London, day one

After a bad night, I woke up early to walk around a little bit before the meeting began.  I was surprised to see that in the heart of London, they still leave milk on doorsteps

After some wandering, with a little help from the excellent offline TripAdvisor app

I found the Royal Society.  It is a swanky as it sounds, and every wall is adorned with an original oil or photo of one of their famous past members (Rutherford, Newton, etc).  Here's a famous print of Watson and Crick:

After my sleepless night, I was almost ready to find a corner to curl up on the plush red carpeting, but decided against it.  In any case, the meeting was fantastic:  every talk was interesting, and you could feel the excitement in the room.  After a full day, I had twenty minutes in the National Portrait Gallery before they closed, which was wonderful but obviously not enough time.  Next:  fish and chips time!  Unfortunately the place I found was not great.  After watching a Nevermind the Buzzcocks, I turned in early.