From London

When planning this trip I discovered that it would be hundreds of dollars cheaper to fly into London than Paris, even after factoring in two nights in a hotel and the flight between the two. I was pleased to have the opportunity to see another city in Europe, but didn’t think I would honestly see that much in 48 hours. Now I know that I was wrong. I still cannot believe how much we crammed into those two days.

We landed Tuesday morning and within a couple of hours had dropped our bags off at our hotel. Immediately we were off to Harrod’s, where after several laps around the enormous rooms of food we bought the makings of what turned out to be a pretty spectacular picnic, which we ate in nearby Hyde Park. From there we walked through the parks to Buckingham Palace (where we stopped and watched the marching guards and admired how centuries of sitting tourists have smoothed the edges of the fountain), to Westminster Abbey and to the Houses of Parliament (where we took in a session on Iraq and where I took great pains to step on all of the markers that showed where people like Sir Thomas More were sentenced to their deaths). We had classic English fare in a pub with Wimbledon on in the background before taking a stroll around a lit up Piccadilly Circus.

Wednesday we stood in line for discount theater tickets and then spent nearly the entire day at the British Museum. I was impressed by the things that I knew I would see there and thrilled by the things I stumbled upon by accident. And I took TONS of pictures. I very rarely take pictures in museums and when I see people doing it I often wonder what they plan to do with them, but I know exactly what I will be doing with mine. Although it seems like there are images of everything online, I often cannot find pictures to accompany my lectures. I either resort to descriptions that can’t suffice or subjecting my students to my terrible drawings. But now Athens will have the pediments of the Parthenon, Persia’s Persepolis will be more than just foundations and the Kingdom of Benin will have its plaques.

We ended the day with Les Miserables at the Queen’s Theater, just the thing to get the gears switching to France.

Do you think he is going to make it?