One Week Back

Well, It's official: I am back to my normal life.
I was riding a high from my vacation until work started back up for me this past Monday. I spent the past weekend before going back to work just sitting around the apartment, reflecting on my trip a lot & watching some football.
My trip was probably the best vacation I have ever had. In the past, I have had some pretty great vacations & seen some spectacular sights. I have been to Miami, Hawaii, Denver, California wine country, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and many other places. This 3 week vacation (not to sound too overly dramatic) changed my life. Honestly, I am not entirely how it did that yet, I just feel different.
It was great to see so many historical & natural sights in the countries I had visited. Anyone who knows me knows that I love history & nature. I saw so much of both on this trip that dwarfed a lot of what I have seen in the past. It was nice to be able to take a few days after my trip to relax, sit around, look at my pictures & pretty much just chill.
Going back to work this week was tough. It was probably the longest work week of my life. Before my vacation, I was working on 2 very active movies, 1 active TV show, and several other jobs that I do at New Line that nobody else in my department does as well. In all the prep for my vacation & getting things in order, I forgot something. That something came back to bite my ass in a big way this week. On top of catching up (which was made worlds easier with the help of 2 co-workers) I had to bite the bullet and take the blame for neglecting this past duty. I normally put in roughly 40-45 hours a week, but this week I put in 61 hours! Nothing makes you not like your job like putting 20 additional hours in and not getting paid a single additional cent for it. This is not to say that I hate my job, I just had a bad week (and I am sure I was not the only one either). A week like that is another way to reflect on the vacation I just had. I can really appreciate the opportunity I had to take 3 weeks off and do something I have always wanted to do. Granted, I did not get paid a single cent for the 3 weeks I was on vacation. I am "freelance" and get paid only for the time I spend working.
Anyways, it is back to the grind for me now. I have to get used to working again. I will always think back on my vacation with a big smile on my face. The cities I visited, the sights I saw & the great people I met along the way will always be with me.

Day Eighteen: Thursday September 20

Home Sweet Home
Well, the trip has officially ended. I am sitting as I write this in my LA apartment. I currently have no friggin idea what time it is. I wouldn't even call it jet lag, just time confusion.
I woke up this morning at 6am (London time) and headed off for London Heathrow airport. I arrived with plenty of time to spare, so the whole process was smooth, no headaches at all. The plane ride itself took 20 years. I think I celebrated my 50th birthday somewhere over Iceland. I ended up watching 5 movies on the way home! FIVE MOVIES! I started off watching only movies I would never see otherwise, bu ended up watching a few I had wanted to see as well. I saw Blades of Glory, Wild Hogs, Eragon, Waitress & The Namesake. I thought the last 2 were pretty good, but the other 3 pretty much sucked.
I arrived at LAX airport around 3pm LA time (11pm London time) and my brother was there to pick me up. It was nice to have a conversation with him. Other than Trishia, who I loved talking with, I had not had a conversation with another American in 3 weeks, which is strange when I think about it. I spoke with a lot of English, French, Scottish, Canadian, Australian, and German people but only one other American person.
Tomorrow, I just relax and do as little as possible. I know I have to start back up at work on Monday, so this weekend is all about having a few beers, getting some sleep and watching some football (American Football, not that soccer stuff they call Football everywhere else). I am going to post another blog this weekend, a sort of epilogue about my trip. I really loved doing this blog & I plan on keeping up with it in the future. I would also love to say thank you to everyone who has left me comments along the way, it has been great hearing your thoughts on what I have been writing. Well, I am off to get some sleep. I have been up for almost 20 hours now and I hear my bed calling out my name.

