Here’s Part One of our trip… the first week, roughly. I spent the entire time in London, so you’ll have to wait for Part Two to see and hear about Prague, Berlin and Amsterdam… and particularly to see Wendy’s gorgeous photos of Prague. So without further ado…
Brian and Wendy’s 2002 European Vacation
Ah, I love the smell of Europe in the morning. Wendy decided to take a photo class in Prague, thus forcing me to get on a plane and go to the place where history (and good beer) comes from. We carefully mapped out all the major cultural centers we wanted to hit, then changed our minds about twenty five times, and finally got drunk and threw darts at the map. London, Prague, Berlin and Amsterdam, here we come.
This was my second time hitting the continent, and this time I wanted to do it in style. No stinking hostels. No standing room only train trips. No McDonalds or kebab stands. No France. So I loaded up the iPod with 100 of my favorite CDs, Wendy packed up all her digital camera equipment, and off we went.
Tuesday, April 30
Standard pre-flight panic attack keeps me busy in the morning, as do all the last minute work emails (oh, i thought you were leaving wednesday, we really just need this one thing done RIGHT NOW). Ritually switch off the computers at 4 and head to the airport for our 9:00pm flight. Five hours of extended strip searches later, we’re on our plane. We splurged and flew Virgin Premium Economy. Ooooh, the legroom. Ooooh, the comfy seats. Ooooh, the personal viewscreen and Nintendo games. Ooooh, the choice of different crappy movies.
11 hours later, I still felt like hell. That’s just too damned long to be stuck in a flying metal pickle.
Wednesday, May 1
But we got there, safe and sound, and it was a relatively nice flight. While in our taxi on the way to our hotel, two large white vans pulled up beside us honking, full of people in black clothes with black sunglasses… was it customs belatedly realizing we were smuggling in contraband hair dye? No, the Goos flew in at right around the same time for their promo tour and saw our radiant blue and red hair in the taxi. Pretty damn funny.
Checked into our hotel - the hip, new My Hotel Bloomsbury, which sounded fantastic from all descriptions we read. In fairness, it was nice - minimalist design, nice muted blues and oranges, modern plumbing, a comfy futon-esque bed… all lovingly compressed into a 5′ x 5′ box that led to instant claustrophobia. Oh well.. if Europe were perfect, we’d all live there.
Quick decompression in the room, and we’re off like a shot to explore the city we loved so much when we lived there. The hotel is off Tottingham Court Road, a nice location close to Covent Garden and Soho, two of our favorite areas, so we headed off that direction only to discover a mass of circling helicopters over Soho.
Apparently most capitalist countries in the world really haven’t come to terms with the dog eat dog, destroy your competition economic system we, the fat and loud and proud U.S. of A. have called our own. The rest of the capitalist world has this funny thing called May Day, where, on May 1st every year, the people rise on the streets to protest the barbaric treatment of their fellow man under a system blind to their suffering. And that’s exactly what a small group of 20 to 30 dedicated, aging hippies do. Unforunately, another 500 to 20,000 (depending on what city you’re talking about) ruffians take to the streets to throw bottles, smash in the windows at the local McDonalds, and enthusiastically pummel the police sent in to keep things civil.
This has been going on for so long that everyone seems to be aware of the rules, so it was kind of fun to watch. A bit like Disneyland on crack. Even the lawyers were out in force - or at least people being paid by lawyers to distribute wonderful little cards letting you know you’re rights, and to be sure to call them should you get arrested.
After Wendy got a few great pictures, we decided to hold our own counter-protest, at the counter: we went shopping, spending an obscene amount of money at one of our favorite clothing stores in the world, Cyberdog. Met up with and old friend, Mike, and we grabbed one of the best meals available in London at Belgo Centraal, a fantastic Belgian restaurant in Covent Garden. The menu in full: mussells, sausages, fries, and your choice from over 45 Belgian beers.
Went for a late dinner with the Goos at some Indian place near their hotel - it’s often said that the best food in England is Indian, and with the exception of the previously mentioned Belgo I’d agree - and then tried to find a pub but they all close at 11pm, so back to the hotel bar to try to beat jetlag off with a stick (and a few glasses of Merlot).
Thursday, May 2
Woke up and decided to visit our old stomping ground, Notting Hill. Headed off on the tube, discovered the sub-par Mexican restaurant I used to force Wendy to eat at so I could taste something that vaguely resembled salsa had closed since we’d left. Wandered up and down Portabello Road and discovered nothing much had changed there… had a fantastic sausage from a street vendor and looked at all the same crap that was being hawked when we lived there. Took Portabello all the way up to Ladbroke Grove, where we lived a scant four years before. The area’s picked up a bit… a lot cleaner, nicer, more upscale shops and people. We probably couldn’t have afforded it had it been like this when we were there. The initial reaction from all the folks we met when living there was “Oh… Ladbroke Grove. Where you go to get crack.” I’m sure it’s moved on to cocaine these days. Still, the old pizza place was there (corn being the favored topping, apparently)… and a branch of Belgo’s had opened up! Damn, wish that had been there. Might not have left.
Checking out the old homestead, 95 Chesterton Road, Ladbroke Grove…
Went to Karl’s studio for awhile and sat in on a few sessions. Karl’s recording / producing two Irish brothers, the Duffys. Good sound, nice songs, nice guys. Had a blast watching the process and interrupting it as much as possible.
The Goos’ UK label had organized a dinner that evening, and Wendy and I had scammed our way on the list, along with Karl and Mike. Eager to show off the best ol’ England had to offer, they took us to… an Indian restaurant. Vast quantities of wine later we were shuttled back to their hotel bar to continue drinking. Another band had already taken residence at the bar, so we joined the Scorpions for a few rounds. They got quite enthusiastic when we pulled out the polaroid, and insisted on lifting Wendy up for pictures. Fun guys.
