Staying in Edinburgh

Yeah, really far behind now, but want to chronical.

Edinburgh was fantastic. It is another city, like Plymouth, that far exceeded my expectations. The setting with the castle high above with the craig and tail, volcano landscape was amazing. I’m a castle junkie, and that was awesome to see.

I got in, checked into my not so great hotel room across the street from the rail station. It was very old, but not in a good way. I’m sure the bedspreads were very nice 40 years ago, and the carpets 60.

But, hotel rooms aren’t what I’m visiting, so out I went to the city. I went east toward Carolton hill. There are many monuments and such, and, of course, a geocache. It is called “Athens of the North” for good reason. Easy cache find. Also the only one I got in Scotland.

The next day I got up bright and early to catch a train to Stirling and a bus from there to Doune. I really wanted to make it to Doune castle where they did most of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail filming. I walked through the charming little town toward the castle. As I arrived at the entrance, I went to pull out some cash and found only change. All my notes were gone. Stupid shallow pockets. I estimate I dropped £30-50 on the bus. Guess I made someone’s day. It wasn’t mine though. Luckily they took cards for the small admission fee. The woman working there was very friendly and sympathetic. We actually spoke quite a bit. She asked if I wanted a free audio guide. Of course! It was well worth it, even if it wasn’t free.

I started it up and heard Terry Jones’s voice. Yay! It started something like “In 1974, some friends and I made a very silly movie here… 600 years previously…” it was a fantastic mix of real castle history and some Python mixed in. Mostly that was optional. “If you want to know why this room seems familiar to Python fans, press play now.”

It was fun because they included some retrospectives as well as playing film audio in relevant places. Nothing like hearing the Camelot song in the room they danced, or hearing how the prince just wants… to Sing! while looking out the window of “Swamp Castle”. Or the castle Anthrax scenes. that building was a lot of places!

I have to point out that visiting all these media inspired places, I am genuinely interested in the places apart from that. Those things are just the impetus for going there in the first place. And there’s also nothing like having Terry Jones describe toilet logistics of 600 years ago.

A brief failed attempt at finding another geocache was still worthwhile. Neat rural area north of the main part of Doune. I’m pretty sure that marks the furthest north I’ve ever been. On land at least.

Staying in Bristol

Well I’m actually on my way back from the Isle of Avalon right now, but more on that later.

I arrived in Bristol still relatively early in the day. I found my way in what I later discovered was the long way to the hotel. The City Inn Bristol. I highly recommend! It’s really close to the Temple Meads train station, so very convenient from that perspective. The woman checking me in was actually from vancouver, BC, so that was mildly amusing. It was funny when she told me where I could find the lifts and then “corrected” herself to say, “elevators.” Now, all the hotels I booked were roughly the same price. I tried to find the cheapest non-scary hotel, located close to rail transport that had wifi. Kind of amazing what that means in Bristol. The room is about four times the size of the tiny London hotel. It’s very clean. The have free iMacs in the room to use for free, connected to the Internet, skype set up, Mini bar, bathrobes, free DVDs to check out from reception, free real breakfast, etc.

Anyway I was there about 20 minutes max before I was on my way back to the rail station, the shorter pedestrian route through Temple Quay (pronounced “key” I’ve learned in recent years). I then took the train to Gloucester. (pronounced “Glaw’ster”) Next stop on the Harry Potter tour I seem to be on. They filmed some scenes in the cloisters there.

On the walk there, I noticed among the signs for various attractions around town was a sign for the Beatrix Potter attraction. I managed to walk right past it on the way to the cathedral without noticing. I think I even took a picture. Beatrix Potter was a very big part of my childhood. My godmother every year would give me a new book and the corresponding stuffed animal. Jemima Puddleduck and Tom Kitten were my favorites. I still have them, I believe. So, I had to go there!

I was unaware that one of her books was “The Tailor of Gloucester”. The illustration was actually of this shop. When the proprietors heard my American accent, they asked if I was with some kind of tour. I didn’t understand what she said. I told her I was travelling all by myself and wasn’t even staying in town. She was shocked and fascinated that I could do such a thing! So, apparently it’s not just Americans who are stuck in tiny bubbles. Still she enjoyed hearing all about the general game plan of my trip. I bought the book that inspired the shop/museum.

Then, back to Bristol! After three train trips that day, and staying in a real hotel for a change, and going on day 6 of travel, I decided to stay in for the evening and figure out how to do my laundry.

Got in one geocache too.