Day Seventeen: Wednesday September 19

The end of the road.
Well, this is the final day of my vacation. I have to get up and check out of my hotel around 7am tomorrow so I can go through the ritual of Heathrow airport. Before I came on this vacation, someone told me that the very worst part of my vacation would be when I fly back to LA from Heathrow. In all honesty, I don't know why. Guess I'll find out tomorrow.
Today was just all about traveling. I left Edinburgh around 10:30am and arrived back in London at 3pm. I was able to find my hotel easily enough, close to Kings Cross Train Station.
King's Cross is where they film all the train scenes from the Harry Potter movies. They even have the imaginary platform (I don't remember what number that was) in the station. I walked around my neighborhood a bit, but it was just about closing time for most nearby attractions.
When I was in London a few weeks ago, I met a fellow traveler - Jon. I could write chapters & chapters about Jon, but only Trishia & I know that whole story for now. When I told Jon where I was staying, he referred to the area as "Hookerland." Well, my hotel in Hookerland is OK, and it's a nice night so I am sure all the hookers will be out in full force tonight.
I am going to post tomorrow, once I get home, and although I have quite gotten used to writing this blog over the past few weeks, I will probably only post once a week from now on. That is, of course, until I take my next trip when I will resume daily blogging. Wish me luck on my travels to and through Heathrow tomorrow, it sounds as if I may need it.

Day Sixteen: Tuesday September 18

The last full day in Edinburgh.

Today was the last chance to walk around and see the sights before tomorrow's train back to London. I decided to see the rest of the Royal Mile in Old Town. I have adjusted to the fact that it just rains all the time here. The tour guide I had yesterday said "the only thing you can count on is that you can't count on the weather." Once again, it was raining as I left my hotel to see the sights.

My first stop was at the opposite end of the Royal Mile as Edinburgh Castle: The Palace of Holyroodhouse. This palace is the official residence of The Queen when she stays in Scotland, which is most of the summer. It is a beautiful place that has a lot of history in it.

The audio tour that comes with the admission price is outstanding. I feel as if I have become a sort of expert in audio tours on this trip. The beauty of all the different tours has been that each and every tour has had something about it that has set itself apart from the others. The tour leads you on a room by room tour and answers a lot of questions you may have on any room before you think of it. The layout of the tour too was done expertly, with an actual sense of anticipation leading you on through the Palace. I have learned so very much about the history of Scotland during my brief stay here.

After leaving Holyroodhouse, I walked around for an hour or two and saw more ancient buildings in this time than probably the rest of my vacation combined. Around every corner there was another building looming in the distance that I just had to see close up. The final stop on my walk today was the Scott Monument.

Like you, I'm sure, I had assumed that this was just a recent addition to Edinburgh. Perhaps a building quickly constructed when the people here learned of my upcoming visit. I was then surprised when I discovered it was a monument to the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott that was built way back in 1844.

The monument itself has a winding staircase (287 steps actually) that leads up to a spectacular overhead view of Edinburgh. After recovering from the steep climb where the stairs actually get smaller as you get higher, I was treated to a cold blast of wind and a perfect view of everything within 3-4 miles of the monument. It was a great, final look at Edinburgh.
With that last stop of the day, my walking tour of Scotland was finished. I headed back to my room and packed most of my stuff in preparation for tomorrow morning's early departure. My train leaves at 10:30am and I should be back in London before 6pm. I am going to miss this place & like all other places I have been, hope to return soon. What has been unique here is that from 10am until sunset you can hear bagpipes playing faintly in the distance. It isn't loud enough to hear unless you are listening for it, so it is perfect. Another random observance on this town (and this is strange) is that I have seen LOTS of people walking around limping or on crutches. This has been every single day, dozens of them. Most people who know me know that I am pretty accident prone. I have stories & stories that mainly consist of me falling down stairwells, falling off short curbs & just overall clumsiness. Seeing all the walking wounded is one more thing that really makes me feel at home here, with all my clumsy comrades. Well, I am off to the bar downstairs for a few drinks then off to London in the morning.

Day Fifteen: Monday September 17

Ol' Nessie Lives!

Today was my full day trip up into the Highlands of Scotland capped off with a boat ride out into Loch Ness to look for the infamous monster Nessie. I got up early this morning and was picked up by the tour company a little before 8am. Most of the day was to be spent on a coach getting a great view of the country north of Edinburgh and lots and lots of Lochs. We stopped several times along the road, about every hour or so, to get some great pictures of the Highlands. Scotland is one truly beautiful country. There is so much to see that I wanted a seat on both sides of the coach to take everything in.

