London UK - en route to the Venice Architectural Biennale

I am writing from London England. My time here has been sandwiched with a five-day trip to the 19th Architectural Biennale in Venice. While I have been writing about this trip on Facebook, I never got around to writing it up on this blog. Much of the following is from my Facebook Posts with some additional commentary.

My wife often asked why I write all these things out since she's certain nobody ever reads them. She's probably right. But I enjoy documenting these activities to be read at a later date when I can no longer travel. That said, I also enjoy sharing my travels with other people, and must confess I'm always intrigued by the responses to my Facebook posts.

Choosing a hotel. A major consideration on every trip is where to stay. In the past, I have often stayed at the Hilton Hotel attached to the Paddington train station. For one thing it's easy to get there on the Heathrow express. It is also easy to get around London from there. I also like the excitement of a train station.

On this trip I arrived at Gatwick Airport. The train from Gatwick arrives at Victoria station and so I booked the Clermont Hotel, which seemed to be  the most attractive hotel close to the station. When I arrived I was pleasantly surprised to discover that like the Hilton, it also was attached to the train station.

I initially planned to stay there two nights but it turned out to be so convenient and once I got a larger room it was a most enjoyable stay. The hotel offers a very expansive daily breakfast buffet which they included as part of the room cost.

Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus tour. One of the other things I always do in any new city is buy a one or two day ticket for the hop on hop off bus. There are now about four different tour lines offering this service. I booked on Tootbus since they first approached me. While it didn't have as many buses as some of the others, and the commentary was often weak, it was just fine. I would love to have the time to try out all the tours to see who has the best commentary.

Wealth Taxes. I was once told if you want to know the future, talk to someone who has lived it. I think the same holds true for countries. In many respects England is just an older version of Canada. When I arrived in London, the big news was new wealth taxes.

I think it's just a matter of time before new wealth taxes will come to Canada.

Personally, I don't see any harm taking from the rich and giving to the poor. If the money was properly used to address homelessness, street crime, mental illness, and the myriad of other conditions which are increasingly making life less pleasant in Vancouver, I wouldn’t object tosuch a tax. But you and I know this is not likely to happen.

I think one of these buildings got its design inspiration from a whale. Can you tell which one it is?

Decorative architecture. Looking at all the decorative architecture around London I can't help but think of the plain, unadorned boxes we are now building around Vancouver, all in the name of affordability.

While there are a lot of rather strange new buildings in London, I think the Shard is one of the best. and a great addition to the skyline.