We're goin' on a train ride...

By far the cheapest way to get from London to Scotland was to take a train (although it still was pricey.) This is a pic of the Scotland skyline. A bit depressing, as is most of that island (in terms of sunshine.) Once again (btw) the pictures are in reverse order.
The tail end of the Forth Road bridge, a suspension bridge in Scotland that rivals the Golden Gate (although not as colorful.) Once we got to Damien's and Angela's (Rachel's friends where we stayed) we went across this bridge everyday. It's impressive.
Another better view of the Forth Road suspension Bridge.
Some town at some train station. And this was a long train--6 hours, with only a dozen or so stops. The U.K. is much larger than I had anticipated.
Sheep. Lots and lots of fucking sheep in this country. I saw more sheep than anything else.


A railroad crossing.

At the King's Cross train station in London.
Another train station shot.
And yet another train station picture.
And one of my all time favorite pictures taken this trip. Like I said before, the English like to drink. Everywhere. At this train station you can buy beer and drink it in public. And of course I had to try it. And look at all that fucking luggage. That's 5 bags plus 2 laptops. We had to cart those motherfuckers all over London AND on the train. That was hands down the worst part of the trip.


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The rest of the England pics. Finally.

So I finally got around to posting the rest of the England pictures. Hopefully I can get Scotland done tonight as well and finally get back to current events. I skipped a whole bunch, and I mean a whole bunch--so if you're interested I'll show you the rest when I get back. Anyway, here we go. The above picture is my weight in kilos AND in stones. This scale was at the hotel--it's the first time I've ever seen one with stones. (1 stone=14 pounds) Sweet. I'm fat.
Also taken at the hotel. You had to put your little plastic key in to turn on the lights. Forced energy conservation. Innovative.
These signs were everywhere, at every underground station. The friendly woman announcer on the underground always said "mind the gap." I even bought a shirt that says "mind the gap" that I suppose could be interpreted another way :evil smile:.
Inside of the insanely expensive cab that we took just to say we were in one. Just in case you didn't know what you were in they had an ad for the car inside the car on the seat.
And here's the door inside the cab. What the fuck are all of those buttons for? The only one I could figure out was the window switch.
"I am watching you" and "If you wee on the seat please wipe it with a couple of tissues THANKS" seen inside a shady purse shop's bathroom. Me thinks is funny. Ben shut up.
My goal was to find a traditional English pub while we were in England and have proper fish and chips and a good pint (or two) of English brew. Every time we were in the bus driving around I saw them everywhere. When we were on foot, we saw them nowhere. Eventually we stumbled across this place, which strangely reminded me of Old Bag O' Nails in Columbus. Except this one has been around much, much longer.
And here's an outside shot of the place. The coolest thing about this pub (other than the history) was that most of the draft beers were hand pumped. They would cock the tap handle (like cocking a bb gun) and then beer would flow. Not anything like a modern CO2 tap.
So we took one of the famous open top buses around for a 2 hour tour of the city. Best money I spent in England. I took probably 200 pics of which I'll post maybe 20 here for you. The first one above is Westminster Abbey.
And this is Westminster church, attached to Westminster Abbey.
This is a statue of Winston Churchill. Winston didn't want a statue of him because he didn't want birds shitting on his head. So to rectify that problem they sent an electric current through the statue to deter pigeons. Seems like it's worked. Not. Silly British--if I was a bird, getting shocked probably would literally scare the shit out of me. Seems that's the case.
This is another picture of the oldest thing in London, the ancient Egyptian thing-a-ma-bobby. See earlier post.
This is a memorial to the fire that started in 1666 that burned most of the city. Since then, it's been illegal to build a wooden building in city limits. The fire was started by a candle in a bakery, and if you were to lay this statue down, where the golden top touches the ground is where the original bakery was.
This is St. Paul's Cathedral. If you look way up top near the big dome, you can see people up there. That's one hell of a stair climb.
The first double-sided clock ever. On the Royal Court of Justice.
Downing Street. Impressive, isn't it?
Picadilly Circus. Basically a shopping area owned by the Queen. Easy way to tell if she owns the land you're on--look at the lightposts, if there's a crown on it, she owns the ground you're on, homie.
Bahrain's flag. Thought that was interesting.
The English like to drink. Alot. And they allow it in public. Well, for the most part anyway. Check the white sign out. And by the way, 500 pounds is a 1000 bucks.
Gaymers. As good as it gets.

I suspect that's far from the truth.
Traditional red telephone booths.
The top of the open top bus where we were sitting. The guide is the dude in the maroon jacket and black hat. He was interesting, and very informative.
The outside of the bus we were in.
An old ass Underground Station.
St. John's Wood Underground station, where you get on/off for Abbey Road.
These reminders were everywhere, I suppose for us Americans who drive on the CORRECT side of the road.


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Abbey Road

And here it is. The one thing I absolutely had to do on my London trip. This is it. Although it could have used a bit of a painting.
Outside of Abbey Road Studios (where hundreds of records have been made, up until this very day) is a wall that is painted white that you can sign. And sign we did. Abbey Road Studios is about 40 feet from that famous crosswalk above.
Proof. That white house in the background is Abbey Road Studios. You can see the sign above the door. And if I looked really hard, I could see the receptionist in the window to the right of the door with "Abbey Road Studios" above her on the wall in gold.
Right there, front and center. Our mark will forever be on the Abbey Road wall.

Until they give it another paint job.
Rachel did the duties. I really like this picture.
A picture of a part of the wall.
Rachel crossing. It is really harder than you would think to get the pose right. And it didn't help that this road was really, really busy. You had to stand out in traffic to get a decent picture.
There were a couple German guys there trying to do their best. I thought it was funny as hell, even though they were doing a better job than us.
It's hard. Trust me.
And I thank Rachel for sacrificing her life out in the middle of the street to get these.
A look just up from the crosswalk. This is the beginning of Abbey Road. You can see how busy the street is as well.


Mikey--I have more pics, I'll show you when I come home. It's just a pain in the ass to load them all.

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Now playing: The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun
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Pay to piss, please.

This pic was taken on our way back to the hotel. The commuter trains that you would use to go to any of the outlying suburbs have drink carts that come by every few minutes with (you guessed it) brewskis. Of course I had to buy one (or two) and say I've had a beer on a train in London. Awesome.

What wasn't so awesome was this bathroom at the train station. Notice the sign. You had to pay 2o pence (40 cents) to piss. What the fuck? And they even had change machines next to the bathroom. Amazing.

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