1.  Tate Modern Museum – The first museum I visited was the new Tate Modern Museum, which is pictured below.  If you’re thinking that it doesn’t so much look like a museum as it does a power plant, you’re quite astute: it originally was a power plant, until someone said “I see a modern art museum”.  I think this says something about society, but I’m not exactly sure what.  Anyway, the big draw was an Andy Warhol exhibit.  I thought this would be interesting, but it turned out that it was mainly just a bunch of ads for Campbell’s Soup.

2.  Millennium Bridge – In the forefront of the picture of the Tate is the Millennium Bridge, which opened just about a week before I arrived.  Now, I’m sure you’re wondering, why is it the “millennium” bridge when it opens in 2002.  My initial thinking was that, it just wouldn’t be a millennium without Walt, so they waited for me to visit before opening it.  Alas, that wasn’t the case.  It actually initially opened in 2000 for the millennium, but for just one day.  What follows is a tale of caution for any aspiring engineer.  The bridge is a uniquely designed suspension bridge.  Instead of being hung from cables above, it’s actually supported from the side (note the cables on the side in the photo).  This is a neat design.  As part of the design, the engineers allowed the bridge to sway.  This is a logical engineering solution.  It requires less strength (and costs less money), yet is perfectly safe.  Alas, engineers aren’t always good at dealing with details, namely the niggling detail that human beings would be walking across the bridge.  And walking across a bridge that is swaying heavily, especially a bridge that has no obvious support in sight, may not be so appealing to humans.  So after immediate and uproarious complaints, they closed it to add reinforcement to make sure it didn’t sway too much.  Two years and millions of dollars later, it reopened.  I can attest the re-engineering.  I walked across in gale force winds and it was solid as a rock.  However, it was still a bit scary, as I feared being blown off the bridge by the wind.

3.  Abbey Road – Next, I headed up to Abbey Road Studios, the site of some of the most famous musical recordings of the second half of the 20^th century.  It’s actually quite mundane – it looks rather like just a plain house.  There were however several notes written on the wall to or about the Beatles.  Some were pretty straightforward (“I love you, Paul”).  Some were quite obscure, like the message below.  I’m not sure but I think it might mean that Paul is the Walrus.

Abbey Road is not only a road and a recording studio, it’s also a Beatles album, the cover of which was a picture of the Beatles walking across the road.  Paul walked in his bare feet, confirming a rumour that Paul had really died and was replaced by a double (bare feet is a symbol of death).  The final confirmation was a Volkswagon parked in the street with the license plate “28 IF”.  The year of the album, Paul would’ve been “28 if” he hadn’t died.  Wouldn’t you know it, 31 years later a VW (below) was still parked there – and it had a license plate of “59 IF”!.  Hmmm.


In an attempt to personally re-enact the Abbey Road cover, I tried to walk across Abbey Road.  Besides the fact that it’s hard to recreate four people walking across the road when there was only me, I realized that cars are not inclined to stop unless you’re a pop superstar.  In the photo, below you see me about to nearly get run over by the red car.

4.  Speaker’s Corner, Hyde Park - One of the neat places in London on Sunday mornings, is Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park.  Each week, anyone can get up on their soapbox and rant about whatever they want.  Below is a guy preaching in the name of Jesus.

Of course, there must be room for alternative viewpoints.  So, below is the rebuttal by the devil (note the horns).  Behind the devil, in the white plastic bag is the devil’s lunch – presumably deviled eggs, with devil’s food cake for dessert.

As I stood there listening to her, I realized that this woman was making a lot of sense.  Suddenly, I felt enlightened.  Then more people came up and they also felt inspired and uplifted.  This woman, who had toiled for so long, was finally reaching people!  Oh what a glorious moment!!!  Did that really happen?  Well, no.  The pigeon flew off and I quickly realized she was rambling incoherently.  So I left.

5.  Down House - Later that day (a Sunday remember), I headed to Down House, which was Charles Darwin’s home for most of his life and where he wrote “Origin of Species”.  The downstairs has been preserved as it was in Charles’s time and a museum exhibit was created upstairs.  Most museums in London are now free.  Since Down House is a bit outside of London, there is a fee.  However, I had no idea that it would turn out to be the most expensive museum I’ve ever been to.  Here’s the breakdown:  $8 entry fee for the museum.  $5 to take the train from London to the nearest train station.  Theoretically, it would only be another couple of dollars to hop the bus from the train station to Down House.  However, my Lonely Planet tour book failed to mention that the bus doesn’t run on Sundays.  So, here I was, in some dinky little town outside of London, with no way to get to Down House.  Then a London black cab pulled up.  I was not going to give up yet.  Round trip cab fare was $40.  So, $53 of my dollars (converted from pounds) went extinct visiting Charles Darwin’s home.

