london, day 3

part of the elgin marbles.


today we got a late start, as we have everyday. we dont wake up until about 11, and we get out of the house by 12. i think that we still might be on new york time. we are also out walking all day, so we are really worn out. one of two things will happen: either we will really get exhausted and not be able to make the whole tour without some significant rest days, or each day will only get us more and more in shape, and we will finally get used to all teh walking so by the end of the trip we will be fairly fit.

we started at the national gallery. the paintings were all neat. i especially liked the renaissance stuff by rafael (whom there was a lot of), leonardo (who had a big drawing, and a great scene of the virgin mother), and michaelangelo (whom i saw for the first time here, of christ being taken off the cross, and another). there was also a lot of great works by peter paul ruebens. there were three by caravagio (whom i typically like), but i was not as impressed with.

we then went to the british museum, and saw (among other things) the rosetta stone (which helped finally decipher hieroglyphics), and the elgin marbles, which were taken off the acropolis and brought to london. it was great to see those, and i took a lot of pictures.

seeing most of london by now, i think we are going to try to just hang out, and see what kind of vibe the town has. we are going to try to check out some pubs tonite and tomorrow, and hopefully not get overwhelmed by tourists, and see what real london is like. we'll see what happens.

to fight the expense of staying in london (and travelling through europe in general), i think that we are going to do somethign similar to the film 'supersize me,' where the guy eats nothing but mcdonalds for a month, and gained all kinds of weight and health problems. i will challenge those results, however, and i predict that paola and i will end up just fine, if not in better health than when we started the trip. of course, we will select proper food to eat, and we will be getting all kinds of exercise with walking.