Land of the Britons

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I have been looking forward to the UK ever since we left Colorado. Maybe it was because I was yearning for more cold weather after our snowy experience in the Colorado mountainside? Perhaps, though I think it was more so because London is familiar territory. In that sense we have planned out this jaunt around the world rather well, every second or third stop we make is familiar to at least either me or Michelle.


Currently, we are on route to Brussels via the Eurostar rail, a two hour journey traveling some 420km. Other than this train trip and the one to and from Bristol earlier in the week I haven't really had much of a chance to sit down in solitude with my thoughts, there has just been too much to see and do in London.

There are a few bits of invaluable travel information that I feel somewhat obliged to share with future travelers to the United Kingdom. For one, the Oyster card; we collected our Oyster at Heathrow for £25, this included unlimited travel on the Underground and Surface networks between zones one and two for up to and including seven days. Since London is one of the few cities which have a public transport system that actually works, I would strongly recommend it, we saved tones travelling this way.

The next, and to some probably more importantly is drinks; The European beers and ciders are cheap! Four quid will get you a pint of your choosing, or, you can visit the local grocery store down the road and get that same bottle (or up to 1 liter equivalent in the case of Magners cider) for half that. Third night in, Michelle and I returned to our hotel after a long day with two liters of Magners underarm; for £5 who could argue with that.


We arrived in Heathrow at around 10am, immediately after collecting our luggage I exchanged my now useless American dollars and the small amount of Kiwi money I still had from our initial stopover in Auckland. At this stage, other than the currency not a lot had changed between New York and our arrival in London, the airport here was just as congested. It wasn't until we boarded the underground from the airport where Michelle sneezed that I noticed any difference. All throughout the United States, no matter where you were, whether you were on the Metro or walking down a busy New York street the moment anyone sneezed ten or so people almost in perfect harmonic unison would say ‘Bless You'. Michelle sneezed, and there was silence. I smirked at the silence, and then of course realized I'd have to make up for it and whispered ‘bless you' to her. A subtle difference yes, but a difference all the same, the first of many to come.

Our hotel, the Barkston Gardens were just around the corner from the Earls court tube stop, on the same line from Heathrow. My hands were buggered by this point. Since the luggage collection at the airport I had to manually carry my case due to damage to the wheels that you would otherwise use to drag the case along behind you. To add to my anguish of the situation it could have all been avoided had I been waiting on the other side of the luggage carousel. I watched helplessly as a tottering old nincompoop picked up my suitcase off the carousel, only to realize it wasn't hers and dropped it back onto the rotating platform; right on the corner of one of the wheels. The sheer weight of the case focused on that one wheel alone came crushing down and broke it. Less than 10 seconds later the now lame case came round to my side. I pulled it off the carousel only to ‘wheel' it a couple of meters before I realized that this felt a lot heavier than usual, with the wheel buckled in the case was resisting greatly. Since the wheel still seemed to be somewhat attached, only just, I decided to carry it until I could fix it at the hotel.

It just frustrates me that everyone else but me has to handle every single suitcase as it arrives on the carousel to determine it is not theirs. I see it at airports all the time. Now my case isn't some yellow and pink poker dotted case with a huge sticker of ‘hi five' on the side making it stand out like a white man in the middle of Africa, but I can still spot my case coming even from a distance, why on earth cant anyone else!!

I so love train travel, I have only done a few trips so far in Europe, mainly the trip to Bristol and another to Cambridge but the Eurostar service to Brussels is the best so far. I just returned from the galley with a packet of Pringles and a coke; the freedom of being able to get up and move about between cars is fantastic. Plus it is nowhere near as squishy as an airplane is - we need larger birds - or perhaps one better, a rail network from Europe to Australia! If being a Commonwealth nation doesn't entitle us to that then what is the point?