The trip was highlighted by a visit to the fabled Loch Ness and a chance to go out in a boat into the center of the Loch. Of course, the main attraction of this boat trip is a 1 hour chance to look around the Loch to see if you can find it's main attraction, the monster Nessie. The boat itself is equipped with sonar to help in the searching. I myself, decided to look the old fashioned way.I was asked by the Scottish government not to post the following picture, but here it is anyways.

I will leave it up to you, if you think the monster is real or not. All I can say is I know what I saw!

After the boat ride, we returned to the coach and did some more sightseeing. Along the way, our guide pointed out various sights, a castle used in Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail, locations used for the Harry Potter movies, and the woods used by Shakespeare in his Scottish play Macbeth. In all, it was a great tour & a great guide as well. Tomorrow is my last full day in Edinburgh. I am going to see more of Old Town and also try and check out a museum or 2 along the way. I am saddened to know that this trip is drawing to a close, but it also empassions me to plan more trips like this in the future.

Day Fourteen: Sunday September 15

Time to see Edinburgh.
Today was my first full day here and the beginning of my third week on vacation. I can't believe how fast this vacation has gone! The weather here is wet, raining all day. Luckily is was not constant rain & when it did rain, it was pretty light.

I decided to walk around Old Town, where most of the buildings are from the actual foundation of the town more than 300 years ago. There is a particular strip to walk there, the Royal Mile, that has Edinburgh Castle at one end & Holyroodhouse (the former home of Mary Queen of Scots) at the other. I took a walk up and down the mile, and took a tour of Edinburgh Castle.

What amazes me at this point in the trip is that I have seen more castles & historical monuments in 2 weeks than I have seen in my entire life thus far. Also amazing is that each and every one of them are different enough to be unique and interesting. This tour was by far the most theatrical one I have seen. It was a combo between a wax museum & historical military museum.
After walking for a few hours around the various rooms of the castle and seeing everything from the soldier prison to the dog cemetery & left the castle. After leaving, I walked down the Royal Mile to see a few more buildings. The architecture here is so old and weathered, it looks as if every building here is older than any single building anywhere in the US.

I had to eventually return to my hotel as the weather got a little worse & I was soaked. Tomorrow I have to get up early for the final day trip of my vacation. I am heading off at 8am for a tour of the Highlands & Loch Ness. I will try and have someone take a picture when I capture the monster at Loch Ness.

Day Thirteen: Saturday September 15

Travel Travel Travel
Today was more exhausting than any day so far on this trip. I had to wake up at 6am to check out of my hotel and get to the airport. I have never been to the airport here in France, so I was winging it a bit. I had to carry my luggage up & down many flights of stairs before I made it to the train that was to take me to the airport. Like all metro stations, this final train required a ticket. I used the same ticket I had used on the Metro & it opened the gate. I was able to hop on a train to the airport. Upon arriving at the airport I received some horrifying news. I did not purchase the right ticket! The ticket I should have bought was closer to 50 euro and the one I bought was only 1.50 euro. To make matters worse, you are not allowed to buy a ticket once you have reached your destination on this line. In essence, I would have to take a half hour train ride back, buy a ticket and then travel a half an hour back. With 2 1/2 hours to go before my plane is supposed to leave, I would have to waste an hour getting a new ticket. This was when good luck and a good person would come into the picture. I started to turn around and walk back to the train when the ticket agent called for me. I turned around and he said that he would wave me through to the security guard. No Charge! I thanked him several times (probably not enough) and went through to my plane. I have been very blessed on this trip to have met lots of great people & to have had so many situations work out to my advantage.

My plane was not direct to Edinburgh, it had a stop for several hours in Ireland. The cool thing about that was that I got to have my passport stamped for my arrival in Ireland. It's the small things that can make someone happy most of the time. I love hearing the Irish accent, if I could do accents worth a damn I would love to have one.

After about 9 hours of traveling, I arrived in Edinburgh. It is a lot colder here than any other stop on my trip so far. It is overcast and rain is expected the whole time I am here. I can see Edinburgh Castle and the Scott Monument from the front door of my hotel, so there is a lot to see here within walking distance. I am looking forward to starting the last leg of my trip.

