I [Heart] London

It may seem odd for someone who has lived in the city for the first five and latest four years of her life to suddenly fall back in love with London, especially on what may well be the busiest Saturday of the summer, but that's what happened today. I was supposed to meet a friend for brunch but she had to reschedule and I decided to go to Old Street anyway to test out a couple of independent coffee bars that have been on my list for a while (of which more to follow). Afterwards, I walked down Moorgate and over to One New Change to take a few pictures of the skyline and St Paul's from the shopping centre's rooftop. I've been there a few times now, but only in winter and/or at night time, so I thought it would be nice to go on a sunny day for once.

One New Change leaps

I walked through St Paul's Churchyard and down to the Millennium Bridge, which was heaving. Maybe it was because it was the first sunny Saturday we have had in months, but somehow I didn't really care how busy it was. I didn't even care that much about large groups of people walking super slowly. I decided to walk along the North Bank to Tower Bridge to get a closer view of the Olympic rings.

Olympic rings on Tower Bridge

The Olympics may also be responsible for my renewed pride in my home city: I had been a real Olympics scrooge up until about 20 minutes into the Opening Ceremony, when suddenly I found myself, à contre cœur, falling for it all. My photos are no way near as cool as this Reuters shot of the full moon forming the sixth ring, of course, but I had fun walking over the bridge and all the way back home to NoMaRo, via the South Bank, the Hungerford Bridge and Soho.

That ring thing

Once the weather inevitably returns to normal and the London 2012 excitement dies down, maybe my rediscovered London love with diminish and my New York lust will return. In the meantime, I'm just enjoying summer in the city.