After about six hours sleep, I went downstairs, grabbed a quick breakfast, and rushed off to catch the first bus of the day to Glastonbury. (376@0800) There were two reasons to go early: one, the annual pilgrimage to the abbey was to start at noon and two, I’m still trying to leave open the possibility of stonehenge tonight for the solstice.

I arrived in town around 9:10. The bus drop off is right in town just outside of Glastonbury Abbey. I went straight in. They made sure I knew about the pilgrimage and said it shouldn’t interfere with my sightseeing too much. It made photography tricky. I rushed around through the ruins to get as much done as I could through the bound-to-be-crowded later spots. I then took my time and was able to actually spend well over two hours there. It was filling with pilgrims before I left.

From there, through a complicated series of events, I took a back way to climb up Glastonbury Tor. It involved crossing private lands. It was allowed though as they’d all provided right of way. Still felt weird though. There were a lot of cows and sheep along the way. The gates were designed to only allow non ranch animals through, such as humans. It was a fairly steep but short walk to the top. As I approached the very top of the Tor and St Michael’s tower, I burst out laughing. The top was full of cows! Watch your step!

I stayed there for awhile then made my way down a different path heading more towards town. Somehow I never passed by the direction of the geocache up there. There must have been a third path, but I was not aware of it.

I got to the bottom just outside the Chalice Well and Gardens. The well is supposedly where Joseph of Arimathea washed the Holy Grail when he was dropping it off up there. There were many areas withing the place which were geared for “quiet reflection”. It was a very lovely place. One spot in the middle is the lions head fountain. This is the designated place where people come from all around to drink from the waters. The sell empty bottles so you can fill up and have a couple glasses standing by as well. I didn’t intend to drink, but I figured, hey, I’m here, it’s a thing. I had a small sip. It was not tasty.

Not too far from there was the rural life museum. There was a geocache hidden outside. I found it. It was the first cache of the trip so far that I’d seen with any travel items. In this case, it had one travel bug (TB) from Germany with a goal of getting to Stonehenge then back home.

OK, OK, I get the point. Apparently I now *had* to go to Stonehenge for the solstice that night. I was about 90% until that point. I took it with me. Went very quickly through the museum while I was there then headed for the bus stop. I had about 45 minutes until the next bus so I got my second bacon and cheese pasty. It’s becoming a habit now. Also looked around all the new age shops that have flocked to Glastonbury over the years.

Waiting to catch the bus I was chatting with a woman originally from the Caribbean. We had an interesting time discussing language differences. We found out between the three countries we have three different words for eggplant/aubergine/something egg. And she was confused when she asked for a pear and got a fruit when she wanted what we call an avocado. It was sparked by me explaining I tell people here I’m a scientist, while back home, I tell them I’m a chemist. If I said that here, they’d think I was a pharmacist. I’ve yet to figure out a good way to convey not-a-pharmacist-chemist.

Back in Bristol for only an hour before taking the train to Salisbury. It was full and standing. I hadn’t known that was allowed. Got to Salisbury around 6:30 which is when they began the bus service towards Stonehenge. £9 for a return ticket. (return = round trip). I asked as I bought the ticket from the driver if I’d be able to come back tonight. “Sure, if you get bored that quickly.” Relieved, I made my way to sit down with knowledge that the last train was to leave for Bristol at 10.

It took over a half hour to get to the drop off, then a mile to walk (or run/walk in my case). I was so unbelievably excited to get up amongst the stones. Bag check upon entering. Huge police presence. Not too overcrowded yet as they’d just opened up recently.

I walked up and cautiously touched the closest stone.

I took a picture of the TB resting on one of the horizontal stones then asked for someone to take my picture standing in the middle of some stones, with and without the TB.

I wandered around, photographed like crazy. Tried some special effects shot. In retrospect, I fear I took a *lot* of highly overexposed pictures by accident because I forget to change settings back. I’m afraid to look! I finished up my first 12GB memory card during the Stonehenge trip.

Before I left, I made the rounds and carefully touched each upright stone as well as some that weren’t upright. I know I had an enormous grin on my face.

I made my way back to the bus drop off point and waited for the next coach. After everyone exited, I stepped on, “return to the rail station?”

“Sorry there’s no return services on these buses tonight. You’ll have to walk in to town.” I think my jaw dropped wide open. I mentioned that the previous driver there said I could. The guy directing traffic talked him into it though. “She’s got a nice smile.” OK… So he let me on. I rode back upstairs to the station. Not sure why they wouldn’t allow it, seeing as they’re going there anyway on their loop.

