London

I made a quick trip to London to attend the sentencing phase of a trial for a story I'm slowly working on. It was damp but cool - nice in its way.

This is a picture of Big Ben, taken from my taxi window.

And Westminster Abbey.

I walked through Saint James Park to visit the National Portrait Gallery. This is a portrait of Henry V. I had just read a book about his military campaign in France.

After the museum, I walked to Simpson's-in-the-Strand, an old English restaurant near the Savoy. I sat in front of the fireplace beneath a painting of a fairytale king cutting open a blackbird pie. I drank Scotch and expensive wine and had lobster soup and potted shrimp and roast beef and yorkshire pudding and, finally, sponge cake with treacle for dessert.

Afterward, I walked back to my hotel. Buckingham Palace was lit up.