Day Twelve: Friday September 14

Today was half good and half bad.
The good part was I got to see more Pau & spent a few more hours with my new European traveling companion, Trishia. She has given a great tour of the city & by the time I had to take my train, I felt as if I had seen almost all of it. I was actually a little disappointed to be leaving, I had felt almost at home there.
Of course, the train ride back to Paris would be the exact opposite of anything good. First, I arrived at the station with plenty of time, but they close the doors of the train so quickly I made it my only 2 seconds, no joke. I was saying goodbye to Trishia when a whistle blew, so I jumped on the train as the doors were closing! Later Trishia would tell me that some unfortunate person did miss the train and broke down in hysterics after finding out that was the last train of the day. I had the unfortunate situation of not having an assigned seat. This meant that at anytime someone could come up to me and take my seat, so I could never get comfortable. I also had someone sitting next to me who must have been allergic to water & soap, so that was awesome!
I got back into Paris around midnight and will have to be up early around 6am to leave for the train station to the airport. It is going to be another fun day of travel, but by the end of the day I will be in Scotland.

Day Eleven: Thursday September 13

It's Pau Time!
Today I arrived in Pau (pronounced poe) at 7am. The trip here was a long one, and it was my first time in the sleeper car of a train. Traveling in France is pretty nerve-wracking if you don't know the language great. All the announcements are impossible to understand and I was even paranoid that I was on the wrong train. There are no security checks to get on a train, just a ticket that does not even have your name on it. As far as I knew, I was going to Prague. I arrived in Pau at 7am and I was met at the station by my new friend Trishia.
I have previously mentioned Trishia in my blog while talking about my London vacation. She is from California as well & going to take some classes in Pau for a few months. When she invited me down to check out the south of France for a few days, I jumped at the chance. Sometimes you meet someone & you just click, well it was just that for me & Trishia. It was very unexpected finding someone while on vacation that I could just talk for hours & hours with. I was not too concerned about missing any famous Paris landmarks because this will certainly not me my last trip to Paris. Something else I discovered is I would prefer to be a lot more comfortable with the language of a country before I go there. I certainly plan on traveling to a lot more foreign countries in the next few years, but I think now I prefer to have company on the legs where I don''t know the language.
Pau is a pretty cool small town with a lot of history itself. We spent several hours just walking around town & sightseeing. While walking around town, we stopped off at the Chateau de Pau. The Chateau de Pau is a historic castle that several former kings of France had lived in.

The tour of the castle was given in French & I understood none of it. Luckily the guide on occasion said a few things in English & Trishia was able to understand the French and told me what was being said. After leaving the Chateau, we walked to a small bakery and had a desert. The night was capped off by hanging out & having few drinks. This was certainly overall the most fun I have had since my arrival in France. Tomorrow my train leaves Pau at 5pm. It will be another day of seeing more Pau & then more fun on the train.

Day Ten: Wednesday September 12

A Day of R&R.

Today was a day of rest for me. In the past nine days, I have been walking around anywhere & everywhere. I got up later than usual & went down to the train station to see about buying a train ticket to Pau (sounds like Poe). I bought myself a ticket that leaves tonight just after 11pm and arrives there around 7am. I am very happy to have the opportunity to see a few towns outside of Paris on this trip. I might not get to see everything I was going to see when I first planned this trip, but I will certainly be back here again someday. This is what makes my vacation here great, I get to do exactly what I want to do. This whole trip is turning into the best vacation I have ever had.

My internet connection at this hotel is hit or miss. It can either take me 10 minutes just to get to a website or I can connect right away. I don't know if I will be able to post from Pau, so I may not blog again until I get back here to Paris. Right now, my connection is pretty good so I am going to put a few pictures up from my Eiffel Tower visit & my visit to Napoleon's Tomb.

Phew, even with a "good" internet connection, posting those 2 pictures took over twenty minutes! Well, I am off to Pau, France for a day or so. I will post more pictures and tell you how it went when I return. Au Revoir.

