So now what do I see in the news? Big Ben is going silent during our visit -
Big Ben, the bell in the clock tower above Britain's Parliament in London, will fall silent tomorrow until the end of September to accommodate repairs.
The clock will strike for the last time this month at 8 a.m. Saturday. An hour later, a team of specialists will scale down the tower's south side to clean the iconic face, an event which takes place every five years.
Quarter bells, which play a tune every 15 minutes, also will stop for maintenance. The 13.8-ton hour bell, from which the tower gets its nickname, is in the final phase of a repair program before its 150th anniversary in 2009.
"Hopefully as a tourist you won't notice anything different," Mike McCann, who has held the title of keeper of the great clock for the past decade, said in a telephone interview. "The hands will still be going. You just won't hear any bongs."
The clock will strike for the last time this month at 8 a.m. Saturday. An hour later, a team of specialists will scale down the tower's south side to clean the iconic face, an event which takes place every five years.
Quarter bells, which play a tune every 15 minutes, also will stop for maintenance. The 13.8-ton hour bell, from which the tower gets its nickname, is in the final phase of a repair program before its 150th anniversary in 2009.
"Hopefully as a tourist you won't notice anything different," Mike McCann, who has held the title of keeper of the great clock for the past decade, said in a telephone interview. "The hands will still be going. You just won't hear any bongs."
I thought the "bongs" were the whole point. Who the heck do I sue, here?
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