Yesterday being your typically snowy, early-April Sunday, Mark and I found ourselves in need of some sort of indoor activity so we would have to leave the flat at some point during the day (it's just sad if you don't leave all day). While eating my toast, which clearly helps me think straight, I came up with the idea of hitting the London Transport Museum. Although I had technically been there before (in 2004), they had closed for absolutely ages and redone everything, reopening last November. This fact, along with the fact that having used London Transport considerably more than I had before my first visit, made me think a re-visit would be worthwhile.
We timed the visit to try and avoid the Olympic torch relay, which according to the news was causing mayhem wherever it went, and it was basically going right by Covent Garden. Instead we got there shortly after it had passed, so a number of people were walking towards the tube with Tibet flags and protest signs as we were walking away from it. Might I add it was freezing and a light snow was falling.
Anyways, the transport museum was relatively hopping. You learn about pre-tube days and the start of the 'omnibus' service, and luckily a lot about the tube itself. The tube map of today is almost identical to the tube map of 1920, save the additions of the Victoria line in the 1960s and the Jubilee Line sort of gradually between the 1980s and 1990s. Apparently the tube was a very popular way of getting around town in like, the 1870s, when they had first, second and third class options. There was an old first class car (magically elevated to the third floor, which I thought was impressive in its own right) with separate doors for each row and cushy seats, with a few compartments at one end of the carriage reserved for ladies only. There was also a 1920s District Line train looking rather woodsy and smelling a bit dusty, but it's upholstery has seen a lot of dirty bottoms and smokers so I suppose it's understandable.
One of my main points of grief during the visit was the amount of children running around as if it were some kind of candy store. They were clearly not there to learn about London transport history, but instead seemed preoccupied with finding levers you could pull and buttons you could press. I was even attempting to do a multiple choice trivia game when one of them walked between me and the buttons as if she was the 5 year-old owner of the place. If this were my child I would be like, no child, but none of the parents seemed to care that this sort of thing went on. The same thing happened when we were learning about water pumps in Munich, actually, when some kid actually came and took something out of Mark's hand as if he didn't actually notice he was there. Not impressive people.
There is of course a very nice gift shop attached to the place that had remained open during the renovation, but it held little post-museum draw for me as I've been shopping there regularly for some time now. As a side note, you'll find many gift opportunities for transportation nerds in that place.
Overall, I would recommend the museum. However, be prepared for your learning to be constantly interrupting and the placard you are attempting to read being constantly blocked by a child who is pushing a button with little regard to what the display is actually trying to show you (like how they dealt with steam back before they used electric underground trains). Oh, but it's a good place to go if you want to see creepy mannequins dressed in period costumes!
Monday, April 07, 2008
Friday, April 04, 2008
relationships
Margo's off to a site visit for a project shes working on today so asked me on the tube this morning if i would write a blog entry! so apologies if it isnt up to scratch!
so the topic is relationships, in particular country to country relationships. Margo forwarded some statistics i think her mom sent her which were quite interesting and in it it spoke about the UK's special relationship with the US. Now we both questioned this special relationship on the tube together - yes we have some interesting convos! (dont mention when i started talking about convection and conduction before bed one night and by the time id finished margo was pretty much asleep!) Anyways coming from a UK perspective i think the UK has many relationships with other countries in the world - i guess the main ones would be the commonwealth - like in particular Australia. There is also Europe - now Europe is an interesting topic...like many including some senior politicians in Germany and France and the UK would want to make it the United States of Europe and in my uneducated opinion this is probably the only way Europe will have any political say after the rise of China and maybe India with the US as world powers in the future. However it is very unlikely to happen in my life time mainly due to history. Anyways today the UK's relationship with Europe is interesting. I am very pro europe but many are not - for some reason many don't want the single currency because the currency will lose our national identity - i'm like so what! it is not your currency that makes you who you are...but anyways we are still very close to countries in Europe, especially if you listened to what the french president said beneth huge paintings of the battle of Waterloo and Trafalgar in London a couple weeks ago!
