London, day 7: 19 September 2006

Started: 2006-09-24 16:46:48

Submitted: 2006-09-24 16:55:16

Visibility: World-readable

2220 BST 18 September 2006

Waterstone's bookstore (Europe's largest, according to Rick Steves): 203 Piccadilly.

Tourist photographs art exhibit, Gloucester Road Station

1130 BST 19 September 2006

Cards Galore: 104 The Strand -- Godel cats.

City Glow, Mountain Whisper at Gloucester Road Station

1530 BST 19 September 2006

In St. Paul's Crypt: Charles James Napier, 1782-1853. Napier's Bones?

I looked it up later: No; the relationship is not apparent, despite the last name. Napier's bones were invented by John Napier in 1617.

1630 BST 19 September 2006

Photo of 60 Queen Victoria Street, London.

60 Queen Victoria Street, City of London

1815 BST 20 September 2006

Having fallen a day behind, I'm now documenting yesterday, being Tuesday, 19 September.

St. Clement Danes

The highlight of the day was Rick Steves' City Walk, which started in Westminster (under Charing Cross rail station) and took us down Strand Street, which became Fleet Street and finally Ludgate Hill. Highlights along the way were St. Clement Danes -- now the Royal Air Force's church, after it was significantly damaged by the Luftwaffe, and St. Paul's, which was ... big.

St. Paul's facade

We ate lunch from The Place Below, a vegetarian restaurant in the crypt of St. Mary-le-bow. I bought a BBC keychain at the BBC store on the ground floor of their world headquarters. We saw the monument built to honor the Great Fire of 1666, and avoided paying very much to enter expensive attractions, except St. Paul's.

St. Paul's dome and sky

Next was the British Library, at St. Pancras, which featured the Magna Carta (well, several versions of the very first attempt to limit royal power -- some provisions of which are still English law today), and other historical documents including a King James bible and an autograph of The Messiah.

Newton statue at the British Library

British Library and St. Pancras

For supper, we headed to Masala Zone, a trendy Indian restaurant with lower prices for dinner than much of the city. After eating, we headed to Waterstone's, which Rick Steves calls "Europe's largest bookstore", where Kiesa tried to find £8 paperbacks she thought were worth buying to keep her entertained. We succeeded, eventually, and headed back to our hotel for the night.

Tube stops for the day:

1. Gloucester Road to Embankment via District.
2. Bank to King's Cross via Northern (Bank branch).
3. King's Cross to Oxford Circus via Victoria.
4. Piccadilly Circus to Gloucester Road via Piccadilly.

Piccadilly Line platform, Green Park station

For more photos from the City of London, see Photos on 2006-09-19.