Aaron Burke » world travels

Taking a ride on the London Eye and visiting the Tate Modern Museum

Aaron — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:17:10 +0000

The last video I have from my time in London is short – I guess I was too absorbed in just taking the last of my time there in. The first little bit of video is from inside one of the pods on the London Eye, which is basically a gigantic Ferris wheel that is, oh, I don’t know, a couple hundred feet tall? I suppose I could look for the info online, but I am too lazy. Anyway, you get a great view of central London and along the Thames.

The next day I visited the Tate Modern Museum (which is, somewhat unsurprisingly, a museum of modern art.) As you walk in, one half of the entire ground floor is devoted to a exhibit featuring giant sculptures, and a little story explains that it has been raining continuously for years, and the sculptures have started to grow, watered by the rain. So they brought them inside, into the shelter set up to keep people away from the rain. It was a weird little story, but the exhibit was nonetheless impressive.

Stopping by Buckingham Palace, and Visiting the Natural History Museum

Aaron — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:11:20 +0000

Today I went inside the Tower of London, and I didn't get tortured or killed!

Aaron — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:42:05 +0000

Worst Snow in London in Two Decades

Aaron — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:25:02 +0000

The news media said that London was hit the last two days with the worst snow in two decades… having been to Tahoe and Mammoth during snow storms, it didn’t seem bad at all to me. But apparently the transportation department didn’t salt the roads, and didn’t plow them until later on today, leaving thousand of Londoners without buses to take. And to make things worse, many of the underground train lines were non-functional, and the ones that were running were severely delayed.

Luckily for me, I didn’t have anywhere pressing to be, so I just decided to try to get to the center of London and bum around. Despite an strong urge to do a headfirst dive through some of the snow drifts, I restrained myself… barely.

It snowed today, and we had to bike through it. Joy!

Aaron — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:16:58 +0000

St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London

Aaron — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:29:28 +0000

Harrods, Gung Hai Fat Choi, Mozart!

Aaron — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:06:10 +0000

Last Sunday was a lot of things: rainy, gloomy, Chinese New Year, and also the day after the last day of the big sale at Harrods. Unfortunately, we didn’t know the sale had ended, so we traveled through the rain to shop at a decidedly un-salesy Harrods. Which translates to full price Harrods. Which, I am fairly certain, resides nowhere near the definition of inexpensive shopping.

But my aim in going to Harrods was to see the wonder that is the store, and let me tell you, it is BIG. And they have everything. Sort of like a larger, totally high-end Wall-Mart. Filled with United Kingdominions.

We worked up a big appetite in the store, so we joined some people for a big hot pot dinner in recognition of Chinese New Year. It was crazy fun, totally messy, and tasty.

The next day I did some wandering, and I love wondering because I seem to always find something unexpected and cool, and Monday was no different. Pleasant sounds drew me into a covered market where a classical quartet was entertaining a growing crowd. I’ll let the music speak for itself.

British Museum

Aaron — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:36:55 +0000

Saturday Will and I took a visit to the British Museum to view a few of their collections. Now the British, you see, being former imperialists, have filled this museum with all sorts of unique artifacts plundered rescued from countries around the world. And wishing to show off their former imperialist glory, admission to the museum is free, which I consider to be a good price for things.

Seeing everything here in one day would be nearly impossible, so we just wandered and focused on a few collections. But I did particularly enjoy seeing the famous Rosetta Stone, and the carvings from the equally famous Athenian Parthenon.

Running Through Hyde Park

Aaron — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:28:38 +0000

At the Western edge of central London lies Hyde Park, a pretty darn large expanse of woods, paths, waterways, statues, and little critters. I like to explore, but I get bored walking, so my preferred method of exploring a new area is to run through it and stop whenever I see anything interesting. So I put on running shorts and a running shirt, then threw on some jeans, a sweatshirt, and coat over it all for the 45 minute trip through public transit to get to Hyde Park.

When I arrived the day had turned gorgeous and I spent the next couple hours just playing in the park and exploring. It ended up being a really good day.

Inauguration Day and many Londoners are celebrating!

Aaron — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:26:32 +0000

Will and I hopped on over to a bar near Picadilly Circus (in the heart of London) to attend an Obama inauguration party. The were a lot of Americans there, but more surprising to me was the number of English and other Europeans who were there celebrating. I’m not sure whether they were more interested in celebrating Obama becoming president, or Bush becoming un-president. Whatever it was, there were a lot of happy people, and we were even approached by a guy who asked if we were Americans and then congratulated us. Cool stuff.