Bubba and Mom met us at the hotel, and we spent the early evening walking to see Westminster cathedral and Abbey and from the outside see the houses of parliment and Big Ben. Cleaning has been done since I was last here: the gold trim and windows of the latter buildings glittered fiercely in the evening sun.

After dinner I watched the final game of the World Cup. No points were scored; Brazil and Italy both had goalkeepers who blocked one shot in the five-shot penalty kickoff, but Italy missed the goal twice when kicking and so lost. The teamwork and sportsmanship were incredible: after the extra time period ended the two nation's goalkeepers walked to their fates clasping each other's shoulders. As touching was the scene in the hotel bar. I sat beside a little boy from Denmark who was equipped with Italian flag, t-shirt, and face paint; three girls from French Belgium piled on a couch; and the other seats were claimed by grown-ups from different countries rooting for different teams in different languages.

Diary--July 18th, 1994

Today we played on and in the London Underground and the busses. We went to St. Paul's cathedral and Harrod's department store, both of which were a bit disappointing. Being Victorian instead of Renaissance, St. Paul's is not as busy-looking as the Italian cathedrals, nore as imposing as the French gothic style. Parts of it were beautiful or artistically impressive, but the overall being overwhelmed was missing. Too much of the architecture looked like a governmental building of Washington D.C., even inside. Also, the church was filled with tombs and monuments of war heroes, even a few feet from a marble fresco reading "and you shall do no violence against your fellow man...". And finally there was no stained glass! Harrod's was old fogey clothing, bizzare fashions, and a lack of folk music instruments, all overpriced.

The underground is quite fun. We had all-day passes for it and the busses, and these are put into gates which open as you walk through with a nearly ceremonial "click". Mom kept charge of our passes, distributing and collecting them with much Activities Director skill. Everything is well-marked and easy to find and use.

All this, cathedral, department store, and subway, was quite proper, with a balance of functionality and decoration suited for each locale (tombs and church "props" vs. the first mosaic roof paintings which held no story depicted; plain clothing racks in an ornate building of show merchandise; a near-spotless collection of tunnels, escalators, and rooms decorated with maps of the underground and advertisements).

I forgot to mention a morning bus tour of the famous parks, statues, and buildings of London as well as seeing the changing of the guard. Most notable was how all these buildings I had seen nearly a month ago looked cleaner, even though I would only bet the gold and windows of Parliment had been cleaned. I think I am adjusted to older cities after my travels, and will be blinded by the radiance of nearly-new stucco back in California.

Mom is fun to be with here; Pop-Pop appreciates magnificence or classical but Mom is much better at admiring how cute all of a foriegn country is.