London in 2025

On June 18, 2026 By StevenIn International Travel - The United Kingdom5 Comments

When I started this blog all the back in the long, long ago year 2011, the whole purpose was just to keep my friends and family updated on what I was up to – I was at the start of a multi-year assignment in Germany for my job, and I figured the blog format was the way to go. Through my time abroad, I fell into a travel blog format, because I was going all over the place and there was always something fascinating to see and to share. In more recent years, especially since 2020, I hadn’t been traveling as much. I did manage to squeeze in two international trips last year, and I want to talk about both of them. I’ll start with the second one, because it was just in November.

I realized as we approached the Thanksgiving holiday that I had the actual Thursday and Friday of the holiday off work, so if I took the Monday and Tuesday of the following week, I could have a solid five day visit to my favorite city in all the world – London!

I didn’t choose London as a destination just because I love the city- I chose it because there was a revival of Starlight Express running there in Wembley, and I desperately wanted to see it. Long time readers of this blog will recall that I’m a huge musical theater nerd, and that I went to Bochum to see the German version of Starlight that had been running there continuously since 1989. I never got to see the original 1984 version of the show, however, despite loving the crap out of it since I first heard it. It did run on Broadway for a while, but I was still a proto-Steven and could not travel on my own yet to see things.

Not so, now – I had the time off, and the money, and only needed the reason to go- and now I had it. I got myself some airfare, booked the Starlight ticket, reserved a hotel with points that was located in a convenient location, and set about populating my trip with Cool Shit To Do™. Then on the Wednesday night, I took Metro to the airport and hopped across the Atlantic Ocean.

Strap in, folks- this is going to be a long one. I’ll take it day by day.

Day One: Thursday the 27th of November –

My flight got into Heathrow around 10am, and getting through customs and passport control at the airport didn’t take all that long. The Heathrow Express took me from the airport straight to Paddington Station. My first order of business was finding the Paddington statue in Paddington Station. This might be my foggy recollection, but I’m pretty sure he’s been moved since I was last there about ten years prior.

From there, it was a short walk to my hotel to check in and drop off my bag. My original plan was to walk around a bit, perhaps over to Hyde Park, but I can’t sleep on airplanes and I was a bit shattered as a result, so I instead had a bite in the hotel restaurant while I waited for my room to be ready. This was the first of many great sandwiches on this trip – a delightful tuna and cucumber sandwich. England’s sandwich game is strong, and I still have dreams about the things I ate from the M&S Food store.

That didn’t take long, and I was able to have a brief nap in the hotel room before heading out for the evening’s plans. On my way to the Tube, I stumbled across public art – The Wild Table of Love. It turns out this (or a duplicate of this) is presently in New York as well, but I don’t think I’ll have a chance to go find it.

While this is not important to my story, it made me laugh and I would have failed my readers if I did not also give you a chance to laugh at this bus:

Onward to the Tube! I was delighted and surprised to learn that the Oyster Card I had purchased for my very first trip to London in 2012 still worked perfectly- it even had a remaining balance of a little over £10 to get me started.

This is my original 2012 Oyster Card from when London was hosting the Olympics

I rode the Tube to the Electric Ballroom on Camden High Street for Pop Will Eat Itself, an alt-rock band that started in the 1980s. It was an exceptionally good show, and I’m glad I was able to manage it.

Pop Will Eat Itself playing at Electric Ballroom

At no point on this entire day did I remember that it was Thanksgiving back in the States.

Day two: Friday the 28th of November –

I woke up, and hopped over to South Kensington for a behind the scenes tour of the Royal Albert Hall. I had been to the Royal Albert twice before for glorious performances, but a tour is a fascinating look behind the scenes.

The Royal Albert Hall is a pretty great place to see music. Lots of people gribe about the acoustics, but I like it.

I have a fondness for visiting what, to my mind, are the holy places of music and performance. The Ryman in Nashville. Chess Records in Chicago. You get the idea. The Royal Albert Hall tour was like that for me.

After the tour, I took the Tube over to Blackfriars to go to St Paul’s Cathedral. Longtime readers of this blog also know that I am a bit King-Kongy, in that whenever I’m in a new city, I like to find the tallest thing around and climb it. I had previously been to the Shard, which is obviously much taller, but St. Paul’s has a self guided tour which you can take, and which allows you to climb the Dome, up to the three Dome Galleries. The three galleries are basically levels at which you can stop climbing to look around, before going on to the next level. They’re called the Whispering Gallery, the Stone Gallery and the Golden Gallery, but honestly I missed how they go their names – I was too busy climbing and panting. All those steps were a lot easier when I was in my thirties.

Totally worth it, though. Check out the view from the top!

