Woking
Woking is a really nice little town.
There are several good restaurants (nothing too fancy that I saw,
but good), and a few pubs, which generally also serve decent food
(the place to get fish & chips). There's an ample shopping
mall, and surprisingly, a lot of American stores and fast food
places...and very cool (and so unlike Atlanta), the center of town
is nearly all pedestrian walkways with shops, etc., and it is not
the least bit touristy (the convenience is for the residents).
If Woking is known for anything (and I would
never have know this had I not visited there), it is for being the
home of the famous sci-fi writer H.G. Wells, author of "The Time
Machine", "The Invisible Man", and "The War of the Worlds" among
others. Just off the town square is a
statue of one of the "Martians" from "The War of the Worlds",
however in my opinion, it's bright chromed finish, to me anyway,
made it not very recognizable as that...or have I forgotten the
movie?
Okay, enough text, and on to some pictures. Keep in mind that
I was working a lot, so I really didn't have time to wander around
to find interesting things to take pictures of....and at the moment,
I'm creating this page while I'm still in Woking, so maybe I'll get
some better ones before I leave here in a week.
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The Holiday Inn, where
I stayed, the view from my window, and the view from the other side
of the building
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The MARTIAN I mentioned.
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What the Marian is looking at, a further
view of it, and a canister it dropped.
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Directly under the Martian is this plaque about the statue (click
for readable enlargement).
...and in case you are wondering why it looks like there is an
airplane sticking out of that
building (row above, left), it isn't...it's another statue thingy.
I don't know why it's there.
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Me on a bench near the
Martian, a cool gate near the town square, and a sign...Everything
apparently is to the right. |

The town square (as much as I could fit in one frame)
The statue in the center is a memorial to WW1 veterans.
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To the far left, a covered walkway for
outdoor shops, near left, a passageway leading to the building I was
working in (the tall one in the background), and straight ahead,
"The Peacocks", a three-level, very nice shopping mall.
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On the far right of the square, the
Library. A close-up of the movies showing (had I had time, I
could have seen the re-release of War of the Worlds while in the
home of the author!) and an interesting sign that a co-worker
noticed and photographed. Look closely at the lettering.
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A walkway with shops,
a co-worker who stopped to look at house prices in a window...and
some of those houses.
(They aren't cheap, that's for sure!)
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One of
the several pubs, the building I was working in, and one of the
shop-lined streets.
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Another
street near the Martian, a small canal (where there is a walking
path), and the canal in the other direction.
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A wall
painting that looks real at a distance, an obviously 2-d shot of
it...
and a coworker taking a picture..."No, Shuhua, that thing to your
left is the Martian." ;-)
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A rather cool-looking building being
built...A pub with a terrible marketing name (at least it wasn't
"Rat & Roach"), and an interesting building on the other edge of the
main town area. (Note: That's actually the back of the Rat &
Parrot pub...the front was nicer, but I forgot to take a picture
when I was on that street.)
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Do more
signals make it easier to know what to do? Or is it more
confusing to know which to look at?
The pedestrian path has little fences around it. Even this
crazy intersection is pedestrian friendly.
...and just in case you were wondering how far it was to Ottershaw
or Chertsey.
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After
lunch one day we wandered a little away from the center of town just
to look at one of the residential neighborhoods.
These are a few of the homes. Tiny lots. Single car
garage at most. Generally cute and quaint.
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I kept noticing signs
like this on the street, and at a glance, for some reason my brain
kept reading "toilet", not "for rent". Speaking of toilets,
just about everything in England is small compared to here in the
U.S. The elevator at the hotel was about the size of an
average bathroom stall, doors are narrower, and (laptop case left in
for dimensions), would you ever find urinals this close to the sinks
here? If someone was using both, they would practically be
rubbing butts! Well, I found it interesting, even if you
didn't. |