but then there is always this relatinship with the US. Now i think there is a relationship there but i would question whether it was 'special'. I know culturally we are definatley closer to parts of America than parts of Europe but this is probably due to language. I'm not sure its an interesting one. I think it is important though that both the UK and the US continue to be good friends....
i'll stop now as its getting a bit boring and id better start work!
so the topic is relationships, in particular country to country relationships. Margo forwarded some statistics i think her mom sent her which were quite interesting and in it it spoke about the UK's special relationship with the US. Now we both questioned this special relationship on the tube together - yes we have some interesting convos! (dont mention when i started talking about convection and conduction before bed one night and by the time id finished margo was pretty much asleep!) Anyways coming from a UK perspective i think the UK has many relationships with other countries in the world - i guess the main ones would be the commonwealth - like in particular Australia. There is also Europe - now Europe is an interesting topic...like many including some senior politicians in Germany and France and the UK would want to make it the United States of Europe and in my uneducated opinion this is probably the only way Europe will have any political say after the rise of China and maybe India with the US as world powers in the future. However it is very unlikely to happen in my life time mainly due to history. Anyways today the UK's relationship with Europe is interesting. I am very pro europe but many are not - for some reason many don't want the single currency because the currency will lose our national identity - i'm like so what! it is not your currency that makes you who you are...but anyways we are still very close to countries in Europe, especially if you listened to what the french president said beneth huge paintings of the battle of Waterloo and Trafalgar in London a couple weeks ago!
but then there is always this relatinship with the US. Now i think there is a relationship there but i would question whether it was 'special'. I know culturally we are definatley closer to parts of America than parts of Europe but this is probably due to language. I'm not sure its an interesting one. I think it is important though that both the UK and the US continue to be good friends....
i'll stop now as its getting a bit boring and id better start work!
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Switzerland
I have returned from the Alps unscathed and unsunburned (is that even a word?). Here is a brief rundown on my activities and experiences.
Thursday: flew to Zurich via Swiss Air, avoiding utter chaos that was going on in what I shall call the terminal 5 debacle at Heathrow. Spent a few hours being driven through what could have easily been mistaken for Oregon to get to Lauterbrunnen, near Interlaken. Was disappointed that much of the in-between was filled with industrial and commercial buildings where aluminum siding reigned as king. Lauterbrunnen, luckily, was primarily composed of chalet-looking huts nestled into the hillside on the sides of the valley. Oh, and had a small case of sticker shock when I paid 3.40 swiss francs for a 1/2 liter of coke, roughly... $3.40. Became acquainted with the local beer, Rugenbrau, which is brewed in Interlaken and is really your only option well, everywhere that I went. Luckily it was pretty good.
Friday: after all you can eat breakfast situation where I felt like a coffee fiend as the glasses held only about 3 oz and my normal morning mug is 18 oz. Went up to Wengen to watch others rent skis, went to the top of the mountain, others left to ski while I had a brief meander then took the train down the other side of the mountain to see what went on. It was around 12 and all the stores were closed for lunch, so things were not lively. Went to meet skiers for lunch at slightly extortionate restaurant conveniently located next to a train station at the bottom of a ski run. After lunch, went back over the top of the mountain to pick up cookies from my hotel room to take to the apres ski meet-up. This took approximately 2 and 1/2 hours. Mark became concerned at my lack of arrival at apres ski in Wengen, and we handily waved at each other as my train climbing towards Wengen passed his train heading to Lauterbrunnen.
Saturday: after another massive all you can eat breakfast situation, hid Mark's ski boots and dragged him up to the highest point in Europe accessible without having to exercise, Jungfraunoch. Or something like that. It's over 11,000 feet high (think we peaked at 11,700). It was us and Japanese tour groups. It was a bit odd. Anyways, it was cold and windy, but breathtaking (literally, the air was quite thin up there) and very beautiful. Photos can be seen on picasa. We were up top for about 2 hours, nearly half of which was sent sitting on some very comfortable chairs staring out the window, catching our breath. We then had a quick lunch in Wengen and looked around some shops, where we purchased a lovely cowbell for our souvenir cabinet. Apres ski was in Lauterbrunnen that day at the round table in the bar. You should all be aware that it is a privilege, not a right, to sit at the round table in the bar.