Day Nine: Tuesday September 11

A royal day at Versailles.
That was what today was all about. I woke up early and hopped on the metro to get myself to the pickup spot for my day trip to the Palace of Versailles. Man, I wish it was just as easy as that! I had to make 3 connections on the metro & make sure I was there before 8:15am. The whole plan I had was thrown a little off when the metro went right by the first connection station without stopping. It seems as if the one station I needed to make this a easy morning commute was closed for repairs. I had to quickly revise my route after debarking at a unknown station. Because I am awesome, I was able to figure it out and I arrived at the pickup spot with 10 minutes to spare.
The Palace of Versailles was pretty amazing. After Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were detained by a mob, the civilians pretty much ransacked the palace & destroyed everything. It was restored years later & is a pretty impressive sight to see now.
Even more impressive is the space outside the palace. I have never seen such extravagance in all my life. The sheer scope of the place was beyond comprehension. I walked around in the outdoor mazes (totally reminded me of the end of "The Shining") and actually got a little lost, which was cool. There was so much walking that had to be done, my feet are still aching!
I returned to Paris around 7pm & walked around my hotel's neighborhood for a while. The one thing I will remember to take away from Paris is how the neighborhoods smell. There are so many great smells coming out of almost every shop, I think I gained 5 pounds just walking by them. It is hard to resist going in each & every one of them and buying everything you smell.
Tomorrow is a day of rest. My whole body aches from walking around each and single day for hours and hours. I also plan on going to the train station and buying a train ticket to Pau. It is a few hours south of Paris & will be my destination for Thursday.

Day Eight: Monday September 10

What a day!
Today I got to see something I have always wanted to see. I got to go to the Eiffel Tower & I got to go up in it & see Paris from up high! It was pretty damn cool. The Tower itself is just a 10 minute walk from my hotel. The system to get a ticket is a little flawed, but once you get up on the top level, it is a sight to see.
After spending a few hours at the tower, it was off to the Tomb of Napoleon, It is officially called Invalides. Before going to the tomb itself, I went into an army museum there that blew my mind. I have seen war museums before, some on this trip, but this had such a grand collection of WWI & WWII artifacts that I was constantly amazed at what I saw. Just a few months ago, I saw a documentary that was from the early 70's called "The Sorrow & The Pity" which was 4 hours all about the Nazi occupation of France. It was pretty cool to see so much memorabilia that was actually from that period. After the museum, I went to the Tomb of Napoleon. It too was pretty impressive. There is a lot of history in that building & I am very glad I got to see so much of it on this trip.
Once I returned to my hotel, I discovered that the internet was down. It is back up right now, but running on 1/10 of the connection that I had yesterday. In fact, I was going to post a few pictures, but after 20 minutes, the picture wouldn't load. If I am not able to post for a few days, it is only because of the lack of an internet connection. Hopefully, that will not happen. Tomorrow the plan is to go on a day trip to Versailles. I say plan, because tomorrow is the first time since my arrival I have to depend on the French Metro & even though I am going to leave way too early, there is no guarantee I will make it to the travel office in time, since they are not picking me up.

Day Seven: Sunday September 9

Bonjour!
I am now for the first time in my life in a non-English speaking country. I left London this morning and took the train to Paris. Before I left on this vacation, there were several people who told me that the train ride to Paris was not to be missed. I have to say, there was not much to the trip really. After 2 1/2 hours, I arrived at the Paris train station & hopped on the Metro and took it to my hotel.
I am staying at the Hotel du Petit Louvre only a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower. I am really glad that I prepped for this leg of my trip by learning a little french. The clerk on duty at the hotel does not speak English & I have yet to encounter anyone who has spoke more than a few words of English. There have been a few strange things that I have encountered here that I have never had to deal with at a hotel before. When I checked in, I didn't have to show any ID at all, just told the clerk my last name & he gave me the key to my room. When I leave the hotel, I cannot take my key with me, I have to give it back to the front desk, which is very strange too. Overall, I am a bit disorientated by all of this, but look forward to hitting the streets tomorrow to start seeing the sights.

Day Six: Saturday September 8

Today was my last full day here in London. It is hard for me to believe that this leg of my trip is just about at an end. So far, this trip has been even better than I had hoped it would be & I have had the opportunity to meet some great people and see some amazing things.

