North Central London

For those who were unable to see us, we went to Abbey Road and hung out at the live web camera to wave at everyone back in the States. It is at 4:08pm London time if you want to go back and see it.

We also went to Neal's Yard at Covent Garden, which is a richly decorated, beautiful neighborhood. The entire area called Seven Dials (I think) around Covent Garden may be my favorite in London.

Also on the agenda was the famous yet fake 221b Baker Street. They have done a good job of making a door on a street look and feel like it is part of a story. Sherlock Holmes and "friends" lived he in the famous stories, though not , obviously, in real life. They kept it fairly authentic, from having syringes for his drug habits, to glass vials for holding opium. There is a museum and a store. A whole selection of pipes and other memorabilia from movies and books, new and old interpretations were viewable and mostly for sale in the museum store. For those who like Sherlock Holmes, I highly recommend the modern series Sherlock. It is British but each episode of the season is basically a movie. Sherlock in this version is also known as the villain in the newest Star Trek movie.

Along with 221b Baker Street, we ate dinner at the Sherlock Holmes Pub. I had been there when I was last in London and liked it. This time we ate upstairs where they have their own "museum" which was pretty cool, but everything was behind glass so pictures just reflected. They had a mockup of the Hound of Baskerville and lots of other individuals displays along with the replica common room of 221b.

We have more pictures but they are on my phone.

On the way home we went by Regent Street where they a preparing to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Queen's Coronation.

Last Day on the Town

I decided it would be a waste to be in London and not visit some football venues. We started with Stamford Bridge and ended at Emirates. Kudos to anyone but my international friends who know what teams I am talking about. Hint: coach thieves and Gooners.

Went back to Covent Garden, which may be my favorite neighborhood in London. Love Neal's Yard, the Jubilee Markets, and the Seven Dials. We ate some seafood paella and them creeps for dessert (not the same shop). But it was getting cold and raining again so we are back at the hotel getting warm and rested before going out for our final night.  

British Museum

The British Museum is huge. Much too large to really cover in one trip. We spent 4 hours there and I would say barely saw anything. It was a great visit though and if we had time or lived here, would visit regularly. Interesting story, two boys were getting tired and so their mother, a Brit of middle eastern descent, tells them; "fine, we will just stay at home next holiday and (she) will unlock all the TV channels so their brains will rot and they can look forward to working at McDonalds for the rest of their lives."  I had a hard time not laughing, mostly because even here they use it as an example of a dead end job.

Heather wanted lunch at Harrods...which means she spent our entire lunch budget for the trip of our pieces of sushi and some soy beans. Not quite but cheap is not really in the Harrods vocabulary. But we did have the Horse Guards just casually ride by (on horses of courses) while we were sitting in the  park.

Heather then made me take her to Ditsch Pretzel, a crappy store in the Hammersmith Station. Much like a Ditsch it was mostly disappointing. A little crusty, salty on the outside and bland in the center once past the thin crust. :-)

A Long Walk

Started at the National Gallery and viewed some great, and many not so great, classic paintings. Forgive the spellings: Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Cezzane, Van Gogh, Van Dick, Bernini, Monet (not.  To be confused with that hack Manet) and many more. Perhaps the most interesting was an exhibit by Michael Landy, who created a 3D interpretation (read moving sculptures) inspired by some of the paintings of saints. Seriously though, look up www.nationalgallery.org.uk for info as I can not describe his exhibit in writing and do it justice. Stunning if I had one word. No pictures of course, it is an art gallery.

The walk was from The Tower of London up the river to London Bridge (which is really lame and the original one is in Arizona) to what I call the Harry Potter Bridge front he sixth movie, aka Millennium Bridge or so I am told. There we visited the Globe Theater (Shakespeare) and St. Paul's Cathedral, which is huge and impressive. Not sure how far the walk was, but I finally got a blister on my foot.

Afterward we went and hung out in Hyde Park. Tried to go on the lake but OMG expensive, so we sat in the vine tunnels which is beautiful.

To end the night Heather demanded that we go to Kings Cross Station to try and find Platform 9 3/4. They have turned this area into a real profit for the station. It has a store, photo ops and more to take up you time. Pretty neat actually, as they have all the wands, sweaters, ties and scarves for all four houses, and more.

UEFA Champions League

These pictures from the festival. The Stratford area has really been developed since I was there two years ago. There is a huge mall where there once was ghetto and the Olympic Park has been completed and then shifted to other uses, such as festivals like this.

My man Figo, #7