London - Part 1

Happy New Year! Welcome to the third year of this travel blog. It's been a month since my last trip…and it was a nice little break for the Christmas holiday. This week, I'm in London. The Internet connection in the hotel is deplorable, so I may have to find a local cafe to actually post this entry ; )

I'm in London this week for a press event. My company has invited select members of the press to talk about the "future of video games". This event will almost take the form of a roundtable discussion, with game developers, computer makers and computer retailers making up the rest of the discussion. It should be interesting - more on that when the event takes place tomorrow.

I love to visit London. I've always loved visiting London. There is so much to see and do - no matter what your interests might be. Art, architecture, history, investing banking, sports, horticulture, cinema, sculpture, musical theater…you get the idea. Over the years, I've had the opportunity to visit the UK on several occasions. I've also had the chance to travel here with every company that I've worked for (Japan is the only other country to hold that distinction). I've been here with my kids - as well as my wife. Those are some of the best trips.

With my son and daughter in 2002, in front of Buckingham Palace (look at that kid's hair!)

Standing in front of the Tower Bridge (2005)

My wife at the British Museum (2005)

My oldest son and daughter, taking the obligatory picture in front of Big Ben (2002)

My wife, fulfilling a life-long dream of visiting Wimbledon's Court 1 (2005)

I'm pretty comfortable walking the streets of London. It's easy to get lost, as many of the streets downtown look very, very similar. However, the public transportation system is one of the best in the world. The London Underground (or "Tube") is second only to Tokyo's subway system in making a visit outside the U.S. so easy. In the twenty years that I've been visiting London, the Tube hasn't changed much. One welcome change over the years - some train cars now have air-conditioning in the hot summer ; ) My favorite station in the railway system is Paddington Station (read all about it in this post).

The musical theater shows here in London, are some of the best in the world. I've seen quite a few of them - particularly shows that later made the move to Broadway. Over the years, I've had the chance to see "Mary Poppins", "Blood Brothers", "Lion King", "Chicago" and many others.

I've taken the opportunity to see a few operas here, including "Cosi Fan Tutti" and "The Magic Flute". I think some of my favorite shows have been symphonies and choral performances in many of the cathedrals and churches here. I remember an inspiring performance of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" at St. Martin-n-the-Fields, just off of Trafalgar Square. That's at least one benefit of traveling here by myself for so many years - I could just go to any show I wanted to. Finding a single ticket was not too difficult ; )

The shopping in London is also a great deal of fun. As you may know, I'm particularly interested in toys. London has a very-famous toy shop named Hamley's. It's like a mix of the old FAO Schwarz toy stores, mixed with a little Times Square Toys 'R Us.

The dangerous thing, is that the hotel I'm staying at on this trip, is only 2 blocks away from Hamley's. YIKES! I am on a mission to find a good book for G-Man, so I have an excuse to visit. I can't wait to bring G-Man here, and take him to this store.

For those with more-sophisticated taste, there is always the legendary Harrod's Department Store. This is truly an impressive store - particularly the food and confectionary sections.

From a visit in 2006, right before Valentine's Day

To finish today's post, I'll tell you a little about one of my visits in 2005. This trip took place in July, just a couple of months after Macy and I were married. I've made it my life's mission to "check-off" all the travel destinations on her list (compiled even before we started dating) - and the trip to London was one of the first. I was here on business, and she tagged along. A crazy turn-of-events interrupted our trip. On the morning of July 7th, I left for meetings with my UK-based employees, just outside of London. Macy was going to travel on the subway that morning, but wasn't feeling well. That day is well-known here in London as 7/7 - the day of the London terrorist bombings, when explosions struck the London Underground, as well as a bus that was traveling in the middle of the morning commute. Many people died that day - and we were lucky that my wife decided not take that particular train, because it went right to the station where the worst damage occurred. Macy was forced to evacuate the hotel (connected to the Paddington Station) and spend several hours standing in the street with an emergency blanket and no phone or computer. The authorities shut down the entire rail and bus system, so I couldn't get back into London. The phone lines were jammed - particularly cel phones - so we had to communicate via text messages and e-mail, when she was able to get to an Internet cafe. It's hard to describe how scary it was - not much was known about how/why the bombings took place. Nobody knew if that was the end of it, because they took place in multiple locations. I'm just glad that we made it safely through that trip. We'll never forget that trip...that's for sure!

I've run out of time for now...more on London tomorrow. Let me know if you have any questions about London - or what your favorite parts of London might be.

Neal