The Square

I just came across an Australian web page on places that you have to see when in London. I looked it over to see which we'd seen, and which not (turns out, about half). The very last one was Trafalgar Square, noting that the nearest tube stop was Charing Cross.

We were there.

We went because (mostly) we were just meandering around, Seeing What We Could See, but also because we were doing our version of the people who go up Baker Street looking for Sherlock's home. They know he wasn't real, they know he didn't live there -- but still, there they were on Baker, so what the heck, lets see if there really is an 221B.... which, as it turns out, there is, complete with a traditionally dressed Bobby in front. Didn't notice if there was a 221A or C.

But in our case what we doing was casually looking around to see if there really was an 84 Charing Cross Road (I don't recall if we saw it, though this Wikipedia article says that there is a plaque there), but what captured my attention was Trafalgar Square. I'd heard of it, the way I'd heard of The Colosseum and The Grand Canyon, but it never occured to me that a) it was an actual place (I thought, if I thought of it at all, that it'd be this little bitty 'square'), or b) that it'd be such a popular place. But we were walking along, just looking around, and I saw this truly massive area with this massive column, and hundreds of people per square foot (it seemed), doing just about everything that crowds do -- milling, arguing, eating, sitting, watching, reading, the whole bit. And what was really cool (to me: I know this is strange) is that I liked the place before I knew what it was. I didn't come to see Trafalgar Square, I just thought 'wow, what a neat place, wonder if its got a name' -- and then I found out it was, ta-da, Trafalgar Square.

So yeah, I think it's worth seeing.