Arrived at the station, went in, saw the next bus leaving was for Bristol Temple Meads. It was one minute from departure. Ran out to the far platform, boarded 5 seconds before it left. Nice.

Eek. I’m falling way behind. I’ve actually finished my three night stay in Edinburgh and am back in London but I haven’t even finished the stay in Bristol yet!

The next day I was essentially out of my planned activities for staying in Bristol. This is mostly because I worked efficiently to finish the stuff I really wanted to do in case I wound up at Stonehenge all night and needed a day to recover. Since I got back to the hotel before midnight, this wasn’t much of a problem. I let myself sleep in, investigated a few things and decided that I didn’t include Wales in the trip and I should rectify that. After all, Bristol is practically right by the border. Without too much time for research, I decided on Cardiff. It is the capital, a large city, and a very short trip over from Bristol. I loaded a few geocaches and off I went.

I walked out of Cardiff central a ways and initially wasn’t very impressed. It took awhile to find the more user friendly parts. Once I did it was quite nice. Still not as fond of it compared to other cities on the trip.

I found a couple geocaches, ate some lunch outside. It turns out Cardiff Castle was having their annual “Joust!” event. This made it a less exciting day to visit and it was much more expensive. I decided to at least go in at the time of the main event to see some of the jousting.

Somehow having this medieval stuff going on around it made the castle seem fake somehow. I guess they have done a lot of renovation on it too, so it doesn’t have the “old” feel of the other castles around here.

I do love seeing the dragons everywhere. I wanted to try to find one last geocache which was going to also be an excuse to see a big park in town. I started out along the castle and began taking pictures of all the various animals along the wall. At this point a local, Kevin, decided to chat me up. He was a tad annoying. Just a tad though. My usual response to “where are you from?” is to say, “Seattle.” This is usually enough. They can usually already tell I’m American if they’ve heard me speak, so that’s not what they’re looking for. Kevin didn’t seem to get it, so I said America. “You’ve come all this way just to take pictures of these animal statues?” Um, yeah. That’s all I came for… Anyway, eventually Seattle rang a bell and he said “Ah, Nirvana!” heh. I got bored with all the photos, but felt obligated to continue. He left when I entered the park thankfully.

The park was nice. I crossed the bouncy bridge, found the spot where the geocache was hidden, and decided I didn’t need to find it that much. There were about 100 different metal fence posts I would have had to run my fingers behind. Plus spiders.

With that I walked back to the rail station through a possibly questionable neighborhood and returned to Bristol.

(in reality I’m now leaving Brussels for Amsterdam, so the lag time gets worse…)

The following morning I headed for the station and the longest train trip of the trip, to Edinburgh. About 6 hours. I had planned to hop off the train in Derby and then York, but the crowdedness of the train and fear of getting a seat on the next train dissuaded me. Also Derby seemed to be in a full industrial area, so not particularly engaging.

Staying in Plymouth

OK. I admit I was wrong about Plymouth. I thought it was a mistake to stay here at all. That I’d only want to pop in and see the Mayflower Steps and be done. It is absolutely amazing here. I write this as I’m dining outside on a cliff overlooking the sea. Fish and chips and Pinot Grigio.

The whole center of town is a long stretch which is pedestrian only. There are shops on either side and the middle is a large section of parkland. There are gardens, benches, streams, rockeries, monuments, etc. As you head south toward the water you get to the hoe, which is a very large grassy/forest area. There’s a light house and more monuments. This goes all the way to the cliffs looking out over the water. It is a brilliant view from all along here. Simply far surpassed my expectations.

The mayflower steps are not all that remarkable. I expected ad much, so I wasn’t particularly disappointed. What was strange is that as I approached, the place was packed with teenagers. There were a few taking turns climbing up to the roof of the monument and jumping off into the water. This despite the copious no swimming/ no diving signs. Not all that odd for teenage behavior, but then I overheard grey haired adults who were clearly in charge of them asking if anyone else wanted to jump off. I didn’t recognize the language the group predominantly spoke. I think I frightened them off with my picture taking. I don’t feel bad about that.

I turned around and saw a tourist info building. It was called the Plymouth Mayflower. They had £2 admission to a museum upstairs. I was barely there in time. Last admission 3:30, I was there at 3:15. I took copious pics in lieu of spending copious time. They were, as usual, perpetuating some inacurate info. Nothing major though that I could see.

