Day Four started bright (not quite, more predawn) and early as I made a 2.5 hour journey by train into London. Leeds, where I am currently staying, is either a party town or England in general must like going out because at 4:30 AM the clubs around town, were still going and people were still out. Wow to be young and stupid again! Riding backwards all the way into London is always kind of goofy. The countryside reminds me a little bit of Ohio. Rolling hills with livestock and some farms. Towns pop up then dissolve back to countryside. Coming into London was very different from coming into New York City. On the train into NYC you can feel the city gobbling up the train but London just sort of creeps up on you and really doesn't punch you in the face like NYC. Arriving into Kings Cross (a dismal old train station undergoing modifications), I winded my way down into the subway for a trip to Greenwich. Took the Northern Line to Bank and then the "light rail" out to Cutty Sark (not just a drink!). After 3.5 hours of train travel, I finally got to look around and smell the London air! Nice blue sky summer day, the city was a bit quiet at this hour (8:30ish). The London skyline is not like what you see in the States. It is a bit more subdue and probably represents the old world whereas the new world's ego built skyscraper's to prove a point. Greenwich is southeast of London proper and it is the home of the Royal Observatory. So besides it being a geek place to visit it just happens to be where 0 degrees Longitude resides. Proof that winners write history the British Empire mark on the world is that the Observatory is where Longitude finds its home. Below you can see me straddling both the Eastern and Western hemispheres...
Fascinating place and interesting to think that the reason Britain became the sea power was because it could effectively navigate the world better than anyone else at the time. Just goes to show what a little governmental sponsored research can do (of course that research also developed the atom bomb). After this brief excursion, I headed back towards the city to see the tourist sights. Took the light rail back to Bank (which is basically a subway station under the London Bank) and headed towards the River Thames. I pride myself with directional awareness but trust me, being dumped out into the middle of the City trying to determine which way to head...yeah right! Eventually found my way and headed towards the Tate Modern Museum. No real reason other than to say I did something cultural! Interesting building. In my opinion modern art is mostly a US mainstay and therefore my guess is that the majority of it is found in our museums rather than the rest of the world. Nothing overly impressive. Finishing the whirlwind tour I headed back across the Thames over the Millennium Bridge and right into St Paul's Cathedral.
First off this structure is enormous. According to Wikipedia it was the tallest structure in London until 1962. It is inspiring. Having seen it I remember that the Royal Wedding which my Mom got me up to see year's ago between Charles and Diana was held there. Definitely a highlight of the visit.
After running around in the morning, I decided I needed a break. I sat down in the shade in a nice square and had lunch and a huge bottle of water. Did I mention it was quite warm in London? In the square there was a piano and people would stop and play (hmmm very similar to what they have in Denver right now...wonder if all the mayors are on a mailing list of cool things to do in their city?). Anyway it was amazing to watch the number of kids to sit down and play and not just "chopsticks" but real piano works...hmmm all those piano lessons do matter.
With my energy level back to full (sort of) I launched off to my first non touristy geek thing to do and that is find a comic book store!
Forbidden Planet was what came up on Google so off I went. It is funny that when you get off the beaten path, a city really is quiet place. Strolling along without the hustle and bustle of tourist really is quite nice. Along the way I stumbled upon a model shop. The Brits love their scale models of things.
Corgi is probably best known in America but I found there to be a whole lot of other companies as well. In America today you have to go to some odd hobby shop to even find a model (toluene glue smell anyone?). Kids today don't build anything anymore with glue! Eventually I stumbled upon the comic store but not before this...
Forbidden Planet was the mother of all things SciFi. Two floors of magnificence. Everything scifi you could imagine. A basement full of scifi books only, piles of new comics, enormous TPB section, manga, movies, and WOW. I could have spent a day just there but as with the rest of this little journey I had more to see and do. Although at this point it was about 1:30 in the afternoon I was at a lost of what to still see. Using my handy dandy Google Maps feature on my BB I realized I wasn't too far from the blackhole that pulls all tourist to London and that is Big Ben. So off I went to see, "Look Kids, Big Ben, Parliament", which by the way is the only memorable thing from the movie European Vacation and trust me the round abouts do suck! Checked off the sights and was glad to be away from all the people. Yikes! Back on the subway and off to see my sports mecca for the trip.
In all honesty I can't tell you why I like the Arsenal Football Club. I have yet to see them play a game and yet I have this strange attraction to them. In one of those strange pattern events I first came upon Arsenal's jersey (errr kit I should say) when they were sponsored by a British cell phone company O2. Being a nerd I got the jersey (O2 is oxygen for you non chemist types). Then around this time Fever Pitch came out which was an Americanized version of a book written by Nick Hornby which is about the English football team, Arsenal. I think the writers of the movie felt the love/hate relationship of the Arsenal followers was similar to that of the Red Sox? Well being a Red Sox fan, I loved the movie, and thus read the book. Book is over the top football and England. A bit difficult for an uneducated American to follow but came away from it understanding a little more about English football love. Either way I continue to remotely follow the team and then suddenly the Colorado MLS soccer team formed a relationship with who? None other than Arsenal, so go figure. So to make a long story short I decided that I should make a visit to Emirates Stadium. Wow what a complex. Raising out of the middle of London suburbs, hmm like Fenway, the stadium is a gazillion dollar home seating 60,000 people. The stadium, built by HoK, is enormous and from the outside looks like your typical American football stadium. It is unfortunate that you can't see the pitch from the outside and it was doubly unfortunate that they don't start play until August.
Their slogan is "Victory through Harmony." It was interesting to see and just walking around you could feel the same sort of fanaticism that any baseball or football team here in the States would have. It is definitely a goal of mine to see an English Premiership match.
After this brief stop (British subways are crazy warm), I found that I had developed heat rash on my ankles! Yikes, so after getting back to Kings Cross I decided to head to the pub for some English Ale and dinner. The pub was in St Pancras which is the international train center right next to Kings Cross. It has finished its refurbishment and it is everything you think of when you think of European train stations. It made me want to jump a train to the mainland!
It was also a great place to watch people. The diversity of London was amazing. Classic imagine was a blond woman in a skirt and heels passing by a Muslim woman in her full body covering. I so wish I had my camera out because I think it is so fitting with the East meeting the West (near Greenwich no less!). At 8 PM, I finally gave up and went home. What an exhausting day. By the time I had gotten home I felt old but was glad to have seen what I saw.
Funny that during WWII the queen had the famous saying of "Keep Calm and Carry On" but I like the modern version "Keep Cool and Chill Out" (which I saw on a T-shirt). And finally who doesn't like dogs on the trains?
