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Talen
Capellan Confederation
Sang-shao
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1269
Location: United States
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 Posted: 01-May-2002 13:41 Post subject: Talen's Trip To England... |
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Well well well, i finally got around to writing this! Took long enough, eh?
Saturday/Sunday, May 13th/14th
Key Points: Long Plane Trip
Left early in the morning to pick up Greg and head out to SF International. Security was pretty weak, like it always has been. But the zippers on my black cargo pants set off the metal detector. Thankfully I didnt have to drop them, that woulda been laaaaame! Waited around, looking at stuff, then we got on the jet. We got the 2nd to last row on the 747 (thats the big-ass jet, by the way). We had little TVs for each chair...that was nice cause on the way i played video games (it was a SNES with a few games built into the plane....). There were some movies on, but nothing worth watching in my opinion. The trip was over 9 hours across the top of the pole via Canada, Greenland and Iceland. We arrived at 11:00 or so in the morning...on Sunday. Met Greg's aunt, then went to her flat. It is wonderfully located in the buisness district of London...2 blocks from St. Pauls Cathedral. Well, after getting stuff un-packed a lil we went out and grabbed lunch at this pub. That was fun, then we walked all the way down to the Tower Bridge, looking at some historical stuff on the way! Tower bridge is pretty big, actually. We also stole a few peeks at the Tower of London. We got back to the flat...ate some food, watched the Simpsons and got to bed. All in all I ended up being awake for 30 or so hours straight. Greg was lucky enough to get a few naps off.
Monday May 15th
Key Points: St. Paul's, Tower of London
The real begining of our Journey into London. Our first adventure was with Jet Lag. I didnt sleep too well all night, then about 5 AM local i got really tired...we were going to be getting up at 8:00 ish. Greg and I looked at eachother at 8:00, then decided a few extra hours would be good. We actually got up at 10, grabbed some breakfast, then headed up to St. Pauls. The thing is massive. I dont have any of the specs with me right now...but it dwarfs the state capitol, easily. The main part of the church was beautiful. Its amazing just how high the ceiling was. We then dropped into the crypt and looked at some tombs. We met Cathy (Greg's aunt) on the front steps, then we all climbed up to the Stone gallery, a walkway on the outside of the dome, at least 200ft up. I am sure it was more...but I cant remember. Went to Lunch at some place called "The FIne Line". It was pretty good...but my Cajun Chicken wasnt too Cajun. After that Greg and I hopped in the subway (AKA: Underground or Tube) and went to the Tower of London. We ended up spending at least 3 hours there, we think it was more like 4. We got a guided tour from a "Beef Eater". That was a lot of fun. Several key points were the Traitor's Gate where people were brought in (boat dock for the royalty when it was a palace, bad place when it became a prison and dungeon). The White Tower (Old...built some 1000 years ago.). We got to see the Ravens there, and the Crown Jeweles...well, some of them at least. We also took an audio tour where we learned even more...then Greg and I explored the armory inside White Tower. Lots of Armour in there. Got back to the flat about 5:00 that evening, had dinner, watched Fight Club (I think) and went to bed. I slept a lilttle better, but not too much, really.
Tuesday, 16th
Key Points: Silverstone Raceway
The day that our entire trip was planned around! HAHAH! We got up about 7:00 and caught the tube to Euston train station. From there we took a 1.5 hour train ride up to Northhampton. Waited for the bus, and got a ride out to the tiny-ass town of Silverstone, home of the British Grand Prix...one of the more popular Formula-1 events. We got off the bus in Silverstone ( a small town with about 30 buildings at most). When the bus had gone, Greg and I heard a faint high pitched whine. We looked at eachother in amazement as we knew that was one of the F-1 cars at the track...1 1/2 miles away! We walked to the track, the engine noises getting louder and louder the whole way. There was no race going on...but we got to see an open practice where any of the 11 teams in F-1 could show up and dive their cars for some 6 hours to test parts, settings, etc. We got lucky with how many cars were there. Greg and I knew that Jordan, his favorite team, was there. But we also got to see Renault, Jaguar, BAR, Arrows, Sauber...and the all important BMW. Minardi, one of the poorest teams in F-1, was there, but didnt test til Wednesday. Now, I have been to races before, and cars get loud...but these cars were ass kickers! We could hear them over a mile away, and when we got to the track, some 20 feet from the cars as they were driving...well...damn. Most of the track was roped off, but the public got to see a good section of the track. When the car first came into site it would be doing about 75% of its top speed, brake hard, make a series of turns, then jet off to the pit straight. All in all we got see every aspect of the course right there. Now, back to the loudness. Each car was incredible to listen to. The Renaults and BMW stole the show though. Whenever the Renault shifted gears on the staight part of the track (we were standing no more then 60 ft from the track) it felt like we were getting punched in the chest. The thing was so high pressured we could feel it. The BMWs just sounded overly powerful too. Its incredibly high powered, and is rumored to be near 20,000 RPMs (compared to the 4,000 RPMs in a Toyota or the 15-17,000 RPMs in other F-1 cars). We spent a long time there at the track watching cars and taking pictures. We also visited the Jordan HQ, across the street. While at Silverstone Greg and I looked into the Silverstone Driving Experience, this little thing where you get to drive race cars. I was looking at the Rally one, naturally...but spots were booked until May. Oh well, next time! We had about 1.5 hours to wait for the bus back to Northampton, so we popped into a pub and stared at their F1 stuff. Got on the train finally, and were back at the pad at 9:30. Ate a late dinner, then went to bed...
