Day 2: Gleaming the Tube

Okay, so that whole "no jet-lag" thing was a pipe dream. I woke up at 5am, WIDE awake. I'm SO glad I took the first day off to adjust my body clock. I don't even know what century I'm in, much less what the actual date and time are. All I know is that it's half-past something in October. Or November. I dunno. It's cloudy outside, so it's probably not August, which I believe is the prescribed month for sunshine in Britain.

So with the whole day (almost literally) in front of me, I decided to check off some errands and go to a few places I'd wanted to see for a while. I quickly put together an itinerary --

1) Find the Bayswater tube station.
2) Take the tube to Paddington and buy a monthly Rail pass for my daily trips to Slough.
3) Find Grey's of Westminster, the premier Nikon dealer in Britain. Promptly buy nothing because it's too expensive.
4) See the London Eye.
5) Since it's on my way, check out the wax celebrities at Madame Tussauds. Seeing as how REAL celebrities have the personality of a candle, this would be a chance to meet them all in one place and, quite likely, have a much better conversation.

Right, let's get on with it then.

It was a cloudy day but not a rainy one, so no need to bring my "brolly" ("Umbrella" in English. "Umbrella, 'ella, 'ella" in Rihanna). I found the Bayswater tube easily enough (it's just a few blocks from my flat), and quickly got myself one stop down to Paddington Station on the Central line.

From there I transferred to the Hammersmith and City line to Baker Street, home of Madame Tussauds. I recognized Baker Street for one reason - when I was a kid my favorite board game was called "221B Baker Street". It's just like Clue, only you're in England and you solve murders that took place at Buckingham Palace by Benny Hill with a really hot cup of tea. Jolly good fun!

221B Baker Street was also where the mythical Sherlock Holmes lived. And sure enough, just outside the Baker Street tube stop was a big statue of Sherlock Holmes. (Side note: If you watch the TV show House, you may have noticed that House's address is 221B. A bit of trivia for you there. Don't say I never gave you anything.)

"Elementary, My Dear Watson."

Turn left, and you're practically dragged by the force of gravity into giving Madame Tussauds ₤20 quid to take the tour.

"Attention: Please do not attempt to light the wax celebrities, as they do not have wicks."

No reason to include this picture other than I think it's funny that this girl apparently can't tell a wall from a door. (Click for bigger version)

Here are some of my closest friends...

Becks and Vic. Becktoria? Vic-ham? Amazingly, these are the real David and Victoria Beckham. They come here a lot to pose for the tourists.
Murderer, Murderer!!
R.I.P., Cool Hand Luke.
If you look closely you can see Amy's career coming to a crashing halt. It's so lifelike it's scary.
Speaking of scary, here's a Jelly Belly Elvis portrait. Delicious!

Tussauds done, I took the Victoria line to Pimlico to check out one of the best Nikon camera shops in all the world -- Grey's of Westminster. I spoke with one of the gents there who was a wealth of knowledge on everything Nikon. Even though UK prices are much higher than the US (and therefore I bought nothing), he very much appreciated that I came all the way from the States to see their shop. No pictures to share, but then again, only camera geeks like me would care.

A quick ride now from the Victoria station to Waterloo (I ALWAYS get ABBA in my head when I think of Waterloo -- I'm pretty sure I owe them royalties). From there it was a short walk to the London Eye, which was built in 2000 to commemorate the Centennial.

"Waterloo, Waterloo...something something something...Waterloo, Waterloo..."

The famous (?) London Eye.

This might give you some idea of how huge the Eye is.

The view of Buckingham Palace and Big Ben from the South Bank. Can you find the Queen? (Note: There is no queen in this picture.)

Close-up of Big Ben, complete with British weather.

They REALLY dig Hallowe'en here (and they spell it with an asterisk, for some odd reason). This display of an 'evil laboratory' was right outside the London Eye, and is very, very scary. I admit, I peed a little.

So anyway, I didn't take a ride on the Eye because the weather was cloudy and not good for pictures, but I did go through the London Aquarium next door, to check out all the fishes and stuff. As far as aquariums go, this was also an aquarium.

Wow, fish.
Wow, spherical fish.
Wow, worm thing.

Cool enough, but I was dead tired so I hopped back on the tube to Bayswater and walked back to the hotel.

Descending into the Tube.
Waiting for the train. As exciting as photos get, truly.

All in all, I'd say I got quite a bit done today. My feet hurt, but I got the most out of the day. There's a lot to do and see here, but tomorrow it's off to work for my first day in Slough. Looking forward to meeting everyone and getting on with the business at hand.

Cheerio, Yanks.