Sunday: after my daily ham and swiss cheese breakfast roll, the skiers shipped off up the mountain and I went the opposite direction to Interlaken. This was primarily so I could mark Interlaken on the 'where I've been map' on facebook. There are lots of cute hotels in Interlaken, but no people as they were all skiing. The shops were closed, but McDonalds and Hooters were both open. Some people were sitting outside in the sunshine enjoying the, um, wings. Was continuously befuddled by the fact that, even when closed, stores kept out their sidewalk displays. It was very tempting to start stealing postcards and things as it was impossible to acquire them by any other means. Found one open shop but it had a distinct Deliverance vibe to it and was just happy to escape with my life. Took train back to Lauterbrunnen, hotel room wasn't clean yet so felt obliged to leave again. Took the aerial tram up to Murren, which was on the opposite side of the valley as Wengen (with Lauterbrunnen in the middle). Was very pretty but alas, everything was shut and the place was pretty much abandoned except for the 70-something set carrying walking sticks. Eventually went to apres ski in Wengen.
Monday: after dropping two croissants during my breakfast eating attempts, sat around hotel for a few hours before heading towards the airport. Stopped at a service station that involved what was essentially a mall straddling the freeway. Next to the bathrooms there was a very open, um, 'adult' shop, which I thought was not a good place to put such a thing as it was where everyone waited for their other party members to come out of the bathroom. I could only imagine the questions kids waiting there for long would came up with to ask their parents. Flew back to London, where it was suddenly spring time and all was sunny and relatively warm.
So that's my Swiss alpine adventure. Things I enjoyed: that when I mentally thought of something as an alpine village, I was able to think, yes, actually, it is an alpine village; the German word for 'exit' on freeway off-ramps is 'ausfahrt'; it was very pretty. Things I didn't enjoy: the stores were never open, making it less than entertaining for non-skiers during the day time; being a ski resort-like area, everywhere could get away with charging extortionate prices; the glasses for coffee and orange juice at breakfast were tiny. Oh, and the stores aren't closed so the owners could take disco naps, nothing seemed to go on in the way of night-life either. We were continually the last people at dinner, having sat down at 7:15. I have no idea where everyone went.
Anyways, pictures are up, captioned and everything, on picasa. Above photo was taken at approximately 11,700 feet.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Adventures in Transport
I haven't done a blog in a while, which essentially means that while I have plenty of things to talk about, none of them are really related to one another. My apologies for the complete discord between the paragraphs below.
Last weekend was of course a 4-day holiday weekend in the UK. I personally found this a little odd, but wasn't about to complain. On Friday, I was able to at least momentarily convince Mark that museums were fun and dragged him to Tate Britain (the non-modern enterprise in 'Pimlico', south of Big Ben). After poking around at 'British' art (aka, either by a British artist or a portrait of a British person), we emerged into the late afternoon lovely London afternoon. We ducked into a nearby pub for a brief refueling, and right as we were about to leave, the heavens seemingly brought forth their fury, it started pouring down with rain, and there was thunder and lightening to boot. It was then decided that a second drink and a snack were warranted.
On Saturday, we shipped out for the south coast. In our attempts at transport planning clever-ness, we took the tube two stops to West Brompton, where we were going to hop on a London 'Overground' train to Clapham Junction, where we would catch the train one stop after it left Waterloo. Alas, this is indeed what happened, but in the process, while waiting for the train at West Brompton, it snowed. SNOWED people. In the evening time, for no particular reason, we went to dinner in Southampton at an Indian restaurant (for parental clarity: not the purple one, but another one on that same street). This is involved taking the slightly scenic route from the freeway, driving through campus. It was pretty much the same, only dark and abandoned because it was a) dark and b) Easter break. The food was very good, the chicken was as tender as could be.
