April 5th (Day 6)
Monday, April 5th, 2004
Rain
I woke up at 11 AM and finished the chips off for breakfast. It is convenient
to eat whatever I have without worry of suiting another person's tastes! I went
to the post office on Gloucester Road to pick up some gifts for family and
friends.
I then took the Tube to Tower Hill. I took these three pictures off the Tower
Bridge:
In the left picture you can see an oddly arranged spherical glass building.
This is the Greater London Authority (GLA). I take that to mean city hall.
Regardless it is an interesting design. In the middle picture is the
north bank. This photo shows a lot more interesting buildings. The stone
building on the right is the Tower of London. The egg-shaped glass building
behind it is the Swiss Re. There is a church in the middle background. I am
fairly confident that is All Hallows by
the Tower. The glass building to the left of the church is an office building.
The pier pictured is the Tower Millennium Pier. The tower is The Monument and
appearing in front of it and behind some trees is the Custom House. The old
building adjacent to the Custom House is former Billingsgate Market. The only
bridge in this picture is the London Bridge. In the distant background in the
extreme left is the
British Telecom (BT) tower. The last picture is centered on the Tower of
London. Now the castle-like Tower Gateway train station is visible.
I crossed the Thames and continued along the Queen's Way. The rain became
steady. I saw Southwark Cathedral and the reconstruction of the Drake's boat
before stopping near Shakespeare's Globe.
This bridge for the Cannon Street Rail Station looks very much like the
Southwark Bridge in the background. The train station is a nice building,
too.
Below is a closer picture of the Globe. Also, a picture of Southwark Bridge so
you can see the similiarity to the Cannon Street train station.
This time I gave directions to a guy. But he wasn't as thankful as the women
are. I continued to Waterloo Bridge, which I intended to cross to get over to
the Transport Museum.
This is a view off the Waterloo Bridge. The Hungerford Bridge, serving the
Charing Cross station, the Festival Pier, and the London Eye are clearly
visible. In the dark background is Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, and
Westminster Abbey.
I went to the Transportation Museum in Covent Garden. I thought this would be a
good choice to find a picture book of the British cars for my car-loving
brothers. No luck. They had nice books of trollies and buses but no cars. I saw
some yuppie tourists in that museum gift shop. I did not miss them or the
obnoxious "give it to me now" American greed that I heard in the gift shop. I
felt I was back in America with all the little children running amok! I found a
couple blank cards that I liked. They had pictures of MGs and old Jaguars.
However, I was unwilling to cough up the exorbitant price. If memory serves,
they cost 5 quid ($9) a piece! That's a lot of money for a card with no writing
inside!
I continued around the Garden to Books Etc. I was stopped by another charity
seeker. Maybe they would have car picture
books for my brothers. No section for picture books. Is it an American thing? I
left and walked towards Piccadilly via Leicester Square. That's properly
pronounced "LESS-ter."
I wandered through the southeast corner of Soho. I was stopped by another
charity seeker. The rain let up. Soho seemed to have just about anything that
may fulfill your dreams. I saw clubs advertising 5 shots of whiskey for £2.
Quite a few bondage and "erotica" shops. However, the usual disagreeable
atmosphere was not present. The streets were clean and the stores advertised
their products
matter-of-the-factly.
It is interesting because I doubt that you could see such a street in America.
And we claim to be so free! I stopped in a T-shirt store and picked up a shirt.
The Indian guys gave me a pin of a telephone box because "I am so kind." I
think their prices were a bit high but not unreasonable. I paid about £7 (about
$13) for two t-shirts. Then, I stopped in a Subway sub shop! It is situated in
a street market on Brewer Street, I think. I was surprised to find a Subway in
London! The girls behind the counter were silly. I don't think they are used to
seeing American men in a fast food restaurant in Soho. I ate a foot long roast
beef sub and made notes. The radio played a combination of old and new pop
hits: Britney Spears, 1970s Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, etc.
Since I was having no luck finding a bookstore I continued on towards
Piccadilly. I went in the Virgin Record Megastore and Tower Records looking for
a band T-shirt for my guitar-toting brother. Like the car book quest, I had no
luck finding an acceptable T-shirt. The rain started falling heavily.
I went to Waterstone's on Piccadilly. This large book store claims to be the
largest in Europe. It is four stories tall and standing on a 200 foot by 50
foot plot. Here I found a police driving manual for one brother and a book of
Jeremy Clarkson excerpts for the other. Clarkson is similiar to George Carlin
for British car magazines. He writes what he thinks and is not afraid to bash
stupidity and errors. The girl at the check-out was prim and proper. I
felt a little foolish standing in line in my soggy clothes. I was wondering if
she was going to tell me to piss off, thinking I was a street person! I was
very wet :) Nope, she was civil and understanding while she swiped my
platinum credit card. Ha ha, fooled you!
I was quite happy to see that the rain had stopped when I exited Waterstone's.
I continued down Piccadilly to Green Park. I sat down and read a little Jeremy
Clarkson. He was knocking German efficiency which is frequently devoid of
style. I like that guy! After about fifteen minutes I popped on the nearby tube
stop and went back to the hotel.
Not five minutes after I was indoors hail began to fall! I heard thunder, too!
Later that evening I went to Sainsbury's for food. It's silly to go to a
restaurant by myself. I ate swiss cheese and ham enclosed in flat bread and
Pringles hot dip. Strawberries were on clearance so I figured I'd throw a
package of those in! I washed it down with the French beer Kronenbourg 1664.
The bottles were unusual but the beer was good. I watched:
Salvage Squad - In this episode they rebuilt a Snow-Trac.
Point Break - only bits and pieces of this Keanu Reeves movie. I think I got
bored and switched channels.
Coupling
- I saw the episode where Jeff swallows Julia's ring. Those familiar with the
episode will realize that it's a suiting end to my tour of Soho.
I walked about 4 miles today.
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On to the next days, April 6th & 7th
