After walking around a bit I finally found the shopping district at Piccadilly Circus. I don’t know, I guess with the word “Circus” in the name I expected something a bit more entertaining. I did see a lot of people holding signs pointing me to buy cheap theater tickets.

The saddest part is that I went in to look at the tickets and a Star Wars poster caught my eye. Then I remembered that there’s a Star Wars exhibition going on right now! It opens at 10:00 AM, but I needed to get all the way back to the airport by 12:00. I found out that I was 20 mins. away from the exhibition. With travel time to the airport and the exhibition I would have about 15 mins. to see the whole thing. So, I missed it.

I think that I ended up walking away from Piccadilly Circus and found this little place to eat breakfast. I thought, “That was a nice little place. I’ll have to take a photo when I leave.” Well I forgot to take the picture, but I was in no rush so I walked back and took it!

LOOK OUT!!! There’s an Australian impostor on the street!

On a side note. When I was leaving Australia they said that my carry-on bag was too heavy. I ended up taking my laptop out of the backpack, and the redistributing the backpack contents into my other bag so that I could stuff it into my checked luggage. I traveled all the way home with the camera case dragging behind me and the laptop under my arm.

I laughed at this sign, took a picture of it and then walked right past it. I saw a little open air marked that was just setting up off to the left and thought I would go through this little gate, into the alley and have a look. Then I thought of the sign! I backed up and kept on walking.

So I’m off and running. I’ve got about 6 hours in London so I decided to get out. I took the Heathrow Express to Paddington. On the train I talked to someone who was coming home from a trip to San Francisco. She suggested that I take the Bakerloo line to Piccadilly Circus and have a look around.

The escalator in the underground was so steep that I nearly fell!

I just started walking around and I came down a small alley where they were setting up some fruit stands etc. I thought that this was a cool looking building.

So I grabbed a baguette sandwich from one of the shops and then headed for my departure gate. On the way I noticed a vending machine with books in it! I’ve never seen that. But I am pleased to report that it seemed to be well stocked with the High School musical spin-off novelizations. Whew! I was afraid I wasn’t going to find any quality reading material!!

The flight to Chennai India was less forgiving about the “Only 1 carry-on” rule. They made me jump out of line and get my bag checked in. I’ve got that tripod attached to the bag, so I had to get the thing all wrapped up in plastic, and then they charged me to add another checked bag!!!

So I get the attention of the guy who pulled me out of line and he put me in the first class check-in line so I could get through quicker. I walked right in, stood there for less than a minute when a different security agent pulled me out of line for a random x-ray scan. Thanks for the fast track mate!

So, I’m back in the Heathrow Express. I thought that I’d be smart and leave 1 of my bags at the airport so I wouldn’t have to drag it all over the place. Well, I mis-read my flight schedule and I ended up leaving it at the wrong terminal!!!

No biggie, I got to ride the train again. So, I took this picture and out of nowhere this security officer rushes up to me and says that I can’t take any Flash photos of the drivers. Ok….WHAT?!?!

Granted I have no experience driving a train but I have been to autotopia at Disneyland. The car is on a track, what does the driver really do? OHHHHH, AWWWWW, THE FLASH!!!! IT’S BLINDING ME!!!!

….of LEMONADE! I was walking around Windsor castles and stopped for a bite to eat (I know I’ve got the receipt for that somewhere…). I decided that a place called “King and Castle” sounded just right for a bite to eat, but sensed that there was something a bit different about this place. They didn’t have any waitresses, the wall was filled with different colored bottles all behind this big bar…. BAR! Heh!

I had wandered off the street into a pub. I ordered my Traditional Fish and Chips and then they asked what I was going to drink. I said that I would just have a Lemonade and the gal asked me if I wanted a PINT! When those Brits in the movies start talking about drinking they always say that they are going to have a Pint. I was a bit worried that they were going to serve me some of that Alcoholic lemonade or something. It was some really good lemonade. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t spiked.

So I’m noticing that I want to talk in a British accent a little bit, but every other person that I run into is from someplace outside of England. interesting.

Do you know where I am??

So this is a shot of my room at the marriott.

But just down the road is Windsor Castle. Why couldn’t we get a room there?

The next few shots are of the shops and building all around the Castle. The Castle was closed so I couldn’t go through it, but it was great to walk around all those other shops.

I’m sure that we’ve all had that uncomfortable feeling of flying around the world and being self conscious about our breath. Well, the British are real innovators in the field of dental health. Don’t believe me? Well look what I found!!!

AHHHHH, that’s why they call it the tube!

This one’s for my sister Susan.