On Monday it snowed again.
This is only a two day work-week for me, given the Monday holiday and tomorrow's early AM departure for Switzerland. As it's a holiday week, I also assumed the trains would be somewhat empty and commuting times would be easy. But no. Yesterday morning, walking towards the train station, parallel to the platform, I heard the announcer relay the news that the District Line was suspended AGAIN between Earl's Court and Edgware Road. I just kept walking until I got to Fulham, catching the bus in. This morning, once inside the station, I learned that there were severe delays on the District Line, and it was suspended between High St Kensington and Edgware Road. Me: BOOOOOO WHY ME WHY TWO DAYS IN A ROW BOOOO I WANT TO GO BACK TO BED BOOOO. I was already in the station so not completely decided about what I should do. As luck would have it, the first train that came was to full to get onto, and the second train was one of the lucky few actually destined for High St Kensington, so I managed to squish on in a determined 'I don't need personal space' manner. I then walked from High St Ken (about 10-15 minute walk). Note to self: I really should find a bus that goes from Notting Hill to Earl's Court. If there are severe delays tomorrow morning when I'm trying to catch the 5:50 am train so I can get to Heathrow I will not be, as the Anglos say, a happy bunny.
Last weekend was of course a 4-day holiday weekend in the UK. I personally found this a little odd, but wasn't about to complain. On Friday, I was able to at least momentarily convince Mark that museums were fun and dragged him to Tate Britain (the non-modern enterprise in 'Pimlico', south of Big Ben). After poking around at 'British' art (aka, either by a British artist or a portrait of a British person), we emerged into the late afternoon lovely London afternoon. We ducked into a nearby pub for a brief refueling, and right as we were about to leave, the heavens seemingly brought forth their fury, it started pouring down with rain, and there was thunder and lightening to boot. It was then decided that a second drink and a snack were warranted.
On Saturday, we shipped out for the south coast. In our attempts at transport planning clever-ness, we took the tube two stops to West Brompton, where we were going to hop on a London 'Overground' train to Clapham Junction, where we would catch the train one stop after it left Waterloo. Alas, this is indeed what happened, but in the process, while waiting for the train at West Brompton, it snowed. SNOWED people. In the evening time, for no particular reason, we went to dinner in Southampton at an Indian restaurant (for parental clarity: not the purple one, but another one on that same street). This is involved taking the slightly scenic route from the freeway, driving through campus. It was pretty much the same, only dark and abandoned because it was a) dark and b) Easter break. The food was very good, the chicken was as tender as could be.
On Monday it snowed again.
This is only a two day work-week for me, given the Monday holiday and tomorrow's early AM departure for Switzerland. As it's a holiday week, I also assumed the trains would be somewhat empty and commuting times would be easy. But no. Yesterday morning, walking towards the train station, parallel to the platform, I heard the announcer relay the news that the District Line was suspended AGAIN between Earl's Court and Edgware Road. I just kept walking until I got to Fulham, catching the bus in. This morning, once inside the station, I learned that there were severe delays on the District Line, and it was suspended between High St Kensington and Edgware Road. Me: BOOOOOO WHY ME WHY TWO DAYS IN A ROW BOOOO I WANT TO GO BACK TO BED BOOOO. I was already in the station so not completely decided about what I should do. As luck would have it, the first train that came was to full to get onto, and the second train was one of the lucky few actually destined for High St Kensington, so I managed to squish on in a determined 'I don't need personal space' manner. I then walked from High St Ken (about 10-15 minute walk). Note to self: I really should find a bus that goes from Notting Hill to Earl's Court. If there are severe delays tomorrow morning when I'm trying to catch the 5:50 am train so I can get to Heathrow I will not be, as the Anglos say, a happy bunny.
