place (love the corner called WIMWI though). Wonder how I will feel about the three other great capitals I expect to see in the next three months - Paris, Rome and Berlin.