London Reloaded

Like I said before, had a lot of ground to cover and very little time.

Sorry RC about the ambush pictures.  Way back in the stone ages (high school), I had a burning desire to be a photographer.  One of my buddies worked for the high school paper/yearbook had some really high end equipment at the time (Pentax with an array of lenses) and I was trying to follow in his footsteps.  I got a nice Cannon AE1 with a power winder and several specialty lenses (fisheye, 50-210 telephoto, star burst) and was trying my hand at some darkroom work.  I still have my Cannon, but have migrated up to digital.  For a shutter hog like me, digital is a godsend.  I tend to take a lot of shots and then pick out the best ones.  If you look at my Flickr account, you will see several shots of the same subject as I try to reframe the subject with a different angle or perspective and then I will chose the best one to post/use.  In the old Kodachome days, I used to wind up with a lot of crap (why the hell did I take that?) shots.  The beauty of digital is that, I can take a bazillion shots (doesn’t cost a dime) and then pick just the right one of two good ones to post.  I still think there are people out there who are way better than I with their photographic skills (aka Terri).  So, whenever I go to a new place, I usually take a ton of pictures of various subjects from different angles.  Always interesting to go back and pick up on what I missed the first go around.  


That's what I was doing around Buckingham Palace last week.  I didn't realize at first that I had snagged a back shot of RC until I started reviewing the files.  Even with all of those pictures, I am still pissed off at myself that I did not get one single picture of RC and I together.  


The second day in London did not leave me much time to explore.  Overslept a bit and woke up a later than I had planned and did not pack out until around 0800.  Had to be back in St Pancras station by 1100 to check in for my train so that left me with about 3 hours to exploit.

Ran back by Parliament and Big Ben and the London Eye for some daytime shots, but the famous London fog had settled in on the Themes so all of my long shots have that ghostly appearance.  It was a shame to have the fog that morning as the weather was unseasonably nice (clear & cool) for that time of year.  I got some nice foggy shots of Westminster Abby, Big Ben, Waterloo Station.  I was going to take a spin on the Eye, but it did not open up early enough and would have taken too long for me to make my train.  Hopped the Tube to take me back across town to St Pancras/Kings Cross.  The Tube is pretty neat.  Down here in south Texas, we don’t have subways or trains (lite rail doesn’t count), so it is always an adventure to figure out the system.  Spent a good part of my youth in New Jersey, so we are familiar with the Erie Lackawanna rail system and the New York subways.  In Germany, we used the train system fairly regularly, so I enjoy traveling by rail.       

I always try to take pictures of different/unique things that we don’t always see down in south Texas.  I especially love the architectural styles   St Pancras station has some amazing buildings/details.  Interesting small factoid I did not realize:  Kings Cross was actually shown in the Harry Potter movies as the train station for the Hogwarts Express  (that did not dawn on me until I was flying back watching the last HP movie). 

Some of the more interesting sights I spotted during my brief visit: 

Ship in a bottle (life size)

Only 284 days left until the Olympics

Trafalgar Square

Building artwork

Protesters outside of Parliament

And don't forget the souvenirs

And while wandering around St Pancras station, I discovered found the perfect statue that reminded me of one of my favorite bloggers.  I had an hour to kill before my train and I wandered up the street a ways to explore and came across the British Library.  While taking various shots of buildings and sites, I spotted this giant statue in the courtyard of the library and my first thought in my head was: MELEAH!    I hung around the gates for 20 minutes waiting for it to open so I can get a few close up pictures.  So, Mel, this one’s for you.     

Gate to the British Library

Meleah!!!

Seriously, all that it lacks is the Mac