After St. Pauls, I went back to the hotel for a short break before the evening’s festivities, but not before a quick burger and beer at a really great local spot.

In the evening, before taking in a show at the West End, I decided to check out a little sculpture walk called the “Scenes in the Square Sculpture Trail” in Leicester Square. My goal of seeing most of the sculptures was complicated enormously by the GIANT FRICKING CHRISTMAS MARKET going on. Solid pun on the ice skating rink though:

Here’s the parts of the sculpture walk I did find – you can see a complete list of the sculptures on the official site.

After I was done there, I walked to the theater for the evening’s real entertainment: Disney’s Hercules. I’ve always liked the music from this one, and I was skeptical about translating it to the stage, but it actually worked really well.

Day three, Saturday the 29th of November –

On Saturday, I had a leisurely start because the first scheduled event of the day was the show that prompted this entire trip – a matinee of the new revival of Starlight Express!

It was so, so good. My inner twelve year old was delighted. This show is reportedly touring internationally in 2027, and I am here for it.

After Starlight Express rocked my socks off, I grabbed a quick dinner before starting a walking tour of London’s Historical Pubs. This tour was fascinating as hell, and I was well and truly buzzed by the end of it.

This next picture is not really important to the retelling, but I just liked how the tunnel between tube lines looked:

The tubes between Tubes could have been in any sci-fi movie.

Day four, Sunday the 30th of November –

Lunch at a pretty great place in Hammersmith called “Charlotte’s Cloud,” before walking over to Riverside Studios. Riverside Studios was founded in the 1930s as a film studio. It became a BBC television studio later, and some of Doctor Who’s earliest episodes were filmed there. The blue plaque pictured below is about Verity Lambert, the founding producer of Doctor Who.

Riverside Studios is a working studio and Doctor Who filmed here in the 1960s.

Nowadays, it’s an arts center with facilities capable of hosting fairly amazing shows. I was there for the immersive Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy experience/show. It was a fully interactive “play” rather than the kind where you sit in place and watch the story on a proscenium stage. The night started in a working bar, at a surprise party for one Arthur Dent.

Ford Prefect talked to me a bit before things started and as a result, I was referred to for the rest of the night as “David from Virginia.” I'”‘m still not sure whether he misheard me or simply chose to misname me for comedic effect, but I was David for the rest of the evening. At one point, Arthur Dent joked that “David rules the state of Virginia with an iron fist.” It was that kind of a night.

Day five, Monday, the 1st of December –

Met up with my dear friend Charlotte. When we first met, she she also lived in Germany and had a WordPress blog. We’ve kept in touch in the years since, and even met up when we were both in Tokyo. This makes the third country in which we’ve seen one another, which is kind of amazing. We had lunch and walked around a bit.

We also stopped at Liberty, a famous department store that’s been around for 150 years.

While we were walking around, we stumbled across this very funny reminder that the month of December had begun:

Lastly, we tried to go up the Fenchurch Building (the one that looks like a walkie-talkie), but it was closed that day, so we wound up finding another tall building called Horizon 22 with an observation deck instead.

In the foreground, The Fenchurch Building (walkie talkie) and in the background the Shard (big pointy)

In the evening, I went to see Hans Zimmer at the O2 Arena. In the days before this trip, I waffled between the Hans Zimmer show and Roxette playing across town, and in hindsight I wish I’d gone to see Roxette. The O2 was uncomfortable for me, and I was so far away from the stage that it was like watching an animated musical postage stamp. I think I would have had more fun at Roxette. Oh well, sometimes I make bad choices.

This was the line at the O2 to get into the Arena.

Day six, Tuesday, the 2nd of December –

It was time to head back to the airport to fly home. London is just like Disney in one regard: You exit through the gift shop.

Lots of London gift shop stuff at Heathrow airport.

I had wanted to wake up in London on my birthday, and in that I was successful. I was kind of hoping that the actual minute of my birth would occur in international airspace so that my birthday would be negated and I wouldn’t age another year. That plan was a bust though, because we were already over Canadian airspace by the time that minute rolled around.

This photo was taken at the exact minute of my birthday, US east coast time.

Still, the international travel made my birthday last 29 hours. That’s quite something, isn’t it?

3/52

The London Film Museum

On May 26, 2020November 22, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - The United Kingdom, Pop Culture2 Comments

My previous post about London led to a conversation with a friend about London, and I wanted to look at the pictures I posted in my blog post about the London Film Museum. When I went to look for the post, I discovered to my vast surprise that I never wrote a post about the London Film Museum, I only wrote a paragraph in one of my previous London posts. In August of 2012, I said the following in a longer post about London:

I quite enjoyed the London Film Museum, which had a lot of neat stuff, including Daleks, a TARDIS, the superman suit from Superman Returns, the Batman Begins batsuit, and a large variety of props from other movies. There was an entire room of Harry Potter stuff, and a large exhibit dedicated to Ray Harryhausen, including a full sized original Bubo. This was a highlight for me.

