Out and About

We decided to walk to our destinations in the city so as to get a more direct experience of the place. We're on the top floor of our hotel, so we get to take 72 stairs to get to our room. But the view is wonderful. You can see the London Eye and Victoria Tower from our window. You can see the night view and the day view from the pictures. We walked up to Westminster Abbey and spent two hours gawking at all of the marvelous architecture as well as the incredible history recorded there. We saw the Methodist Central Hall where the United Nations first met in 1946. We had lunch there and then went, as per Doug and Stacey's suggestion, to Churchill's War Cabinet Rooms. Going through them you get quite an experience of what it was like during the Battle of Britain and how dicey it was when Britain fought alone.

Our next destination was Her Majesty's Theatre where we saw Phantom of the Opera. Somehow Jane and I both managed to miss the play until now. So it was marvelous getting to see it in the theatre where it first debuted some twenty-three years ago. The music, the staging, the acting were all top rate. Afterwards we walked around some more. One thing large cities typically have are lots of street performers. We saw many -- a group of musicians playing Pachelbal's Canon, several mimes, one in particular who, when a mother and child came forward to put some coins in his box, gestured to the boy to join him. The boy had obviously grasped what it was all about and instantly the two of them were performing together.

I was sure I saw the Loch Ness Monster in the water. Jane insists that it isn't Nessie. But I took a picture anyway and am considering submitting it to the Daily Mirror or one of the other reliable British newspapers. Jane asked if the Olympic canoeists and kayakers would be boating in the Thames. We both agreed that they should seek another, cleaner venue.

The London Eye is a gigantic "ferris wheel". The queues have always been way too long when we've walked by, but maybe Monday it will slow down and we can see London from the sky!