09 January 2011

Day 1: The Longest Day

The first "day" is always the longest one: we left Grand Rapids in the early evening and caught a redeye to London from O'Hare. Some people got some sleep, and the movie selection was okay, but due to a water leak in the galley on our plane, we left Chicago an hour and a half late and got to Heathrow at 1 p.m. Eventually our coach dropped us off at Vandon House Hotel, our very nice hostel in Westminster, a five minute walk from Buckingham Palace and ten or so to Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. We made our way to the National Gallery and set the mood for our exploration of the Enlightenment and its interesting religious connections by examining the oddly fascinating painting "An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump." (Another popular work: "Perseus turning Phineas and his Followers to Stone." Severed heads can come in so handy.) After a rainy but scenic (and somewhat circuitous) walk home, we had a pizza dinner and called it a day.

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