Come Together (With a Little Help from My Friends)

Four people from three continents come together to cross Abbey Road.  I got to mimic Ringo!

September is a good month to be out and about in London's middle class areas.  Even the notoriously fickle English weather can still give the city a sunny day.  It was a sunny day when The Beatles walked out of their iconic Abbey Road Studios and posed for an iconic photo which became their equally iconic Abbey Road album that was released back on September, 1969.  

Now let's flash forward nearly 50 years later. Earlier this September I attended the Paris Manga and Sci-Fi Show and coordinated that with a stay at my mom's timeshare near Disneyland Paris and a visit to see relatives in England. Traveling from Paris to London is relatively easy for me as there is a Eurostar TGV (French bullet train) direct from Disneyland.

When I met up with my sister at London's St. Pancras station, she made plans for my stay: Greenwich, the City of Bath, Stonehenge and a family reunion at a restaurant inside a building dating back to the 13th Century in a town called Chelmsford.  She then asked what I wanted to do.  Take a photo of myself crossing Abbey Road was my reply.

My sister was not amused.

However, Alan (my brother-in-law) with Ron and Patti (guests my mom invited from California) were intrigued by the idea (and how it cost nothing to do).  I was pleased.  The more people involved, the better it would be, because Abbey Road is a major thoroughfare for Middle Class Londoners.  The crossing has a signal light, but is very short.  Anyone other than The Beatles or the cast of BBC One's "Doctor Who" trying to get a photo of him-or-herself crossing the street risks a very real chance of being chased off (or run over).  You really do need as much help as possible to pull this off!



Using the BBC Weather Service to choose the sunniest day for the week, we set off on a Tuesday morning.  Even after the morning commute, the crossing was filled with tourists.  Some people only wanted shots of themselves crossing Abbey Road.  For me, it's more fun taking pictures when crossing in a group of four!  Asking a Japanese tourist to stand in on our photo, Alan, myself, Ron and our mystery lady started walking across the street once the light turned green with Patti and my sister taking pictures.  While the picture at the top of this post didn't exactly imitate The Beatles' album cover, I very much like how Abbey Road Studios appears in the background!  

As much fun as it was for me, I believe it was fun for the others as well.  Ron and my sister walked across the street to take photos of Abbey Road Studios and my mom got to sit on a nearby bench and enjoy the sunshine while the rest of us were running around!

Afterwards we walked to the St John's Wood Underground station and parted ways: Ron and Patti took an overland bus tour of London as the rest of us entered the subway trains to Greenwich.  The whole enterprise took less than the time it takes to listen to Abbey Road  in its entirety, but the pictures and memories will last lifetimes!

And on a personal note, I wonder if the lady in the blue dress walking past the camera ever realize that she was on the back cover of The Beatles Abbey Road album?
    

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