Here’s an article on the weather and problems:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/6937755/Winter-weather-brings-much-of-Britain-to-standstill.html

1 – A prepaid (15£) SIM card for my iPhone. Now I have 500mb of data for my phone, no credit card or even name needed. Nice! It’s on the O2 network, and so far, so good. Should work throughout the UK.

2 – A long wool peacoat, at 89£ it was a good deal around here (I asked some locals not associated with any stores and they said not to pay more than about 100£ – which is easy to do in all the big stores. I’m already warmer! It’s got a zip up chest warmer, double flap button front, and a detachable hood, which should be great in Scotland.

London deffinetly has the shops – I can see how people who really like shopping would be right at home here.

[Arg! This Internet kiosk crashed and I lost most of this post, so I had to rewrite it again]

It’s been a while since my last post, I’ve been in London now since Sunday, and I arrived with a bit of a nasty head cold – it’s clearing up now which is good, but yesterday was mostly shot – slept in ’til 2pm!

Since London’s so pricey and I was feeling miserable, I decided to use up some of my Marriott rewards points and stay at the completely obsurd Grosvner House J.W. Marriott Hotel, it’s amazing – certainly not something I’d stay at if I were paying! I guess traveling a lot for work has it’s perks,  3 nights at a 260£/night hotel for free – great! I can’t even have their continental breakfast there – it’s 21£ for cereal and fruit!

I just got my travel arranged to go to Scotland from the great Britain/London Visitors Center, very helpful people here.

Tomorrow, Weds Jan 6: Train to Edinburgh (Have a B&B booked there for 3 nights)

Sat, Jan 9: Train to Oban

Mon, Jan 11: Ferry to isle of Mull/Iona – may spend one or two days here, likley staying a night in Mull (I think all the lodging in Iona is closed during Winter)

Tues, Jan 12: Head back to Oban/Glasgow area to catch a ferry the next day

Weds, Jan 13: Ferry to Belfast, Ireland; and bus to Dublin

Sun, Jan 17: Flight back to Seattle!

London’s been great so far (aside from my being sick), seems like a very neat, livable city. Again the metro system is great, and the people all very nice. Seeing Big Ben and the houses of Parliment is quite the thing. I’m sure I’ll make it to Buckingham Palace before I head out, and perhaps tomorrow to Stonehedge, which is a bit out of town.

Well, for today I’m headed over to Greenwich (an easy metro ride) to check out the Royal Observatory there, hang out on the prime meridian (longitude 0!) and make sure my watch’s time is set right A bit of a geeky destination, but it seems interesting to me! I’m sure I’ll be here again some day to check out everything else.

I’ll try and post again from Edinburgh! Cheers! (As they say here)

Paris is definitely a fun town to walk around in, it’s all very inviting and (fairly) easy to navigate. The metro system’s great when you need to get somewhere quick, supposedly in Paris you’re never more than 500 yards from a metro stop – not bad! Managing not to walk right between all of them when you’re looking for one may be another story though!

Tomorrow I hope to go to the Louvre museum, since I got there as it closed yesterday (they still let you walk around the common areas and gift shops), and today most of the museums are closed for the holiday. I think I’ll let that be the end of my Paris experience, and then hopefully make it over to London.

I didn’t quite realize that the Eurostar train wasn’t like an extended metro train.. and it’s actually quite expensive (ouch) – rides out tonight (e.g. two hours from now) would be about $150.. and for tomorrow, well, a whole lot more than that.. I’m *hoping* that a last minute booking for tomorrow will be similar to if I were to book tonight. But it’s a bit of a gamble, although it really wouldn’t be that fun to be rushed and hop on a train in two hours (saving the cost, but adding to the stress, and loosing the cost of my hotel for tonight). There’s supposedly a discount of Eurail pass holders as well, but you can’t determine that or book it online, I’ll have to do it in person or via phone (and their phones are closed today!)

If it ends up being really expensive – I have a few options, I could get an obscure flight on Sunday for about $150 that goes though.. Denmark, or, if I can get ahold of him, visit an stay with my friend Tony in Sweden for a few days (with my Eurail pass, I could travel there for free) and from there either book a Eurostar train to London, or a flight to London or Edinburgh (since I’d have burned some of my time up)

Well, I guess we’ll see what happens, hopefully it doesn’t end up being too stressful or expensive! (Planning more would have been helpful, it turns out!)