London - Wednesday

On with the journey in London, England. I got to see the London Eye up close. It's the garish ferris wheel someone thought was a good idea. Combining my fear of heights and enclosed places, it seemed like a good attraction to skip.

I came across Benjamin Franklin's house. I knew he was a diplomat living here for a while, but I'm choosing not to tour it. There is several things around what is known as Trafalgar Square. One is a famous church called St. Martins in the the Fields. There were four people inside rehearsing. I sat in for a while. I assume it was part her and part the acoustics, but one of the women singing sounded pretty much what an angel would sound like. Downstairs they have a crypt/restaurant. I'm serious. It was a very crowded restaurant and, yes, there were graves. Right in the floor there were names and dates of the people buried there from like 300 years ago. No one else seemed to have a problem with it, but I found it disconcerting.

Right next to it is the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. There were a lot of art that even non art lovers would recognize. They had nice maps where you can jump to the well-known stuff. Most art galleries I've been in (there aren't a lot of them) don't do that. Well done, Brits.

We'll come back to it later in the week, but we strolled around the governmental section. That includes places like Parliament, Big Ben, Scotland Yard, Downing Street, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. The last two aren't really governmental buildings, but all of those places are within just a few blocks of each other. If you are in London for just one day, this is the place to be.

Ended up the day at Buckingham Palace as the sun was setting. That was fun. I guess you can tour part of the palace at certain times during the summer. I didn't get to see the changing of the guards. That's fine. That seems pretty overrated. There and at the tomb of the unknown soldier. One guy marches off and another takes his place. Am I missing something?