Travel Thursday: London

How often do you get directions that say, "Get off the train, then meet me at The Famous Cock"?

There are untold numbers of things you can do and see in London: Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, all kinds of museums, Parliament, Buckingham Palace (at least while the queen is away) the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and so on, and so on and so on.

But beyond the stuff to see, which is pretty much all awesome, by the way one thing I noticed when my wife and I went to London (with a side trip to Liverpool for this Reds fan) is that there's seemingly a new adventure around every corner.

The West End was something to behold, as were the posters for what look to be some awful shows.

Although my wife, father-in-law and I once accidentally ran into Yankees manager Joe Girardi outside an elevator at the old Yankee Stadium (it was next to the family lounge), it would never occur to me to wait outside the clubhouse after a game so I could say hi to Derek Jeter and tell him he just played a great game.

But not only can you do it at the theatre, the stage doors have helpful signs on them saying "Stage Door," so you know where the actors are coming out. We saw two plays in London, "The Commitments" (which was amazing) and "War Horse" (which was pretty good).

It was the classic marital trade-off. I wanted to go to Liverpool to see Anfield and to a soccer game at Fulham, and she wanted to go see a couple shows. We would up seeing the two we did because my wife wanted to see Killian Donnelly in "The Commitments" and Alistair Brammer in "War Horse" after she saw them in the movie version of "Les Miserables."

And she wanted to meet them, which we did, in Donnelly's case both before and after the show. They were both very nice, stopping to chat with the few fans waiting outside, signing programs and posing for photos.

Then ... they disappeared.

For the actors we saw, there were no entourages, no cars waiting to whisk them away after the show. If no fans stopped them on their way out the stage door, they either hopped on bikes or walked away, into the London night.

Even the exit signs on the London Underground were classy.

I loved the London Underground, which is good, because we used it a lot. My wife very intelligently chose a hotel right next to a Tube station, and we rode the trains both to get into town and then to get around once we got there.

The trains and stations were clean, convenient, almost always on time and frequent. We had to wait more than a few minutes for a train less than a handful of times.

Needless to say, trains are among the very best places for people-watching. One night, we were standing on the train when a group of women came and stood in front of us. I'd guess they were mid-to-late 40s, maybe early 50s, nice-looking ... and dressed to the teeth ... clothes, jewelry, shoes, you name it.

These ladies were headed out for a serious night on the town away from their husbands (I spotted at least a couple wedding rings). I said to my wife, "I don't know where the party is, but if I want to find it, I'm following them."

They have been known as "the cougars" ever since.

A decent view, wouldn't you say?

Our trip to Greenwich came after the one truly disappointing part of the trip. I wanted to see the Olympic Stadium and Olympic Park, but after a long walk in fairly warm weather (it rained very little while we were there, and then apparently didn't stop for months after we left), you couldn't get near the stadium due to construction, and the park wasn't done yet, so there wasn't much there.

I was kind of ticked off, but it only lasted until we got off the train in Greenwich.

The revolution will be filmed here.

Our first stop was the Royal Naval College, a beautiful facility where my wife informed me part of the "Les Miserables" movie was filmed, with the help of a little CGI. It was weird standing in the courtyard while she played the scene filmed there on her phone.

We were inspired to come up with a business opportunity built around tours of sites related to the movie with a performance of the play at the end. Since a bunch of actors from the movie are in West End shows, we figured we could work in some kind of tie-in there, too. It hasn't gotten off the ground yet, but if anyone steals the idea, I'll show the authorities this blog post to let them know we had the idea first.

Prime real estate

From the college, we headed up the hill to the Royal Observatory, which not only offers spectacular views of the city, but is also the site of the Prime Meridian.

Naturally, we wanted to do the touristy thing and stand with one foot in either hemisphere, but we didn't know where to go, so when I saw someone wearing an official-looking outfit come walking by, I flagged him down and asked him.

It was probably five minutes after 5 p.m. by this point, and it wasn't until a few minutes later that I realized what I had done to the poor guy. He probably spent all day with tourists asking him "Where is the Prime Meridian?" "Where is the Prime Meridian?" and when he finally got a chance to head home, another clueless tourist ... an American, no less, was asking him where the Prime Meridian was.

To his credit, however, he very calmly explained that the observatory was closed, so the main Prime Meridian display was closed, but that the line also came through the trail back down the hill not too far away, so we could go there, which we and a bunch of other people did.

Would I go again? I'd get on a plane now if I could.

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