Abbey Road

"Here come old flattop he come grooving up slowly
He got joo-joo eyeball he one holy roller..."

Ride the train.

Ride The Tube.

Ride the bus?

Yea. Sounds sorta like a Steve Martin movie, doesn't it? Trains, tubes and buses.

Those aren't pillows!!

Sitting on my pillows for so long is giving me a bad case of bus-roids. Thankfully, no more buses after today. So, suck is up and act like a man.

First stop...St. Paul's Cathedral.

You want facts? I got the facts, ma'am.

Designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built in the 17th century, it is one of the most recognizable landmarks in all of London. It is where Charles and Diana were married in 1981 (has it really been THAT long?) and where they had the funerals for Winston Churchill and the Duke of Wellington (I love his beef).

There is an iconic photograph that was taken of St. Paul's during The Blitz in World War II. It is of the cathedral, through all of the smoke, still standing. I believe the name of it is "St. Paul's Survives". I've included it here on the left.

After we saw all of the obligatory sights from the comfort of our motor coach (shouldn't have been calling it a bus all this time), they stopped at Buckingham Palace, made sure all of us knew how to get back to the hotel (which was about an hour's ride back on the train), and then they again RELEASED THE KRAKEN. I know. It IS addicting saying that.

The day before, Jacob and I decided what we were going to do, so we had a plan, Stan. Lots of Tube-hopping, but we had an all-day pass for whatever public transportation we wanted. Money!!

So, we watched changing of the guard, then bid farewell to our more-than-helpful tour guide (Emilia), who had been with us since we landed in Shannon, Ireland. With that, we walked across Green Park, got on the north-bound Jubilee line and headed for what I hoped would be a really cool place...Abbey Road.

One of my very first memories is watching the Ed Sullivan Show back in 1964 when the Beatles made the first appearance on the show. I remember thinking that, despite the hysteric shrieks of the girls in the audience, these guys would never make it. They held their guitars too long. That would never catch on.

Hey, I was only five. Give the little guy a break.

Since getting a little more musical sense into my head in the latter part of the 70s, I've always been a big Beatles fan. My favorite album has always been Sgt. Pepper, but I also like a lot of the Abbey Road album, too. So, it was with great anticipation that I got off The Tube and walked the five or so blocks to the iconic crosswalk. May I say that it was a lot different than I had expected, but still pretty danged cool. The picture above isn't the best one we took that day, but it is the only one I've got with Jacob in it, too. He's George Harrison and I'm Paul McCartney, sans cancer stick.

You can just see, to the right in the picture, a pole with a ball on the top. There is one just like it on the other side of the road. Every now and then the balls will flash and the cars in the road are supposed to stop and let pedestrians cross. That's what you do if you want to take a picture here. You wait at the side of the road for those balls to flash, then you run out into the middle, stop and get someone to take your picture.

I'm sure that the good folks who live near here are so used to people stopping in the middle of the road that they almost expect to see it when they run to the grocery store or whatever.

I don't think you can really tell from the two pictures I've included (the best one is to the right, taken by Jacob), but when we were posing it was raining. As soon as we got finished, the heavens opened up for about five minutes and just soaked us as we walked back to the Tube station.

By the time we got back to "downtown" London, it was time for something to eat. Quick! Is there a BK close by?

No, but there was something just as good when we came out of the Tube station into Piccadilly Circus (London's version of Time's Square, to the right).

Pizza Hut!!

Yes!

Score another one for the not-so-little guy. All you can eat pizza and we got to pay for it with that Monopoly money they call pounds. Gather 'round the good stuff, baby! Jacob's got something good to eat tonight!

After stuffing our faces, we walked the five or six blocks to Trafalgar Square (left). When I visited her back in the 80's, there were so many pigeons that you could put a little bit of bird seed on your head and the pigeons would land on your noggin and eat right there. Of course, you took the chance that they'd leave something else, too, but it seemed worth it.

Since then they've gotten a hawk to take care of the pigeon population. Jacob didn't get the opportunity to have the birds poop on his head, but he still got to climb up on Nelson's Column and sit on one of the four lions that guard it. To the right you can see him standing next to it on the column. Below you can see him sitting on the same lion's back.

Look closely at that second picture. You'll notice he's not even looking at the camera. That's because he's looking at the police officer (Bobby) who is telling him to get down. My son, the law-breaker.

After Trafalgar Square we rode the bus below to Westminster Abbey. Of course, they don't let you take pictures in there, so I'm not including any.

This has always been one of my favorite places in London. The abbey was started in 1245 by Henry III and has been the site of Queen Elizabeth's marriage and Prince William's marriage to Kate, and it holds the remains of Geoffrey Chaucer, Isaac Newton (love his fig cookies), Charles Darwin, and Henry VIII. They're buried right there in the floor, too! I mean, you walk right on top of them. Nothing like walking on the Kings and Queens of England!

Just outside of Westminster Abbey is a great view of the Elizabeth Tower, which holds Big Ben (I kept waiting to see Charlie Chaplin hanging from the big hand). By this time, it was about 3:20pm, it hadn't been too long since we'd heard Big Ben do his business, and we were not anxious to walk all the way over across the bridge to take his picture again. So, we took it right where we were. "Drop 'em where you stand, pard!"

There was really only one other place we wanted to go after seeing Parliament. "It's like putting on a five dollar hat on a nickel head (It's about that hat rack)". That was the Tower of London. Another London highlight.

Just a few quick Tube stops away and we were right next to the Tower of London. I'd looked forward to this for a good long while, as I'd gotten my picture taken with a Beefeater and one of those iconic guards with the tall hats the last time I was here. Alas, I made a big rookie mistake this time. I didn't pay for us to go in.

I know. What was I thinking, right? Moron goes all the way to London and doesn't take his son in to see the Beefeaters? I should be shot.

What kind of knucklehead...? I'll be paying for this one for the rest of my life. Really.

The cost was something like 21 pounds or something like that. Came out to about $35 or so. And you couldn't put a crowbar in your wallet and take your kid in? You nimrod!!

To his credit, Jacob told me, while we stood there, that it was too expensive and we didn't need to go in. And again to his credit, he hasn't said a word about it to me since we got home. But I know that deep down in that rich little heart of his, it almost killed him to not go in. I haven't learned anything in this life, have I?

Directly behind the Tower of London is the Tower Bridge. You can see our picture in front of it to the left. If you look really closely you can see the Olympic rings on the bridge. Nice place.

But I still should have taken him in, no matter what the price.

Next time, little brother. Next time.

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Coming soon - Last day