My co-workers and I met up at 2pm to head into downtown London to do some sightseeing. Andy, the husband of one of our UK co-workers is a cab driver and he and his wife took us downtown. Imagine a big, bald man with a thick British accent and you've got Andy. Andy used to work security for rock bands back in the 70's and we were able to pry some amazing stories out of him. He told us about being responsible for Keith Moon (now dead drummer for The Who) and having to try and get him on stage while he was pounding pills and drinking heavily. He told us a story about running security a club where the Sex Pistols played before they got big and spending time with Sid Vicious's girlfriend Nancy Spungen (who the movie Sid & Nancy was made about). We kept asking about bands, and he kept sharing stories - ranging from Led Zeppelin to Cream. One of the best stories was about how he ended up punching out Ginger Baker of Cream fame.
Andy was also telling us about the camera systems all over London. The freeways have a set of average speed cameras which photograph all of the cars over a stretch of road and if you were speeding, they send you a picture of you driving the car, your average speed, and a ticket. The cameras are all over London to film the cars making any traffic violations. It's possible to come home after a bad day and have lost your license. There are cameras everyone around London filming people and doing facial recognition as well. The whole thing is a little scary.
We got to London and started off by going up in the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel that takes you hundreds of feet above the city and gives you an amazing view of the city.
From there, we walked around and saw place after place: Hyde Park, Picadilly Circus and Buckingham Palace to name a few. I wanted my picture taken somewhere, and learned that there are few things more ackward than the "single guy having a picture taken by another guy" picture - both during, and after the picture:
You couldn't get close to the guard at Buckingham palace, but I did run into this guy downtown. Up close, this guy was really intimidating. I didn't want to get too close, as you can see by the picture:
We ended the night down in the Picadilly area, hitting a bunch of cool pubs before we got picked up and stuck in traffic downtown for an hour. I'll never complain about Detroit traffic again.
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2 comments:
The picture of you standing in front of the gate is, by far, the goofiest picture of you I have ever seen.
aww how cool. i'm jealous. i'd love to take a trip to london and photograph that place!
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