Europe Day 57 of 59, London

Sure, you may think of this as day 57. I think of it as Mother's Birthday. We kept an eye on the clock all day figuring that we would give her a Happy Birthday call in the evening, that is London's evening and California's morning. Being 8 hours ahead of your mother is a serious plus in this regard. It all but eliminates the possibility of running out of time. Heck, we would have waited until 4 AM the next day to call.

Today's Agenda: National Gallery and general walking before Barbie has high tea with the people of The Brown's Hotel.

London stroll. I am actually going to miss clouds when we are back in Los Angeles. Though you don't know how beautiful they are until you look at the pictures much later.

I made a point of taking our stroll to the National Gallery by the Crimean War Memorial in Waterloo Place. Why? I learned about the Crimean War from The Clash, and for me The Clash represent London better than any other band, ever. (A note to parents, your children learn European more history from punk rock than high school.) If this pre-World War I conflict is not on your radar, it should be. It is considered the first modern war for the technologies involved, and sadly more than 200,000 soldiers died of disease. Getting wounded on the battlefield was deadly.

Florence Nightingale, added to the Crimean War Memorial 50 years after it was first erected. Heard of her? Think of her as a famous nurse? What she did that is truly special was make the world aware that unsanitary conditions were killing as many as artillery. She learned this as a nurse in the Crimean War.

The Frederick, Duke of York Memorial. I didn't get a picture I like where you can see his statue on top, but I happen to like this one where you cannot.

Talk about public art. This karate bunny is, well, perhaps its artistic value is as a counterpoint to anything else you will see on the streets of London.

As you see, there are two Karate fighting bunny statues here, and to see them in front of the Admiralty Arch is perhaps the embodiment of the counterpoint concept.

It doesn't get any better. Thank you, karate bunny.

Entering Trafalgar Square. Among other things, this pic shows what a shame it is to surround something like Nelson's Column with traffic lights. I just realized that I have completely forgotten to mock the English for the fact that they have not won a Memorial worthy battle since the 19th century.

Honestly, we never really dealt with crowds the first 56 days of this trip. But London, she has crowds.

The National Gallery has a fantastic collection, and a no pictures policy. Great art from around the Europe rests here. I had a little extra fun as a world traveller, noting which rooms had artwork you'd find at Florence's Ufizi Gallery or Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, if only the British hadn't snagged them first.

Leaving the National Gallery, I had to snap this one from behind Nelson's Column.

Next door, we hopped into the St. Martin-in-the-Fields church. It is going to be difficult to break this habit of stepping into every church that we see.

Simple and refined. Those who worship here may not be aware of God's "How big and ornate was your church?" policy at the gates of heaven.

Outside St. martin-in-the-Fields was this very peculiar statue. Incredibly well sculpted, it's also a tad creepy.

Walking home through Leicester Square.

Walking home through Piccadilly Circus.

We got "home," and clearly there was no irony in calling a hotel room, "home." It is home. Anyway, once we were home the netbook was miraculously able to handle accessing the iPhone's directory of 6,000+ pics, which meant that while Barbie went to high tea I blogged days 55 & 56. It was time for dinner. Days 57, 58 & 59 will have to be done from home.

The line was too long HERE. We'd eaten there before, but a friend wanted us to get a t-shirt for his wife. We ducked into a pub across the street for dinner and got the t-shirt after the line was gone there. A line at the Hard Rock Cafe Shop? Madness.

The pub food... care to guess?

Barbie got fish & chips, of course.

I got a meat pie, of course. (Chicken and pancetta, for those keeping score.)

After dinner we walked over to check out a luxury hotel we hadn't seen before. This took us across the street from the Wellington Arch.

We crossed the street, of course. If you were across the street from the Wellington Arch, you would cross the street as well. Have you read the blog loyally enough to recall the Wellington Monument obelisk in Dublin from Day 32? Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, KP, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS (he racked up the titles, obviously) was born in or around Dublin. I do find it kind of perplexing that we saw an obelisk to to the same man for whom this arch was dedicated 25 days ago on the island next door.

We strolled in the not-too-cold night air over to Buckingham Palace, and to the Victoria Memorial. It was nice to see kids climbing all over it, even at night.

I found this spot I liked and stood there, taking pic after pic, trying to catch a car speeding by with just the right placement. Who says you need to be able to control the shutter speed to get the results you're after?

After strolling to the luxury hotel, which took us to the Wellington Arch, which took us to Buckingham Palace, we spotted the top of the famous clock known as Large Benjamin and, moths to flame, strolled in that direction.

Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster. Words are funny. The United State's Congress, where the House of Representatives and Senate meet, is truthfully more over the top than most buildings you would call a palace. But could we stomach our congress meeting in a palace? Never.

The colors of that building next to the London Eye kept changing and I decided on the spot that I would take a bunch of pics and then put them together just so.

THAT is a large clock.

On the way back to the hotel, I managed to get one more of these "zipping car" pics. Not sure why I like them so much. I guess I am drawn to pics that represent something you cannot see in real life.