The Magical Mystery Tour

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I went on the LondonWalks’ Magical Mystery Tour which is a tour through London to various Beatles-related sites. The guy leading the tour has been doing this for some time and he’s a combination circus barker/super fan. I was a bit envious of him that he has been able to turn his obsession into profit. The final stop on the tour was Abbey Road Studios. I stopped paying attention to what he was saying at that point because close to Abbey Road Studios is the infamous crosswalk that was on the cover of The Beatles Abbey Road. It’s become a very popular tourist destination and on that Sunday it was particularly busy with people trying to pose for pics on the crosswalk. I could have watched this all day! There was a group of teenage boys with an older lady that took a lot of time trying to get the pic right, changing shirts, taking off shoes, all in the name of flattering imitation. You can watch a live webcam from the crosswalk here.

Abbey Road Studios has been in the news recently. There was talk of it being sold to help pay EMI’s debts. It has quite a history, and I hope no matter what happens, someone will take care to preserve that. I met up with my friend L by the Baker Street tube station after the tour and she was telling me about her friend who works there in the music library. He has in my opinion what might be the coolest job in the world despite getting his picture taken regularly by tourists visiting the studio.

Saville Row

World famous Saville Row was home to The Beatles' Apple offices.  They performed a rooftop concert at that building site and is still visited today.

Carnaby Street Celebrates its Anniversary

Soho

Sunday Morning Walking by the British Museum

Last Day - We Hope

Looks like our flight is going to happen and tonight will be our last hotel stay. I’m going to work in the morning and then after we check in online we’re going off to London for one last time. Funny, with all of this happening, I haven’t gotten a chance to mourn leaving London in a proper way. Last night after work we took the train in and went to see Avenue Q, H’s first theatre experience. I was able to snap a few covert pics of the theatre, which is the smallest London theatre I’ve been in. Beautiful! All three of us really enjoyed it. As we were walking through theatreland A said “I’m gonna miss London”. Yes indeed.

Relief Maybe?

After dinner last night we checked nats.co.uk and they’ve cleared the airspace over the UK for flights! So if all remains in motion we’ll be flying on Friday. I cannot wait! I’ve been working in the hotel lobby on their wireless network and have had the opportunity to meet several stranded travellers. We are all happy to have a hotel room but the bills are piling up. I felt particularly sorry for a couple from Phoenix. He’s been in Europe for work and the tour he was working on ended last week in Amersterdam. His girlfriend flew out there to meet up with him and they decided to add a quick stop in London to their trip and got stuck for a week! Of course, because work has ended this is completely on his dime.


We’ve spent some quality time in the area around our hotel and it’s been interesting to be in a working class community that supports all of the posh people of London. I walked down the street the other day looking for lunch and on the busy high street the only language I heard was Polish. We had dinner at a Polish restaurant (my dinner pictured below) and it was the best meal we’ve had this week.