Sunday, September 03, 2006

Here in London, giddy London

Dr. 90210 and I just got back from taking London by the horns. I tried to post while we there, but blogger was not working properly or something...anyway, at least you get pictures as a result of the delay. We had quite the whirlwind adventure. We went to the British Museum, where I contemplated my opinion on whether they should give the Parthenon marbles back to Greece.



Perhaps the museum can't afford to start a trend - the place is HUGE and full of antiquities acquired long ago - perhaps from the days of the British Empire.
From the Museum we went to the London Eye.
So cool. We had a little bit of an overcast day, but it really didn't matter. It's the 6th tallest structure in London and I believe it's the tallest observation wheel in the world. The view was incredible, and well worth the roughly $22 price. (I don't say that too often). We hopped in our little pod or "flight capsule" and took off way above the London skyline. We could pick out most landmarks, the parliament was right in front of us, we found the Palace in St. James Park, Trafalgar Square - lots of highlights were easily identified.
From there we walked across the Westminster Bridge, saw Parliament Square (had "Remember, remember the 5th of November" running around in my head - V for Vendetta) and Westminster Abbey. Hunted for 10 Downing Street, flirted with very well armed police who were outside the gate, wondered if we could pretend we were on "the list" when we saw a bunch of people from the EU get checked off "the list," walked through St. James Park, completely harassed one of those Royal guards of whom everyone asks if he's real because he can't move, found Trafalgar square where these punks -complete with multi-colored mohawks- asked if we'd pay them to take a picture with them (no thanks, we have you guys in the States), went to Soho for a late dinner before finding our way back to our little hotel.

Parliament + Abbey from the Eye Can you find the palace?

St. James Park Abused Royal Guard

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i am here to testify to betty's trip...it was, indeed fabulous...she did forget to mention that we fought for bunks amongst 20 roommates, we clubbed with 1000s waaay underground in london, saw snakes in a plane economy class seats in the theatre, fought with spaniards and hustled our way thru the notting hill festival...just some minor details ;)...betty is as much a delight as she was over a decade ago, when we first met.

Anonymous said...

I love your London pics! So atmospheric.....

I was really into V for Vendetta, surprised actually, how much I liked it since usually those comic book movies are too fluffy...