London at Last

Not so quick sweets. We got a long way to go yet. First step is to hike through Edinburgh to where we had to park the car.

There is a really heavy backpack on me with most of our gear. After a bit of driving we hit the M1. The M roads are the baddest roads in England. They are like our I roads. You know I-55, I-10, I-70 - Interstates. There's no speed limits on these babies. As we pass over the River Tyne in Newcaste (yes the place of the wonderful Newcastle Brown Ale), we look up and what is that thing?

Closer...

It's the angel of the north of course. You can get a 360 degree look at her here. Be sure to make it look up too.

http://online.gateshead.gov.uk/virtualtours/angel_java.aspx

Next on our trip is the old city of York. You know New York. This is Old York. It's an ancient walled city and in the center is the huge cathedral. Here is a look around the cathedral:

Now we're going to get up on the wall around the old city and walk the wall.

Ah. An interesting view of the cathedral from up here. Really. Scaffolding everywhere.

Some of these walls date back to the first century and were built by Romans. This is the largest wall like this in England.

This is one of the few entrances/exits to the old city of York. Most of this is nearly a thousand years old. Oh. Oh. Did we spend too much time in York? We are suppose to be at a lecture in London by 7:00pm and we're hundreds of miles away. It's back to the M and pedal to the metal. We passed this truck that said it all. Or did it pass us? Or maybe we passed it again. It was all a blur.

You really wouldn't have believed how fast I drove. It's me, the guy who has learned to drive for MPG not MPH. So for the past three years I rarely go over 60. 55 seems to be a pretty good sweet spot for max MPG. So here I am driving 85, 90, 95 miles an hour on the wrong side of the road, doing intensely strategic lane changes, watching my back (there were some cars doing over 100 - and then there were some trucks not quite making 50) and keeping the navigator busy reestimating ETA (estimated time of arrival) and a strategy for getting to the heart of London. Even the back seat driver fell very silent- but alert!

Our plan developed. We would stop at this place about 25 miles out from the city where there is a rather large train station and hop on the express train which will take us to a station less than a mile from the lecture hall. We zip into the station, park the car, run to get tickets, navigate the maze of hallways and escalators and stairwells and arrive at the correct landing a minute or two before the train arrives. Whew.

Now we're on the express train into London. At least for a while we are. Now we're on the express train under London. Only about two stops and we're at our station. Euston Station.

As we quickly make our way down the street we pass these four gals with migraines. They've been holding up this building for over a hundred years! This is the part of London that got ripped by those three bombs in the subways and busses a while back. Charlotte said, Oh Look! they still have phone booths here.

What are all those pictures in there, she wonders. Taking a closer look... Ahhhhk! It's porno! Charlotte was amazed. Maya clues her in that the only thing people use phones like this for is sex calls. Everybody else uses cell phones. Dr. Who would have a fit.

Wouldn't you know, we made it the lecture, took our seat and the lecture started about a minute later. A successful race across the planet.

This is the artist and esotericist, Benjamin Creme talking about the coming world teacher and his message of sharing resources, ending poverty and caring for the earth. Sometimes when you take pictures of Mr. Creme during a part of the lecture called the blessing, it has a strange effect on the film. These pictures turned out normal but a few months earlier in New York, Charlotte took pictures that turned out like this:

Well, you might imagine this turned out to be a pretty long day. After the lecture we grabbed some chips (the grossest, oiliest we ever came across) and headed back out of the city on the train to get our car and drive through the night around London and back to Brighton.

We had considered taking the train back into London on our last day, but we were beat. We turned in the rental car and just walked around Brighton again. We ate at so many great vegetarian places in Brighton while we were there. I told someone when we got back home that I thought there were probably 25 vegetarian places to eat in Brighton. Then wondering if I was exaggerating, I looked it up on the internet and found there were actually 50!

Here's one you won't want to miss. Bill's.

It's a 50/50 restaurant, grocery. They surprise you with amazing understatement on the menu.

Here is coffee:

Here are a couple smoothies:

And hummus on bread:

Later we came across the food cooperative. Here is their bakery products.

They also did a great job of promoting the local growers they were buying food from:

A little while later we came across a store that only sells things made within 50 miles.

Here's one of the products in the store. Laid the old fashioned way.

Now here come some illegal pictures. When the store owner caught us we had to stop. The products you are about to see were found in a store that sells products made from these African cooperatives where everything is made from materials found in the city landfills back in South Africa.

You can't see it from this distance very well, so here are some close-ups:

A Radio:

Wandering on, we come across a psychic street musician. An incredible combination of talents. He plays the favorite song of whoever is walking toward him. So what did he play for us? We gave him a nice tip.

Imagine, by John Lennon.

One last stroll along the Brighton beach. And here is the Brighton Hilton where the Labor Party holds their annual retreat.

The next generation of leaders for England:

We haven't seen a flower for a while have we. Well this one is imported from some other part of the galaxy.

Walking back to Maya's place we take some final glances at the sea.

Our last night in England, we went out and had dinner with Maya and her roommate, Josh Siepel, who was also from Texas A&M and a Marshall Scholar. This is a picture taken by Maya with her arm stretched way out.

And that's it. We had a delightfully uneventful trip home. I should mention one travel tip. They are more strict on the size of your carry ons coming back from Britain than going there. Some people lost some baggage.

So now we're back home in Jackson, Mississippi. It was a really great trip. Hope you enjoyed the virtual seat along the trip. Next adventure, coming soon...