Thursday, September 11, 2008

London in a Day


London is very manageable by foot. I don't know if you know this or not. The main parts can be reached by walking briskly and foregoing the pedestrian walking signals. Let's see, I woke up and from where I'm staying off of Tavistock Square, I walked down Southampton Row until I got to the River Thames. From there I walked South to Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. Didn't feel like going inside the Abbey, so I walked thru St. James Park and up to Buckingham Palace. The guards were not changing today, so, I thumbed my nose at that and headed to Saville Row to pick out a suit, which much to my surprise, they didn't have my color. FYI: It's mauve with teal pinstripes. From there I went to the Royal Academy and walked in thru the back entrance and pretended to be a student, that is until a security guard asked me what I was doing and I said I was just following the kid in front of me. Which I was. I then went to the regualr entrance and saw some art from old English Masters. There was some nice work from John Medjeski as well. After that I went to Piccadilly Circus. Not really the circus I was hoping for. Although I did notice a Starbucks or two. After that I walked back to my place of rest off of Tavistock Square and began to read Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. I got 17 pages in until I met up with my Mom. She took a nap and I went back out to check out the Tate Modern Museum and the Globe Theatre. I'll have to go back to both in October to really get a better feel of them. On my way there I walked down Fleet Street and after the Tate I crossed the Millenium Bridge and stopped off at St. Paul's Cathedral. London is great for walking. I took pictures of a lot of junk that I'll be sure to post and that no one will look at but me in 4 months. I guess that's how traveling goes. It's only interesting for the traveller. That is unless you are Leigh Fermor. The greatest travel writer since Homer.


Good day all. Whence next I'll post, I'll be in a waterside town in Croatia.



2 comments:

Maggie said...

I'm so glad to see that you've left on your trip! How exciting! Please blog often. I'm so glad to see you blogging too! Did you know that I am?
www.magsabroad.blogspot.com
Blogspot is the bomb.
I'm sorry I was not around to see you in London. When do you return to LA?
Safe travels!
Maggie.

Unknown said...

I was going to tell you to go to Tate and St. Paul's. You should also check out the National Gallery for art when you go back. If you're there on a Sunday of course Speaker's Corner is right up your alley. I liked to sit in Hyde Park by the Peter Pan statue. It's where Berry liked to write. Hmmmm... get a Time Out and go to a club. You've got to go to a London techno-style club - maybe just go to Ministry of Sound, it's the most famous and doesn't really start going until about 3am. Eat at wagamama for ramen. Get fish and chips in Tottenham Square. Covent Gardens has cool people watching and a weird shopping market where you can buy cheap knock-off clothes. Portabello Market is great for that on the weekends (in Notting Hill area).

the Imperial War museum and the National Museum (or something like that - it's where they put all the stuff they stole form other countries) are pretty cool too.

I'll have to look through my journal for the sweet local pubs we went to.

also for a day trip the cemetary where Marx is buried is cool.