On to London and participate in The City of London Festival. This is my families yearly pilgrimage and our only vacation spot. I don’t mind, because every year there is something new and different. We always stay at the same City Hotel and we always eat at the same restaurants. It’s a family tradition, our only one really. All the same, I do enjoy going with my family and getting to spend time with them.
The Festival not only is celebrated outside on the streets of London, but also in the interior spaces in and around the Square Mile. I plan to be an architect, so I take any and all tours concerning the magnificent buildings and explore the built environments and learning some interesting facts about the buildings and their architects. The opportunity to delve inside buildings representing the City of today and of the past will be the highlight of my stay in the City. My sister, who I am responsible for, likes to take the guided tour through the extraordinary and gruesome history of Smithfield. I like it too because we get to see three wonderful twelfth century institutions: the meat market, Priory Church of St. Bartholomew-the-Great and Barts hospital.
Then, later we meet up with my parents and explore and discuss the aesthetic and conceptually values of contemporary and historic works which will be on display throughout the city. After that we’ll get to Draw the City. There is an actual tour this year where we’ll take a City walk of buildings and medieval streets and learn how to sketch with lesson’s from a sketch artist. If that wasn’t enough, and we still felt like doing more, we could take another tour and discover the myths and folk lore of London’s side streets with a well known poet and playwright.
Then it’s time to go back home, which as you can tell, we are all happy to do so, because our little village will let us rest and give us time to reflect, remember, share and most of all plan for next years Festival.