Day 4 – Tuesday, May 7

Molly had class on Tuesday morning – she is a student after all – so I was on my own to explore the surrounding area for a bit.  I eventually worked my way to Russell Square Park where the sun was shining, people were strolling, dogs were drinking and the Internet was free.

The most surprising thing about free internet in Russell Square Park was not so much that it existed in the first place but that it was provided by Microsoft – a company not known for giving ANYTHING away for free.  Granted, the “gift” was part of their marketing of Office 365, their cloud-based product, but regardless the reason, I welcomed a strong, free connection that allowed me to read and send a few email while waiting to meet Molly after class.

In an effort to avoid the obscene international data charges, I had shut off the data roaming on my phone which basically turned it into a high-tech paperweight until I could connect to wireless internet.  I couldn’t text, call or send email with it and, even when connected to Wi-Fi, I could only send text messages with a Wi-Fi based text application.  Finding wireless networks in London wasn’t a challenge, there are hotspots all over the city, but finding one I could connect to for free was a little more difficult.  Most connections required that you be a customer of one of the major telecommunications providers (BT otherwise known as British Telecom, Virgin Wireless which is part of Vodafone, or O2).  At the hotel I could connect to the Hilton network but around town finding a connection was hit and miss.

While waiting at the park, I bought myself a coffee and muffin at the park’s café, caught up on some correspondence, and then did some shopping along the streets surrounding the park.  Eventually the designated meeting time arrived and I wondered toward the front entrance of the British Museum where Molly and I had planned to meet.  The museum was not on our agenda for the day (although it did come later) so I waited in the massive courtyard near the steps leading into the building surrounded (literally) by hundreds of school children enjoying an outdoor lunch in the warm, spring sunshine.

It was there that it struck me, on a beautiful day where school kids were gathered for a fieldtrip, how incredibly quiet it was.  London is a very large city so naturally there were city noises but the students, ranging from elementary through high school ages, were very quiet and exceptionally well behaved.  There was no screaming or squealing, running or climbing or other noises commonly associated with school children.  They seemed to be very aware of those around them and respectful of posted rules.

A perfect example of this could be seen at one end of the courtyard.  Even when the area was at peak capacity, bursting at the seams with all available tables and chairs filled and students sitting scattered across the museum’s steps, there was no one venturing into a vacant area marked exclusively for members.  There were no guards or gates keeping them from entering, just a simple sign indicating the area as restricted and non-members should not enter.

Also missing was the ragged, tattered clothing often warn by American youth.  Nowhere to be seen were the ripped jeans, drooping pants, hoodie sweatshirts or ball caps.  The young students were casually dressed but still look very neat and fashionable.  Initially, I suspected this was due to them being on an outing to the museum but as the week went on, I had similar observations in other places.

Adults in London, I also noted, tended to dress neatly but more casually then I would have expected.  Even when I found myself caught in the flow of the work-day commuters, people appeared professional and fashionable but also comfortable in what they wore.  As far as I could tell, the focus was more on looking good in a practical way as opposed to focusing on the look and sacrificing comfort. 

If I can shift topics radically for a second, I would like to talk about electricity.  It probably isn't a very interesting topic to most people (any people?) but I am intrigued with the differences between the US and UK so I’m going to ramble here because it’s my blog.

Electrical power in England isn’t like it is in the US.  We use 110 volt power for everything electrical while in England they use 240 volt. I did a little research and from what I can tell one isn’t really better than the other so the only real interesting part is that they are different.  So the actual point of this rant is that there are two things that are important about this for tourists – power adapters and odd looking outlets.

I was already aware of the need for an adapter before leaving on my trip so I made sure I had one on my pre-trip shopping list.  While shopping, I quickly learned that they came in a variety of shapes and sizes in an accompanying range of prices – not to mention plug options. 

Not my photo!!

For some unknown reason, I thought that all adapters were the same only to discover that the choice is dependent on where you plan to travel.  After narrowing it down to two choices, I selected the larger, bulkier but less expensive unit with a variety of plug options.  The alternative choice was also a universal unit designed with the plug options built into it.  Not only had I saved a few dollars but I had also selected a device that would work pretty much anywhere in the world.

When I unpacked at the hotel, I was relieved to discover I had brought the correct plug adapter (especially since I had left the others at home) and I plugged in my nearly dead cellphone.  Later, after lengthy use of my laptop, I realized I needed to plug it into the adapter to charge.  That was when I discovered an important aspect of my less expensive choice – it only accepted two-prong plugs and not the grounded, three-prong plug on my computer.  So, in the process of saving a couple of dollars, I had purchased a totally useless adapter for charging my laptop.

However, after explaining my problem at the front desk of the hotel (thank you again Hilton!), I was thrilled to find out that they had a box filled with dozens of adapters what had been left by previous guests.  Digging through, I found a very compact adapter that worked successfully with my laptop meaning I had two adapters allowing me to charge my phone and computer at the same time.  Okay, I admit, I get excited about the little things.

Another little thing I found interesting (as if I hadn’t bored you enough already) let me continue on to talking about the wall outlets.  The first observation to make is that the way the plugs are designed leaves the impression they are smiling.  The shape and position of the holes in the plugs look a lot like eyes and nose of a face and I actually felt bad covering them up when plugging things into them.  Not so bad that I didn’t charge stuff especially there were plenty of other outlets smiling at me all over the room.  Okay, I admit, it's an upside-down smiling face but it still made me think it was smiling!

But I touch on this odd topic, in part, to an innovation that just makes so much sense that I’m surprised we don’t see it in the United States.  Each individual outlet has its own power switch that allows an individual to shut off the power to the plug.  In our ever expanding, technology driven world, where the growing use of electronics continues to suck power even when plugged in and turned off, being able to cut the power directly at the service seems way to easy.

Taking the concept one step further, my hotel room had a master switch that severed the connection to every outlet in the room (which I just realized should have also cut the power to the alarm clock but the time never flashed or changed so the clock either had a battery backup or my conclusion that the master switch turned off all the outlets is wrong).  Each day, as housekeeping finished with the room, they turned off the master switch on the way out, possibly saving the hotel a small fortune in energy costs. 

The process, however, did have two negative side effects: 1) housekeeping typically left every light on in the room, relying on the master switch to turn them off as they left and me turning them all on when I returned later in the day and 2) not really helping to keep my electronics charging while I was out.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled broadcast.

Following lunch at the Museum Tavern across the street from the museum entrance, Molly and I began the longest walk-about to date.  Marching from the museum, past St. James, Buckingham Palace, Westminster, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the South Bank, the Globe Theater, the London Eye, the Tower of London, the London Bridge, and numerous places in between, we saw many of the sites of London on foot.   We eventually worked our way back to the museum area where Molly had an afternoon class having completed a massive loop through the city.  After dropping her off, I wandered through the area surrounding the museum on the opposite side from earlier in the day before returning to my hotel.

We met up that evening for dinner at a restaurant called Sushi Samba, high up on the 38^th floor of the Heron Tower where we could look out across the city spreading out below.  (The link takes you to photos on the company website taken from the restaurant.  I wasn't sure pictures were allowed so I didn't take any.) The food was excellent, the view magnificent, and the company the height of the evening.  We ate in the sushi bar itself and not the more formal restaurant largely because we hadn’t made a reservation and, it was made abundantly clear, we weren’t appropriately dressed for the restaurant.  Not sitting in the restaurant was probably better because we had the view, the food and the comfort of the less stuffy sushi bar.