Monday, December 20, 2004

I wasn't going to post until I got back, but since winks/gg asked, here is a report from London.

Shockingly the sun has been shining almost nonstop for 3 days. But, that is tempered by the fact that its 38 degrees out. Still, better cold and sunny than cold and rainy.

As many of you know the main purpose of my visit is to see the THE POGUES play at Brixton Academy tonight. I found out about the show a week ago and here I am. Showtime is four hours away and I am super energized and psyched.

I have spent the last three days wandering around some of my favorite places in London.

Charles Dickens is my favorite author and I am a minor scholar on his works as well as an avid collector of 1st editions of his. I made the pilgrimage to his house and museum on Doughty Street and today I visited his grave at Westminster Abbey.

Speaking of the Abbey, it might be one of the most intense and relic filled churches in all the world. Kings, Generals and Poets fill the abbey that took 200 years to complete. It is huge and it is magnificent.

I also visited St. Pauls Cathedral, which is lovely, if much more understated. But I am always amazed how much of the old Catholic Church they let Sir Christopher Wren incorporate into this, the church that replaced the original after the fire of 1666.

I also spent almost a day and a half at the British Museum, in my opinion the finest Antiquities Museum on Earth. Their Egyptian, Roman and Greek collections are unparalleled. I spent a great deal of time with all my friends and treasured relics of the past.

Well, I'm off the rest a bit before the focus of my trip, tonight's show. Of course a report will follow. Cheers.