Tag: 2016 Excursions

London 2016, Part 5: Arts & Aircraft

September 27, 2016

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5

Last day. Mostly packed up, but off to do some stuff before checkout.

I missed it last time, so finally to squeeze in Torture Fortress Bridge.

Neat upper walkway.

The road below.

And… boilers, I guess?

Okay, maybe I hadn’t missed much. Or maybe I already saw so many views yesterday I’m just not impressed anymore.

Oh, hey, there’s Trajan. I remember you from last time.

Back to the Strand to check out of hotel. But have to leave suitcase for a bit. One more nearby stop before the airport. Been through Trafalgar Square enough times but hadn’t actually gone inside there yet.
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London 2016, Part 4: Sliding High

September 26, 2016

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5

Up and out, got a coffee, and headed toward the Covent Garden tube stop. Hmm, lots of people trying to get on the elevator down to the train platform. I guess it’s Monday morning rush. No matter. I see the stairs down right here. I’ll just pop on down.

And down…

And down…

Down some more…

Down even more…

Ah, fuck, why did I do this?!

Aha! Reached the bottom! I wonder if it’s nighttime already.

Anyway, boarded the train, switched to a different line at Holborn, and was heading northeast now, out of central London again. Off at Stratford and navigated a whole outdoor shopping center, until I found my way out and into the park there.

Anyway, I’m heading up whatever this is.

It’s got an observation deck.

Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky swam there.

Usain Bolt ran and cauldron pieces came together in there.

Back to the bottom to head back up this thing another way, this time leaving most items in a locker in the meantime. The ArcelorMittal Orbit is not just an artsy observation deck for a bygone Olympiad… it’s a Super Fun Happy Slide!
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London 2016, Part 3: Potter & Bard

September 25, 2016

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5

(Note: This trip took place before JK Rowling was revealed to be hateful transphobic garbage. Her views and actions thereof as of late are repugnant to say the least, and, though I found it enjoyable on the day recounted below, I wouldn’t be visiting the studio or any other associated locations now.)

While up and getting ready for the day, I had the BBC on the TV, in its natural habitat. They were talking things back home in the US, about the police brutality and our completely bonkers upcoming election. Weird feeling hearing the perspective on all this from a different country, a feeling I can’t quite describe.

Not to mention the ads I’m seeing for a regular morning news segment about our presidential election. Hosted by Jerry Springer. -_-

Then again, you’re the dumbasses who just Brexited, so STFU.

So I went on out, grabbed some coffee, and made my way back to where I was last night. Near this thing again.

But next door to here.

I was a bit early so I waited around for the tour to begin and others to show up for it. The guide came along, and we wandered through all things bard.

Is this a miniature replica of this building inside this building? Does that mean there’s another miniature replica inside the replica, and so on? What have I stumbled into?!

The immortal bard’s immortal stage. Or at least a recreation of it. When the tour group arrived in here sometime before I took this picture, there was some sort of Elizabethan knife fight going on up there. Hard core.

After parting with more of my cash in the gift shop, on some magnets, coffee mug, and a manga versions of Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream that I could not resist, I trudged on out, wandering eastward, now around noontime.
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London 2016, Part 2: Time & Tate

September 24, 2016

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5

Oh, that’s better. Nice and rested!

What am I going to do today?

Hmm. I got there too late last time to be able to see much, so if I get there early enough now, should get a better spot…

So on out of the hotel, across Trafalgar Square. My way was blocked by street closures due to filming, so I had to find an alternate route. But I got there before too long, with only a few crowds starting to form.

Right up to the fence.

There I stood, as the crowd formed and condensed behind me, closing me up against that fence.

Eventually, Fuzzy Hat Parade began.

How many jobs can you have where there’s this much pageantry at the start and end of your shift?

At last, it ended, and the crowd dispersed, and I could once again breathe. Was that worth the time? Meh. Whatever the case, on to the next thing. I walked north through Green Park, a nice wooded green space after all that crowd squish.

Where to now? I guess I’ll do another repeat from last time. I board the Tube at the Green Park station and ride to Canary Wharf, where I switched to the DLR (remembering to tap my Oyster Card this time!).
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London 2016, Part 1: Darwin & Hoard

September 23, 2016

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5

It was with some celebration when I booked it a few weeks back, that I was going again. I got out of work in the early afternoon on September 22 to do some last minute stuff at home. Including standing in my kitchen eating ice cream.

What am I doing?! It’s almost rush hour!

Okay, on the way to Dulles, hit some mild backups but nothing terrible, and with that usual feeling of excitement merged onto the airport access road. Well, what about TSA?

Huh, also not bad, for this time of day. Good thing. Got to the gate and bought a small thing of fries to hold me over until the airplane meal.

Oh, did I say gate? I think I meant gates, because HOLY CRAP look at the size of my plane!

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Atlanta 2016, Part 2: Civil Rights & Coke

August 28, 2016

Part 1 – Part 2

I got up a little after 8am, packed my little bag, and headed on down to check out of the hotel, as I wouldn’t be able to come by again later.

