Thursday, 15 August: First Day in London

After getting to the hotel (the Royal Horseguards) from the airport, we rode the London Eye, then took the Underground to Smithfield's Market, where many Protestants were martyred by the regime of Mary Tudor, briefly visited Saint Bartholomew the Greater Church (one of the oldest medieval churches in London; it survived the Great Fire of 1666), and then hopped over to the British Museum before returning to the hotel.

A) The lobby of the Royal Horseguards Hotel; B) the London Eye; C) St. James's Park, with Buckingham Palace in the middle distance; D) the view from the Eye eastward up the Thames toward the City of London; E) Trafalgar Square with Nelson's Column, and the National Gallery in the right background; F) the Protestant Martyrs' Memorial at Smithfield; G) the facade of Saint Bartholomew the Greater (the interior is a great example of Norman architecture, but very dark and hard to photograph); H) artifacts from the Sutton Hoo Anglo-Saxon burial site (the helmet is very famous); I) Assyrian bulls; J) a rather large red granite pharaoh's head; K) one pediment of the Parthenon (Elgin Marbles); L) the other pediment of the Parthenon; M) the entrance facade of the British Museum.