Westminster Abbey is one word: Incredible.  I’ve gotten used to tripping over all sorts of dead people on this holiday, but no matter how many times I visit I never get used to the sheer number of people crammed together in that place.  

Walking in you’re smacked directly with Disraeli and Pitt (props to any Americans who know who they are), as well as a huge mass of Waterloo heroes, then you stumble through (over/around/between…) the ranks of about a million medieval kings and queens (of varying degrees of loathe-ability).  And half of the floor is made up of funerary slabs so worn you’ve NO idea who your shuffling over, I’m surprised the place isn’t haunted by a brigade of disgruntled ghosts.  Poet’s Corner is enough to make any reasoning and reading person’s eyes drop out: Goldsmith, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Handel, Austen, every poet known to have written a word of English, and a smattering of actors and actresses.  Where do they find the room to commemorate, much less bury these people!

We also walked a bit along the Thames to get the requisite tourist shots of the Houses of Parliament before going to the Churchill Museum, housed in the underground bunker-like War Cabinet Rooms preserved from WWII.  Then finished up the day with a walk through St. James’ Park…sort of.  Note to future travellers, busses do not always go where they advertise to go, beware of maliciously smiling drivers.  Luckily, Kiri and I found the whole two hour trek through the ghettos of London more funny than anything and celebrated with Nutella!