Why is a “superlative walking tour company” ( thanks visitlondon.com) blogging when we could be out there doing more walking tours?
Are we contributing to our own demise by keeping our constituents welded to computer screens? Are we hypnotizing them via black mirrors in the palms of their hands while they zombie along in their own little worlds?
Far from it.
Here are just a few reasons why we write The Daily Constitutional…
Too Much Information!
Our London Walks® walking tours take about two hours each. It’s very often the case that a walking tour is defined by what we leave out. There’s just TOO MUCH for two hours. Similarly, your expert and experienced guide has honed her/his walking tour to peak condition over time, adding new information as it comes in and archiving other choice nuggets to make room for the new.
The remaining information – by no means chaff – often ends up on our blog, The Daily Constitutional.
In light of this, The Daily Constitutional can be seen as, variously:
• An optional extra on a car.
• A plug-in for your computer programme.
• An in-app purchase adding functionality – only free.
• A bonus stage on your video game.
• DVD-extras looking behind the scenes of the main feature.
• A doggy bag to take away from a rich repast. A bloggy bag, if you like. (No, I don’t like. One more pun like that and you’re fired. The Editor.)
Here’s a good example from a blog post from David’s Westminster Walk, it’s about Westminster Abbey and you can read it HERE.
And here’s another, a lovely bit of background or “prep” for one of Ann’s Foodies London Walks: it’s about the President and Indian food and you can read it HERE.
Opinions Are Like…?
Do you really want to stand in the open air while someone opens their neck and blasts opinion in your face? If so, then Hyde Park Corner is the place for you. Such shtick has no place on a walking tour.
A blog, however, is a different matter. Indeed, the blogosphere can sometimes be nothing but a seething morass of opinion. In our opinion.
So from time to time we’ll share with you the odd opinion, here and there.
Sometimes a VERY odd opinion.
Such as:
Why Tea Is God’s Own Tipple And Coffee Is Evil
Rain: Isn’t It Absolutely And Totally Lovely And Actually Much Better Than Sunshine In Many, Many Ways, Thanks For Asking
Why Live Guides Kick The Internet’s Butt
By The Way…
Sometimes we have information that is very much relevant to the walking tour, but isn’t necessarily the stuff of great sightseeing.
Shoes, for example.
We think we know a thing-or-four about comfortable footwear. In our line of work it’s essential. Given that our brief as tour guides is to lift our walkers’ heads up to see beyond the traffic and the shops, it would be a great pity to have them shoegazing for any part of our two hours together.
Which is why we blog about great walking shoes.
And about the best chip shops in London.
And about pedometers and calories counts on our walks.
And our forthcoming series on the best loos in London. Bet you’re “desperate” to read that one, eh? (This is your final warning: The Editor.)
I Was Walking Along Just The Other Day, When…
…I bumped into a man with an enormous fish. (Thanks to London Walks® guide Richard III for this post.)
The camera phone has turned us all into poets and chroniclers. And we London Walks® guides, like everyone else, snap away as we go along. Our blog gives us an opportunity to share the out-of-the-ordinary flotsam and jetsam of London.
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
We’re all about. All over London. We take notes and snap pictures. And we blog them here. But London changes, almost constantly. And sometimes new bits of London appear fleetingly and then vanish. Bits such as these street paintings (one of which is already gone at time of writing), or these silly signs. But they remain on our blog. Similarly, we post historic shots to help fill-in the gaps in our modern London, such as these views of High Street Kensington.
All The News That’s Fit To Blog
London Walks® news – new walks, new guides, special walks, the progress of new editions of The Famous White Leaflet. We blog about all of that, as well as general London news and other London blogs that we enjoy and think you would, too. Blogs such as our perennial fave Bollards of London.
And Now, The Soppy Bit…
It sounds sentimental. Cheesy even. But, here it is…
We like you.
You’re nice folks.
You come out in rain or shine and you’ve always got stuff to say, kind words, insights, jokes, facts, theories, bits of your own life stories that, when imparted to us as guides become part of our understanding of London as a whole.
And at the end of a walk we all just dissolve away and get back to our own, personal Londons.
The Daily Constitutional is our way of saying, “Keep in touch.” Perhaps it’s a very buttoned-up and British way of saying, “Keep in touch.” But we love it when you do.
So that’s why we blog.
Happy Londoning
A London Walk costs £9 – £7 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.
