Day 3

We were quite fortunate to be able to stay inexpensively in London at Goodenough College in Abby’s room. Who’s Abby? A good question. Abby went home to Oregon for spring break and wanted to rent out her room for the weekend. If she would have known that Odie and I were the ones staying there, she might have had second thoughts, but too bad for her. Odie actually formed quite a bond with her in absentia. On the other hand, I didn’t care for her much. In any case, here you can see the courtyard from above.

I suppose this picture is debatable.


Chris left London on the third day, but not without a fond farewell from Jack and his new friend. Chris’s departure had a profound effect on the remaining group. On the good side, Mike and I were no longer the minority in the lawyer vs. non-lawyer power struggle. On the negative side though, I became the shortest member of our party. Furthermore, as I alluded to earlier, Chris was an essential part of any respectability we hoped to exude. From this point forward, Mike was on his own. He performed remarkably well considering the circumstances of hanging around Jack and myself, who accepted England as a real place but probably wouldn’t have minded if it sunk into the north Atlantic, and Odie, amateur hipster doofus.

Once Chris departed, we set our efforts on tackling the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel built to celebrate the millenium. I don’t know if it was for the real millenium or the fake millenium, but mostly I was wondering why the Eye wasn’t closer to a “Circus.” If you’re going to have a bunch of circuses, might as well have a ferris wheel there.


This is the view from the top of the Eye to the northwest toward Parliament and Westminster Abbey.

Looking toward the northeast we see more of London. It’s actually a huge place. I really couldn’t believe it. I guess it differs from New York in that London is more spread out while NY is built taller. I did take pictures to the south, but there’s not much to look at anyway.

After visiting the Cabinet War Rooms (great audio tour, just FYI), we resumed our education of the tube system and the pubs. I don’t know why Odie appears to be choking me in this picture, but I’m sure he was just joking.