Friday, March 21, 2008
a random entry
so to celebrate my new found administrative powers on anglo mango...i thought i would write my first blog under my own log in! margo pointed out and giggled that i'm the anglo and she is the mango!!! i know quite sad....
anyways i thought i would write about international opinions of different nationalities. this first came about while margo was reading a book entitled watching the english. from this she randomly asked me questions each night and then proclaimed that this apparently made me upper middle class, lower middle class or working class - i dont think i ever made the upper class category! for instance she asked what i called the evening meal for which i replied it depends...if its a formal get together where you eat at the table i would probably say dinner otherwise i just call it tea. the subjects went on from what i called the comfortable chair that you sit on in the main room to which i replied sofa in the sitting room...i think she found this very interesting!
so being anglo i think the main international opinion of the UK is that it rains and that we continuously talk about the weather. i can confirm that people do chat about the weather and if you dont know people it is probably second in line behind whats your name? i think i was in my first client meeting and afterwards there was food and chat and my only banter was about the weather (trying to hide my lack of knowledge) - i'll have to work on that....anyways contrary to people's opinions especially while watching wimbledon is that it doesnt rain that often in the UK...the weather is just continuously neither good or bad it just lies in the middle - which gets frustrating!
on to the french...most of my friends and people i've met for some unknown reason are all anti french...i'm on the other hand a great fan! i think the banter between the UK and France is good they call us les roast beef and we call them frogs - basically down to the fact we eat a lot of roast beef and they seem to enjoy frogs legs...i'm not sure if other nationalities do the same? the one thing i will say about the french and you can see this in ski resorts mainly when you ski from france into italy...is that the french are no where near as friendly as the italians!
on to america...america outside of america is an interesting concept and the influence of the america on the rest of the world is in my opinion quite large...particularly in culture...from hollywood movies to tv shows like the simpsons to friends...everyone grows up watching these shows...i guess the average opinion of the states is drawn from popular culture. american politics is also massive...i witnessed this first hand on a trip to norway when my norwegian friend sat down on the sofa and started watching clips of the american election on you tube - i for some reason found this interesting especially after margo has said that she cant understand why the american election gets so much press coverage in the UK!
anyways thats probably enough from my uninteresting entry!....to show off i'm at the start of a easter 4 day weekend...yay!
anyways i thought i would write about international opinions of different nationalities. this first came about while margo was reading a book entitled watching the english. from this she randomly asked me questions each night and then proclaimed that this apparently made me upper middle class, lower middle class or working class - i dont think i ever made the upper class category! for instance she asked what i called the evening meal for which i replied it depends...if its a formal get together where you eat at the table i would probably say dinner otherwise i just call it tea. the subjects went on from what i called the comfortable chair that you sit on in the main room to which i replied sofa in the sitting room...i think she found this very interesting!
so being anglo i think the main international opinion of the UK is that it rains and that we continuously talk about the weather. i can confirm that people do chat about the weather and if you dont know people it is probably second in line behind whats your name? i think i was in my first client meeting and afterwards there was food and chat and my only banter was about the weather (trying to hide my lack of knowledge) - i'll have to work on that....anyways contrary to people's opinions especially while watching wimbledon is that it doesnt rain that often in the UK...the weather is just continuously neither good or bad it just lies in the middle - which gets frustrating!
on to the french...most of my friends and people i've met for some unknown reason are all anti french...i'm on the other hand a great fan! i think the banter between the UK and France is good they call us les roast beef and we call them frogs - basically down to the fact we eat a lot of roast beef and they seem to enjoy frogs legs...i'm not sure if other nationalities do the same? the one thing i will say about the french and you can see this in ski resorts mainly when you ski from france into italy...is that the french are no where near as friendly as the italians!
on to america...america outside of america is an interesting concept and the influence of the america on the rest of the world is in my opinion quite large...particularly in culture...from hollywood movies to tv shows like the simpsons to friends...everyone grows up watching these shows...i guess the average opinion of the states is drawn from popular culture. american politics is also massive...i witnessed this first hand on a trip to norway when my norwegian friend sat down on the sofa and started watching clips of the american election on you tube - i for some reason found this interesting especially after margo has said that she cant understand why the american election gets so much press coverage in the UK!
