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| She's still not amused! |
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| Statue of Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square. There were candles in sand and flowers already laid out - and a TV camera crew getting footage - just in case. |
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| Panorama of Parliament Square |
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| Houses of Parliament: Interesting to think that this was the centre of an empire that spanned the world. I wonder what our world would have been like had it not been so? Pax Britannia or maybe not? |
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| Number 10 - You cant' get close. You can't see it in the photo, but the security and guards with military rifles down there is imposing. The legacy of a post 9/11, post-desert-storm world? |
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| On the bus |
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| ...With the map. Talk about streets going every which-way! |
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| Trafalgar Square - Last time I was here it was pigeon central, not anymore. |
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| Westminister Abbey - since the coronations in 1066 of both King Harold and William the Conqueror, coronations of English and British monarchs were held in the Abbey. I do feel sorry for Harold. Imagine coming just before someone called 'the conqueror... |
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| The British Museum - too much to digest |
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British Museum: These are Assyrian Lamassu, which means bull-man, statues. They used to flank the entrance to the throne room of Ashurbanipal and date back to the 6th century BC. They were revolutionary to the art world due to the fact that the artist attempted to make the statues look as though they were in motion. Each lamassu has an extra leg, so that as the viewer passed into the throne room, they appeared to be walking.
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| Ramses the Great (~1300BC). He was the inspiration for Shelley's poem: Ozymandias I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away |
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| The National Art Gallery: Cool place! So many rooms that you could spent weeks studying. This is: Paul Delaroche, 'The Execution of Lady Jane Grey', 1833 |
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| The Rosetta Stone (196BC) A valuable key to the decipherment of hieroglyphs, the inscription on the Rosetta Stone is a decree passed by a council of priests. It is one of a series that affirm the royal cult of the 13-year-old Ptolemy V on the first anniversary of his coronation. Soon after the end of the fourth century AD, when hieroglyphs had gone out of use, the knowledge of how to read and write them disappeared. In the early years of the nineteenth century, some 1400 years later, scholars were able to use the Greek inscription on this stone as the key to decipher them. |
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| Van Gogh - Chair |
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Inside one of the galleries.
To wrap it up, an American musical about Africa would seem the most natural thing to do, wouldn't it?
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