London - first attempt

I went to London for my first proper visit today. I went alone, with nothing but a few books, a digital camera, and some freshly-withdrawn pound notes (now that my debit card is finally accepting transactions). And a map, which was both very important and less important than I expected it to be.

It was a cool day, but not cold; completely overcast all day, but not raining. No sunstroke, no undesirable moistenings, and I've always thought that heavy cloud cover brings out colors and sharpens details: perfect for viewing beautiful outdoor things. And today is the second-longest day of the year, so plenty of daylight to be had. In other words, weather could not have been more perfect.

It didn't change the fact that London rather sort of smells funny, especially near the Thames. Not putrid. Just funny.

It should be noted, before I begin, that I know nothing about architecture, little about art, and too little about history. I am still going to opine about these things as though I knew what I were talking about, but apply grains of salt to taste.

I hope to post more detailed ruminations on London, maybe after I've been several times, but I did a lot today, spending 8 1/2 hours there and 8 of them on my feet, So it's a lot to cover. Also my lower appendages are starting to raise the peasants against me, so I'll keep this to the point.

• Houses of Parliament: Magnificent. Not, perhaps, in the way you'd expect; Big Ben, for instance, tends to get blown out of proportion in shows and films, so it actually seems kind of small in person. But still, both Ben and the whole building to which he is attached are one of the architectural wonders of the world. Somehow they manage to be both very ornate and detailed and also very, very simple. And they're kept very clean, somehow; the gilding on Ben is quite shiny. The overall combination of raw architectural beauty, unique and distinctive style, iconic status, and river-and-sky backdrop make for a truly wondrous viewing experience. There's a reason that Big Ben is the image of London. I didn't go inside, but the outside was enough. My favorite part of the city so far.
  
• Westminster Abbey: Very beautiful outside, though less distinctive than the Houses. Inside is amazing, which it had better be for the price of admission. They had these free audio tour guide things—think like a cell phone, only not, and with Jeremy Irons whispering sweet nothings into your ear. The guidance helped a little, but even so, the incredibly ornate, beautiful art and historical magnitude is so packed together that you can't possibly see all of it; and, sadly, it kind of starts to run together. It doesn't help that my knowledge of English history, and the attached names, is terribly poor. It also didn't help that the place was so packed, and so cramped in parts, that the human interaction was rather sludgy and hostile. Overall, the abbey itself is an amazing place, but the experience of visiting it was less amazing than I would have liked. Also, they didn't let me go into the Jerusalem Chamber where the Westminster Assembly met. Which is to be expected, but nevertheless: grrrr!
  
• Churchill Museum and War Room: Also very pricey. Also, like the Abbey, had the audio tour thing. It's the actual secret underground bunker area thingy where Churchill et al ran the war when London was in danger. It is therefore intrinsically cool. There's also a Churchill museum, which is deserved. The problem is they tried to stretch both things, and especially the museum, way too far. The museum is pretty new and is very, very multimedia-happy, kind of disorienting, and ultimately offers little that you couldn't find (more coherently and helpfully!) in a book. I think a humbler museum, and a more basic War Room tour, would have been a more fitting tribute. And a cheaper one.
  
• St. James park: Lovely large extra-green park right in the middle of London between the Houses and Buckingham. Incredible variety of pigeons alone, plus other birds, including some enormous white things that may be the largest birds I've ever seen, at least outside of a zoo.
• Buckingham Palace: The building itself is kind of uninteresting; grim and boring architecture, at least for the residence of the Queen of England. Absolutely beautiful grounds and gates, though, and a magnificent monument to Queen Victoria out front, so the overall thing is worth seeing.
• Trafalgar Square: Cool enough. Nelson's column is really tall. Neat tribute to the man.
• Covent Garden: Maybe I was in too much of a hurry, but I wasn't really impressed. It was very tame for a world-famous bazaar, and there weren't any of the street performers I expected. Maybe I went too late in the day.
• St. Paul's: Magnificent building, and if you go to a service (like Evensong, which I attended) you can get in for free! Not to all of it, but to the main amazing architecture bit, which is all I wanted to see. The service itself was odd. I've never heard a mayor read the Scripture lesson before, much less the Lord Mayor of London. Surprisingly small choir for such a space, and mostly boys, so it was very pretty, but small and muffled a bit by the acoustics. I guess I wasn't expecting the sermon to be good but this was really disappointingly bad. Sigh. Totally did not live up to the building.
• Also, I did see the steps of St. Paul's. I did not see the little old bird woman (presumably because I did not go early in the day), but there were plenty of birds, so I kicked myself for not having any crumbs. I suppose that the Saints and Apostles were not smiling.
  
• The Tower of London: It was late in the day and I'd heard that it's not worth the price, so I didn't go in, but it's cool from the outside. It's not a tower the way you'd expect a tower to be. It's a castle (with a trebuchet on the grounds!). Cool in a hey-that's-a-castle sort of way, and for the fact that it's so old and well-preserved, and historical, but it's not going to cause you to fall over in awe. It was weird seeing this big medieval castle right next to big ultra-modern glass skyscrapers though. It was also weird seeing joggers out jogging laps around the Tower of London. How does that become normal?
  
• The Tower Bridge: My second-favorite architecture of the day, even with St. Paul's in the mix. I didn't cross the bridge, but it's just magnificent to look at. It's near the Tower of London, and the bridge itself has two towers. It uses a different color scheme (blue and gold) from the Houses of Parliament but is otherwise, architecturally, the most similar structure to them that I've seen. It looks like a fanciful castle-bridge from a fairy tale. Plus, as with the Houses, the presence of the Thames (ugly as the river itself is) adds a certain magic.

Then I went home. For reference, by the way, I did all of that on foot until I left Covent Garden and took the Underground from Covent Garden to St. Paul's. The stuff before that is all packed right in there together.

Good stuff. More London later when I've seen more of it. Future visits I may also have people along with me, which could be cool.