East Coast Britain in five days

I remember when I was about 12 and my dad went gallivanting across the North Sea to the United Kingdom of  Great Britain, and I remember how jealous I was. He did bring me "The AristoCats" in English, so I forgave him. Now, ten years later, I'm here for the first time. And it is magnificent. I mean, it's not life-altering, or mind-blowing (the food certainly isn't), but the experience, the countryside, the sights, the smells, the people and the air makes me fall in love with this island. So far, I've seen a tithe of London, and I'm excited about going back in the new year with my best friend. I don't care too much for the crowds, but the tube-stations, the maps, the little shops, the streets, the bridges, the lighs and the Italian restaurants...I love them. I even saw a blue police box outside Earl's Court tube station, and I regrettably was beyond extactic with my finding. The living areas of Earl's Court are not impressive (well, frankly they ARE, I mean the houses are grand and majestical in their own way), but the streets are...deserted, and lifeless. The leaves in the streets are more lively. But all that changes the minute you step out of the living/hotel areas, and into the main streets. People everywhere, going anywhere and nowhere. I loved taking the Piccadilly line into the city center and just walking around, seeing the Tower Bridge, Cleopatra's obelisk-thingy, the Traitor's Gate, Covent Gardens with a 12 m green reindeer out back, Christmas tree decorations the size of a small camping-wagon hanging from the ceiling, and the mandatory 2 PM beer at the White Lion. We got a bit lost along Tooley street, but quickly found our way back to good ole Earl's Court.

I finished reading "The Towers of Midnight" on the plane to Gatwick, and now I'm reading Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere", which is all to appropriate.

After two nights in a pathetic, and somewhat amusing excuse of a hotel (breakfast was served in a brown paper bag. I'm just saying..), we took the tube to King's Cross Station, and from there the 11:00 train to York. The taxi-driver reminded me of Jasper from Disney's 101 Dalmations, he was very nice and accomodating. That day was spent shopping with my mother-in-law, taking loads of pictures and meeting up for dinner. I tasted my first ever Yorkshire pudding. It tasted like fluff. We slept soundly and awoke with only half hour left until they finished serving breakfast.

Freddy and I spent the day walking about the town. The first bit was boring, again, it was in a living area, nothing special happening, but then we walked along the city walls, and that was very cool. We could see far across the rooftops, and the quaint houses with the top windows poking out through the ceiling. We saw the trainstation from whence we came, we saw several bridge guard houses/coffeeshops, we had afternoon tea at the York Cocoa House, and walked through the many shopping streets.
Suddenly there was a massive crowd outside a Pizza Express; the Coca Cola truck!!! We didn't get to see all of it, but we saw some :P

These last few days have been amazing. Tomorrow it's off to Edinburgh for more shopping, more pubs and Andrew :D