When I turn 46, I say "No more nonsense": London Calling (Day I)

Monday 30 September 2013

London Calling (Day I)

CLICK HERE for some musical background to this post.

I was in London for a few hours last week with Andrew, Yiman, and Holmes, but today is my first all-day London trip. To get there I shall join the crowds of people taking the train. Yesterday in Crawley I saw a bunch of fitting gray hats at the local market, but refrained from getting one. I don't think it would go well with my checkered shorts ;-)

From the train

The RED MAN is referring to the one in the traffic light

London Cathedral

Sir Isaac will have to wait until tomorrow

My first experience was a disappointment. One of the MUSTs on my itinerary is a visit to the grave of Sir Isaac Newton (Hey what would this astronomer do without gravity?) . When I got to Westminster Abbey, signs and some red-clad phony-looking guys pointed out that the Abbey was closed for tourist purposes but open for Worshiping. I had an inkling that the guardians wouldn't have understood that this scruffy guy with a backpack and a camera, clad in shorts and a hoodie, was here to worship at the grave of one of history greatest genii. But not to worry: Tomorrow is Monday, and most of those who were worshiping today will be sinning again tomorrow, so I'll come back to visit Sir Isaac tomorrow.

He's in there somewhere !

Houses of P

One of the weirdest sights was a African British (I don't know what the proper word is but I'm guessing he was from the Caribbean Islands) playing a steel drum. I had never seen one of those (the drum) in the flesh but I recognized the sound from a distance. The weird part was that the music being played was the theme from Dr. Zhivago.

How much ? Oh ,get stuffed!

What keeps the EYE from weeping

2 minutes later I was at Embankment underground station. I had planned to eat at the Wetherspoon at Victoria station and decided to take the Underground. Hey, I mastered the Paris Metro, the Hong Kong MTR and even the Shenzhen MTR on the first try, so how difficult could The Underground be, given the machines speak English? It wasn't a language barrier that prevented me from taking the UG to Victoria Station though. After I typed in Victoria, the machine dared to display 4.50 pounds on its little window. Granted, it might have not been a direct connection, but that is more than 6 bucks for a 20 minute walk. So I left and after a minute of reflection decided to take a City River Cruise to the Tower of London for 9.50 pounds ! Definitely worth the money; the robe-tier, passenger-counting, tour guide was amazing !