So much to say, and so little time to say it...

The latter half of the summer proved too busy for me to be able to update this blog (the travel pictures speak for themselves!), but I would like to end off with a fitting quote from Samuel Johnson, an 18th century writer in London:

“You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

Summer in the UK has been a great experience. I owe thanks to many people, from my colleagues at Google to friends and flatmates I met over the summer.

Don't worry, London, I'll be back ;)

Good thing I walked by today...

Otherwise the sign would have been wrong!

Picadilly Circus. The sign reads: 34,274,552 pedestrians walk past here every year. To advertise, call...

Poor chap...

Broke down right in front of Buckingham Palace...

Maybe the queen will come out, wave her magic wand, and make it all better!

Latest weekend adventures...

Last weekend included a visit to Portobello Road Market (of Bedknobs and Broomsticks fame), as well as Hyde Park and Regent Park in London. I also took a day trip to see the Cathedral at Canterbury, the White cliffs at Dover, and the Royal Pavilion at Brighton!

Portobello Road Market

Not much for tales from Canterbury, just a big cathedral (kinda expensive...); Dover's white cliffs were a bit grey, but the castle was excellent (lots of great tunnels, from medieval dungeon to WWII secrets); and Brighton's palace wasn't that palatial, but the boardwalk was pretty cool.

Dover Castle

Stay tuned for highlights of Wales this weekend, and I'm off to Switzerland for work next week, and Germany / Austria next weekend!

The Bells of St. Pauls'

Gay go up and gay go down

To Ring the Bells of London Town

"Oranges and Lemons" say the Bells of St. Clements

"Bullseyes and Targets" say the Bells of St. Margaret's

...

Probably the best view in all of London!

London Remembers...

Earlier this month was the fourth anniversary of the 7th of July terrorist attacks in London. One of the bombings was at Tavistock Square in Bloomsbury ... it was overflowing with flowers:

Lest we forget ... this year's memorial in Hyde Park

And the band began to play...

Passing by the parade grounds the other day...

But looks like it was staged ... they had their own photographers:

Still, amazing to follow a royal marching band on the way to work!

Our chef went to France for the weekend...

... and now we have frog's legs and snails for lunch!

Lunch at Google London today: escargot, frog's legs, mussels, scallops, and shrimp!

In the footsteps of the Romans...

The Romans may not have made it to the Scotish capital, but I did!

Edinburgh is busy with visitors ... lots of tourists and concertgoers (Simple Minds was playing ... the best of Scottish 80s music). I stayed at the Univesity of Edinburgh, walked the Royal Mile, toured the National Museum of Scotland, skipped the Castle (long queue, 13 pounds!?!), saw the National Gallery, ate Scottish food (not a fan), visited a Tartan factory, and climbed the city's ancient volcano ... all in 24 hours! See some photos...

Edinburgh Castle

From there, I took the train through some beautiful Scottish country side (so many sheep!) and the ruins of Hadrian's Wall, visiting a 2000 year old Roman fort ... pictures describe it best.

Sheep. Everywhere.

Finally, a stop in the ancient city of York (Old York, I suppose). York has an impressive history ... amazing to see medieval walls built upon dark age walls built upon Roman walls. The York Minister is amazing ... check it out!

In Central London...

Speaking of movie premieres, I saw a dinosaur in central London the other day...

Lost? Land of...

In the train station the other day...

King's Cross Station

And speaking of wizardly things, I found Leicester Square adorned with a red carpet and decorated as Hogwarts a few weeks ago...

World Premiere...

On Penny Lane...

I've been making use of a rail pass and recently visited Liverpool and Manchester.

Highlights of Liverpool:

• the band began to play and a parade started the moment I walked out of the train station: not sure what it was all about, but things were off to a good start...
• the Walker Gallery has free exhibitions and live music; a great collection of portrait photography and some nice modern art, including a pretty amazing painting of the city
• the Maritime Museum is great; Liverpool is a famous port with a shipping, smuggling, wartime, and shipbuilding history (including the Titanic, Lusitania, and Empress of Ireland)
• and, of course, the Beatles! Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, etc, etc. Still playing in my head ... a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine, yellow submarine... (kinda crazy to hear everyone speaking with a Beatles accent)

The Walker Gallery

Manchester was a bit more mundane (maybe I got there late -- everything was closed):

• A Museum of Science and Industry ... Manchester was at the heart of the industrial revolution ... the first railway was built between the city and Liverpool 200 years ago!
• Roman ruins and fancy 19th brick architecture everywhere...
• a mildly famous football team....

Pretty much what 19th Century Britain looked like, minus the soot and plus some cars...

Anyway, check out the pictures: Liverpool, Manchester

English Action Figures

'nuff said

On the walk home...

I was thinking of showing a few photos from the walk home ... but I've collected too many for one post, so have a look at my Picasa album instead!

