"London, Lovely, Cheers!" a London Travel Page by Confucius

This is what London is all about, right? You've got postcards of the queen and her mum on the top shelf, then the familiar face of Princess Di and the offspring that most resembles her just below next to Buckingham Palace guards, and then underneath are postcards of tea time and the Tower of London. There's the flag of England on the right ("Come on, England!") and the Union Jack on a hooligan hat on the left. Where's Prince Charles and his horse? What about William's brother; what's his name? We all love the royal family for its old traditions and those amusing controversies and it's hard not to think about them while touring London. In addition you occasionally come across eccentric characters that really make your London visit seem like being on the set of those British comedies that we watched on public television in our younger days.
Yes, for me London will always be Monty Python, Benny Hill, The Young Ones, and Mr. Bean with an added excursion to the countryside to include Fawlty Towers as well. Inquiries at stores inevitably bring to mind the "Cheese Shop" and "Dead Parrot" sketches, the omnipresence of so many women with degrees in décolletage makes one recall Professor Benny Hill, and on any given Tube ride you are certain to see a bloke that looks like Neil or Vyvyan from "The Young Ones".

This theatrical event was taking place on my first day in London during May 2006. A 40 foot tall mechanical elephant made its way through central London's streets and was later part of a show so close to the Prime Minister's residence that Tony Blair's cabinets were shaking.
The elephant sprayed water from its trunk and attracted thousands of curious spectators at Horse Guards Parade, who each vied to hold their digital camera higher than the person standing in front of them.

VT member "Spincat" was there somewhere and she got better photos of the elephant than I did. See "The Sultan's Elephant" travelogue on her London page for a closer look.

The Battle of Britain memorial dedicated to World War II fighter pilots is at Victoria Embankment along the north bank of the Thames, showing pilots scrambling for their aircraft to fight the German Luftwaffe.

It was unveiled by Prince Charles in September 2005, 65 years after the historic victory.