I’m in the final stretch. My part in the project I’ve been working on is finished, so all I have to do yet is tie up loose ends. I’m booked for a flight home this wednesday, but am trying to switch to an earlier flight. So far no luck.

The weekend was great. I went to a party Saturday night, and spent Sunday with my friend Rachel at a music festival (All Tomorrow’s Parties). The fair had an impressive lineup over the last few days (modest mouse, the shins, tortoise…) but I was only there for a few hours. It was still nice to get out of London for the day and enjoy some sunshine.

The extended section of this entry contains some large photos, so beware…
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This will be my last week on the project before heading back to SF. I’m flying to Geneva wednesday morning, and will be back in London friday night. I’ll probably need a day or two to tie up loose ends, but I could be back in the US as early as next week tuesday.

I did a little more wandering on Saturday. I went back to Russell Square near the University of London, where I spent some time in school. It was interesting to see how much it’s changed in the 10 years I’ve been away.

From there I headed south into Covent Garden where I was to meet Rupert and friends for drinks and dinner. Before I got there I was distracted by the sounds of the anti-war rally in Trafalgar. It was quieting down when I got there, but it looked like there had been a sizeable crowd.

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Saturday turned out to be quite beautiful. There was intermittent rainfall, but for most of the day the sun broke through the clouds and warmed the city, a nice respite from the gray gloom of the previous week.

I went on a meandering walk through The City (the oldest part of London which is now the financial district). I was out hunting Roman ruins and other glimpses of history I’ve been reading about in my book. The picture above is of the interior of one of the oldest churches in London, a crusader church hidden among the tightly clustered buildings of ‘the temple’.

Later on I stopped near the south side of London Bridge by the Tate museum and checked out an open-air food market. I enjoyed some comfort food and a cup of hot spiced cider.

I met up with my friend Rachel and her friends later in the day. We went to a pub, got tipsy, and discussed politics into the wee hours.
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It was good to be in London this week without the stress of traveling. Now I have a weekend to look forward to before heading to Switzerland again Tuesday.

What to do? Some potential ingredients for a fulfilling weekend might be:

• Seeing 21 grams? I’m hearing good things from different sources.
• Being a tourist. I’ve been really enjoying a new book by Edward Rutherford called
  ‘London’. It’s historical fiction, one of those grand epics that starts out in the bronze age and goes all the way, in this case, to the London Blitz. I’m reading a part about the building of the tower of London, so maybe I’ll go check it out.
• Eating. I can’t get enough of the amazing Indian food here. There is apparently a great Tandoori place open to the street in East London.
• St. Patricks Day. While I’m really bummed I’ll be in Lausanne on the 17th, the big London St. Patricks Day Parade is actually on Sunday the 14th, so I’ll probably check it out. I think it involves drinking lot’s of Guinness and walking somewhere.

On Navigating
I’ve been experimenting with different routes to work since there are so many options. One of the reasons London is such a world class city is it’s unrivaled trasportation system. There are 3 different underground routes I can take to work, and a few bus routes as well that I’ve only started to discover. Last night I took a double-decker from Westminster to Queensway where I had some mediocre Chinese food. It was a different experience seeing the city pass by instead of the tunnel walls of the underground.

-Jeff
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Having taken a bus to the castle Sunday, I was pretty much stranded there until it returned for the trip home. In all, I had six hours to kill, so I spent quite a bit of time wandering the castle grounds and the little cluster of houses nearby.

The photos in this section are mostly of a hedge maze I explored near the castle. It was fairly ordinary except for the ‘grotto’ at the center. Unlike other mazes with a standard entry and exit, the goal of this maze was a large stone mound in the center that provided views over the maze from above. The mound was actually a domed structure covering a series of spiral stairways…down. In order to get from the center of the maze back to the outside, I had to decend into the grotto and navigate the underground passages beneath the maze. The passages were elaborately decorated with statues and strange carvings, all apparently based on pagan mythology. The experience added a little spice to that gloomy afternoon.
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On Sunday I forced myself out of bed for the second day in a row and trudged on down to Victoria Station, this time with a bus ticket in hand. Leeds Castle is around an hour and a half SE of London. It’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and is named after a very small village nearby (Leeds). The Castle itself is of Norman origin (1200s) but was converted into a Queenly palace (prison) by Henry VIII himself. It’s changed hands dozens of times since, and is now manged by a trust. It’s a smallish castle, but is perched on two islands in the middle of a lake, surrounded by rolling hills. It makes for a very picturesque fairytale scene.

The weather was chilly and overcast and generally…gloomy. But that all added to the atmosphere of the place. The interior defied that cold-dank castle stereotype; the walls and floors were covered with tapestries and art, and each room was warmed by a giant fireplace.

It was snowing when I took the picture below. If you zoom in enough on the original you can see the little white specks of snow flakes.

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Portobello Rd starts a block from my apartment and winds north about a mile. It’s famous for it’s antique shops, and on the weekends it turns into a full-blown street market/fair. It starts with antiques on the south-end, but gradually becomes a farmers market as you move north. I wandered it from end-to-end saturday afternoon before meeting up with some friends. Here are a couple photos-
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I got up early Saturday thinking I would do a daytrip to Leeds Castle, but when I arrived at Victoria Station at 8am the tickets were already sold out. I bought a ticket for Sunday instead, and then decided to wander north on foot, looking for something worthwhile to do. I popped in at Westminster Abbey briefly, but the highlight of my day was the cabinet war rooms, the underground bunker where Churchill lived and worked during the blitz.

The extended section contains quite a few photos so…beware.
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The jet lag has been pretty intense. I made myself get out of bed yesterday and walked around SOHO and Covent Garden to get some air (40 degree air). I was basically in a stupor and remember very little of it. I think I had a cappacino somewhere.

Anyway, I’m feeling better and found my way to the office this morning. I just found out some details on the apartment I’ll have for next month. It’s at:

19 Linden Gardens, Flat 15
Notting Hill Gate
London, W2 4HD

Picadilly Circus, a block from my hotel

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