The day started off with me saying goodbye to Trishia after breakfast. She is off to Pau, France to start school. It has been a very unexpected pleasure to have gotten to know her & been able to do some traveling with her. She has invited me down to visit while I am in Paris next week & unless something unexpected happens, I am planning on taking her up on that. It would be great to see the south of France, another version of the country to compare to Paris.

I spent a greater part of the day brushing up on what I am going to do on the next leg of my trip, which starts tomorrow. I got a phone call from Steve, a co-worker at New Line, who is here in London working on a reshoot. He wondered if I had any interest in touring the National Gallery. That was one of the places I had not had the chance to visit, but interested me, so I met him there.
We walked around for a few hours & saw some amazing paintings. There was a room that had at least 10 Monet paintings in it and some were amazing! I also saw a few famous Leonardo da Vinci paintings as well, including "Sunflowers" as well as "The Virgin of the Rocks.". After touring the museum (it is a pretty large museum!!) we went to a pub and had a few drinks. It was nice to hang out with a familiar face here and it was a perfect cap to end a perfect leg of my trip. I am a little nervous about the traveling tomorrow, since I have never been to an area where English is not the spoken language. I never took any French, so I have been trying to get phrases down from a audiobook I bought on my iPod. If all goes according to plan, this time tomorrow I will have seen the Eiffel Tower.

Day Five: Friday September 7

Today was a great day. I woke up early after staying up until 4am with Trishia and Jon. It is strange, I have not had much sleep in the past 4 days, yet I feel pretty good. Today was Jon's last day, so said goodbye to him then Trishia and I decided to go to the Tower of London.

The Tower was a fun sight to see and it was cool to see the Crown Jewels there too. We walked around a little while and saw all sorts of weapons & a few torture devices used on some of the former prisoners of the Tower. Right next to the Tower of London was the Tower Bridge.

When most people think of famous London bridges, they think of The London Bridge itself (like the song), but this bridge is actually the most famous one here & one of the most popular and unique ones in the world. While Trishia & I were walking away from the Tower Bridge, we heard a boat horn, turned & saw the drawbridge coming up.

The lack of sleep was beginning to take a toll, so we went back to the hotel & I took a short nap. A few hours later, I once again hooked up with Trishia and we went to Piccadilly Circus. This part of London is, from what I understand, famous for being a English version of New York City's Times Square. That was pretty much what it was too, a very busy, very crowded intersection with neon lights flashing and no space to even walk around. After a while of walking around, it was time to get back to the hotel.

Tomorrow is Trishia's last day in London then she is off for the south of France, to the town of Pau. I have truly been lucky to make such good friends during my stay here & I seriously doubt I will find anyone close to as great a traveling companion as Trishia for the remainder of my vacation. I will probably go down and say goodbye to her and then begin my last full day in London. I have seen everything I really wanted to see here and more, which was amazing. Tomorrow will be a day to go around and see if there is anything else I want to see & later I might go have a few beers with a couple co-workers from New Line who are here in London to do a re-shoot for the company. I might even try and catch a European soccer match playing in a pub around the hotel.

Day Four: Thursday September 6

This day certainly had it's twists & turns. I had, what can only be described as, a California wake up call. At 5:30am there was a large rumbling sound that became louder and louder while my whole room began to shake. The Underground was officially back on schedule & the damn thing was right beneath my hotel room! This rumbling sound started happening every fifteen minutes, then moved up to every five minutes. There was no way I could sleep through this and my trip wouldn't be fun for much longer if I couldn't get any sleep. I went to the front desk and politely asked for a room change up to a higher floor, away from my current side of the building. The hotel staff here is probably one of the best I have ever encountered at any hotel I have ever spent the night at. They told me with a smile, that it was no problem & if I leave my luggage with them before 10am, they will get me a new room that would be available after 2pm. I had breakfast, went back to my room & packed everything up. I dropped the luggage off at the front desk & went out to do some more sightseeing, not knowing what kind of room I would get when I returned.


