Another busy day in London

The Great Court, British Museum

After a good night's sleep I was on the go a little later today - in fact by the time I hit the British Museum it was already noon. Problems on the Tube slowed me down a little, as the station I intended getting off at was closed - something to do with overcrowding, so the announcement said.

Today I just did the major stuff downstairs: Egypt, Assyria and Greece. Some rooms were closed, so that gives me a good excuse to go back again another day. The place was a bit crowded today as most schools were closed due to a strike. A sign of tough economic times here in the UK...

Westminster Bridge

From there I zoomed down to Westminster, and did a walk from Rick Steves back up to Trafalgar Square. Most of that route was closed to traffic - all to do with the protest march happening today. There was a very large Police presence, especially around Downing Street - in fact the Police seemed to outnumber the protesters... strange thing was that even though Westminster Bridge was closed to traffic, 90% of pedestrians still walked on the footpaths (I walked down the middle of the road of course!). Just shows how strong our conditioning is...

London Eye

From there I wandered in to the National Portrait Gallery, and rummaged amongst the Kings and Queens of England for an hour or so, before scooting through the modern section at a high rate of knots. Discovery of the day was that LS Lowry, famous UK artist, worked for over 40 years as a rent collector - but kept that a secret so that he wasn't labelled as a part-time artist. This only became known after his death - very strange...

Next stop was meeting Stuart and Anne for early Pub grub (a definite cultural experience) and a catch up on all the gossip. Great fun!