Playing catch up

First off everyone, let me apologize for not posting more the last couple days. Although the hotel I'm staying does "have" wifi Internet, it is "broken" right now. Therefore I have to write the blog posts in a blogging app that I have on my iPod, save them in draft mode and later publish them when I can get a wifi signal -- which is usually when I go down and stand on the sidewalk in front of Lancaster Gate Underground station.

So London has understandably been in olympics frenzy mode the last few days but there is a difference between what's going on here and what the atmosphere around Atlanta was like when it hosted the olympics in 96. In Atlanta, the whole feeling was that it was the city's games, not an American games. Here it feels like this is Britain's games, not London's games.

There are strings of little British flags hanging in the windows of several shops around town.

So here is a recap of what's been happening in the last few days.

I got to see Trafalgar Square and the National Portrait Gallery, all three floors of it on Thursday, followed by the outside of the household cavalry museum since access to it's front door was blocked off to the public because it is an Olympic venue. I then headed down Whitehall, past the Downing Street gate, to the Churchill War Cabinet bunker. I spent some time in there and then came out towards Westminster Abbey, and stumbled upon the Olympic Torch Relay -- which was apparently sponsored by Coke and Samsung as both companies had floats that preceded the torch in the relay convoy.

The next day, I took a tour to Stonehenge, Bath and Windsor Castle. Stonehenge was more impressive by itself than the tour was, since the tour debunked all the cool myths behind what Stonehenge was used for. Bath was awesome because of the Roman Baths there, as well as the waterfalls in the middle of the river that runs through the village. The Abbey there is pretty impressive as well. Windsor Castle was Ok too, but not as awe inspiring. Of course the whole thing felt a bit rushed, so that may have had something to do with it.

Saturday began with Archery, which I've already blogged about. I left there after the session was over and went to nearby Abbey Road, where the Beatles set up there Abbey Road studios and shot the cover for their Abbey Road album. I feel sorry for people who have to live in that area because so many tourists kept darting into the street to get their picture taken as they tried to emulate the album cover that it held up traffic repeatedly. Not to mention the tourists kept getting the pose wrong. The Beatles did not look like they were sprinting across the street in the cover photo, and they certainly did not face the camera and give goofy smiles either.

After leaving Abbey Road, I caught a train to Tower Hill to get some pictures of Tower Bridge withe Olympic rings hanging from it. I wanted to go to Hampton Court Palace after that but a ticket guy at Waterloo station talked me out of it saying they stopped admitting people at 4:30, and it was 4 at that point. Turns out they actually stop admitting people at five, but whatever.

Today it is tennis at Wimbledon.

Got to head out in a bit, so I'll blog an update later.