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London!

What a wonderful city. Such a pleasant place to visit. If I could find consulting work similar to what I do at home I'd consider relocating for a few years.

We arrived at Heathrow in the middle of the day. What a bustle, and to hear English spoken again. I'd gotten into the habit of speaking (and thinking and dreaming) in German; now I'd be readjusting. It's my visit here, but Rose spent some time in London and remembered that the independent mini-cabs (what we refer to as "gypsy cabs" in New York) are a thrifty alternative to the pricy sanctioned variety. We thought about taking the Underground, but we wanted to see some of the outlying sights and avoid dealing with the luggage. So we called a number and were told that a cabbie would meet us at the Meeting Point in five minutes, which he did. (Picture very large extended familys of Pakistanis and Indians, each wielding a cab and a cell phone (or "mobiles", as the English say). Our bags were brought to a shiny Mercedes and we were on our way.

Our cabbie knew not only the names of each of the neighborhoods which we encountered on the way to central London, but he knew little stories about them, and about some of the buildings we saw. A very entertaining ride, until he got hopelessly lost near the British Museum, unable to find Coptic Street. Finally I pulled out his street atlas and directed him to the door of our bed and breakfast brasserie. (Funny, I did the same thing in Paris a year later.)

We delivered a credit card to the proprieters, dropped our bags in the room, and headed out the door. Our place was a block away from the British Museum, and three blocks from the Tottingham - pronounced "tut'num" - Court Underground station. Here's a picture of Rose on the northbound spur. I was greatly amused by the British manner of dealing with the engineering fiasco that resulted in a large space between the station platform and the train car: taped messages repeatedly warn you to "Mind the Gap". That's one way of handling the problem.

Isaac loves the Underground. He's been on the Muni in San Francisco frequently, where he frequently wants to be holding on to the uprights. Here he's insatiable: he's riveted by the sights of the double-decker busses and the underground trains. In fact, the easiest way for us to feed him breakfast is to get to a busy station and spoon-feed him as he cranes around at the traffic. The more trains the better. Here we see Isaac chatting up two twin girls (accompanied by their mother). Isaac had a great time with the ladies on this trip...

Next, Coptic Street.