After all this I went back to the hotel to drop off my excess belongings to go geocache in, no kidding, Central Park. I found three all told, plus one on the way there. It was a nice park to wander in. I’ve noticed most people have a very cavalier attitude about their dog handling. Most keep them off lead. I saw one guy with 5 all wandering freely. I often see dogs without being able to pick out which is their owner because they are running everywhere. And I’ve yet to see a single person pick up after their dog, despite stations for that. That part is not cool.

I spent so much time in all this that nearly all food options were closed. Even the tavern I checked out stopped serving food at 8. I was in the wrong part of town for trying to eat late, I was informed. Never the less, I was directed to a place called the Steak and Omelette around the corner. Got some spaghetti. It was comfort food and tasted good.

Used the rather interesting shower this morning at the B&B. Then had a quick B and headed to the train station. On to stay in Bristol for three nights now. I don’t anticipate doing much actually in Bristol, but we’ll see.

Staying in London

Day one in London is more or less an extension of the day before. I basically missed a night. Got to Heathrow, brushed my teeth, put in my contacts, went through Passport Control, found Heathrow Express, which unexpectedly validated my flex rail pass for day one. Got to Paddington station. Took tube to Earl’s Court and found hotel from memory. Checked in early. Super tiny room, tinier toilet, ground floor. Decided since it’s already a rail day to go to Oxford. On the train right now.

OK. I’ve now been in oxford about 2.5 hrs. I ended up giving in to the lazy and sleep deprivation by way of buying a hop on hop off tour ticket. Pretty sure I was the only one under 50. But, it meant I saw more than I would have otherwise and with more background info. I hopped off and was about to go down to Christ Church college on my own to try to pick out Harry Potter filming locations when I saw a sign for guided walking tours of places from HP, Morse, and Lewis. There was quite a wait as I’d just missed the last one. Hopefully I’m not making a mistake in doing it. Also had an allergy fit and then it started raining a bit after being crazy sunny and warm. Now I’m glad I dressed for cool weather. Oh, and I found my first geocache in the country here as well.

I think I can now safely declare that the weather in Oxford is bipolar.

The tour almost didn’t happen. The guy needs five participants minimum. He was a rotten salesman. We eventually had enough and headed out. (By the end of the tour we had 11.) Went to Jesus college, and several others I can’t remember  before heading to Christ Church college. That’s where the Harry Potter filming locations were. I realize I was an annoying tourist for that being my primary interest. I could tell the tour guide was masking his annoyance about showing people this fantastic college and having people just interested in the HP parts. To be clear, I greatly enjoyed the rest of it too, but I probably wouldn’t have been in the town at all if not for that.

Filming locations were the dining room/great hall. As we entered the building I saw a “no indoor photography” sign. My heart sank. There hadn’t been any such signs all day. I went up to the guide and quietly said, “really no photos?” He said to go ahead. It was really just a policy to avoid people using a flash. I’ve noticed far too many people don’t know how to turn theirs off. So, I took a bunch of pics. Some other visitors not in the tour saw me, looked shocked, and tried to silently tell me it wasn’t allowed. I stopped to appease them, but really because I had enough pics. Then the cloisters which are another filming site I recognized. He pointed out the tree under which Malfoy was turned into a ferret.

That done, I walked back to the train station a severe storm broke out. Lots of hail. Thunder, lightning. Rain started collecting in the overhead lights and pouring down. It was fascinating.

I was nodding off about twice a minute for the trip back to London. End result was I went to bed before 8pm. Not that I stayed asleep I woke up around midnight and it took hours to get back to sleep.

Day two. I couldn’t help it. I recreated day one of last trip and took the tube to Westminster station and took exit 3, literally right next to Big Ben’s tower. It’s so freaky. Since it was sunny, I went to do the London Eye first thing. (geocaching on the way) They were loading it up for the first time when I got on. It is pretty neat. It goes around once every half hour and there is ample opportunity for picture taking.

After that I was drawn in by the movieum folks. It was alright. The props were neat to see. They could have done a better job of indicating what was authentic and what was a reproduction.

Next up was Tate Britain. I first planned to do both Tates that day and take the Thames boat trip between them. I was quite art museumed out by the end though. Instead, I walked back up to Westminster, along the south bank, and caught the tube at Embankment. Went over to Hyde Park. Wandered toward Kensington Gardens. There was a fair amount of geocaching in all this. It was neat to finally see all this. I hadn’t gone there last time.

I went out for Indian food at Masala Zone. I normally don’t like to do sit down restaurants while solo travelling. It was ok though. Food was good, but nothing super spectacular.

