The West End

Fortunately he neither kicked nor bit me. This was just a short walk from 10 Downing Street. One of the few places where I have seen armed police officers in the UK. Most of the time, they don't have guns, and I have no idea how they get people to obey them.

This war memorial struck me as pretty cool. Each of the statues represents a different part of the armed services.

This is the statue right in front of Buckingham Palace. I caught the changing of the guards last time I was here, so I didn't bother to fight my way through the teeming mass of tourists this time. Queen Victoria is a very unattractive woman, although it is difficult to see from this distance.

Statues near Knightsbridge. I took my lunch here and was asked for directions, until they heard my accent and ignore any advice I could possibly have given them.

It's a tough to choose between the Constabulary and the Horse Guards Parade. Both hold so much promise.

Circle Line Party

Saturday night was the last night for drinking on the tube, at least according to the new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. In response a number of people began organizing parties to enjoy one last drink under London. My sister, her roommate, friend, and I decided to check out the festivities.

We started with beer on the DLR:

After switching to the over ground and then descending into Embankment Station we saw the first signs of the party. People were and had been converging on the Circle Line all day. The Circle Line is a portion of the tube that travels in a circle without an endpoint. This car passed us going clockwise on the line, while we waited for a counterclockwise train.

As we waited, we were charmed by this group of young drinkers who came prepared with a makeshift table, wine bottle, and cups to have a delightful and dainty last drink.


At Embankment there are two different lines that use the track, both the District and Circle lines. We had to wait through a bunch of district line trains before we finally got on a Circle line. In our haste to board we did not notice that we had gotten on the hooligan car. The atmosphere was essentially that of a jungle. It was moist and the lights bulbs had been hit out of place. People were chanting and punching the car walls and it was generally an unpleasant environment. After riding for a few stops we made the decision to switch to a different car.


At this point we joined a much better scene in another car on the same train. Inside there was a drummer and the guy pictured below, who was providing accompaniment on a kazoo. It was actually pretty excellent. Everyone was having a good time and things seemed to have entered a good phase.


Then we stopped at King's Cross and never started again. Rumor has it that there was a fight at one end of the train, but regardless of the cause the powers that be decided that the best way to defuse the situation was the kick everyone out of the station and shut it down for a little bit. Here is a shot of everyone leaving the train and giving a little vocal feedback to the TfL workers.


Overall, a very fun night.

More Wanderings

I realize that this blog is getting very picture heavy, but I hope you enjoy these.

I was walking just east of Westminster Bridge and came upon these statues of characters that you might recognize. I guess these are dedicated to Camson and Dan.



I was on the North bank of the Thames in a small park when I found this statue of John Stuart Mill. The engraving is hard to make out, but you will have to trust me when I tell you it says John Stuart Mill. I really love all of the parks that the British have spread about London. It is really too bad that they exist in London where April Showers bring May Showers and I will bet that May Showers will bring June Showers.


Below is a picture I took today while exploring the British Museum, which I somehow always get lost while traveling to from Tottenham Court Station. This in the inner area of the museum. There are exhibition halls surrounding this area on all sides. In the center the cylindrical hall is the reading room, which was unfortunately closed today. I sat in it during my last visit to London and it was pretty cool, I hope to return again sometime this summer. I love the glass ceiling that they have covering this inner courtyard. While walking around inside I was carrying my Rick Steves' London 2006 book because it has a British Museum Tour inside it and I figured everyone there was a tourist so there was no reason to be shy. I passed a woman who was holding the Rick Steves' London 2008 book and so I said, "Nice book," but she didn't hear me so I just looked like I was shouting randomly at people, which I guess I was.


I was near Oxford Circus looking for a small journal to carry around with me and keep a record of this summer, when I caught a bus to get back to the station and it went a different direction than I expected. Although it got me a little lost I saw this statue out the window. It is of William Pitt. If he were alive I am sure he would appreciate the fact that I always said William Pitt Union rather than simply the Union while at Pitt, despite the criticism of any number of you truncators.


Okay, that is good for now.

River Walk

Last Friday, I spent the morning sorting out my bank account in London, then set off for Waterloo Station to begin an afternoon of sightseeing. I had interviewed for a job the previous day and had another appointment scheduled for the coming Tuesday, and finally felt momentarily carefree enough to enjoy the city.

I started off by crossing Westminster Bridge under the watchful gaze of this bemused lion:


I stood with hundreds of other tourists getting the same pictures of Big Ben and the Parliament building before scrambling through traffic to reach a square of grass that seems to be the semi-permanent home to a group of camping war protesters and a number of statues including one of Churchill. Unfortunately, as near as I could tell there was no way to get to the park except by jaywalking, which seems to be odd for a park with mostly inward facing statuary. The photo below is efficiently enough self-describing:
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After eating my sandwich in the park, I started my stroll along the south bank of the Thames, moving west to east with my eventual destination being the London Bridge rail station.

I passed a number of cool things, but I thought I would post some pictures from the Tate Modern where Nissan was sponsoring some sort of X-gamesesque show. It was cool at first, but the bikers had to keep going through the series of ramps again and again, and some weren't putting much effort in by the time I got there. Not being sure about the etiquette of heckling in London, I moved on, but I did get these pictures:




I ended up checking out the Borough Market, which is an outdoor market that is mostly covered by different overhangs slash bridges. It is pretty cool with lots of fresh produce and places to grab a quick snack. I bought a peach and some almond baklava for £1. That ended that days trek, but I figure I might try to get caught up by posting some other stories from my time here.

Everyone is Lazy

I was driving home tonight from seeing Iron Man, and noticed numerous orange road construction signs strewn about the shoulder of the road. None of them represented a current warning or notice. There was no construction, no need to detour, and most definitely no work ahead. Seeing these cosntruction signs left up long after the end of their effective dates annoyed me at first, but then I remembered something. I haven't changed my google chat status from Brb in like two years. I guess I can cut the PennDOT crew a little slack.