A Moonlight Night in London

One final day in London--just one day. What could I possibly do? Well, I went to Parliament, saw Big Ben and Victoria's Tower, walked around the Tower fortress and across the Tower Bridge, spent two hours in the National Gallery and an hour at the Tate, walked from the Queen's guard past Admiralty Arch to Trafalgar Square (got a picture of Nelson, Chuck--he's still up there!). After visiting the National Gallery, I went across the street to duck in to the Church of St. Martin-of-the-Fields--a pilgrimage to classical music lovers everywhere. While there, I noticed a posting that they still had tickets to tonight's concert--only 8£ (that's about fifteen bucks!). Thus it is that I have only just left a piano concert by Sam Haywood. He began with Mozart's "Sonata in A," then moved to Chopin's "Polonaise in A flat." As he played the "Nocture in C Sharp," the house lights began to fade. Ushers went around lighting candles, afterwhich Haywood concluded with Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata." The cliche "it was a magical evening" only begins to touch upon my joy to sit in St. Martin-in-the-Fields and listen to a little Beethoven by candlelight. Well, I'd better catch a bus back to my hotel and get ready for a travel day. By this time tomorrow, I should be in St. Jean Pied-de-Port in Southern France.