I decided to go check out the Tate Modern Museum. I had heard that this is the 1 museum I would have to see. I took the newly reopened Underground to a stop that my map said was closest to the Tate. This is the section I would like to call: "Scott goes the wrong way......CONSTANTLY." Once off the Underground, I proceeded to go in exactly the wrong direction. I had to backtrack my steps on more than one occasion. If I was supposed to go left, I would go right, then backtrack my steps and then go straight instead of left. The trip to the Tate was from hotel to museum supposed to be 45 minutes, but it took me 2 hours!! I finally arrived at the Tate and spent several hours there. I ended up having a great time there and saw a lot of artwork from the likes of Picasso, Monet, Pollock, Warhol & many many more. I had never seen so many Picasso's in one building! At times there were 2 right next to each other! I could have spent more time there really looking at every single thing there. There is one exhibit I just have to tell you about. There is 1 case there in which a single can the size of tuna fish sits. The name of the exhibit was "Artist's Shit." The artist canned his crap into 40 containers, labeled them, signed them & made each one exclusive by individually numbering them. The artist, whose name escapes me, was making a sarcastic comment about the art world and how anything can become "art." He was right too, the British museum bought the single can in the case for $22,000 pounds!!! I should have thought of that idea years ago!!


After the Tate, I walked to the Millennium Bridge, sort of a modern tourist attraction. I have no friggin idea why though....it's just a narrow industrial looking pedestrian bridge! All it needed was a display case of canned crap & it would have been perfect.

After the bridge, I went to check out the Shakespeare Globe theater. I had heard that it might be one of the best places to ever see a Shakespeare performance. It was built on the site of the original Globe theater. Unfortunately, had I gone there first, I could have gotten tickets, but by the time I arrived the show was sold out. I went across the street and decided to go to Starbucks. The main reason I even mention this is because I will forever remember this particular Starbucks for giving me the very worst coffee based drink I have ever had! I had to buy a bottled water just to get the taste out!

Around now it was way past 2, so I decided to go back to the hotel and check out my new room. Once back, they gave me my luggage back & the key to my new room, one floor up. I got to my new room & smiled. Even though it was basically the same size as the previous one, this one was worlds better & I made a point of profusely thanking every single member of the staff who helped me out. As I had only 3 hours of sleep previously & I had hoped to stay up and watch the football game on TV (which I didn't know if it would be on, after all it started at 1am), I decided to take a small siesta.

I woke up after a few hours & made my way downstairs & had dinner. After dinner I ended up hanging out again with Trishia & Jon (from the previous nights conversation). We ended up talking until 4am!!! I even forgot about watching the football game! I am very happy I met these 2, for they have really made my trip here even more fun. Jon is married and visiting London on business from a town north of London. Trishia is from California as well and is in London briefly before traveling this weekend to (I think) the southern part of Paris for school until December. I couldn't ask for 2 better conversationalists to enjoy my evenings with. Well, tomorrow I am going to go see the Tower of London & London Bridge.

Day Three: Wednesday September 5

STONEHENGE!
Today was a perfect day! Early morning McDonald's probably saved me from having a heart attack. I woke up early to get ready for my day trip to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge & Bath. On my way out of the building to get a bite to eat, the fire alarm went off at the hotel I was staying at! It was a malfunction, but the alarm sounds like a home security alarm magnified with a bullhorn. It is enough to scare the crap out of you, so I am sooooo glad I wasn't in bed when that sucker went off!

I was picked up by the tour company and our tour made it to Windsor Castle by 9:30am. Of the 3 destinations on the schedule today, this was the one I had the least interest in at the beginning, as I didn't know all that much about the place. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. The audio tour was excellent and the history of the place is rich and colorful. There were many rooms that when I walked into them, they took my breath away.

From Windsor Castle, we were off to Stonehenge. Well, what can I say....it is a group of stones. Now, don't get me wrong, I am ecstatic that I got to finally visit a place I have been dying to see for years, but........it is a group of rocks surrounded by a henge. Still, I know have a picture of me with Stonehenge in the background, and that is all that matters.