Then night pictures around Big Ben, London Eye, and Westminster Abbey.

Day three. Return to Westminster Abbey. It was so amazing last time. It just kills me to not be able to take any photos in there. It would be a zoo if it was allowed. I’m starting to think it’s my favorite London attraction. This time I took some notes so I could better remember everything. I took my time going through to make sure I saw everything. I think I was there for nearly three hours.

Next up, tube to Mansion House, cross millenium bridge, take pics of Globe Theatre (because I was there), and visiting Tate Modern. This Tate is generally more interesting. It’s a little out there in some respects.

Next, a return visit to The British Museum. Admittedly, I mostly just hit the highlights and my favorites. I didn’t even use a map this time. The Rosetta Stone was the first stop. Always a big crowd and tricky to get good pics. I waited my turn to move up and took both SLR and iPhone pics.

Quick diversion about doing the mobile uploads. I really like sharing what I’m doing on the trip in nearly real time. However, I know these weak iPhone pics are probably all most people will see of the trip. It makes it hard to decide if/what to upload, when I’d really rather people look at the good pictures if I had to choose only one.

After the British Museum, I hit a wifi spot and searched “longest escalator London” the result was Angel station. Apparently the longest escalator in Western Europe. So exciting! That involved a change at King’s Cross. I’d heard they’d relocated Platform 9 3/4 due to construction, but I wasn’t sure where. I headed toward where it used to be and recognized it surprisingly easily. I wandered around the area, not sure where to go. There was nothing obvious. Oh, except for the giant sign saying, “Looking for Platform 9 3/4?” on bright orange. Oh. Heh. More Americans hit the old area as I was heading to the new. I troubled them to take an iPhone pic for me when they got there as it seemed worth sharing. They seemed too lost for me to worry about handing over the phone to them.

Followed along to Angel to take exciting video footage of the longest escalator ride. Both ways.

Got on the tube headed the wrong way for the first time ever. Easily corrected at the next stop. It was the height of rush hour though. I packed in like a sardine and barely fit. I thought to myself, “It’s amazing how much I love the tube even when it’s crowded.” famous last words (thoughts). Even more people piled in back at Angel. I was squished to the middle, holding the very high ceiling bar. As we approached King’s Cross, we stopped before the station. If I were prone to panic attacks or claustrophobia, it would have absolutely kicked in. I felt I couldn’t breathe. I started to think I was going to pass out. I carefully kept my knees bent and tried to breathe slowly and carefully. It took way too long! Even if it hadn’t been my stop I would have bailed there. I was nervous to get on the Piccadilly line, but it was largely uncrowded.

Went to Piccadilly circus, which was a refreshing openness. Loitered there for a bit. Used wifi to send mini-updates.

Then back to the hotel and sleep! I was in bed by 8pm, which is noon back at home. I woke up at 11. Was up until 3am. I have no time zone now.

I’m now on the train to Plymouth as I’ve typed out most of this. Passed Exeter St Davids. Water! Cliffs! Neato.

Leaving Seattle

For the most part, I wrote these blogs on the road using the wordpress app on my iPhone. I’ve been back for three weeks now, so I should probably start doing something about uploading them… Apologies in advance that they get absurdly detailed on rather boring details. I was passing the time, alone, and wanting to document everything so I’d remember later. I’ll probably be editing to add in various details and hope to add photos to later entries. I’ll also roll them out over time a bit so as not to overwhelm anyone who will actually take the time to read these.

FYI, my flight left Seattle at 6:35AM, was set to arrive in NY at 3:00PM. The second leg departed from NY at 6:00PM to arrive at about 7:00AM in London.

On the flight to New York. Won the first round of trivia on the plane. Now watching Mythbusters on satellite about yawning contagion. Yeah, can’t stop yawning. The 3.5 hours sleep last night probably isn’t helping. Ideally I would stay awake for this flight then sleep on the flight to London arriving at 7AM. In reality, if sleep wants to happen, I should probably let it.

I just paid $6 for a movie on a tiny screen. Milk. Must pay attention.

Movie is still on, but I just wanted to point out I can see Chicago from here, over Lake Michigan right now.

There certainly are a lot of peanuts and peanut products on this plane. Seems so strange now.

Finished the movie just under the wire. Starting descent. Have to turn off phone momentarily.

This is so weird. I’m at JFK. I got an automated phone call telling me the flight is one hour delayed. The internet tells me it’s one hour delayed. Nothing at the airport indicates any kind of delay. Charging phone and the reserve charge thing.

