On this trip we were in London for only two nights.  During that time, we visited with friends, stopped at the BBC, and enjoyed walking around Westminster.  We walked there because we were meeting Julia from the BBC at the Red Lion Pub, near the Houses of Parliament. 

It is still a thrill hearing the Westminster Chime while drinking my ginger beer knowing that it is THE Westminster Chime coming from the Queen Elizabeth Tower, which last time I was here was called the St. Stephen Tower.  I remember the first time I heard it live.  I was just coming out of the Westminster tube station with my grandfather in 1961 as we hit the hour and thinking, “That’s the real thing and not the clock on Aunt Doris’s mantel piece.

I chuckled at the tourists lined up to have their pictures in a red London telephone booth.  Not many of those are left. 

We missed getting into Westminster Abby by a couple of minutes.  It closed at 3 PM.  We went to the Parliament gift shop where the main items on offer were watches and clocks with the face of the Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben). 

I always wish we had more time in London.  I missed some of my old haunts around Liester Square and Covent Garden and my walks through Camden Town where there are still operating canal locks. 

We saw two plays in very different venues, the first a Jukebox musical with songs by Sinatra.  It was in a large West End theatre, The Aldwych.  I think I chose it partly because the theatre was across the street from Bush House that, for years, was home to the BBC World Service and I know the neighborhood.   The second play “Holy Fool” was about Dimitri Shostakovich’s struggle to maintain artistic integrity while not getting purged by Stalin.  It was in an “off West End” theatre, The Park 200, in Finsbury Park.  It seats 200.  There is a companion theatre, The Park 50.

Even a short time is a good time in London.