Three days in London

I had the pleasure of visiting my friend Giuseppe for three days this past week. He's recently taken a permanent position at King's College in London, and he invited me to give a talk this past week. I've been to London once before, so I was not feeling the necessity of seeing all of the sites, but it was nice to walk around Westminster again and look at all of the beautiful architecture.

We paid 8 pounds each to take a 2 hour walking tour through Westminster. The place was in a bit of chaos, as elections took place last week, and there was not a party in the clear majority. In fact, the Liberal Democrats - the small third party - would give the majority to whichever major party with which they chose to align. The day of our tour, the question remained if Brown would remain prime minister or if Cameron would replace him. (Nothing like being in a country at a time of transition to figure out how the government works). Labour had held the majority, and thus the PM position, for the past 13 years. But at the end of my trip, the Lib-Dems announced they were siding with the Conservative party, and thus a new PM moved into 10 Downing Street. Don't I sound informed?

Anyway, during our tour there was a bit of chaos about which included a few war protesters who had found their way onto the roof of a portion of Westminster Abbey. Our tour guide was quite offended by the whole thing, but I found it interesting so I snapped some pictures when she wasn't looking.



This is another portion of the abbey, which was added onto the building much later than the initial construction. Notice the distinct change in styles. I expect my mom to look up some history on the building, find the names of the styles, and post it as a comment at the bottom of this blog. Mom knows how to get this information, and I expect she'll be interested in it. So, go to it, Mom!

One interesting tidbit I learned: The Victoria Tower houses all of the records that remain from past parliamentary proceedings. It's like a giant file cabinet. The longest parchment in the tower is 1/4 mile long. The content? Tax law. That should surprise no one.

My evenings were with Giuseppe and his wife and son, Luchen. He's two years old and already speaks a bit of Italian, Chinese, and English. (Giuseppe's wife is Chinese.) My favorite trick is the following conversation that took place between Giuseppe and his son:
G - Luchen, say "La"
L - "La"
G - Say "Tey"
L - "tey"
G - Say "Latte"
L - "Milk"
He's an automatic translator!

Here's a photo of me with Luchen in between playing with playdough and reading bedtime stories. Don't worry Allison, Ian is still first in my heart...