That was a very enjoyable if not productive second flight. The plane departed late because it was going to be a shorter than planned flight. Apparently they can’t land at heathrow before a certain time. They left an hour late and arrived early. The plane was a 2-3-2 configuration. I had a window in the back. An 18 year old guy sat next to me. I assumed he’d be annoyed by anyone not in his age group and assumed I’d be left alone to try to sleep or to play with the games or watch the free on demand movies. He looked oddly familiar to me. I’m not sure how we started up the conversation, but we ended up chatting for hours. And not in the “will you please stop talking to me” way. You see, he’s a shockingly well travelled, educated, and knowledgable teenager. Turns out he’s been to over 60 countries and has grand plans for more. It took a lot of encouragement for him to believe I really wanted to hear his travel stories. It was neat to see someone else able to rattle off names of African nations while pointing to a blank map of the continent. Anyway, it was fun to hear the srories. He did enjoy the conversation too, BTW. He was so pleased by all of his travel so far that day including meeting rapper Ludacris at the airport in Miami and loaning him a dime. Heh. He still had another long flight to Helsinki to go.

But it meant little time for sleep. I played a couple movies/tv shows and curled up in uncomfortable to my neck positions. I wasn’t aware so much of the sleep, but apparently I got some. I woke up to find that they had served breakfast. My seat mate had grabbed one for me, thankfully. Large dinner, breakfast, free games, and movies. I love international flights.

So with still little sleep under my belt for the equivalent of two nights I finally arrived in London at about 7am.

OK, that was kind of an annoying day

I don’t have time to go into it, since I just got back to the hotel at almost 10pm and I have to get up by 5 tomorrow morning. I even gave in and bought some KFC because it was easy, fast, known, and convenient. I haven’t eaten since 6:30 this morning and that was just a muffin.

The good stuff that happened today, and I’ll expand later:

I toured Windsor Castle.
I bought new (but really expensive) shoes at Windsor, so my feet are becoming happy again.
I saw stonehenge.
I toured the Roman Baths in Bath.
I became closer to an interesting group of strangers because uprisings can tend to do that.

The bad stuff, I’ll similarly expand later:

The tour company, Premium Tours.

As to when, I’ve no idea. I’ll be out even longer tomorrow on both ends of the spectrum.

First full London day

OK, for the record, I’m all fed. I went out because I wanted to confirm something for tomorrow anyway. OK, on with the experience.

I woke up early yet again. I got the great breakfast buffet downstairs with a garden view. I then got on the tube and headed in the direction of Westminster. I was going to arrive before Westminster Abbey was to open, but I knew there was plenty to see in the area. I left the tube through one of the 6 (!) exits from the station. The maps inside convinced me to take the exit closest to Big Ben/Parliament. I crossed whichever bridge that is and there were many good pictures to be had. I was in the right place to hear it strike 10 and 11 as well a few interims from 9:15-11. Got pics of the London Eye as well.

I can’t believe how many statues there are! I got to Parliament Square and walked up the street toward Trafalgar Square. The statues are even in the middle of this road. I was a little surprised to spot the entrance to Downing street since I wasn’t looking for it. I took a picture of the well guarded entrance. Probably can’t tell what it is though. I learned to appreciate the signs on the street telling me to look left and look right. It’s all backwards and confusing. More pictures all around the square, including having someone take my picture in front of the fountain. I also picked up some souvenirs while I was at it. I walked back toward Parliament square via Horse Guards Way which is the East end of St. James Park. This also means that I circumnavigated the treasury building. Which if I’m to believe what others are telling me, was the the location we see for the Watcher’s Council exterior when something interesting happened in season 7 ep 9. (bitterkat, have you gotten that far yet?)

Then, back at Parliament square, I went around to Westminster Abbey. I went in for the tour. It’s a very organized tour. You must follow in a particular order. I was surprised at all of the people buried there. Particularly the artistic types in poets corner. Laurence Olivier? Very startling to see after all the royalty and people from the 1600′s and such. Hey, here’s a list some of the people, so I don’t have to remember them all. Most notable of the artist plots I saw are Geoffrey Chaucer, Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Lewis Carrol. There’s also a Shakespeare memorial, but he’s not buried there. I actually didn’t see the scientists. I would have liked to see Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin’s plots. Although that latter one amuses me just a bit. Kind of frustrating to not be allowed to take pictures. I was sitting there knowing I’d forget things far too quickly. And I have.

