Photos From London And Glasgow

I haven’t taken many photos in London, because I did that when I was there last year :-) And there wasn’t honestly not much to take a picture of in Glasgow, at least not to my eye. But here are a few.

In front of the British Museum there was a huge garden with an Indian landscape. It was supposed to show all the various vegetation in India and it looked really really nice.

Hello From Sunny Scotland

This entry is brought to you with courtesy of the Belgrave Hotel, Glasgow, which provides computers and free internet access in every room. At least I think it’s in every room. There is one in my room anyway. But its keyboard is a nuisance, because some keys have to be pressed very firmly, which slows down typing quite a bit. I decided to try an update anyway as long as I have internet so easy available.

The trip by train to London last Friday didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped, but for once this was no fault of German Rail, but due to some track problems in Belgium. I freaked out a bit, when it was clear, that I’d miss the EuroStar train I was booked for. But it was no problem at all to take the next one, and I wasn’t the only passenger headed to London on the delayed train. So I got there an hour later as planned, but I got there after all :-)
And my first thing was to buy an Oyster Card for the tube and busses. Whoever invented that thing should get a medal, because it’s so much easier to use than the Travelcard. My hotel wasn’t close to the city center, which I didn’t mind. What I did mind, that I happen to get a room on the groundfloor, next to the 24 hour reception and on a rather loud street. Even with earplugs I obviously didn’t sleep too well, because I was pretty exhausted after four nights. Thank God this hotel in Glasgow is located in a rather quiet neighbourhood.

Scotland, Here I Come…

I should be working on my termpaper at the moment. And I will continue to do that later tonight, because I really really have to work on that. I started working on it yesterday and this afternoon and realized that it definitely will take quite some time to finish it. I’ve still got two weeks, which should be enough, but it won’t write itself.

Actually I had planned to write this blog post already yesterday, but then I decided to spend some time at the White House and the watching just the 2h season premiere of season 4 turned into watching the first four episodes in a row. I could go on and on about how much I enjoyed watching it and how much I love this show and it’s characters, but I’d risk boring most of you, so I won’t do it. Just some keywords for my fellow West Wing Fans: Donna in charge in Indiana, CJ on the Rock the Vote stage, Sam’s hockey talk with Mallory, Charlie being a “Big Brother” and even Debbie Fiderer. I liked her a lot when we first met her and I’m sure she’ll be a great addition to the staff. Oh, well there were so many things…

But back to the original purpose of this post. On Wednesday evening I booked aprox. 90% of my summer vacation. Rather spontaneously now, although its basic had been planned or been thought of for a while now. I wasn’t sure if I could actually go on vacation this summer or if it would clash with some work stuff and Greens stuff, because we’ve got elections at the end of August. A few weeks ago I also considered getting a bigger apartement and even started to look around and then I thought maybe I should spend my money (and time and thoughts) on moving and not on vacationing.
Until I realized that both ideas seem to have stalled each other. I suddenly wasn’t sure which one to pursue first and thus seemed to not really act on any one of them. When I realized that though I just spent a short time thinking about which was more important. Or better which could be carried out later this year as well. And that obviously was not the vacation. There will be suitable apartements available later this year. I don’t have to start looking now and miss out on a summer vacation because of that.

London (part 4): Monday, 28th July 2008

On Monday I originally planned to visit the British Library next to King’s Cross Station, but I thought the weather was too nice (hot, but still nice) to stay indoors. So I bought a day pass once again and went to Westminster once more. The Abbey Shop was open, so I could buy the things I wanted and thus could complete Hai_dis birthday present (Yes, I know giving hints like that is a bit mean *g*). I even got stuck in front of a big screen, which showed the original broadcast of the coronation ceremony of Elizabeth II in 1952. She had to wear four different layers of robes in the end! And a little Prince Charles was peaking over a railing the whole time : -)

After a last visit (and long recreational break) at St. James Park, I happened to watch the Change of the Horse Guards at Whitehall. All these ceremonies are so foreign to me, why do they still do that? In the way they do? I have no clue. A last stroll past Trafalgar Square, a last visit to Leicester Square and a last very nice lunch at Chiquito, topped with a delicious dessert. Tons of calories, pure fat and sugar, but still…. “small donuts, dusted in sugar and cinnamon, served with pots of chocolate fudge sauce and maple syrup for dipping.” Called churros and absolutely yummy!

The journey to Standstead was a smooth one and I reached the airport much too early. Thank god in one of the stores I found a great new book from an author I really like: Bill Bryson – “Shakespeare: The World as a Stage” (how fitting for this trip) And so I could sit down with a Starbucks coffee and read and block out the crowds and the sights of this uncomfortable, crowed, clearly designed for low budget airlines airport.

I was dreading the journey from Düsseldorf airport to my hometown, over an hour on train during these temperatures and a suitcase in tow. Bro2 agreed to pick me up at the station, when I asked him via text message from London. Imagine my huge surprise, when I turned on my phone after the landing, to read his offer to pick me up at the airport instead. Yay! It meant I had to wait at the airport for about 45 minutes, but that was more than ok as I needed to eat something anyway. And  after dinner I had just ordered my 3rd Starbucks coffee of the day, when he already arrived to pick me up. Perfect timing and a very nice and relaxing end to a great and exciting trip…

London (part 3): Sunday, 27th July 2008

On Sunday I finally left my jacket at the hotel *g* and my first stop was Shakespeare’s Globe a reconstruction from the 16th century’s theatre.