We both spent the first day just getting comfortable with our surroundings. Michelle in particular re-familiarising herself with everything from the Laundromat to the best pub which she discovered her last visit here two years earlier. Once we were settled in we jumped back onto the tube and headed for Piccadilly Circus; more popularly known as the realm of cheap tickets for West End theatre productions and musicals. After the phenomenal performance of Phantom of the Opera which we saw on Broadway, West End to me had a lot to live up to. Looking at the performance line up we easily spotted a few productions we were interested in seeing, ultimately we went to two; Wicked and We Will Rock You. There were two other performances which stood out based on the cast alone, one of which featured John Sims, to me better known for his starring roles in the UK version of ‘Life on Mars' and his portrayal of ‘The Master' in the 2005 BBC series reboot of Doctor Who. The other production starred John Barrowman, also popular for his role in Doctor Who and later in his own TV series ‘Torchwood' who portrays the adventurous ex-time agent rouge ‘Captain Jack Harkness.' However I could not bring myself to see him perform in La Cage, though if the promo poster in the underground was anything to go by he pulled off the red dress pretty well.

Wicked turned out to be fantastic. I was somewhat concerned during the first couple of acts, although I was by far not the only guy in the theatre it didn't seem to be a very blokey musical and I started to wonder just how many of these guys in the audience were here on their own accord, and then realized that I was the one who chose to see Wicked. Anyway, it picked up considerably and turned out to be very funny and creative. The story is of the Wizard of Oz, from the Oz perspective, featuring the life of the Wicked Witch of the West, her years through college, discovering her powers and abilities. The musical very nicely on occasion crossed over with the Wizard of Oz story line as most of us know it with references to Dorothy, the tornado from Kansas and also explained the origins and transformation of the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion. All up a fantastic production that I really enjoyed.

The next day both Michelle and I went our separate ways; Michelle to catch up with her best mate who's name is also Michelle, who moved to London six months ago, and myself to catch up with a mate Garbs, who I've known since uni days who was travelling through on his way back from Oktoberfest. Garbs and I both determined that we only ever seem to catch up in some far away city, the last time some years earlier when another friend Rob and I went to Sydney for the long weekend on a whim, buying Qantas tickets some four hours before departure, with just the backpacks on our back and no accommodation lined up. After landing in Sydney we both changed our MSN status (no facebook then) to reflect our location. It wasn't long before Garbs called up and said he was heading over for the weekend too.

We got off the tube at the Westminster stop and journeyed around the Themes taking in the traditional London sights such as Big Ben, St Pauls, Tower Bridge and the Millennium Bridge. We then stopped at a pub for lunch, both observing that our Australian accents didn't do half the justice they did here as they did in the United State. US girls just seem to gush over the Aussie slang, whereas in London too many Australians now roam the streets for this to be special anymore. Later that afternoon I headed back to Earls Court and caught up with Michelle and Michelle (M&M) for dinner.

The next morning Michelle and I journeyed out to Oxford University, or the town of Oxford or whichever you prefer the two are practically the same thing. I can only ascertain that at one point in time, the town site of Oxford contained one university, and then later, as the university grew the faculties of the campus split up and spread themselves out all around Oxford. Hence the whole town site today is regarded as Oxford University. It was a novel thing to be in a gothic/medieval style town filled with castles and ruins and yet be surrounded by people in their mid twenty's, students, most of which being guys; I can see why Michelle enjoys coming here so 😉 - Though none of them stood a chance against the ruggedly handsome bearded rouge such as myself dragging along my backpack on wheels. It didn't take long at all, dragging the backpack along the cobblestones for me to really wish I had left it at home. The backpack was instrumental for carrying our coats and umbrellas since the weather looked overcast when we left London. The voice in my head later exclaimed ‘well duhh, the weather is always like this, it doesn't mean its gonna rain' and of course for our day ahead it didn't. The backpack began to feel more and more like a ball and chain around my ankle. Needless to say, that was the last day trip that the backpack came on.

It was still a good day though, we toured the city on a open top double decker tour bus, absolutely freezing ourselves in the process and walked up and down most of the main streets, checking out various local shops and historic relics that we passed by.

