History – May 10, 2022

Day 4: May 10

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey was stunning. There’s no way around it. Looking back at my photos, I find it amusing that I did not take pictures of any of the kings or queens. I guess they did not intertest me as much as the scientists and writers.

Florence Nightingale

I don’t know about you, but I always thought Florence Nightingale was simply a nurse with a lamp, a Molly Pitcher figure. She was much more. She greatly improved outcomes for Crimean War soldiers through sanitation improvements, founded a nursing school back home, and used statistics and data visualization to influence policy for military hospitals.

Sight-seeing near Westminster

Our scheduled activities done, our guide offered to show us some of the sights in the neighborhood around Westminster. We saw the COVID-19 memorial wall along the Thames. It was sobering to see it stretched out so long. We walked back across Westminster Bridge, saw the sculpture of Boudicca, then several in Parliament Square Garden. Next, we walked to Downing Street, passing the Cenotaph war memorial and then a memorial to the Women of WWII.

Our guide left us near the horse guards. Shortly after, they began their dismount parade and inspection. I asked our guide the next day, but this turned out to not be intentional, just a happy coincidence.

John Snow in SoHo

A small group of classmates were heading to see the John Snow pump in SoHo, so I decided to tag along. The John Snow pub was busy with people having an evening drink. Two patrons sat on the stone step surrounding the pump, having a conversation. I asked politely if they would not mind moving for a minute so we could get a picture. They were surprised to find out that they had been sitting on a landmark. There were a couple of others there to see the pump, though, so it was not just us microbiology nerds.

221B Baker Street

To be honest, it felt a little silly visiting a museum for a fictional character among all the real-life figures of science and history whose stories we had encountered so far. That said, all the artifacts were genuine to the time period. It was a fun little museum. One highlight for me was The Lancet medical journals. They fit in nicely with the theme of our trip.

I always loved a good detective story growing up, from Nancy Drew, to Hercule Poirot. One of my favorite things about Sherlock Holmes is his ability to deduce small details about a case from his observations and his encyclopedic knowledge of crime. I do have to agree with Dr. Watson, though, that having some knowledge of the solar system does have its place beyond the usefulness in one’s own line of work.

I ended the day with a quick bite to eat and a biochemistry lecture back at the hostel.

Key Moment of the Day: walking past the Elizabeth Tower housing Big Ben, seeing how tall it is. It may be cliché, but it felt unreal to be near all those iconic buildings between Westminster Bridge and 10 Downing Street.