We had been warned that London would be the most expensive city to visit on our trip, and it certainly seems to be. Most of the prices look about the same as in the US when we look at the tag, but since the prices are in British pounds, we are effectively paying double what we're used to. For example, a typical short ride on the Tube costs 2 pounds (about $4.00); the same trip on a New York subway would be $1.50. A can of Pepsi in the convenience store across the street is about 70 pence ($1.40).

Thursday morning, we wandered around Parliament Square for a while. Because of the upcoming election next Thursday, Parliament is not in session, so we could not visit inside the buildings. That logic escaped us -- its seems to us that now would be the easiest time to accommodate visitors -- but there's no arguing with a machine-gun-armed Bobby.

So, we crossed the street to Westminster Abbey instead. It's hard to decide whether this magnificent thousand-year-old abbey is a church, a cemetery, an historical memorial, or a site for British events of state. It has served as the location of royal coronations since William the Conqueror was crowned here in 1066. It's an active Christian church, although it's hard to imagine how very many people could worship there as a group. Recently, it's been the site of the funerals of Princess Diana and Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

There are thousands of memorials and statues to various patriots, heroes, and famous people. The tombs and crypts look like the marble edition of Who's Who in Britain. Edward I, Edward III, Elizabeth I, Mary I, Henry VII, Mary Queen of Scots, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton ... it's difficult to maneuver through, around, and on top of all the tombs inside.

We think there must be a law that says anyone who gains at least the rank of Lieutenant in the British military automatically gets a statue erected in their honor (or as the British say, honour). The monuments are everywhere in London, sometimes even in the middle of the street, with no protection from the traffic.

It occurred to us that we hadn't yet had a classic English lunch of fish and chips, so we popped into a common pub and corrected that omission, washing it down with a pint of Stella lager. The tab for a single order: 11.75 pounds ($23.00 US).

We then wandered up to Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus to do a little window shopping, but we soon tired of the cold, and decided to take on the British Museum. It was a short Tube ride away, and we were careful to obey the constant admonishment to "Mind the Gap" as we left the train.

The British Museum is overwhelming. There are over 6 million items on display, collected (or stolen) since the museum was established over 250 years ago. We didn't want to miss anything, but we soon realized it was hopeless. There are mummies, statues, archeological fragments, masks, jewelry, costumes, pottery, money, prints and drawings ranging from prehistoric civilizations to recent years.

We saw the Rosetta Stone, which first allowed archeologists to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics; a huge statue of Ramses II taken from his memorial at Thebes; a mummified Egyptian cat from 30 BC; a 20-foot tall stoneware Chinese Buddha from AD 585; a carved and painted wooden thunderbird totem from North America; an Aztec mask made of turquoise mosaic tiles from the 15th century.

Having just come from Greece, we found it interesting to view the "Elgin Marbles," marble statuary stolen from the Parthenon, and obtained in 1779 by Lord Elgin. The Greeks have been clamouring for their return ever since, and at the National Museum of Archeology in Athens, we even saw empty pedestals ready to display the statues if the Brits (who have a different perspective on the affair) ever see fit to repatriate the stolen goods.

After a few hours overloading on museum displays, we gave in to exhaustion, and packed it in for the night.