LONDON Sunday September 14th

[freelunch]

I'm away next weekend in Krakow.

Krakow is good craic! If you're not familiar with the town, the main market square is perfect for a beer or two. A meal in the Jewish quarter is an idea. There is a ring road with gardens around the old town if you need to walk off the beers.

The castle/cathedral is worth a visit, but the cathedral can get quite claustrophic on the weekend.

Restaurants: if you want posh, try Wentzl on the south side of the market square. Dress up. If you want casual, we had an excellent meal in Metropolitan, which was on a street running off the northeast corner of the market square.

Here are some happy snaps from our trip, if you're interested:
http://homepage.mac.com/jerrys_ibook/PhotoAlbum26.html

Already anticipating your next thread...

 

[freelunch]

The Thames Festival was just as crowded as I'd feared. The South Bank was virtually impassable, so we crossed to The Embankment and had much more freedom to move around and see the parade. The fireworks at 10 pm were the best I've seen!

Happy snaps:

1. Still on the South Bank, the river was low and the "beach" exposed. Great for the kids.

2. The parade started a 6 pm and gradually got too dark to shoot without a flash. These two shots were taken @ 1600 ISO.

3. Some of the costumes were pretty elaborate. This chicken even spit fire!

4. Here's a detail from the shot above. I love the differing reactions.

Well, if any of you did get to London, this was a fun event. Some people don't get as worried by crowds as I do. At a Chinese New Year event in Chinatown several years ago, my wife and I were almost crushed when people from all directions entered a small square and there was no outlet. Very scary.

I wouldn't have bothered with this Thames Festival, but my wife is a glutton for punishment. But, the fireworks were fantastic. We sat 100 yards from the barge and they exploded directly overhead. It went on so long, I was getting a sore neck.

A D90 with video capability would have come in very handy!

 

[Lil Loui]

I was in London yesterday & did end up going to the Themes Festival about 7pm. All pics are on my camera phone as I failed to get to a camera shop in time to ask them about what was wrong with my camera...memory card I think.
Anyway here are my pics.

This is near St James Tube

Oxford Street

Garbage Truck

Walls

They're quite grainy, but for a crappy little camera phone, I think some of them are passable