I wandered down Peachtree Street some ways to the stop, and soon enough here came the Atlanta streetcar. I had my MARTA card ready to pay, but there did not seem to be anything to tap nor did anyone ask. I got to my destination, for which I decided against walking as even at now around 9am it was already like 95 degrees, after what ended up being a free ride. Hmm.

Anyway…

Respect. *salute*

In front of which is some kind of sacred gas leak.

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Atlanta 2016, Part 1: Turner & Fish

August 27, 2016

Part 1 – Part 2

Friday night I was supposed to be getting ready for the weekend but instead found myself eating ice cream and watching Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and telling myself I’d get right on it.

Unlike Chicago and New York, I didn’t have to get up before sunrise as I snagged a midday flight. The next morning I parked in the Green Lot at Dulles and got the shuttle and went on into the terminal. No suitcase to check. Just my little bag with me. I brace myself for the TSA line and head down the escalator to it… to find no line at all. I walked straight over to the guy who checked my ID and boarding pass and mentioned I’m not sure I’d ever seen the TSA line not completely packed. “You just missed it,” he replied.

Way early for my flight, I went to the long C&D concourse where my gate was, near the beginning of the C gates. And I got to do something I’d always wanted to do but have done before: Walk from one end to the other! Touched the wall by C1 at 10:40am and walked all the way to the other end, touching the wall there at 10:55am. As I approached the latter, by a gate that was not being used at the time, some guy who worked at the airport was sitting in one of the chairs, watching me. Once I touched the wall and started back, he said, “it’s a long way, isn’t it? how long did it take you?” I told him 15 minutes and continued. Okay, so I guess this is a common thing here.

On my way back, I noticed this giant anthropomorphic kinder egg outside a duty free shop declaring a love for DC. Aren’t kinder eggs illegal in the US? If this thing is here, I can only assume it stowed away on a flight from Europe but got caught at customs. Must be waiting for a flight back out of the country. The professed love for DC must be trying to make nice with the locals so maybe it can stay, or it’s gloating that it got this far. Not sure which.

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New York 2016

June 18, 2016

So there I was at the Greenbelt Metro station at 6am waiting for a bus that was running late. It showed up finally with an apologetic driver, and we were heading north on I-95, stopping off in Baltimore to fill the bus the rest of the way. North we continued along this very familar megalopolitan expressway.

Why do New Jersey on-ramps have “No Turns” signs?

Eventually, the skyline came into view, and we were into the Lincoln Tunnel. I had purchased a ticket for 11:45am entry, and with the late departure, I was cutting it close. The bus stopped at its 33rd Street spot, and I zipped on out of it and over a few blocks to the subway station for the southbound C train. Which, seeing as I was in a rush, seemed to take forever. But it got there, all squeaky and smelly because New York subway, and many stops later I was out at Chambers Street.

Where to now? Well, my destination is rather conspicuous. I got in at 11:45am exactly and was admitted and led to security.

Which, holy crap, made us go through a backscatter machine. How… well, not ironic exactly, but something.

Now walking through what’s made to look like a cave for some reason, and there are the elevators. Short line for that, and up up up, through time, through 102 floors.

To some short film about the city. Then out to a hall to get a guide tablet if desired, and then forcible green screen picture so they can sell it back to you because every damn place seems to have these. Down to the floor below where the restaurant is, as well as a smaller cafe with quicker stuff.

And down one more floor to the observation deck…
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Ocean City 2016

April 30, 2016

Go east on Route 50. That’s it. You’re there.

First this meant the always fun crossing of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Then through the stretches of rural marshland, interrupted by Easton and Cambridge and then Salisbury, where, despite running a little bit late, I figured I’d stop off to see the alma mater.

You know, they dropped “State” from the name in 2001 (against the wishes of basically everyone, despite any media about the change claiming students wanted it because we were sick of “Salisbury steak” jokes, which we really didn’t care about since nobody made those mindless jokes except for maybe a family member that thinks they’re funny but actually couldn’t find clever in a wet paper bag saying it once, receiving only a glare that means “are you being serious right now?” which they mistake for confirmation of their non-existent hilarity), yet even in 2016 the recycle cans still have it.

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Chicago 2016

April 16, 2016

One moment in late February I’m idly browsing Southwest’s low fare calendar, and the next I’m saying “$72 roundtrip?! Fuck yeah, I’ll go to Chicago, why not?”

So I did.

I awoke just before 4am on April 16, got dressed and grabbed my bag, and was out the door. I parked at the BWI lot around 5am, waited an annoyingly long time for the shuttle, and finally got to the terminal after 5:30am. Argh! Look at that TSA line. How are so many people traveling this damn early? Wonder if I’ll make my damn flight… Oh, okay, line was moving fairly quickly actually.

I got my barely awake self to the gate and onto the plane, as the sun began to rise over the airfield. Isn’t it pretty?

Then we were off at the scheduled 6:45am departure time.

Two hours later, after a rather lovely aerial view of the southern edge of Lake Michigan and then the big city, we were on the ground at Midway. I made a glance at the long line at their TSA as I headed out, grumbling at what I might have to deal with later. And after playing with the machine a bit, I had my ticket and was on the L train.

Good morning, Chicago!

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