Wednesday the 17th...
Key Points: Sleep
Well, we woke up about 10:30. Greg said "We should get up soon" and I agreed. We both fell back asleep...and what felt like 10 minutes later was actually 7 hours later. Greg looked at his watch and it was 5:00 PM. We had been so completely exhausted that we slept ALL day! It was lame. Um...we went to a late dinner with Cathy at Oxo tower. It was fun. Came home...went to bed...i dont think we were that tired though.
Thursday the 18th...
Key Points: HMS Bellefast, Monument, Gilbert and Sullivan play
Woke up, and went down to the Tower Bridge where the HMS Belfast was located. The Bellefast is a WWII vintage cruiser that helped to take down the German battlecruiser "Scharnhorst". So, it was a floating musem. The guns were cool, and they even let people sit at the 40mm AA guns where could steer and elevate them. Fun fun! That took about 2 hours, and then we went to Monument, a tall monument built in rememberence of the great fire several hundred years ago. We climbed all of its steps to a pretty good view...but St. Paul's was better. Went and met Cathy for lunch. I had a steak sandwhich...mmmm. Greg and I then went back to the flat and watched some TV and did some stuff like grab some cofee. Which leads me to the fact that there are a BILLION Starbucks. You seriously cannot go more than 2 blocks in any direction and NOT see one. Its sickening! later that evening we met Cathy and went to this really cool theatre. Finally got to meet Greg's Uncle, David, who had been in NY the last days. We watched the play, then went home and had food, and went to bed.
Friday the 19th...
Key Points: Imperial War Museum
Went to the Imperial War Museum...and impressive place, to say the least. The opening room has several WWI and WWII vintage tanks and armored cars, and guns, and planes. It was really really cool! Went downstairs and got a history of WWI and WWII. Right now there is a "Trench Experience" thing going on. Downstrais they had the permanent WWI trench, a small, but fully scaled, replica of a WWI trench, sans the dead bodies and gunfire, of course. They also had a model of the trench networks during the war. Upstairs they had a larger trench setup...but that one was not permanent. The WWII exhibit was cool, and incuded the "Blitz Experience" where you were basically put in London during the blitz of firebombs, etc. It was really cool too. We worked our way up the building and finally got to the Holocaust exhibit. The entire museum up to that point had been buslting with activity...this place was very solem and quiet. Nobody was talking at all. This part took over an hour alone, and was full of information about how things got the way they were. The book "Night" doesnt explain half the stuff the people went through. Went home, then to dinner. We also learned that we were getting up at 4:30 the next morning for a trip to France.
Saturday the 20th...
Key Points: France, Some Colloseiums...some stuff.
Got up VERY early and went to the airport. Flew to France....yahoo. Drove to Arles and looked at this 2000 year old Stadium that the Romans built. Ate some french food. Then we drove to this city that was old. Inside it was the place the Pope lived during the 13th and 14th Centuries. Walked around there, then we took off to the wine country area. On our way to Nimes we saw the Pointe du Garde....one of, if not, the largest aqueducts built by the Romans. This one was pretty specual, as its contsruction was overseen by Ceaser. Then we went to the city, checked into the hotel and had dinner. It was French, nothing special. We really spent most of the day in the car trying to get to one spot or another. Went to bed...
Sunday the 21st
Key Points: Um...Wagamamma's, I guess...
Flew back to London in the morning, took a cab back to the flat. Went out for Lunch at Wagamamma's...this cool Asian resurant with lots of noodles, rice, etc. Good food. Then we went back and watched a Football game on TV. And by football i dont mean crappy American football...i mean real football. Then we watched some movies. Went to bed.
Monday the 22nd
Key Points: Westminster, Westminster Abbey
Took the tube down to Westminster to do the walk. it was pretty cool...all the buildings and such. The real treat was Westminster Abbey. St Paul's may have been massive, by Westminster Abbey was plain beautiful. All the old dead dudes like some of the Henrys, Edwards and such were there. Interestingly Queen Mary and Queen Elizibeth the 1st are buried in the same room. Some other tombs...Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Oliver Cromwell. There was also a marker for Winston Churchill, and a memorial to FDR. There was also a beautiful marker for the tomb of the unknown soldier. After that we walked over to Buckingham Palace. Frankly its not too impressive...its just sorta there. Then we went and got lunch at Piccidilly Circus. We were directed toward a cool store that had F-1 and Rally gear. The store was amazingly beautiful! it had everything we wanted...we decided to come back Tuesday. Monday evening we met David near his work and went to a BMW dealership. Much like the Motorsports store, the BMW store had good stuff we wanted. We ended up buying this years's BMW F-1 hats. What was funny was that they were the brand super-new month old hats (as opposed to last year's design), and they cost less than any of the other stores. Awesome deal...and there were more things I wanted to pick up there. I believe this is the night we went to the Piano concert.
