Lee in London

I freely admit that I owe the inspiration for the title of this post to Charlie's blog from Japan (his blog name was Jarlie in Chapan). Don't be too mad, Charlie, imitation is a form of flattery, right?

Anyway, after a truly wonderful stay in Paris, Sam and I flew into London early last Saturday. After touring the sights on Sunday and watching "Lion King" the musical (which had the most spectacular costumes I have ever seen), I accompanied Sam to Oxford on Monday. Tuesday, I had another full day of sight seeing in London, which ended in a very long night catching public transit around the city and eventually to Gatwick airport, where I spent what was left of the night failing to sleep on the stone floor. My impressions from my brief stay in the UK are as follows:
1) British accents are wonderful, though they make getting directions hard
2) London is a beautiful city steeped in history, but it is impossible to navigate by foot.
3) Room temperature ale is an acquired taste, but once one acquires it, one instantly becomes an ale snob. (I now disdain those "chemical concoctions" called cold lagers. Or at least I did while in London. Now cold beers and I are back on good terms, since they happen to be what the rest of the world except the UK drinks.)
4) London has four airports in name, but none in reality. One cannot fly into or out of London. One must instead fly into a distant corner of the UK and then catch some other long and costly form of transportation into the city.
5) London football pubs are awesome, and even if your team is losing (i.e. Liverpool in the Champion's League) you can still bond with complete strangers over those two great British passions, beer and soccer.

Cheers mates (as the British would say).