That’s it- just that one paragraph. All the pictures I took at the museum, which I thought I had posted years ago, were still unshared. I will now correct that oversight.

When I visited the London Film Museum, it was in a section of County Hall, right near Westminster Bridge, close to the London Eye along the Thames River. I have since learned that it moved to a location in Covent Garden in April of 2012- my visit was in July of 2012, so I suspect the museum was still moving, and I saw only a fraction of the entire exhibit. What I did see was pretty dang cool though.

Harry Potter props and costumes- A variety of items were present here, including some costumes, the Tri-Wizard cup, and Harry’s Nimbus 2000.

Star Wars stuff – London is the home of Pinewood Studios, which has been a production facility for most of the Star Wars films. There were a few Star Wars artifacts on hand during my visit. I saw much more at the Star Wars exhibit in Tokyo a few years later.

Jabba’s favorite decoration. He really brings the room together.

Alien – They had a sculpture of a Xenomorph and some facehuggers from the Alien franchise.

Doctor Who – A film museum in England would naturally have some Doctor Who items. Not as much as the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff, but still- a Tardis and a handful of Daleks were still neat to see.

Superman and Batman – Pinewood has a long history with DC Comics, and there weer a number of Superman and Batman artifacts on hand. First up, some costumes!

Next, we have part of the ship that brought Kal to earth in Superman (1978) and a newspaper from Superman II.

Braveheart, Hellraiser, and various animation – The Dangermouse cardboard stand was my favorite in this part.

The Ray Harryhausen Exhibit – This was my favorite part, to be honest- they had a special exhibit in plae called “Ray Harryhausen: Myths and Legends.” It contained various items from Harryhausen’s stop-motion work, but I was most interested in the Clash of the Titans items, particularly the full-sized Bubo the Owl!

Harryhausen himself, standing in front of Sinbad’s Minotaur

Have you ever been to a film museum? What’s your favorite prop that you’ve seen in person?

17/52

Danny Elfman In London

On October 31, 2013January 26, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - The United Kingdom

The centerpiece of the last UK trip was a show at the Royal Albert Hall, in London. The first in a small series of concerts around the UK, and a pair of them in Los Angeles.

The show was a concert of music that Danny Elfman had composed for Tim Burton’s movies.

I’m pretty sure that every single person reading this blog has heard at least some of this music- Batman, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Alice in Wonderland, Edward Scissorhands, and The Nightmare Before Christmas- they all had a moment in the program.

The best part of this concert, and the reason that I went all the way to London to see it, was that Danny Elfman himself was performing- his first live performance in 18 years. I did not take the following picture; I pulled it off the Royal Albert Hall blog. This is Danny, doing the Jack Skellington parts in the Nightmare Before Christmas section.

When the Nightmare Before Christmas section got to Sally’s song, Helena Bonham-Carter stepped out to do that song, to the roaring applause of pretty much everyone in the theatre. For the Oogie Boogie song, Danny did the Oogie part, and the conductor in the picture above donned a Santa hat to sing the Santa portion of the song. Brilliant!

After the show, they brought Tim Burton on the stage for applause and accolades. Once again, this picture is from the Royal Albert Hall blog; I wasn’t nearly this close. From left to right, Helena Bonham-Carter, Danny Elfman, and Tim Burton. Tim Burton has really grown into that hair over the years, I think.

This picture is one that I *did* take- you can see Danny, Helena, Tim, and the conductor standing together. We were in the 11th row.

What’s the last concert you went to? Did you travel to see it?

Highgate Cemetery, London

On October 28, 2013January 26, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - The United Kingdom12 Comments

I meant to visit Highgate Cemetery on my first visit to London, and again on my second visit. It took until my third visit before I managed to make it there. It’s a little further from the London Tube than Pere Lachaise is from the Paris Metro. Inside the gates, it’s not as well kept as Pere Lachaise either, but it has its own charm.

One of the things I like about Highgate is that many of the graves show a bit of the personality of the people buried there. For example, Gordon Bell:

One of the founders of Foyle’s Books:

Many of the graves were massively overgrown, or sunken. There are quite a few that cannot be reached easily.

I’m guessing Thornton was a pianist?

It wouldn’t be a trip to a cemetery without spotting a black cat hanging around. This one wasn’t as friendly as the one in Paris.

The grave of Karl Marx is very subtle. I almost missed it entirely.

Another grave with a lot of personality.

