The Tower Bridge, from the London Bridge
The London Bridge and the Shard
Then I went to the Natural History Museum, which was not the best idea I've had, but I had to see it at some point. There was a ten-minute line to get in, and another line to see the dinosaur room (I elected to avoid that one), but the crowds were't too bad, and like all of the museums I've visited here, the building itself was almost as fascinating as the pieces it contained. The grand entrance hall was gorgeous.
That little white figure down at the far end is a statue of Darwin. There were little sculptures of monkeys climbing the columns and all sorts of natural science touches.
In keeping with the grand Shear tradition, my favorite room was the emptiest one: in this case, the Hall of Minerals. I'm not sure if that's the actual name, but it definitely deserves the title "Hall."
The most epic rock collection in the entire world
Since it wasn't quite as exciting as dinosaur bones or human origins, it was pretty empty. I pored over the cases for close to an hour, looking for interesting minerals. I found the Oxides section and looked for ZnO, the metal I worked with at ASU. I had to look through all of the oxides to find it because I'd accidentally missed the very first case. But I'm glad of that, I got to see some fascinating stones.
This is Goethite. I hope it was named after Goethe.
Heh heh...sorry Dad...
FINALLY found ZnO, which I now know is called Zincite. I've never seen it on the macro scale before.
After that, I ate lunch at Trafalgar Square and visited the National Gallery, which is again as beautiful as its exhibits. I couldn't take any pictures inside, but there were some very nice Dutch paintings; I also liked the Impressionists and this one called The Fighting Temeraire by Turner. I'm not sure if it was the later hour or the fact that an art museum is decidedly not interesting to children, but it was pleasantly uncrowded and young-family free. I'm definitely appreciating art more as I grow older, but I'm still not great with the modern stuff (although admittedly my only experience with Tate Modern is this one surrealist section that did not resonate with me at all).
I ate dinner as I walked back to my hostel, this time along the north bank of the Thames. Although the north side of the river is generally more interesting, the south bank is definitely the better place to walk. I kept having to detour around construction and other blockages, and the walk just wasn't nearly as picturesque. I did get to stroll around the Tower of London, though, which was fascinating. It was dwarfed by the skyscrapers just west of it, but that's unsurprising considering that almost a millenium of technological change has developed in the interim.
New and very old London are right next to each other
I crossed the Tower Bridge, taking upwards of an hour because the view was so nice I kept stopping to look around. I watched the river from the exact center, where the thing splits if a tall boat comes by. It was kind of exciting to be straddling the two halves. I strolled slowly home and almost got to sleep nice and early to get a full night's rest, until I found out that my room was full tonight. A couple of recent Berkeley graduates stayed the night; they were pretty cool, they're celebrating graduation in the same way that I am except that they're doing Europe instead of the UK.
Sunset over the Thames. I'm glad I did the north bank today, because yesterday had a much more exciting sunset that I got to watch from the south bank
The Tower Bridge at dusk.
Tomorrow: Brighton! I get to see a British beach! It won't be quite as excitingly coastal as I'd like, though, because it's barely going to reach 60. I should have brought gloves, my hands have been cold since I landed. Maybe there's a yarn shop there and I can whip something up...
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