Nonetheless, it was worthwhile (although next time I’d make sure that Sunday was not the only day I had to pay it a visit).  Below is the desk where Darwin wrote “Origin of Species”.

I also took the opportunity to walk on the path that went around the property.  Darwin religiously made this very same walk three times a day, every day. 

6.  Cambridge – I went up to the university town of Cambridge to visit the historical colleges there.  One of the main sites there is the Bridge of Sighs, pictured below, which is in Trinity College.

Actually, I should say “a” Bridge of Sighs, not “the” Bridge of Sighs.  There are actually three of them.  The original in Venice, the one in Cambridge, and the album by Robin Trower.  Just as I took the picture above, I heard a voice from behind.  It was Stephen Hawking!  In the monotone, electronic voice of Hawkings, I heard him say, “Get the &$%# out of my way or I’ll run you over!  I’m the #$@&% Lucasian Chair in Mathematics, the position once held by Sir Isaac @#$% Newton!  I’ve got important things to do!”  You haven’t heard obscenities until you’ve heard them from an artificial electronic voice!  I jumped out of Dr. Hawking’s way as he put his wheel chair in third gear and raced by me.

7.  Kensington Palace – I’m not a big fan of the British monarchy (it just hasn’t been the same since they stopped chopping each other’s heads off), but I admit it’s quintessentially English.  So, when I boarded the wrong Tube train and ended up at Kensington Palace, I decided I might as well see one royal palace during my trip.  It wasn’t until after I entered that I realized that Kensington was the sometime residence of Princess Diana and Princess Margaret.  Both of whom are now dead.  I thought then that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.  But, I was already inside, so I decided to risk it.  Then I realized I was the only person under the age of 50 in the entire palace, and one of the few men.  The main attractions are suits, gowns and dresses that the royals have worn over the years.  The focus of the exhibits was dresses worn by Diana to important events.  Most of these important events seemed to be movie premieres.  You know the British monarchy has lost a good bit of esteem when going to the premier of “Ishtar” is considered an important royal event!

8.  British Museum and Reading Room – I went back to the British Museum on this trip, mainly because they refurbished the Library Reading Room, an impressive circular, domed room.  Inside, many of the world’s great minds, writers, scientists, and politicians have worked.  Truly an impressive place.  What a great place to sit and do some deep thinking.  I found it to be a great, quiet place to sit, relax, and take a nice nap after a long day of sightseeing.  It was in this room that Marx wrote “Das Kapital”.  So, as I sat in one of the chairs (maybe the exact chair that Marx once sat in, or Dickens, or T.S. Eliot, or Mark Twain, or Jane Austin!), I got to thinking about how it was such a rip-off paying that cab fare out to Darwin’s home.  Maybe if the government ran the cabs.  And they charged you according to your ability to pay instead of how much money they could gouge you for.  What a great idea!  From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs!

The British Museum is better described as the “British Repository of Pillaging and Plundering”.  Basically it contains all the artifacts the Brits stole during their reign as world powers.  Most notable are the “Elgin Marbles”.  These are the statues that once graced the façade of the Parthenon in Athens.  Many were take by foreign countries, most by the Brits.  They are on display in the British Museum.  Greece wants them back.  The Greeks have suggested that a nice time to return them would be in 2004 for the Summer Olympics – a nice gesture of brotherhood.  The Brits however have declined.  They like them right where they are.

During this trip I realized that there are other parts of the Elgin Marbles residing in the Copenhagen National Museum and the Louvre in Paris, both of which I’ve been to within in the past year!  Remarkably, some of the marbles did get left behind in Greece and the remainder of the marbles reside in the Parthenon Museum.  So, I guess I have to go to Athens at some point and complete my Elgin Marbles tour.

9.  King’s Cross-St. Pancras Station – This is the London train station that goes to Hogwarts School of Wizardy.  However, I couldn’t for the life of me find Platform 9¾.  I ran into every brick wall I could find!  By the way, in Britain, the book and movie are called “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”.  Apparently, it was decided that the British audience was too dumb to figure out what a Sorcerer’s Stone is and renamed it to something the Brits could better relate to.  Those silly, stupid Brits.  Aren’t we Americans glad that we don’t need to be pandered to, like the British?