There were many children buried in Highgate. Some of their gravestones were unique.

The primary reason I wanted to go to Highgate was to see the grave of Douglas Noel Adams.

I realized when I arrived that it has become customary to leave a pen in the bowl in front of his grave. I always carry a pen, so I left it there.

I liked this gravestone. I hope when I’m gone that I’m also remembered as a wise and gentle man. Realistically, I’ll have to settle for gentle.

This gravestone wins. If anyone was at all unsure of their status, it’s clearly readable in the stone itself.

Cardiff

On October 21, 2013January 26, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - The United Kingdom3 Comments

On my last trip to the UK, we took a day trip to Cardiff by train out of London’s Paddington Station. This makes Wales my fifteenth country visited! (Not including the US.)

Cardiff is a fascinating little city. We didn’t see even a third of what the city has to offer, but we did take a stroll past this nifty clock down Queen Street.

At the end of the street are the outer walls of Cardiff Castle.

Through the main gate of those outer walls is the original Norman shell keep, flying the flag of Wales.

The red dragon motif is everywhere, as the symbol of Wales. It’s also the symbol of the Brains brewery, which makes a pretty tasty beer. I had a Brains Green Dragon at lunch when we were back in London later in the trip, and I wish I’d had a Brains while we were closer to the brewery- I’ve been told that the flavor loses something in transit.

Our goal for this jaunt to Cardiff was actually in Cardiff Bay. From the Cardiff central station, we took a small local train to Queen Street a few stops from the main station, then changed to the smallest train ever to go to Cardiff Bay. Seriously, it’s only got the one wagon and it just goes back and forth between Queen Street and Cardiff Bay.

From Cardiff Bay’s little train station, it’s a short walk to the Bay. You’ll pass the very pretty Pierhead building.

…and you’ll walk past the Wales Millennium Center. If you watched Torchwood, this will look familiar. This is an arts center which hosts events like concerts, opera, ballet, and so forth. The dome is clad in steel that was treated with copper oxide, to represent Cardiff’s steel making history. It was designed to withstand the weather conditions on the Cardiff Bay waterfront.

Inscribed on the front of the dome, above the main entrance, are two lines written by Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis. The Welsh version is Creu Gwir fel gwydr o ffwrnais awen, which means “Creating truth like glass from the furnace of inspiration”. The English is In These Stones Horizons Sing. (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

Walking further along the bay is the World Harmony Peace Statue. You hold the handle of the torch, and make a wish for world peace.

After a little bit more walking, we arrived at the goal for this side trip: The Doctor Who Experience, situated in Cardiff Bay until 2017. The first part of the DWE is an interactive walk-through adventure with the eleventh Doctor in which you get to fly the TARDIS, so that’s pretty fun. Also, you get to learn how to walk like a scarecrow soldier or a Cyberman.

After the interactive part of the Doctor Who Experience, there’s an exhibition. I took a bajillion photographs, but I won’t bore my non-geeky readers with all of those. I selected just seven pictures to give you a sense of the place. If you’re not into Doctor Who, just skip down to the picture that has me in it, and we’ll pick up the post from there.

The first picture is the outfit of Tom Baker, the fourth Doctor. This was part of a row of outfits worn by each of the first ten Doctors.

Similarly, the companions each had outfits in the exhibition. Here’s Elisabeth Sladen’s Sarah Jane Smith outfit.

There were several TARDIS control rooms in the exhibition. I’m pretty sure this was the fourth Doctor’s control room.

…and this was definitely Nine and Ten’s control room, brought over to the DWE in its entirety after the regeneration into Eleven. They cleaned it up a bit, but you can still see smoke and fire damage from Ten’s fairly explosive regeneration.

No Doctor Who exhibit would be complete without my favorite robot dog of all time, K-9.

Most of the Doctor’s adversaries were represented, but I particularly liked this Cyberman.

Of course, there were friends of the Doctor present as well. Here’s me, hanging out with the Face Of Boe.

Ok, that’s enough geekery for this post. Once we were done at the Doctor Who Experience, it was time to walk back from Cardiff Bay. I had to force myself not to walk like a Cyberman.

Cardiff Bay is really a very pretty place. Here’s a view out from the dock.

There’s a number of fascinating sculptures around the Bay. This was my favorite- the Merchant Seafarers’ War Memorial, by sculptor Brian Fell. It’s designed to look like both a face and the bow of a ship.

Walking back up the wide sidewalks from the Bay to the little rail station, we couldn’t help but notice all the spiders that were out. I think they were collecting food and preparing for the winter.

Last but not least, on our way out of the Cardiff Bay area, this little cutie walked right up to us, flopped over, and demanded to be loved. Who could say no to those little paws?