Found the British Museum easily enough, though by the time we got there, we only had a few hours before we had to shoot off back to Regent's Park. While we were initially boosted by the Rosetta Stone, three of the other things we wanted very much to see based on word of mouth and our brochure were unavailable, leaving us with the impression that the British just didn't want to share their treasures with a bunch of surly Yanks (well, I was surly, the people letting us down were very polite). The Piltdown Man was in an area being renovated, the Prints and Paintings exhibit was closed until 2007, and the enormous jade turtle was being toured at the time. We did see some lovely mosaics, and some nice Mexican bits.

The Art from Letters exhibit sponsored by Dubai Holdings was beautiful, though, and we left on a nice note.

Made it over to Regent's Park just in time for the afternoon performance of The Taming of the Shrew, in the hot, baking sun. Both it and Dream had been modernized in setting to the early 20th century.

On our way back, we napped in Kensington Gardens along with all the other dirty hippies. Took in a few pints afterwards at the Black Lion, then down to Whiteley's Odeon for the late showing of The Da Vinci Code with salt-and-sweet popcorn.

We got up and out much earlier this morning, heading for Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, and paddling about the Serpentine.

Wanted to take a photo of the Newton at Newton's grave, but was thwarted. It's an absolute crime that they disallow photography in the Abbey. Prohibiting flashes is one thing, but to funnel all rememberances through the gift shop just seems bad form.

Got some really nice panoramas of the outside in progress with DoubleTake, and they'll be uploaded to flickr as soon as I get them done and up.

Nelson's Column was shrouded in scaffolding and some sheeting of some sort.

Retreated to the comfort of the Sherlock Holmes pub. At least it wasn't on Baker Street.

Though I was ostensibly the only one who would be manning the oars, they charge £6/hour for each person on the boats. Ridiculous. So we hired it for just a half hour for £8, and Amber took a turn manning the craft.

After all this, we made it back to Regent's Park for a picnic before the evening performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. My first non-high-school performance of Shakespeare. It was wonderful. Topped off by a few Boddington's Draught Bitters at intermission.

Got back to the hovel around midnight, and crashed.

Woke up early, but failed to plan properly to post the last blog bit, so didn't get off to Regent's Park and the London Zoo until nearly noon.

Stopped off at Baker Street and got a glimpse into the tacky world of Sherlock Holmes memorobilia.

A quick trip to the inner circle revealed no park theater today, so we may try for Thursday to catch Shakespeare in the Park (A Midsummer Night's Dream).

Sadly the Gorilla and Chimpanzee enclosures were shut down for renovations until 2007, so Red River Hogs, African Hunting Dogs, Warthogs, Okapis, Zebras, Giraffes, Ibises (Sacred and Scarlet), Meerkats, Otters, Lemurs, Penguins, Hornbills, Butterflies, Pelicans, a host of bugs, fishes, Spider Monkeys, Emus, Bactrian Camels, Pygmy Hippopatamuses, Brittle Stars, Anemones, Starfish, and lizards had to suffice.

Though we tried, we failed to find the Serpentine in Hyde Park (instead, we managed to miss most of the park completely, and just walked up Park Way).

Thwarted, we retired to The Champion on Bayswater for a few well-deserved pints. We each had a Bombadier, Amber had a Greene King IPA, and I had another whose name entirely escapes me [Edit It was Pedigree, and it was entirely forgettable]. Indian food at the Mahal for dinner, and we nearly caught the cinema, but chose to wait until the air conditioning was repaired.

Ahh, Greenwich, center of time. Middle of the world. Longitude 0º 0' 00".

Also, wet, clammy, spitty rain. All day.

Took the train from Charing Cross this morning to Greenwich to take a look at the Cutty Sark, the National Maritime Museum, and the Royal Observatory. I've just (finally!) finished (well, within 50 pages) Quicksilver, and it's fun to be able to start matching up places from the page to real life.

Yummy scrummy Indian buffet for lunch, followed by a traipse around the Cutty Sark and Greenwich Pier. Interesting that a cut-rate Scotch is named after a tea- and wool-carrying ship, but you learn something new everyday.

After visiting the Cutty Sark, we took in a couple of pints of Young's Extra Smooth Bitters at the Gipsy Moth. Quite nice.

The Maritime Museum was fun. Three floors of pretty cool exhibits. The models, in particular, were very keen, though I'd like someone to explain the different levels of rate. Several were marked third rate through sixth rate with no accompanying documentation.

By the time we'd finished at the museum, we only had an hour and half to get to and explore the Observatory.

Note for future travelers to the Royal Observatory: Hire a horse to take you up the hill. Your feet will thank me.

Further note: They don't actually offer them, and finding them will be an adventure unto itself. Nevertheless, trust me, or rather, my feet.

The Observatory was especially interesting to me, as I've just finished a chapter in Quicksilver where Daniel Waterhouse, upon witnessing the new Revolution, takes a quick spin around the Royal Observatory before hiring a boat to take him ship shopping for the New World.

Octants, sextants, quadrants, astrolabes. If we lived closer to water, I'd love to spend more time sailing, and learning celestial navigation. Part of the allure is the esoterica involved, part is the heavy, solid brass instrumentation.

Followed up our history lessons with a few more pints of Shepherd Neame's Bishops Finger and Master Brewer in the Spanish Galleon pub.

Dinner at a Thai noodle bar, then back to the room to crash heavily.

Amber's been sick probably with whatever I had last weekend, so she's been eschewing coffee and booze in favor of TheraFlu.

Got into Heathrow around 11:30 GMT. Chubed it in to London in time to check into our "backpacker's hovel". Showered and crashed for a few hours. Then we hopped up, chubed it down to Picadilly Circus, treked about, listening to crazy street preacher man (they sound so much more believable with a nice British accent), scarfed some fine Indian food, and tromped around Buckingham Palace snappy a few pics.

Topped off the night with a few pints of Bombadier Bitters at the local pub.

Today we're off to the Maritime Museum and Greenwich Observatory.

[Edit removed the pictures, you can just check out my flickr photostream]

I ♥ The Onion

Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence

"Tally Ho, Jolly Good Show,

My woman is gone to England."

Amber and I are off to England for a two-week vacation. The primary purpose doesn't happen until next weekend: Jesús is getting married! Gonna be a mad, crazy party.

Stay tuned for many many pics.

RIP Syd Barrett