December 22, 1999 – Lisa’s Last Day in London

The best way to see London is from the top of a bus.

William Gladstone, speaking of London’s double-decker horse-drawn omnibuses

From the top of our hop-on/hop-off double-decker bus, we can see London’s famous monuments at eye level. They feel almost life-like when you are at their same height. The bus loops around Westminster past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, across Lambeth Bridge to Southwark and past the Imperial War Museum. We cross London Bridge then back over Tower Bridge.

We hop off at Piccadilly Circus. Piccadilly is a London landmark much like Times Square is for New York City. Circus refers to the roundabout, which is no longer there. It is the intersection of Shaftsbury Avenue, the famous theater district, and Regent and Coventry streets, known for their shopping and nightclubs respectively. At its center is a statue of a winged Eros and the whole thing is surrounded by neon illuminated bill boards of which a red and white Coca Cola sign is the biggest.

We pop into Trocaderos, a famous shopping place. Housed in a grand Edwardian building sporting an ornate Baroque architectural style, the inside is mostly unremarkable with arcades, shops, and restaurants.

We catch the next bus and then end the tour at Buckingham Palace where we browse the gift shop. We eat lunch at a little café across from the Royal Mews.

Lisa wants to see more paintings―as if the hundreds of masterpieces we’ve seen from the Tate, to the d’Orsay, to the Louvre are not enough. So we opt for the National Gallery. We look at more Renoirs, Monets, and Van Goghs as well as the Dutch Masters. There is a whole room of Rembrandts. There are Titians, Rubens, and even an unfinished Michelangelo. There is a special Christmas display of the Mystical Nativity by Botticelli. We don’t leave the museum until 8:00 PM.

Outside there are carolers in Trafalgar Square standing around a large Christmas tree—an annual gift from the people of Oslo in thanks for Britain’s support during World War II. Listening to them sing, for the first time in weeks, I begin to feel the Christmas spirit.

• In today’s news: A £1.25 million memorial garden at Kensington was announced today—London’s first in honor of Diana, Princess of Wales. Work on the two-acre adventure playground with a Peter Pan theme is expected to be completed by March.