The Seven Dials, at the crossroads of London in Covent Garden

Another Route to Work...

Starting at Bedford Square...

Past a few big red buses...

Past a few red telephone booths...

Down St. Martin's Lane in the Theatre District...

Past the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square...

By 10 Downing Street...

Saying hello to Big Ben...

By the River Thames...

Past Westminster Abbey...

And to Victoria Station -- arrived!

On the walk to work...

The weather's been fantastic in London lately, so I've been walking to work (rather the bus or the tube). Walking takes about thirty minutes, but there's lots of neat things to see along the way, so let me show you some highlights. This is a route I've taken a few times ... starting at the red door of my house in Bloomsbury...

Then making my way through Bedford Square and down Charing Cross Road ... through Soho, the city's West End theatre district, filled with plenty of interesting sites and shops ....

Crossing Cambridge Circus (of Slumdog Millionare Fame...)

Into Trafalgar Square...

Past the National Gallery

Through Admiraltry Arch...

Down the National Mall...

By the Parade Grounds...

Touring St. James Park...

Nearing Buckingham Palace...

And up the lift to my office!

Do you know the muffin man?

Do you know the muffin man,

The muffin man, the muffin man,

Do you know the muffin man,

Who lives in Drury Lane?

Yes I know the muffin man,

The muffin man, the muffin man,

Yes I know the muffin man,

Who lives in Drury Lane?

O Canada...

Wednesday was Canada's 142nd birthday! Trafalgar Square was packed with a few thousand Canadians / Canadian wannabes for Canada Day in London, enjoying bison burgers, Tim Hortons, Canadian beer, and various Canadian music. I even saw someone I knew from Edmonton years ago (hi Tatum!)

See a few pictures...

Probably my new favourite hat...

Also on the subject of random Canadian things: http://www.canadianplease.ca/

Oxford

Last weekend's trip was a visit to the town of Oxford.

I gave the British Rail system a try, and wasn't terribly impressed ... more crowded and less punctual than the Deutsche Bahn. I learned some pecularities of English pronouciation along the route (how would you pronounce Slough or Reading?)

Oxford is, of course, a collection of very old colleges. There were hordes of tourists and the colleges took full advantage of it—I was surprised by the fees and glossy brochures (6 quid to see Christ Church college???). I think Stanford looks nicer and it's free to visit!

The highlight was lunch at a great Chinese restaurant. We were a bit late for the museums and I was disappointed to miss the stuffed dodo :(

Anyway, check out some of the photos...

Pictures

I've been overdue on posting travel photos, but not to worry — I've just fixed that! Here's a Picasa collection with my pictures from Europe: I've uploaded those from my summer in Germany a few years ago, along with some recent ones!

Take a look...

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/stsoneff

Aside: I've been short on space with my usual picasa collection (despite working for Google, I can't get more than 1 GB of free webspace...), so I've been experimenting with a few other photo hosting sites, namely Flickr and SmugMug. Flickr has some nice features, but all of my photos are organised in desktop Picasa and I can't get the photo uploader API to work properly, so I've given up on it. SmugMug is a fantastic site, but it's really expensive, and I don't think I'm pro enough to make full use of it. So I've opted just to start another Picasa account with my pictures from Europe ... I passed on my feature request list to the Picasa team, though (more storage, album collections, and viewage stats would be really nice...).

Weekend plans?

All tentative, drop me a line if you're around :)

• June 13/14: flat hunting; Valkyrie and Jeff in London
• June 20/21: London sightseeing, drinks with Monique and company; visited Greenwich with flatmates; Father's Day (Dad passing through London...)
• June 27/28: Wimbledon; Oxford/Cambridge
• July 4/5: Family visiting London; day trip to Canterbury?
• July 11/12: castles in Wales
• July 18/19: Edinburgh, Scotland
• July 24/25/26: south of France through to Barcelona
• August 1/2/3: Stockholm, Sweden; Helsinki, Finland
• August 8/9: Manchester / Liverpool
• August 13/14/15/16/17: work at Google Zürich? visit family in Switzerland, train to Germany, visit Valkyrie?
• August 22/23: Salisbury, Stonehenge, Bath
• August 29/30/31: Dublin, Ireland
• September 4/5/6/7: Greece, Turkey (finished work)
• September 8: London to San Francisco via Vancouver!

Time off is pretty generous in the UK ... I have about one day off every two weeks, plus bank holidays.

Cheers!

Greenwich!

I visited Greenwich (of Greenwich Mean Time fame) in south-east London recently. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to the National Martime Museum and Royal Observatory, two of London's free museums, along with Greenwich Park and Market.

Highlights include some great architecture...

The Royal Naval College

... a fantastic view from the observatory ...

The City of London, Canary Wharf, and the Millenium Dome—click for full

...and the chance to put a foot in both hemispheres!

The Prime Meridian