Second day in London: I took the bus to Westminster, getting off right near the houses of Parliament.  I first walked around looking for breakfast, and ended up getting pastries (including a pecan roll) in a sandwich shop.  Then I took pictures of some oft-photographed stuff.

Like this place:

I took pictures of it from the other side, as well, standing on Westminster Bridge:

Here’s the view upriver, alongside Parliament:

And here is the London Eye, on the downriver side of the bridge:

There are various statues in this area.  Of course, in England you would expect to find a statue of Abraham Lincoln:

There seem to be a few leaders from other countries there, actually, such as Mandela:

And there is the obligatory statue of Mr. Churchill:

This memorial has an interesting way of depicting its subject (click to enlarge):

I also wandered by Westminster Abbey, and thought about going in, but it would have cost £20, so I contented myself with taking pictures of the exterior:

This column was near the abbey:

After walking around there, I took the underground a few stops west, and then walked to the Museum of Science.

On the way there, I spotted this sign:

which I thought was an odd name for a hotel.

I spent most of the afternoon at the Science Museum, as there was plenty to see.  It included several early steam engines.  This is an early locomotive:

This began a long hall that followed the development of technology over the past 2 centuries.  Also in the beginning of that hall was a piece of Charles Babbage’s difference engine:

(more Babbage stuff later)

A lighthouse lens:

Planes and cars:

There were a few computer exhibits near the end, including an Apple I:

The NeXT machine that was used as the first world wide web server:

and a Cray supercomputer:

On an upper floor was a hall of math and computing, and it included a larger difference engine model:

As well as a model of the analytic engine:

with punch cards for programming it:

In another display case was a portrait of Babbage, some of his notes…and his brain:

When I had finished at the museum, I got dinner at a nearby Mediterranean place (lamb with couscous, and an orange-almond cake for dessert), and then rode the subway back to Westminster.  I walked north to look around St. James Park, since it was still light out.  This park has a small lake in it, and has many, many waterfowl, some of which were imported to it by the royal family.

Here are a number of the denizens:

There were black swans:

and gray swans:

And coots, which have neat feet:

I don’t know what these red birds are (and did not get a good picture of them):

I thought this bicyclist was topiary at first:

but it’s actually some kind of vine on a frame.

As it got dark, I saw a fox bound across the path I was walking on, so I followed it for a bit, but could not get a good photo.

I made my way back to the Thames, and took a night picture of the London Eye:

As well as this walking bridge (the Golden Jubilee bridge):

I’d had enough walking for the day at that point, so I hopped on a bus and headed to the airbnb apartment and bed.