Vacation in London
This summer I went on a vacation (or a "holiday" as the British call it)
to London to visit Mike, an old high school friend of mine. Here are some of
the highlights. Click on the links to see various vacation photos (or in
one case an audio clip).
I arrived in London Saturday morning, June 24 and left on Tuesday, July 4.
The weather was great! It was sunny and warm almost the
whole time I was there. It only rained for a few hours on one evening.
Vacation Highlights
- I went to Wimbledon. I queued up for a ground pass and got in on the
second day of the tourney. The queue was incredibly long (I didn't get
there until about 10:30 AM) but moved quite smoothly. I got in after about
1.5 hours in line. A ground pass gives access to outer courts only (i.e.
not Centre Court or Court 1). Among the players I watched in the outer
courts were Jim Courier,
Mary Pierce,
and Thomas Enqvist. In the evening
I was able to queue for a returned Centre Court
ticket. I got in to watch
a men's doubles match. It was pretty cool to get into the court that I've
seen on TV so many times!
- I saw three shows: She Loves Me
(a great musical), Indian Ink
(the latest Tom Stoppard play), and My Night with Reg (sort of a British
equivalent to the current Broadway comedy Love! Valour! Compassion!).
I enjoyed all three.
- I spent a day in Salisbury. I took a train (~1.5 hour ride) and met my
friend Jan and her husband Gerry. We toured the
Salisbury Cathedral and
Hinton House (one of those great old English mansions where some Earl lives).
Both were magnificent. I spent a night in a charming Bed & Breakfast in
the English countryside.
- I hit two museums: the Science Museum and the Tate (art). The Science
Museum has (among many other things) an exhibit on Charles Babbage.
- I took a bus tour of London for the photo opportunities of all the usual
London sights (e.g. Tower Bridge,
Big Ben,
Trafalgar Square, etc.) which I had seen on
previous visits.
- I spent one evening pub-hopping (or, as I've
recently been told, on a pub-crawl!)
and trying many of the different types of
ales, lagers, bitters, etc. that were available.
- I flew on Virgin Atlantic airlines and was very impressed with their
entertainment system which includes a little video screen for each passenger
and a good selection of movies, TV programming, and video games.
Other London Vacation Pictures
You can get a much larger version of the picture by clicking on either the
picture or its caption. The larger versions look much nicer!
Go to: Randy's home page.
