Wednesday, October 23, 2002 I am sitting on the futon at Erin and Aaron and Joel's house, only Erin is here now (or even in the country). I am spending a few hours with the high-speed internet connection, getting geared up for my flight to London tonight. Virgin Atlantic, 9:25 PM Eastern Time. Keep Tuning in.

Thursday, October 24, 2002 Greetings from London. I eventually made it here. Last night my flight was supposed to depart Newark at 9:25 PM. We did not actually pull away from the gate until 1:45 AM. The plane was delayed leaving Heathrow earlier in the day. Needless to say, I haven't slept very much. I grabbed a few minutes on the way over, but there's only so much a person can do crammed into coach on a crowded 747. We had a relatively easy flight, and I navigated the Underground in from Heathrow. I located my Hostel, just off Oxford St. It seems quite nice, and they knew about my booking, which was a good thing. They may not be able to let me extend my stay, which seems weird, so I may have to do something different on Saturday. I dropped my stuff off in my hostel room and set out. I haven't been here long enough to write any clear thesis yet, but the city seems beautiful, and very big. I am unable to pin down how I feel it is bigger than NYC, but I do. I'll write more later... Best.

Thursday, October 24, 2002 London. Well, it seems like a lot has happened since I last added an entry. Where to begin. Thursday night, even though I was very tired, I decided to see some theatre. The Leicester Square area is really interesting, and the heart of the West End. I bought a ticket to a new musical still in previews. "Romeo & Juliet," just what this world needs, another adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. This one has lyrics by Don Black (Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard). I had a cheap dinner in a neat restaurant off Piccadilly Circus, I think it is called the Piccadilly Cafe, retro, but not retro so much as nothing has changed since about 1956. Fish & Chips, with baked beans. And Tea (with milk of course.) The show was, to borrow a phrase, appropriately trashy. The problem occurred during the second act. The sound power cut out. They paused. Then they took another intermission. Then they cancelled the rest of the show. The tragedy here of course, is not the star-crossed lovers, but the fact that if I want to see how they did the end, I have to sit through the first act again. For free, true, but its not like the show has any artistic merit. I wandered through Sotho, up to the hostel, stopping at a bookstore, where I obtained a copy of Douglas Adams', "The Meaning of Liff." This is exciting because the title is almost entirely unavailable back in the States.

Friday, October 25, 2002 I think I am remarkably un jet-lagged, from being in Las Vegas earlier this week. I found a bagel for breakfast, not H&H quality, but few are. I wandered along the Strand, checking out the shopping. St. Paul's was closed for a memorial service for the victims of the terrorist attack in Bali. I walked across the now stable millennium bridge, and into the Tate Modern. It is an amazing place. Housed in a former power plant, it is a great space for modern art. The turbine room has this enormous installation piece. It is hard to describe, 3 rings, two parallel, one perpendicular, all connected with a continuous piece of PVC. All of this is very large. Like 150 yards long. And 75 feet high. The rest of the museum is also of very high quality. The pieces are arranged by subject, rather than artist or era. There were lots of school groups, and it is always fun to watch young artists sketching. I had a snack inside the Tate, since it was spitting rain down outside. I had a look round the Globe theatre, but elected not to give them £10. I walked east on the south bank, and crossed over near the Tower of London. There, I was willing to fork over the money, £11.50, and get the tour. It really is quite a place. The tour that the Beefeaters give is really very good, funny, and making history come alive. It really is a bloody place; from the death of the boy princes, to Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Gray. The crowd was small, I never really waited to see anything, the sun came out, the crown jewels are there, looking dusty. What more can I say. The ivy on the walls was brilliant red. I tubed back to Covent Garden, bought another theatre ticket, had a look round the London Trocadero, and had a harder time finding a dinner spot. I sort of refused on principle to go back to the same place I was last night, but I had a hard time finding anything I felt comfortable eating in alone. It is the curse of being a single traveler, and the part I hate the most. I eventually settled on take-away from an organic grocery store. It was a good and filling meal, but I ate it sitting next to a puddle at the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus. The show I saw wasn't that good, the Reduced Shakespeare Company's version of "The Complete works of William Shakespeare (abridged)." I've always avoided the show in NYC, and I'm not sure what I was thinking here. It is sophomoric humor, in this case done by Americans for an audience of nearly all Americans. Hardly anyone laughed when someone pronounced Warwickshire "War-wick-shire" instead of "Wrwikshre." Oy. This hostel is quiet, and they don't have space for me the next day, I'm ok with that, ready to push off to another destination here in London.

