This is the sign at the entrance to Spencer's Wood, the town outside Reading where Jeff and Andrew were staying...
Travels in England: February 1996
In February 1996, Louie Lee and I went to visit Jeff Ouye and Andrew Hogaboam, since they were working for NETCOM in Bracknell, Berkshire, England. We spent a couple weeks there doing some sightseeing, and we even went to EuroDisney and Paris for one (too short) weekend...If you want to skip the England pix for some strange reason, you can click here to go straight to the France page...
This is the sign at the entrance to Spencer's Wood, the town outside Reading where Jeff and Andrew were staying...
This is the house in Spencer's Wood, the town outside Reading where Jeff and Andrew were staying...It's name is Suvikaja, but unfortunately you can't see the sign from here...
Look! Sting's new single was going to be released while we were there! Maybe I could get a UK release that would be an import back in the States? I surely did...It only cost me 2 pounds at the airport, and I saw it back home for $10! Not only that, but I convinced the British customs agent to stamp my CD liner when he stamped my passport...Woohoo! This was taken in the Underground, by the way...Mind the gap!...
Buckingham Palace...Fit for a royal residence? I sure think so...
If you ever go to the Tower of London, wait for one of the guided tours by one of the Wardens (they don't even know why they're called Beefeaters)...Talk about dry wit and really bad puns! Pretty funny...especially when you're looking at the private execution green where Henry VIII cut off his wives' heads...ewww...
No, I'm not quite as tall as Big Ben...but you know the bell is Big Ben, not the bell tower itself, right?...
Look at me...I'm in one of those cute British phone boxes actually using the phone to try to call Jeff at NETCOM UK...
Britta at Trafalgar Square...
Here is Westminster Abbey...I really don't see how many more honorary plaques or statues they could fit in there, but it was definitely interesting...
While at Westminster Abbey, we decided to do some wax rubbings as souvenirs...Here's Louie doing his...What an action shot!...
These are the main gates at Hampton Court...This was Henry VIII's pet project...a beautiful castle, indeed...When I'm rich and building my own mansion, I want at least one ceiling just like the gold and royal blue Tudor ceiling in the chapel!...
Jeff and Louie at Windsor Castle...Can you see the flag flying? That means the Queen is in residence that day...I was amazed at how thick the walls were, but I think it's a beautiful castle...There are still some rooms that aren't redone yet from the fire...
Well, you know how you're supposed to be able to do anything to those guards and they won't even crack a smile? Well, this guy's hat kept giving him a problem falling over each time he marched back and forth on his watch at his post, and a crowd developed watching him...We thought for sure his hat was going to fall off, and we didn't know what he would do? Then the changing of the guard came, and the replacement guard didn't quite fall in line with the guard who was leaving, so he had to shuffle backwards...It sounded really funny and looked even sillier, so the whole crowd started laughing...The first poor guard just couldn't take it anymore I guess, and he cracked a snicker with a little snort. All the other guards glared at him, and the commanding officer looked like he was fuming...When he ordered them to march, he even added "Quickly!" as they came through the crowd...We sure hope that poor guard didn't get fired...
Of course, even though we knew we were getting ripped off for quasi-legally scalped tickets, we figured we had to see "Phantom of the Opera"...Well, my advice is don't bother seeing it in London...See it in San Francisco before it leaves or at least in New York...The London cast couldn't even stay on key in some songs! That's definitely uncalled for in a professional show, in my opinion...It's like they just didn't care...Sad, really...We did see the revival of "Oliver!", and that was very well done and enjoyable...
Do you think this path would align with something significant maybe? Stonehenge is supposed to be a calendar, isn't it?...
Well, what would a trip to England be without seeing the mysterious Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plains? But even though the picture doesn't show it (I tried really hard not to get the restraints in my picture), you can't go up and touch the stones, and Andrew wanted to get "harmonically aligned", so we went along to Avebury...
Avebury is a much larger circle, which makes it difficult to see the arcs, and the stones aren't as rectangular...
...but you can touch them! Ah, I feel so in touch with the universe now...
In October 2006 since we happened to be driving past, we stopped for me to try to duplicate my original Avebury photo. I couldn't remember my pose but I did remember the rock! :)
Copyright ©1996-2008 Britta Blvd. All rights reserved. All text, photos, graphics, artwork and other material on Britta Blvd
are copyrighted and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without prior written consent.