Tuesday the 23rd
Key Points: Greenwich, Alex Reade
Took the boat down the Thames to Greenwich. Saw a lof of cool stuff on the way down the river. We looked at what used to the Royal Merchant Marine academy...it was pretty lame. We hiked up the 300ft hill to the Observatory where we kinda learned about the Greenwich mean time thing. it was cool to stand on the Prim Meridian...then we went to the planaterium show where we had a funny little Irish man talk to us about the stars. I found out the emaning of Subaru...its the Japanese name for Pleidies (sp?)...the 7 Sisters (6 are visable to the eye, so thats why the Subaru symbol has 6 stars). We took the train back to Oxford Street (downtown stuff) and went to that Motorsports store. Greg bought and Orange Arrows team hat and a Jordan shirt, while I bought a 1:18 scale Solberg Impreza. We also found the SWRT Driver's hat...but my funds were low, so I didnt get it yet. I forget what we did that night, so it prolly was a movie.
Wednesday the 24th
Key Points: RAF Air Museum
Got up and took the tube to Downtown...got my Subaru hat!!! Then we hopped on a train out to some place in Zone 4 of London...so it was an hour out or so. It was the home of the RAF Air Musem...with 80 or so planes from WWI-Modern times. We spent about 2 hours there looking at aircraft. Neither of us were too interested, though. Took the train back and walked around London looking at stuff. We were on own for dinner that night...so we found this good Pizza place on the Thames. Now...not Pizza hut, or the sorts...this was like an Italian Pizza place with goooood pizza...apparnetly one of the best places in London for Pizza!
Thursday the 25th
Key Points: Getting lost in Lodon, Organ Demo at St Pauls.
We met David for lunch at an Italian place...good eats. He directed us toward the British Museum and some other smaller museum. Well, we spent over an hour looking for the smaller place. We know something was up, cause NEITHER Greg nor I could find it based off the map!!! That pissed us off...so we walked home via this street lined with Diamond dealers/shops. (If you've seen Snatch, that'd be the same street!). We went home, then we met everyone at St. Pauls for a demo of the 7,000 pipe Organ. Truly amazing and breathtaking how powerfully....powerful the organ was!!! Then we went to this French resturant, then home.
Friday the 26th
Key points: Tower Bridge, Terrible Weather
We walked down to Tower Bridge, took the tour. I'll let you know, the weather was terrible. Freezing cold rain and mega powerful winds (espicially out on the river!). The bridge was cool....but by this time Greg and I were bored of things. That evening consisted of a movie or something.
Saturday the 27th
Key Points: Dumb canal ride...Some places...
Kinda a boring day. We watched a Football game, then went out to this canal area where we took an hour ride up the canal. The same walk would have taken 30 minutes, and the driver was drunk, cause we kept hitting things! Then we walked through a few places look at stores...didnt see anything of interest. came home and watched a movie and ate some good steak food.
Sunday the 28th
Key Points: Brazillian Grand Prix
Woke up, watched a movie, then watched the Brazillian Grand Prix. It was fun to watch it with no commericals. There was that whole digital F-1 channel! Totally amazing...then we packed and went to dinner at this place. Nothing much, really...but I did get a little buzzed off of a Mai Tai...fun stuff. Came home, watched a movie...went to bed.
Monday the 29th
Key Points: 10 hour flight...
Took a cab to the airport, got on the plane, flew home. The ride took 10 hours...REAL TIME! Eewww. Well...at least we had stuff to do this time. Thanks to the awesome digital movie system i watched 4 full length films. Count of Monte Cristo, Ocean's Eleven, K-PAX, and Planet of the Apes. Got in, got through customs (HAHA! Their mistake!) We then went to In N Out where Greg and I both downed 3x3s and fries. Mmm...good.
Well, thats the end of my trip! Yaahoooo!
_________________
"Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They recreate the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well." - Leto II
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ICER
Clan Hell's Horses
Galaxy Commander
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1663
Location: United States
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| Posted: 01-May-2002 14:37 Post subject: Talen's Trip To England... |
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You did all that. And you forgot to get me a T-Shirt!? 
The trip sounded like a blast. Now I have a referance guide so when I go to England.
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Sir Henry
Team Bansai
Senior Tech Specialist
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 4899
Location: United States
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| Posted: 03-May-2002 07:57 Post subject: Talen's Trip To England... |
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He should have gotten us all T-Shirts....
Sir HEnry
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Sir Henry
A Dragon in the disguise of a bunny, is still a Dragon.
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