Saturday, October 26, 2002 This morning, I packed up my gear, and set off to Kings Cross, to "The Generator" an 800-bed techno-hostel in a converted police barracks. It will be the opposite of the quiet place I was just in. Unbelievably, they are full (!), and send me down the block to Ashlee House. All is well, there, they have a place, and I'm able to do is book my bed and lock my bag up in the luggage room. I'm back on the tube, headed to Hyde Park. The sun is shining, but it is windy. The park is beautiful, very different than Central Park, but similar in its oasis like feel. I walk through the park, checking out Kensington gardens and the palace (from the outside). Apparently £10 is the going rate to see a queen's house. Anyway, I make my way to the Kensington High Street, and while away part of the morning with shopping and browsing. I really like the neighborhood, and "habitat" is certainly a cool store. I tubed to Knightsbridge. Just as my mother had told me, walked from the tube stop directly into Harrods. What an amazing place. It was very crowded. I didn't see much, saving it for later, but I did poke around the Food Halls, they make Zabars or Dean & Deluca look like a Wal-Mart. I bought myself a sandwich and sat on the steps of the V&A museum eating it. I love the fact that most of the museums are free, so you can pop in for a bit and not feel like you've wasted money. The V&A is amazing. I spent my time in the 20th century collection, browsing great furniture and design. I've never seen a bigger collection anywhere. The Dress collection was amazing too, with 400 years of high fashion. I've never seen so many mannequins in one place. Must have been several hundred. Great clothes. I also wandered around a lot more of the place, the "Great Bed of Ware" is big, but not that much bigger than your average California King. I guess it is noteworthy because it is old. After all, the Bard did refer to it. The textile collections are interesting, with sliding shelves for individual browsing. I tubed over to Victoria, looked round the station, and wandered by Buckingham Palace. The Queen wasn't home. Nice digs though.

Sunday, October 28, 2002 London. Left Ashlee house, headed to Paddington Station. Secured ticket to Bath (£32 round-trip, seems expensive for only 3 hrs of train travel) Boarded train. Train delayed due to high winds. All trains cancelled. I left the train and boarded the tube. I rode to High Street Kensington, and secured a place at the Holland house hostel. It is very windy. As I got back on the tube, signs announcing all mainline trains from Paddington, Charing Cross, Euston, St. Pancras and King's Cross are suspended. Knock around London. The Cabinet War Rooms are the coolest thing. Buried deep under a municipal building on Whitehall St, at the edge of St. James' park, is an underground complex now restored and open to the public. This is where Churchill and his cabinet, as well as the ministers of the military planned and survived WWWII. The map room, with the real maps, and pushpins where the front lines are. The radio room where Churchill made some of those famous speeches "We will fight them on the beaches..." Also the world's first secure transcontinental direct-line phone. To the White House. National Portrait gallery. back to Holland House. I hope I'm not getting sick.

Monday, October 28, 2002 This morning: off to Bath. Paddington still a mess from wind. Eventually get train to Bath Spa. Youth Hostel no trouble. Walk to Warminster Road and find Littlemead. Meet Allen's wife, will phone him tonight. Ride back to city center. Bath Abbey. I met up tonight with Allen Saunders, my Dad's friend from the exchange in the 70s. He picked me up at the hostel this evening, and we drove over to Saltford and collected Bob Andrews, the guy that my Dad exchanged with back then. We "went round the pub" and had a great time, both meeting each other and catching up. Great beer, my dad's favorite, 6X. I have a feeling that Bob and Allen are going to show up in Michigan one of these years. I was a little bit tipsy by the time I returned to the Hostel.

Tuesday, October 29, 2002 After a good full English breakfast this morning, I only had a mild headache. Bob Andrews picked me up at the hostel in the taxicab he drives these days. I got the grand tour of Bath from the (left hand) front seat of the Taxi. We even ventured a little outside of town to check out one of those cool canal-aqueduct things, for England's distinctive Narrowboats. After the tour, I checked out the Roman Baths museum in the center of town, and then got a train back to Paddington. I stayed at Ashlee house, but only for a short night's sleep; I had to catch a very early train to Luton Airport for my easyJet flight to Malaga.