Following the day at Oxford it was time for me to make a work stop in Bristol. That morning I dressed up in my business clothes, it was time to play like a local and along with many other business men journeyed to Paddington where I caught the train out to Bristol. It was a fun experience flirting with the idea of being a Londoner. The whole time I had been there I had felt very much at home and very relaxed; a far cry from the lifestyle of NYC. So I was on a train to meet a man I had only been introduced to via email a few weeks earlier, one of the head executives of Roland DG, yes, the same family (or sisters rather) of the electronic music industry. And yes, I did feel important 😊

The day in Bristol was great; most of the day was spent at Roland demonstrating the software I had been co-working on for the past three years. When business was settled we went for a spin in the execs BMW to a local pub for lunch. Out on the balcony of the pub we had views of the River Seven and its bridge. The sky was blue and the sun was beaming down. It was amusing to see just how much of a fuss Peter made of the weather, mentioning to everyone back at the office that we went out for lunch and that we sat out on the balcony! Usually it is much cooler this time of the year, and the chance for decent sunlight has long since gone.


That evening Michelle and I headed back to West End with tickets for ‘We Will Rock You'. I had a hard time picturing what this musical would be like. Earlier in the year I saw the ‘Queen - we will rock you' concert at Burswood, which was exactly that, a rock-concert, for some reason I kept on picturing this to be the same. We found our chairs, in the middle towards the back of the theatre with a perfect view of the stage. The curtains rolled up and I was completely blown away! ‘We Will Rock You' was fantastically done. The story was set in the distant future where over the decades between now and then music as we know it today (with lyrics and instruments) were phased out with completely electronic like techno equivalent. The global empire aptly named Globalsoft was responsible for eradicating music as we know it today, along with then destruction and banning of any instrumental play. The streets were heavily policed and monitored and those that were found not conforming to the status quo were disposed of in a ruthless manor or brainwashed and then re-integrated into society.

The story was about a journey two people took, a guy who kept spilling out phrases to lyrics of popular songs which came to him in his sleep and a girl who just didn't fit in with her gothic style of dress and her purple hairstyle. The two fleeing the authorities whilst on a quest to find the mythical instruments of Rock and bring ‘Rock n Roll' back to the world. Everything from the costumes, the special effects and even the music in this production were fantastically executed. Some of the music was brilliant, taking the Queen melody and applying their own lyrics in reference to what was going on at the time, usually referring to the internet or some other tech gadget; the geek in me loved it!


Our last day trip out of London was to Cambridge University. Unlike our trip to Oxford which was by stage coach we opted for the more comfortable journey of going by train. The layout of Cambridge was very similar to that of Oxford, where the city started as a single campus and then broke out with faculties scattered all over the city. I liked it a lot more than Oxford though, Cambridge had a very real college feel to it and yet at the same time also a more homely one; it also featured daily markets in the square.

The university grounds were incredible; we took a tour of these grounds via a punt down the river which they all backed onto. It became something of a game however to sneak into a university ground without having to pay an entrance fee of two pound which most of them advertised. On the punt our guide told us that the university accommodation was heavily comped for the students, as Cambridge is very rich. At charging tourists two pounds per faculty per visit, its easily to see how the campus got so rich :P


We arrived at Brussels and after much confusion we are now on a train to Antwerp, or more specifically to Berchem station where my Belgium colleague is planning on meeting us. In all the confusion and breakdown of communication with the platform conductor we were finally ushered onto the train. Michelle and I were convinced we ended up in a first class car. Michelle then left the train to check out the other cars, no sooner had she done so the alarm started to sound and the doors began to close (despite me pressing the ‘open door' button). Fortunately she managed to jump back onboard on the car ahead just as the train started pulling out of the station.

Our punt operator (a punt is a flat canoe shaped boat with the operator standing at the back of the boat using a long pole to push us through the water) told us the famous stories of the university, from stunts such as hanging toilet seats off the top of the cathedral corner points to the infamous relocation of a Mini on top of one of the multistory faculty buildings. Apparently this stunt took facility staff by such surprise and astonishment that they were forced to enlist the support of those involved in the stunt to undo it. Those that came forward as responsible for the stunt and assisted with relocating the running mini were given a commendation in the form of course credits for the units they were currently undertaking. Although the stunt was indeed a ridiculous act, the University acknowledged the feat of engineering and planning that was required.

I really enjoyed my time at Cambridge; it was a novel experience to walk about the streets of a city which has more history and age to it than any corner of Australia. I would strongly recommend a day trip visit to both Oxford and Cambridge to travelers to the United Kingdom. Along with the punting I would recommend hiring of a bicycle to get around as both these cities are very bicycle friendly with almost as many push bikes on the streets as there were motor bikes in Vietnam.

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