When I finished in the Abbey, I had to rush to Buckingham Palace. It was to be my only opportunity to witness the changing of the guard. I knew it was a big attraction, but in my wildest dreams I didn’t expect it to be quite *that* many people. There were thousands, it was packed. You couldn’t even go to the center part because it was wall to wall people. I could hardly see anything most of the time. There were two band processions in and two out. And during the middle, they played a Beatles medley. It seemed rather odd. They started with Hard Day’s Night. That seemed kind of amusingly appropriate. I can’t remember the middle song, but they ended with Hey Jude. It was kind of funny to watch the recognition on people who didn’t speak English. I was near a group of Japanese twentysomethings. After a few notes they excitedly said something that was clearly how they would pronounce/refer to the song. Many people were singing along, and you could tell many of them didn’t know the words natively. It was actually rather touching. There was applause after Hey Jude. Eventually it was all done, but I felt it went on far too long since I could barely see anything.

I decided I’d had all of Buckingham Palace that I could take. I decided not to do any of the tours. I headed for the Victoria tube station. Along the way though, I stopped for some fish and chips at a tiny little restaurant. They were quite good. And they advertised that they also take Euros and US Dollars. Considering I’m wandering around with *four* different types of currency right now, that’s pretty handy. (FYI, US dollars, Euros, Pounds, Swiss francs.) I bought the F&C with pounds and a coke with euros. It was very good.

I took the Victoria line to the central line to St. Paul’s station. I poked my head into the cathedral and debated on whether it would be worth the admission charge, on top of all the other admissions I had payed/was planning on paying. I wasn’t sure if I’d really get to see more than I’d already seen from entrance. Especially since I knew I was on a bit of a time constraint with the Tower of London still on my plan for the day. I decided to go for it. I’m glad I did. Not only was it beautiful, and it really was, I also got a ridiculously intense workout. You can climb up the dome. (click dome if the link doesn’t take you there) I was shocked when the spiraling wooden stairs kept going and going and going. I thought the whispering gallery was the end. I wanted to walk the complete circle around the dome. Half way around, I discovered you do get to keep going. Another ridiculously long climb, on metal and stone this time, and I was at an outdoor viewing area. This is also the first time you can use your cameras on this tour. At this point, I understood what the signs meant and knew there was another upwards entrance somewhere. I eventually found it and managed to make it all the way to the golden gallery. It was again outside and near the top of the cathedral dome. According to the site, a 280 foot climb and 532 steps. Everyone I was near laughed at the “no smoking” signs posted in the stairway side benches. Yeah, like you’d have enough breath! It was a beautiful view. And the sprinkles were quite welcome. I desperately wanted water at this point. I hurried back down. Went down to the crypt quickly didn’t spend much time anywhere there, except at the cafe to buy some liquid refreshment. It was 3:00 already, and I knew the tower closes at 6.

I took the central line to the district for tower hill station. I was in line to buy my almost 15 pound ticket when a woman came by and asked if I was waiting to go to the tower. I said I was in line to buy my ticket, yes. She then handed me a voucher for a free admission. She had an extra given to her that she didn’t need and it expired the next day. I thanked her and didn’t almost believe it. I got out of line and went to the group ticket stand like the voucher said and was given my free ticket. The last Yeoman tour started about 10 minutes after my arrival. He was quite amusing. About 30 minutes in, however, a rain storm broke out and he cut the tour short by taking us to the chapel where he told us more stories. Then I wandered about on my own. Saw the ravens, went into several towers, saw stuff. Overall really cool. My castle love had me drooling. I really wanted to buy a bottle of mead at the gift shop in the white tower. It was so hard not to. I really don’t have room for it, and I don’t know if there are laws against bringing it back either. I did buy a couple packets of spiced mead mix though. That made me feel a little better.

Then I came back to the hotel and pealed off my shoes. What an exhausting full day! I meant for this one to be a little bit of everything. Paris will likely be similar. The other two days should hopefully be a little slower.

Logistics first

Today was the big whirlwind day. I’m going to do two blog entries about it. I’d rather have the one that’s actually about the activities on top, so I’ll start with some behind the scenes discussion.

First of all, and this may seem entirely obvious, it’s a bad idea to ever *ever* buy a new pair of shoes the day before you go on an extended trip because you think they’ll be more comfortable. This is mostly a problem when they’re the only shoes you have with you. Sure, it’d be great if they are in fact more comfortable, but the problems if you’re wrong far outweigh the benefits. And it doesn’t help to walk on cobblestone.