Rockin’ like a hurricane!
Friday, May 3
Another day spent wandering around, this time Camden in search of shoes, and hanging out at Karl’s studio. The Goos played the Astoria, but we showed up a little bit late and the overenthusiastic doorman refused to let us in. No worries, a quick run back to the hotel to freshen up and we ran into Mike outside the venue after the show, as well as a bunch of the London record label folk. Big party back at the hotel bar, so we hopped in a cab and drank freebie peppermint schnapps shots in a bottle all the way over. This time there was a Moody Blues member at the bar, so we listened to him trade old war stories about how drummers and keyboardists are the root of all evil and discussed the future of the music industry in very drunk fashion with musicians, managers and label execs. Or something to that effect, it really got a bit hazy after the third or fourth round.
A funny little car and the Camden locks…
Saturday, May 4th
Wendy packed up and we headed off to Heathrow so she could catch her flight to Prague. We were both now officially alone in Europe. Headed back to the Hotel all morose, threw on the iPod and went out to Camden to wander around a bit and see if I might have missed a shoe store the first time around. Nope. I did miss a few music shops and went in a nosed around, but nothing much of interest. The music scene is pretty fucking bad in England right now, very, very pop. Had a pint and headed back towards the hotel, for a wander around Oxford Circus. Hit the Tower Records where I first discovered the Sneaker Pimps, and, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the Spice Girls… discovered nothing this time around but a load of shite. Checked in on tickets for The Reduced Shakespeare Company, the funniest play in the world, but it was dark on the days Wendy and I would be back in London. Settled for getting advance tickets for Star Wars II on the 19th, just in case we wouldn’t be able to catch it in Berlin or Amsterdam. Had an early night getting pissed on lager and watching some seriously crap TV.
Getting around on the Tube… and being harassed by the paparazzi
Sunday, May 5th
Woke up alone and lost in a foreign land. However, it being Sunday, there was really only one thing to do. Off to Hyde Park to watch the freaks at Speakers Corner. A bit low key this time around - evils of capitalism, evils of muslim fundamentalism, evils of global corporate empires, yadda yadda yadda. I’m sure at some point and time the whole Speaker’s Corner thing was quite vibrant but I can’t help but feel it’s being kept up by covert funding from the tourism board these days. Spent about three hours walking around Hyde Park, which was lovely, making my way over to Harrods’. I wanted to send a bottle of single malt scotch to friends back home, but was informed that you can’t ship alcohol internationally. So they all got nothing. Had lunch with the posh folk at Harrods. Before that sounds all fancy and luxurious - yes, the food is amazing, but it’s basically a tarted up food hall.
Karl graciously invited me to his home today, and he sent a cab to take me out to the residence in North London. A lovely home, a lovely family… went for a walk with Karl and the kids in the huge woodlands near his house. Beautiful. If we had a park like that in LA, we’d pave half of it for a parking lot, knock down all the trees, stick BBQ pits every 50 feet and charge admission. Here, they kept in natural except for a well-hidden football and cricket pitch and a nice little cabin selling tea and sweets.
Back for a lovely dinner and some fantastic wine, and then I spent the rest of the evening teaching the kids how to download their Dad’s music for free off the internet.
Monday, May 6th
Karl was AWOL today so I spent most of the day being a tourist - checked out the Millenium Dome, the Tower… back to Hyde Park… lunch in Covent Garden at Rock and Sole Plaice, fantastic fish and chips… more walking, listening to the Smiths, the Verve, and more generally miserable English music. Walked a bit around Bayswater, where we first holed up in London and where I stayed on my first two trips… also where we found a TGI Friday’s, which basically saved us when we lived there. Decent service and food, and free refills with ice in the glass. A little bit of America that kept us sane. There’s also an honest-to-God american style mall there. It’s a total shithole.
Wandered around Covent Garden that evening, but going in to a pub or club alone didn’t sound all that appealing, so another night grabbing beers from the hotel bar and watching TV in my little cube.
Tuesday, May 7th
Spent the day and most of the night in Karl’s studio, plotting out some bizarre content-based website and generally talking complete shit. Met a nice fellow who writes serious news for the BBC that Karl’s roping in on the project and did my bit to defend my country before realizing that our foreign policy really is complete bullshit. Oh well.
Wednesday, May 8th
Another day spent at the studio, kicking around bizarre ideas. I was supposed to go to Echo and the Bunnymen at Shepherd’s Bush with both Mike and Karl; Karl had work to do and Mike couldn’t get down to London so I ended up going with two of Mike’s friends, Baz and Richard. Baz is a webbie like myself, with his own company that focuses on auto racing in the UK. He picked me up from the studio in some tiny, incredibly expensive and not really street legal death trap, and proceeded to whiz me through London side streets at about 150 miles an hour. I crapped my pants twice, but we got there really quickly. Of course, whatever time saved by the speed of the journey was lost looking for a parking spot. You could make millions opening up pay lots in London. Dashed over to a pub to meet up with Richard and watch a few minutes of the FA Cup final (Man U against Arsenal) before heading over to Shepherd’s Bush and catching the start of the show. Damn good show, with the Bunnymen focusing heavily on the older stuff, much to the crowd’s delight. The Bunnymen come from the same town as Mike and his friends, so I ended up at the afterparty and was introduced to the Macca himself (too busy talking to the ladies, but nice nevertheless) and Will, the guitarist, who spent some time trading stories with Baz before being wooed by some lovely Japanese lassies who apparently flew to London just for the show. A likely story. Another hair-raising ride home and it was time to pack for my early departure to Prague…
Part Two coming soon….