The final stop of the tour was the town of Bath. This is a good sized town that is home to old ancient hot water pools that were popular during the roman years & are still around today. The ruins themselves are underground, so I got to go down underneath the city and see the baths as they are today, which was pretty cool.

I met a bunch of great people on the tour, most importantly the Carters. They were a husband & wife duo who were fun people & when I asked where they were from, they said "The Shire." They are from New Zealand and live close to where they filmed "Lord of the Rings." After the tour was over, the 3 of us navigated the Underground (no longer on strike) and went for a few beers at a pub close to our respective hotels.

After drinks with the Carters, I decided to have 1 more beer at my hotel's bar. It was there that I met Jon and Trish. Jon was visiting on business from another area of England & Trish was from California (a little south of Oakland). I ended up talking with these two until 1am. In all, it was a pretty fun day & I am not even sure what I am going to check out tomorrow!

Day Two: Tuesday September 4

Today has been a very good day. I woke up way too early this morning (5am), still suffering a bit from the jet lag, but it gave me time to have a good breakfast. I decided to leave around 7:30 this morning for my first venture into London. It would have quicker to take the Underground (the British subway system), but I wanted to see as much of the city as possible, so I decided to walk. What I didn't know and wouldn't find out until much later, is that today started a possible 3 day strike for most of the people who worked the Underground. My morning goal was to make it to Westminster Abbey before the doors opened at 9:30. I thought that 2 hours would be plenty of time to get there, but I underestimated the complexity of the London streets (in other words, I got pretty lost!). The next bit is probably the most embarrassing thing that will probably happen to me on this entire trip: I was wondering around lost and was looking for a landmark to help me find my way. I stopped in front of this large building with a big gate & a flag flying with the Union Jack on it. I asked the closest person "What building is this?" He squinted his eyes at me and slightly nodded as he said "This is Buckingham Palace." Suffice to say, that helped a great deal & I was able to get to Westminster Abbey 10 minutes before they opened. It was certainly worth the trouble though, Westminster Abbey was spectacular. They have this great audio tour that lets you go around at your own pace & check out all the amazing tombs that are there. The design of the interior and the history that is inside is awe-inspiring. The building alone is older that any building you could step inside in the US. It was founded in 960 AD as a monastery. There are still parts of in there that are from the first 100 years of it's existence, like this door:

Now, I know what you might be thinking....A DOOR!!! THIS IS THE ONLY PIX FROM WESTMINSTER ABBEY!! Think about it though, how many things in your life have you got to actually touch that is almost 1000 years old? Unfortunately, because it is a church & they do not allow photography inside, this is about one of a few pictures I was able to sneak away with.

From Westminster Abbey I walked over to the Houses of Parliament, which features the clock tower with Big Ben in it. For those who don't know, Big Ben is actually the bell in the clock tower, not the tower itself. Unfortunately, scheduled maintenance has shut it down for a month or 2, so no Big Ben chiming on the hour for me!

The last stop on my walking tour today was The London Eye. The Eye is basically a large Ferris wheel that takes a half an hour to rise you higher than any building in London.

It was after riding the Eye that I realized it had been 8 hours since I started walking around, and my feet were starting to kill me. I decided to take the Underground back, and that was when I went and found out that that most lines were down. I was in luck though, there was one line open, with delays, that would shorten my walking time by one hour. So, many hours later, my walking tour has ended for the day. Tomorrow I go on a day trip to Stonehenge, Windsor Castle & the town of Bath. I can't wait!

Day One: Monday September 3

Hi all,

I am soooo tired right now. I just arrived in cloudy London & am I dead on my feet. The local time is 3:00pm (7am California time) and I have not had an single REM of sleep since 9am Los Angeles time. My trip was happily pretty uneventful. I saw a couple crappy films on the plane & breezed through customs here in the UK. My first experience on the London Underground was fine. At one point I panicked & thought I was on the wrong train, but it was alright. The most interesting things so far have happened at this hotel. I am staying at the Hyde Park Towers Hotel & I have never, never in my life had such a small hotel room!!

I really don't mind the small room, I only plan on being here while sleeping. Speaking of sleeping, I think I am going to try and get a few hours of shut-eye in before going out for dinner and a drink.