England was fun, but I’m glad to be home.
September 7th, 1998 by Jim Clark
The next day we took a train to London and checked into the comfortable Dorset Square Hotel. After we were all checked in, we took the tube to St. John’s Wood station and walked over to the EMI/Abbey Road studios and did the typical tourist thing where you get your picture taken walking across Abbey Road. We’re such Beatles fanatics, we just had to do it. Then we took an official tour — the “Beatles Walk” — to see all the Beatles-related sites around that part of London. For fans like us it was the best part of the whole trip.
Then we took a taxi over to this part of town, I think it’s called the Portobello marketplace, something like that… anyway, it’s supposed to be a great place for antiques. We were a bit disappointed by the selection of antiques, and I’d not seen so much garbage in the streets anywhere else in London.
Then we went to the movies and saw the X-Files movie. The flick was good, and the British movie theatre experience was new to me. Thirty minutes of TV commercials, five minutes of previews, and then the movie. And they have assigned seats, like in a real theatre. That was pretty cool.
Today we flew back and it’s good to be home. It’s good to finally be back where they know how to prepare food, and you can get a meal after 9:00 at night, and the toilet paper here isn’t low-grade sandpaper. Don’t get me wrong… I had a wonderful time, but it’s good to be home.
Another strange thing… people in London kept asking if we were Canadian. Apparently I have a Canadian accent. What the hell, eh?
And now, here’s my official summary list.
STUFF THAT IS COOL ABOUT ENGLAND:
Roundabouts — great way to keep traffic flowing
Other drivers — very courteous
Tits on public access TV
The word “fuck” on TV and the radio
The people actually have manners
Lots of rain
Everything is old
STUFF THAT SUCKS ABOUT ENGLAND:
The food in most hotels is bland and boiled
Nothing is open before 8:00 and after 6:00. I mean nothing
The toilet paper
The street layout
The street signs
The showers
Lots of rain
Everything is old
This list is incomplete. I’m tired and I’m going to bed.
I had a lot of fun on the trip, despite some of the negative overtones of this travel journal. Like I said before, maybe I shouldn’t wait until the end of the day when I’m tired and crabby to sit down and write because it tends to color the dialogue.
But I did have a great time.