Saturday, April 02, 2011

London in 3.5 days

Our last night in London before we pick up the rental car and head out to the (hopefully) peaceful English countryside for a few weeks of random travel.

It's been a very busy 3.5 days and it's about all we can stand of a very big city. Cities aren't really favourite spots of ours but there are many interesting things to see, especially in a place with so much history as London.

The Palace at Westminster (the Houses of Parliament), Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, Hyde Park, Trafalgar Square, Hampton Court Palace, the British Library, the Museums of Science and Natural History, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and on it goes... So much to see with time and energy just not up to the available possibilities.

The London tube (subway) has been great. It's fast and easy to use. We did run into some crowds, but the rides are short and the trains are so close together, waits are usually only a couple of minutes.

Views from the top of St Paul's Cathedral were quite nice, well worth the climb of some 80-odd meters from the floor of the Cathedral.

The British Library is a really neat place and some of their permanent displays were real treats (Scott's last diary entries...). Something completely unexpected was the chance to listen in on some of a practice session of Handel's Messiah at St Martins in the Fields, something we stumbled across as we were walking around Trafalgar Square. And I still don't know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall. I think the crowds at Piccadilly Circus explain the name of the place. There are tourists everywhere.

Anyway, it's off to Down House where I need to pay homage to Darwin, then a few days along the south coast. It's been great London.

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