Security in London

Apologies in advance for the quality of these pictures...

They pictures were taken from the second level of a moving bus as I was making my way home on Friday afternoon. This conference center, located opposite Westminster Abbey and just off Parliament Square, is the site of the Iraq Inquiry. Friday marked former Prime Minister Tony Blair's testimony and both protesters and police turned out in force. I particularly liked the "BLIAR" signs.

Portobello Road Market

The Portobello Road Market, situated over the course of a mile in Notting Hill, is convened every Saturday throughout the year and hosts a vast array of antiques and vintage collectibles along with fresh food and music. I walked through the market this afternoon and took the following pictures...

The Punch Bowl

On Saturday night a few friends and I made our way to a pub in London called The Punch Bowl. It's a traditional country pub that has been open at its current location (Farm Street. a quiet side street as far from any major road or public transport as you can reasonably get in the center of London) since about 1750, but that's not what makes the place extraordinary.

The pub has long been a local boozer for residents of Mayfair, a well-to-do neighborhood just to the east of Hyde Park, but it took on another role when local resident/drinker Guy Ritchie, he of directing (Snatch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Sherlock Holmes) and marriage (Madonna, now divorced) fame, purchased a stake in the pub a few years ago. Since then, it's become a popular haunt for celebrities looking to avoid the big clubs and top-shelf bars in the capital. It's a classic pub with reasonable prices and no line or guestlist, and there's also a chance you might run into someone famous.

We were ordering drinks when a friend recognized Taylor Kitsch, a Canadian actor most famous for television's "Friday Night Lights" and the most recent X-Men movie. I had never heard of him and still couldn't pick him out of a lineup, but an iPhone search into his business in London turned up a movie filming in town (John Carter of Mars) with a noteworthy director attached who happened to be standing next to the aforementioned actor in the pub.

So in the end, our noteworthy celebrity sighting was writer/director Andrew Stanton, a man from Pixar who had a hand in Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, and WALL-E among others. That guy is a genius.

Cambridge

Cambridge is set on the River Cam and is less than an hour from London by train. The University of Cambridge, founded in 1209, is spread throughout the city of about one hundred thousand people. I spent the day yesterday visiting a friend from Cornell there; she is an alum of Corpus Christi College, one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge, and was in town for a few days before heading back to New York. What follows are pictures from my excellent guided tour of town...

 The colleges are all closed off from the town's streets. This picture and the next portray representative college entrances.

 

 

Inside each the colleges the buildings surround a series of courtyards. In the following few pictures you'll see some students passing by but you'll never see one walking on the grass. No one is allowed to touch the grass until they are a Fellow (a tenured faculty member). Punishment for infractions is said to involve physical labor of the brass/silver polishing variety.

 

 

 

This is the Mathematical Bridge over the River Cam. Rumor has it that the bridge was designed by Sir Issac Newton and that it was constructed without the need for nuts and bolts. The story goes that at some point in time past, students and faculty disassembled the bridge and were unable to assemble it again without the assistance of said nuts and bolts. Apparently the story is a complete fabrication and the bridge was built with nuts and bolts after Newton was dead, but it's a fun story nonetheless.

This is the Bridge of Sighs over the River Cam. Despite it's ornate and solid construction, it is barely wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side.

Rowing is quite popular at both Cambridge and Oxford, and each college has its own boathouse on the River Cam.

My friend and I climbed the steps to Great Saint Mary's, The University Church to get some views of town from above. This picture is of Senate House, where graduation ceremonies occur and the central administration is located.

The Chapel of King's College, started in 1446, is home to the famous Chorus of King's College since their founding by Henry VI.

 This is a view from the top of Great Saint Mary's onto Market Square.