Abbey Road & Summaries

I go back home today, but my flight was late enough that I had time to wander around a bit before heading to Heathrow. I decided to spend that time walking to see a crosswalk on Abbey Road, less than a 30-minute walk from my hotel. It wasn’t just any crosswalk, but rather a very specific one.

If you can’t guess which crosswalk I’m referring to, then how the heck are you still so young? (That’s obviously a rhetorical question. You’re still so young because you were born many years after I was born.)

The Abbey Road Crosswalk

I’ll elaborate for the benefit of those readers who might be too young and are unfamiliar with important human history.

On the morning of August 8, 1969, four then-young men, in their late 20s, walked across that crosswalk. As I write this, only two of them are still alive. Their street-crossing was staged. Police stopped traffic for ten minutes so the men’s photographer could set up a ladder and take a picture from it of them crossing.

That photograph became arguably one of the most iconic album covers of all time.

If you don’t know what an album or an album cover is, then how the heck are you still… Well, you know.

I’m of course referring to the Beatles, and the album was “Abbey Road.” The crosswalk is very close to the EMI Studios on Abbey Road, where the Beatles recorded. Shortly after the album was a huge success, the studio was renamed the Abbey Road Studios.

The police didn’t stop traffic for me when I took the photo, so I couldn’t take it from the middle of Abbey Road, as was the case in the iconic photograph. And none of the Beatles were there to recreate the photo for me; shockingly, not even the two remaining ones. So, it’s barely recognizable as the Abbey Road crosswalk from the album cover, but I was there.

What I did seriously find surprising is that I didn’t see any markings to indicate that it was the crosswalk. Apple Maps clearly directed me to it. There weren’t any nearby crosswalks that could have been it. And Abbey Road Studios was still right there. So I’m sure it was the right crosswalk. And I was there.

That’s something I didn’t do on my previous visits to London. So, that seems like a fitting way to end my trip.

London Summary

The impetus for this trip was the first city I landed in, Edinburgh. I decided to also visit London because the nonstop flight back to Toronto from Edinburgh leaves much earlier in the morning than I like. There are, however, a few nonstops from London Heathrow to Toronto every day, including some at civilized times. So, London made for a sensible departure point.

When I planned this trip, my thought was that, after Edinburgh, I’d tootle around northern England by train, visiting a couple of cities and towns in northern England and stay in London for only one night, just long enough to catch a flight home.

But before I booked anything, I thought, “Joel, don’t be crazy. You’re going to be in London. It’s an amazing city with so many fantastic things to see and do. It’d be insane for you not to stay for at least a few days.”

I worry about my habit of talking to myself, particularly when I insult myself in the third person. But I realized I was right. So I booked four nights in London.

I set a goal of seeing and doing things that I hadn’t taken in on the previous two times I’d been in London, once about four-and-a-half decades ago, and again as part of a trip I took in 2019. I hit most of the blockbuster attractions on those previous trips, so you won’t find many of them here, other than the amazing British Museum. Notwithstanding having been there a couple of times in my life already, I couldn’t not go back.

Despite avoiding reseeing most of the sights that all tourists see, I still found lots to do in London and the greater London area. Four nights weren’t nearly enough time. Not nearly. There are many places that, based on my guidebooks and walking tour app, looked interesting, but that I didn’t have time to go to. And, if I dug deeper into other sources, I’d probably find other notable places to visit. And there are a lot of sights that I’d seen on one or both of those previous trips that I’d like to get back to one day.

I undertook one of the iconic London experiences, a West End play or musical, on only the very first trip. I should do that again one day.

I imagine that it’s impossible to fully experience and appreciate London unless you live there for a while. I haven’t done that yet in my life and, at my age, I’d be shocked if I ever do. Pity.

Rather than recap all of the fabulous, great, good, and one or two meh sights I visited in London on this trip, you can surf to the index page for this trip. Links to entries are in reverse chronological order. So, because London was the last stop on this trip, the posts for it will all be at the top. You can also visit the London index page, but if I come back again, the posts from my next trip will then appear at the top of that index page.

For now, ta ta, London.

Trip Summary

I’ve said this about most of the trips I’ve chronicled in this journal, but I had a tremendous time on this one. It’s not surprising that I’d enjoy my trips. It’s not as if I blindly throw a dart at a map to choose a destination. I choose a place to go because I’ve heard or read something about it that appealed to me. That narrows the field down to locations I’m likely to like.

For this trip, I decided on the starting point, and nothing else mattered. Of course, I didn’t want to go to other places I wouldn’t enjoy, but they were secondary.

You won’t find any posts about that starting location, Edinburgh, in the pages about this trip. I’d been there before, including on the same trip when I visited London the previous time. So, if you’re interested in reading about that time in Edinburgh, you can find the pages via this link.

I came to Edinburgh this time to visit a dear relative who’s there now. Wild horses couldn’t have kept me away. Fortunately, no wild horses tried. It would have been an epic battle if they had, but I would have won. However, I usually don’t journalize visits with friends and relatives, only tourism travel.

So, there are no pages on Edinburgh from this trip. But I will say that I love Edinburgh even when I don’t know anyone there. My relative just made it unbeatable.

After I left Edinburgh, I went to Windermere in the Lake District of England and stayed for four nights. I loved it. The scenery was magnificent. Hills, greenery, a lake, and lots of opportunities for walks through it and boat trips to the other village and town beside Lake Windermere. What’s not to love?

There are not a lot of things to “do” from a Windermere base without a car, but there were a few accessible by boat, and there were all of the walks. I didn’t take nearly all of the hikes.

I would have enjoyed a few more days to take in the grandeur of the Windermere area. And there are other Lake District towns that I could have stopped in by train or visited as day trips by bus from Windermere. In short, a few more days in the Lake District would have been great.

After Windermere, I went to Manchester and stayed for four nights. To be honest, I didn’t have high hopes for Manchester. I chose it because it broke up a train journey and allowed me to avoid changing trains on the trip from Windermere to my next destination after Manchester.

My hopes might not have been high, but Manchester surprised me. I quite enjoyed it. It’s not one of my favourite cities. I wouldn’t recommend taking a long journey just to see Manchester, but it had more than enough to keep me interested and entertained for the time I was there.

The Jewish Museum of Manchester was a particular, unexpected treat. I’m a Jewish atheist. I’m not heavily into Jewish culture, but I thought I should honour my heritage. It ended up being extremely interesting and informative. It wasn’t something that had originally been on my list of things to do, but I’m glad I went.

And there was a lot else in Manchester that I enjoyed. Four nights were probably enough, but I wouldn’t have hated another day or two either.

After Manchester, I went to Oxford. I booked only two nights there. I figured, how much is there to see and do in a college town? I should have done more research because the answer to that question is a lot. The city is overflowing with beautiful old college buildings, museums, parks, pastures, and quaint streets. Oxford also has a couple of rivers, including the River Thames, which splits off into branches running through Oxford. I didn’t see nearly all that Oxford has to offer. Not even close. I certainly wouldn’t have gotten bored if I added a few more days to my stay.

And that brought me to London. I wrote about it above, so I won’t repeat it here.

Thus ends my trip to Edinburgh and through a tiny portion of northern England. And a great trip it was.