OK, one more logistical issue, I’m hungry. If I leave the hotel, I have to put shoes on again. Gah! Think I’ll check the hotel food options before committing to that.

Second, I love subways. I wish we had one. In New York I was very impressed. In London I’m quite enjoying the tube. New York’s subways were in better shape, but the London Underground is even more useful, at least for me as a tourist. London’s roads are completely insane. You can tell it’s an old city. And street signs are extremely scarce. I don’t know how anyone can figure anything out. So using the tube, it’s nice that you can get to the vicinity and only have to keep track of a few roads. At some of stops I’ve even seen maps up showing where the various attractions are. It’s helped me a lot. I’ve even taken it on some fairly short trips. That’s partly because of that last paragraph. Also, because I have unlimited use with my visitor card, it’s to my benefit to get my money’s worth with by taking many trips. Even though the city buses are also free for me, I’m easily opting for the tube.

The status of the Tube: It’s definitely good enough now. You can get to pretty much every stop in central London, but you just may not be able to take what would have been the fasted way. At present, the circle line is completely closed and the Piccadilly line is mostly closed. The Piccadilly line is open to Heathrow at least, so that’s good. I’ve been able to use the district line when I would have been using the circle. And I’ve been using the district line a lot. The Piccadilly closure can be dealt with by using any of the other N/S lines and cutting across on the Central if necessary. The Hammersmith & City line is also closed in places, but I haven’t seen any need for it personally. That is the only one that has completely closed off stations.

Add’l tube comments: Most tube drivers are very diligently reminding everyone to take their belongings and report anything left unattended. One of my drivers today even reminded everyone twice while I was riding that we shouldn’t become complacent now as a result of the arrests yesterday. People seem to be fine though. On my way in last night I might have scared some people though. I had my rolling suitcase behind me going up a ramp. I tried to spin to change hands. I lost hold of it and it crashed to the ground with a loud pop. I think I heard some nervous reactions. I tried to look around apologetically.

There’s a lot of minding going on here. Of course, I’ve heard all about the “mind the gap” announcements on the tube, but I didn’t realize how mindful Londoners were. We’re minding our heads, the steps, and I think at least a couple others that I can’t remember any more.

Platform 9 3/4

I just got back from an evening trip to King’s Cross station. It seemed
a good thing to do on my first evening when I had no other plans. And
since I had nothing else to do up there, I was able to bring my Harry
Potter book with me. I had to take 2 tube lines, but it was really
easy. I got to King’s Cross and followed the signs to the rail station.
I followed the signs to the platforms….

They have created a platform 9 3/4 on the wall with an official looking
sign and everything. I took a picture of it. I looked around for good
candidates to take my picture, but everyone seemed rushed. No apparent
tourists or anything. I then took out my book and sat down at platform
9 3/4 and started reading. After a page or so, a guy walked by and
asked if I was ready “‘arry Pottuh”. I said I was. He smiled and said
it was a good place for that. I asked him to take my picture and he
obliged. So now I have a picture of me reading Harry Potter at Platform
9 3/4 at King’s Cross station. Hee.

I sat down to read a bit more and after a couple more pages, I saw a
flash. I laughed and tried to get out of their way. But they loved that
I was in the picture. They even had me hold the book up for another
one. Despite their having American-like accents, they commented on my book
looking different. Maybe they’re Canadian? I don’t know. I think Canada
gets the UK version.

Anyway, it was a fun, silly, quick excursion. So now I can check that
off my list.

I also was able to get a universal -> UK style adapter in the Zurich
airport. It’s not a coverter, but luckily my laptop is rated to 240 V.
So now I have free high speed internet access and endless power to the
computer. Phew!

The hotel is also really nice. I have a lovely garden view out my
window. Can’t wait for the breakfast tomorrow! Yum!

next

I go to London tomorrow following a successful business trip. (Did I mention I’m drunk”"?) I tried to switch to earlier, but it would cost 200 dollars. not worth it. it’s so very pleasant here. all the old villages. castles, lake, farmland. not what i pictured. I’m sure it’s a southern Germany thing. we drove through switzerland again today on the way to konstanz.

I’ll spend a lot of time in zurich tomorrow. I need to buy converter/adapter that works with 3 prongs. mine only 2. we finally found one in the company that we modified to work, but noow i don’t have it. They claim they sell them in the airport. They say they’re not allowed to sell what I need in Germany. That makes a lot of sense.