anyways thats probably enough from my uninteresting entry!....to show off i'm at the start of a easter 4 day weekend...yay!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
South Africa
Before coming to England, I thought of South Africa as a somewhat evil location in well, Africa. My only real associations with the place were Nelson Mandela, Dave Matthews, and that damn movie Tsotsi that was advertised constantly at every movie I went to for about six months. Oh, and they went there on America's Next Top Model one year and toured some slums and did a fashion show. Perhaps most importantly, I did not think of South Africa as being a part of the intimate circle of white English-speaking nations. Perhaps because essentially, it is not.
Now, there are people from South Africa in these parts. I can't place them by their accents, in my mind they are someone reminiscent of New Zealand accents, but I haven't really talked to any so I don't really know. What I find especially intriguing is that all of the people in these parts claiming to be South African are indeed white, which I find odd having been told that the vast majority of the country is not white, and the white people who do live there have a lot of things to answer to after that whole apartheid thing. The South Africans are sort of just another of the circle with the Aussies and the Kiwis, only quite frankly they lack a cute nickname for their nationality (or at least I don't know of one). Even us types can be slangingly referred to as Yanks, and while I like to call our northerly friends Canucks, I'm not sure if they do around here. My apologies, I've gone a bit off track.
While it's easy to argue that one could approach Americans in that same sort of 'your country has some splainin' to do' manner, I still find myself with extreme reservations towards South Africa. I think I'm still quite taken aback by the whole extreme racial divide. It seems while the English still have lingering ideas of the country as a former colonial output, it strikes me as having taken the whole concept one step too far. And again, being an American I feel like it can argued to be a case of the stove calling the kettle black, I think it's simply the fact that these things went on (legally) in South Africa within my lifetime.
Being in these parts I can't help but get the impression that my views are in the minority. For all I know, I am in the minority in terms of American thinking. Either way, for the time being I'm still keeping the whole South African concept at arm's length.
Now, there are people from South Africa in these parts. I can't place them by their accents, in my mind they are someone reminiscent of New Zealand accents, but I haven't really talked to any so I don't really know. What I find especially intriguing is that all of the people in these parts claiming to be South African are indeed white, which I find odd having been told that the vast majority of the country is not white, and the white people who do live there have a lot of things to answer to after that whole apartheid thing. The South Africans are sort of just another of the circle with the Aussies and the Kiwis, only quite frankly they lack a cute nickname for their nationality (or at least I don't know of one). Even us types can be slangingly referred to as Yanks, and while I like to call our northerly friends Canucks, I'm not sure if they do around here. My apologies, I've gone a bit off track.
While it's easy to argue that one could approach Americans in that same sort of 'your country has some splainin' to do' manner, I still find myself with extreme reservations towards South Africa. I think I'm still quite taken aback by the whole extreme racial divide. It seems while the English still have lingering ideas of the country as a former colonial output, it strikes me as having taken the whole concept one step too far. And again, being an American I feel like it can argued to be a case of the stove calling the kettle black, I think it's simply the fact that these things went on (legally) in South Africa within my lifetime.
Being in these parts I can't help but get the impression that my views are in the minority. For all I know, I am in the minority in terms of American thinking. Either way, for the time being I'm still keeping the whole South African concept at arm's length.
Monday, March 17, 2008
The London Dungeon
Mark and I went to the London Dungeon on Saturday. There was a 2 for 1 admission offer in conjunction with Oyster card that was up at the end of March, and given the horrible weather of the last few weeks it seemed like a safe indoor bet for general amusement.
The Dungeon is just outside of the London Bridge tube/rail station, in some of the vault shaped areas underneath the elevated overground rail lines. The Southbank has quite a few of these elevated rails with old arched brick supports, and you sort of get the impression that they used to lie derelict or were the homes of scooter repair stores before the Southbank renaissance a few years ago. Southbank is also a very, very old part of London, formerly a separate city directly across the river from the 'City'/Square Mile. And as the City is a surreal form of unnaturally expensive real estate, Southbank has managed to find itself the home of a great many tourist attractions based on the fact that London is old and kind of creepy. London Dungeon is probably the leader of this pact, having been around since the 1970s or something ridiculous like that, and also includes the Clink Prison Museum, the newly opened London Bridge Experience and all those darkly inclined roving walking tours.