London (part 2): Saturday, 26th July 2008

Grabbing a coffee at Starbucks and getting on the tube around 09.00 AM became sort of routine for the next couple of days. With coffee in hand I visited platform 9 3/4, it was King’s Cross after all.

London (part 1): Friday 25th July 2008

I came up with the London travel plan a couple of weeks ago, when I realized, that I have read quite a few novels set in London (either historical or contemporary), but actually had no idea of the city anymore. I’ve been there on a class trip in 1992 and I remember a lot of the trip, but not much of the city. This had to change and I think with this trip I managed to get a good overall impression, I’ve got some sort of idea where different landmarks are located and just got a feeling of the city. So I can proudly say: “Mission accomplished!”

I wanted to write a rather short post about the trip in a “Been there, done that” sort of way. But I’m incapable of keeping it short. I’m a rambler I know. At least I try to not do this too meticulous… And I have to split this into four different posts, otherwise it’s going to be much too long. Every entry will be too long anyway and although they are more or less written, I probably only will put up the first (two). Sorting, uploading and tagging the photos took too much time already…

Unreliable weather forecasts….

… sort of suck. Although they obviously just got the locations wrong. The light / heavy / thundery showers did happen after all. Here. And not in London. Which was fine by me, except for the fact that I unnecessesarily carried around my small umbrella in my bag every day. At least I was clever enough to don my jacket after two days, because I never wore it and it just took up too much space in my bag. But I’m not complaining, not at all, because I’m really glad that London didn’t got the flood that obviously hit parts of my home region.

Anyway I had a great (and very sweaty) time in London and I’m too tired to catch up with all my mails, journals, news, fanfics, twitter and online stuff. I will just skim over most of it and do the thorough reading at work tomorrow :-) I really should have taken another day off to relax after that trip.  And of course there will be a post (and pictures) from this weekend sometime later this week as well…

London Calling… finally :-)

For the last couple of days I thought of April, when I checked the BBC 5-days forecast for London. It changed about twice a day and ranged from light rain showers to sunshine to heavy showers. And that was just the forecast for Friday. It seems they’ve finally figured it out now, because the forecast stayed the same for the last 12 hours or so. And unfortunately every other forecast service practically forecasts something similar:

I guess it’s going to be typical (=rainy) London experience.

Friday: light showers
Saturday: thundery showers
Sunday: sunny (Yay!)
Monday: heavy showers

Every day around 25 °C, which means there is no way I’m taking my weatherproof Jack Wolfskin jacket, It’s a great jacket for rain and wind and everything, but not when it’s around 25 °C. An umbrella has to do the trick or I’ll just have to hop from sightseeing site to café to next site to Virgin Mega Store to another site… with help of the tube and just don’t to much walking and strolling around.

Or maybe the forecast might change again within the next 12 hours :-) At least I won’t be missing perfect summer days in Germany as it’s going to be a lot like the weather in London I guess.

So, this is me offically checking out till Monday Nigh…

Edit at 11.15 PM: BBC now forecasts light showers on Friday and Saturday, heavy showers on Sunday and Monday. WTF ?!?!? I  can only hope that this forecast will change again tomorrow, just like every one did during this week. Or even more hope that the weather just won’t act like the BBC told it to do :-)

London & Extraschicht

For the last couple of days I thought that I should only allow myself to watch some DVD later in the evening, after doing all the stuff I had or wanted to do on that day. Which always lead to me doing all sorts of (un-)important stuff and watching too much football on TV (in the background at least) before I put in a DVD way too late. So today I had a different schedule. I watched the last Lynley mysteries from series 2 first and now do all the other stuff like finally put up a new post here. Actually I even wanted to continue working on my Vacation 2006 – 2008 photo books, but I’m afraid it will be too late, when I’ve done with this post :-)

I think I watched the whole series (4×90 minutes) within a week or so. Geez, I’m seriously addicted. But it’s so much fun. A gay suspect about Lynley: “He’s so cool. I bet he’s straight, isn’t he? What a waste…” I just sat there and grinned and thought: No, not a waste at all :-)

I’m determined to not buy series 3 right away though, but instead finally give Doctor Who a try and catch up with the tons of Chicago Hope episodes I just got. Or finally watch some of the unseen DVDs on my DVD rack.

I spend about 90 minutes studying this morning, which was more than I managed to in the last few days. But I had so many other things going on and having to think about, so serious studying was out of question anyway. I’ve still got a couple of important errands and / or late work meetings this week, but after that I should really get back into some study routine easily. “Should” being the operative word :-) I spend these 90 minutes outside on my patio, which was really nice until it got really dark and I expected the thunderstorm which was announced on the forecast. And it started to rain a bit, but not really. I stayed inside though, glued to my computer with planning my London trip in more detail.