the magical mystery tour

i mentioned earlier that my step dad had told me about a company called london walks that puts on 30+ different themed walking tours. despite my terrified run to the train station after my first tour, i was really satisfied with my first tour with this company. that's actually putting it mildly since the first tour inspired me to watch a movie, read a book, and scour the internet for hours to learn more. so, i decided to go on another tour. it was actually a tough choice, but i decided i had to go on a tour highlighting the best of landmarks in london that had history with the beatles.

once again, my timing was perfect as it turns out that a few of my friends from college were in town visiting. ok, maybe it was less about my miraculous timing and more about the olympics being in town, but it meant i was able to drag someone else slim for the ride this time. too bad this tour wasn't as scary as jack the ripper to require companionship for sanity reasons, but it was still nice to have a friend to chat with during the walks between places and take a day off from being the weird girl by herself.

our tour guide showed up with a sergeant pepper jacket and an absolutely ridiculous accent. so, all signs pointed to an excellent tour from the beginning. we made several stops along the way, some at buildings i wouldn't have honestly taken a second look at had i not known the history behind the place. some of the stops included places like paul mccartney's current offices (which by the way, he was THERE! i didn't meet him, but just taking this small opportunity to show off..), the gallery where john and yoko first met, the palladium theatre (duh!), the rooftop where the beatles performed their final "live show," and of course ending up at abbey road and abbey road studios.

the abbey road stop actually presented some photographic issues for me. it felt like the kind of place you need to take a photo in, but what kind of photo was i going to take? getting my friend to take a photo of me solo walking across the crosswalk felt lame, and a picture of a simple crosswalk felt even lamer. so i took photos of the studio and left the crosswalk unphotographed. i know, shocking.

will i regret this decision? maybe, but probably not as much as i regret not going to kings cross and getting someone to take my photo at platform 9 and 3/4. let's be real about where my true fandom lies...