According to my sources (aka, wikipedia), the Dungeon was originally meant to be more of a museum of past London horrors, but has instead morphed into more of an interactive themed entertainment situation. Basically, after spending approximately 45 minutes waiting in line to get in, we waited in a few more lines, then a creepy man explained we were going to a scary place, we had to walk around a mirrored maze where everyone just shuttled behind the person in front of them, then we 'learned' about things such as the plague outbreak of 1665, the sorts of crimes that could get you hanged back in the day, the Great Fire of 1666 (I think in general terms, 1665/1666 was the worst possible time to be in London), Jack the Ripper, some torture devices, and then to top it off you go on a little ride where they pick you up and drop you, which is supposed to be reminiscent of being hung at Newgate Prison. Pictures of your descent are available in the adjacent room on your way to the gift shop. All of these enterprises involved real people in costumes and white make-up to make them look, well, I don't know, dead? We encountered one guy more than once who made Mark feel self-conscious because whenever he saw him he referred to him as 'the posh one'. Although to be fair this was more of a statement of the other people on the tour.
Having entered the actual doors of the venue around 12:15, we were finally released again at 2, so it was quite a lengthy amusement so you feel like you're getting something for your money. While I wouldn't recommend the venue to the more mature traveller, it is quite amusing in it's own way. If you were 10 you would find it quite scary, I think. After this, we bypassed the other nearby creepy tourist destinations in favor of everyone's favorite activity 'lunch'.
The Dungeon is just outside of the London Bridge tube/rail station, in some of the vault shaped areas underneath the elevated overground rail lines. The Southbank has quite a few of these elevated rails with old arched brick supports, and you sort of get the impression that they used to lie derelict or were the homes of scooter repair stores before the Southbank renaissance a few years ago. Southbank is also a very, very old part of London, formerly a separate city directly across the river from the 'City'/Square Mile. And as the City is a surreal form of unnaturally expensive real estate, Southbank has managed to find itself the home of a great many tourist attractions based on the fact that London is old and kind of creepy. London Dungeon is probably the leader of this pact, having been around since the 1970s or something ridiculous like that, and also includes the Clink Prison Museum, the newly opened London Bridge Experience and all those darkly inclined roving walking tours.
According to my sources (aka, wikipedia), the Dungeon was originally meant to be more of a museum of past London horrors, but has instead morphed into more of an interactive themed entertainment situation. Basically, after spending approximately 45 minutes waiting in line to get in, we waited in a few more lines, then a creepy man explained we were going to a scary place, we had to walk around a mirrored maze where everyone just shuttled behind the person in front of them, then we 'learned' about things such as the plague outbreak of 1665, the sorts of crimes that could get you hanged back in the day, the Great Fire of 1666 (I think in general terms, 1665/1666 was the worst possible time to be in London), Jack the Ripper, some torture devices, and then to top it off you go on a little ride where they pick you up and drop you, which is supposed to be reminiscent of being hung at Newgate Prison. Pictures of your descent are available in the adjacent room on your way to the gift shop. All of these enterprises involved real people in costumes and white make-up to make them look, well, I don't know, dead? We encountered one guy more than once who made Mark feel self-conscious because whenever he saw him he referred to him as 'the posh one'. Although to be fair this was more of a statement of the other people on the tour.
Having entered the actual doors of the venue around 12:15, we were finally released again at 2, so it was quite a lengthy amusement so you feel like you're getting something for your money. While I wouldn't recommend the venue to the more mature traveller, it is quite amusing in it's own way. If you were 10 you would find it quite scary, I think. After this, we bypassed the other nearby creepy tourist destinations in favor of everyone's favorite activity 'lunch'.
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