It was almost five years ago that I left London, returning to Australia for three years before then heading to Houston, Texas for two and half years. So it has been with a great deal of excitement to now return again, a little older, heaps wiser and more travelled. You can't help but make comparisons from the moment you step off the plane. Rightly or wrongly, even jet lagged, I found myself staring our the window as we made our way through the traffic and along winding roads to our temporary digs, fondly comparing and pondering the differences between London and Houston. 
The first and most obvious thing you notice is the roads and the cars on those roads. Houston is big and flat, sprawling with freeways crisscrossing the landscape. Loaded with trucks, or pick ups, semi trailers, all manor of big American car and all.....speeding and zigzagging through the traffic, rushing to their next destination. It can be frightening even for this country girl who doesn't mind planting the foot! 
London....yep, it has highways but no where near the size and breadth of Houston. And certainly the cars are small, and I mean small. There are some fancy European sports cars, lorries, and buses, and generally all sticking to the speed limit which is 50 or 60mph! But then you get into the heart of things.
The streets in London were, in the main, laid down hundreds of years ago and intended for horse and carriage! So the closer into Central London you get, the more courteous manoeuvring needed and the slower the pace. The streets are lined with all manor of architecture but whats lovely are the terraced houses and old shops fronts.
But to be honest, what stands out most obviously is the people on the street. London is pedestrian and cycling friendly, Houston isn't really. While there are pockets of roadways marked for cycling, Texas is truly a place built for cars. In London, anytime night or day, there are people out on the street walking or cycling to their destination. Often the surge of people on the footpath is such that they spill out onto the road and the cars are restricted to a single lane. That would only happen in Houston on days when some event is on. But London has footpaths and well maintained ones too, wide and inviting to walk on. In fact, within an hour of finishing unpacking, the lure of London's streets and the Thames was such that we were out pounding the footpath and enjoying walking and being car free!! I enjoyed Houston but I did miss being able to get to where I wanted to go, simply by foot. Both Perth and London invite you to go for a walk and challenge you to see how far you might wander before realising it. I can easily spend 3 hours walking without even noticing! And of course, when the feet, knees and lets face it, the whole body just says "enough", there is the Tube which will speed you back to where you need to be.
I am looking forward now to sharing everything, from my perspective, that makes London one of the greatest cities to experience!
