London

The main reason for a stop in London was a presentation I was doing at the University of Hertfordshire. That went well, so we took the opportunity to relax a bit and see the great city of London. Frankly, I liked London more than I thought I would--it was actually quite a bit like New York (or visa versa depending on your citizenship and allegiances!)

Here are just a few of the interesting places we visited:

The Tower of London

The Tower Bridge--what the London Bridge once resembled. (BTW, the present London Bridge is not falling down since it is now a relatively new, non-descript cement causway.)

The London Eye is a monstrous ferris wheel that has become a central landmark in town. The queue to get on during a rather cloudy day was two hours--that is to get to the second queue (another 30 minutes)to buy tickets. Too much to do to invest that kind of time!

We don't show up in our pictures much, so here's one of Daria and I along the Thames.
On a slightly more serious note, England is subtly becoming something of a police state; there are literally thousands of closed circuit TV cameras watching the citizenry all the time. Near Parliment, demonstrations have been banned. Not long ago a woman was arrested for simply standing on a corner near Parliment and reading the names of the soldiers killed in Iraq. No fanfare, no shouting, no posters--just reading outloud. However, one man, Brian Haw, had begun his protest of the Iraq war prior to the passage of the law and a loophole allows him AND ONLY him a voice. The caveat is that if he leaves the site for any reason his protest cannot continue. He's essentially a prisoner of conscience. He hasn't left since June 2001 which is a tremdous commitment given the conditions in which he must live!


Picadilly Circus--what you see is what you get. Just across the plaza is the Cathedral of St. Martin in the Fields where we heard a great rehearsal of Mozart's Requium. It is worth digging around to see what's going on!

After a long day, our fourth floor walk-up was a bit tiring to reach!