Two days in England

I took a quick 2-day trip to England, staying at the youth hostel near Earl's Court. (For future reference: This hostel is great if you only want the very basics, but is otherwise not particularly noteworthy.) The neighborhood there is quite classy - here is the street I was on:



I spent one day visiting Mai (and family). Huy's at the University of Warwick which, confusingly, is not located in Warwick, but rather "in" Coventry. Here the quotes are due to the fact that the university is actually a 20 minute bus ride out of town in the middle of nowhere.

But I get ahead of myself. First, I had to get to Coventry, which meant getting on a Virgin train (owned and operated by none other than Sir Branson himself.) Here is the scene at the train station



Ten minutes before the train was to depart, we still had no track number. Not quite like the German system (where track numbers are decided 6 months out) but it worked. Everyone just stands in the middle of the station waiting for the track number to be displayed and then runs off to the train. Anyone who is upset about this system can apparently accept an apology from "Osborne" - this sign was posted, for no reason I could see, outside the station:



Once in Coventry, I easily caught the bus to the University, where I found this guy in the "maths and statistics" building



Here I am outside the building



We proceeded to the guest house where we met up with the family. Here is the star of the show in the "mouldy math room" - a spare bedroom with a chalkboard on every wall!



We spend some time running circles outside



and then went in to Royal Liemington (spelling?) Spa, a town located nearby. They had some great flowers in the park there



We had a lovely time wandering about and, after dinner in a pub, got back on the bus - off to the University for the Mai's and back to London for me.

I spent the next day roaming around west London, enjoying walking from Earl's Court to Kensington to Notting Hill and finally through Bayswater to Paddington. From there I caught the tube to Brixton, which is quite a sight/experience, where I had lunch and then headed back to the city center. I took a quick spin through the National Galery (free!) to check out the special exhibit and stroll about. I then sat down at a coffee shop in Soho and did some math before heading back down south to the Albert Hall where I saw Josh Ritter perform! Quite a day, if I say so myself.

Here is the Albert Hall: