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I went to England for the first time
with Sandra, a colleague from the Institue.
Here we are shortly after landing on
English soil.
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The first thing I noticed about England was
that there was tea everywhere. No I mean
EVERYWHERE. They even had a tea making kit
nailed to the wall in the hotel room.
Good thang us Yanks done freed ourselves
from tea tyranny, way back in the day.
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After the tea trauma, I had to
chill out for a while in Hyde Park.
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We accidentally followed a crowd of
tourists to Buckingham Palace where
we were lucky enough to see the
famous changing of the guards.
Hear the marching band of the
Grenadier Guards
with tourists talking in the background.
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After the marching band we thought we'd
get a taste of something different, so
we stopped by a free noon-time concert
at the Royal Festival Hall. I forgot
the name of the band, but they were very
good. They did covers of pop songs in
swing style, including Under the Bridge
by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
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Not only was there good swing music, but
dancers as well, almost all of which where
a bunch of damn Lindy hoppers.
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But there are always those that
dance to the beat of a different
drummer...
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The next day we visited St. Pauls Cathedral
but didn't go in because it was too expensiver.
$9, Can you believe it.
We also didn't hear these church bells while
we were there, because they are from
St. Martin in the Fields Church down
the road. But I don't have a photo of
St. Martin in the Fields, do I?
(That's an English-ism)
In the background you can hear a guy
asking us if we have tickets for the
tourist bus, and later, Sandra laughing
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In May 2000, the Tate Modern art museum
opened in a former power station in the heart of London
and now houses an impressive collection of modern art.
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When we visited the museum, the
giagantic Turbine Hall, the foyer
to the museum contained the equally
giagantic sculpture "Marsyas" by
Anish Kapoor.
To get an idea of the massive
scale of the work, check out the
tiny people at the bottom of the
photo. And imagine that that
Museum changes the works in this
exhibition space regularly.
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The English seem to have an obsession
with fire doors. I saw an unusual
number of them while in London.
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There is even a China Town in
London. It's rather small
thought, you can see almost
all of it in this picture.
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The strangest thing was the
sinks. Notice anything? Take
another look.
There are TWO taps, one for
hot and once for cold. So,
when you wash your hands,
you have to alternate between
burning and freezing. This is
apparently normal in England.
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